Food like/dislikes AND medieval bread WAS RE: [Sca-cooks]MockApple Pie?

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach vicki shaw:
>I guess you feel about eggplant  (poor dear abused vilified nightshade) the
>way I feel about okra.  Once and only once did I have it - in a greek
>restaurant - where it was not slimy.
>
>Angharad

As with eggplant, I think the secret may be to get in touch with its 
Inner Sliminess ;-) and work with it, rather than against it. I've 
never really disliked okra, but all other things being equal, I like 
it fried with cornmeal, as others have suggested. But after 
experiencing things like artificial thickening agents made from 
various gums in lieu of various starches, or, for that matter, 
arrowroot, I'm a lot less prejudiced about things for their texture 
than I used to be, and if gelatinous foods were going to be a 
problem, I shouldn't have married a woman of Chinese ancestry (she 
who preferred not to have our usual Five-Spice Beef for New Year's 
this year when we couldn't find a decent-sized piece of beef shin, 
complete with Achilles tendon running down the center, with which to 
make it; using brisket or another pot-roasting cut simply wasn't any 
fun).

Some culture or other, maybe the Lebanese, use dried okra, which, I 
recall hearing, is not slimy either, when prepared properly...

Adamantius