SC - don't cringe too bad....

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Elaine Koogler wrote:
> 
> I dunno.  But I do know that nam pla/garum/liquamen do serve as excellent
> ingredients in many dishes in the cultures where it is used!  And while I would
> never consider trying the stuff out of the bottle (YUCK!!!) and the thought of
> fermented fish really turns me off, I do know that the dishes whose ingredients'
> list includes it just don't taste right without it!
> 
> Kiri

This is kind of what I was getting at. Does fermented pork turn you off?
Why? I'm not saying it should or shouldn't, I'm just curious about
people's views as to why, or if, fermented pork is good and fermented
fish is bad. Some of the S.E. Asian fish sauces, BTW, are made with
sufficient salt that the fish is broken down by enzymatic action, and no
actual bacterial fermentation takes place. It's my belief that the word
fermented is almost always used in connection with garum because there
is some basic human need to express the perceived alien-ness of it.

Another example: when I was a kid I was told, not the truth, which is
that haggis is a sausage related to white puddings, but that it was a
disgusting mess of boiled, gound-up guts, mixed with oatmeal and stuffed
into a STOMACH! EEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWL!!! 

Hmmm. I see an interesting game we could play here, where we describe
our favorite foods in the most uncomplimentary way possible, and still
tell the truth.

Let's see now...

Cheese is rotten milk, semi-dehydrated
Ham and Salami are fermented pork
Pastrami is a fatty cut of fermented beef coated with creosote and other
tar-like 
	chemicals, in addition to burnt sugar and various crushed seeds 
Meat stock is a delicious solution of dissolved gristle

And so on. What I find funny is that we generally don't choose to do
this with the above foods, and with garum, nuoc mam, nam pla, patis,
etc., we do.

Adamantius 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com