[Sca-cooks] Ethnic was American Diet was Anchovette

[Sue Clemenger]

There may be more of you, Master A, but I, for one, don't know which of 
the flavors I taste in Worchestershire sauce *IS* tamarind.  I've never 
had the chance to taste in on its own.
My one experience with anchovies-as-themselves was on a pizza, hidden 
under the cheese.  They tasted like nasty little salt bombs to me 
<<shudder>>.  And I don't live in a part of the US that has the wide 
variety of ethnic cuisines and markets available elsewhere, so I haven't 
had the opportunity to taste them prepared on something besides a really 
bad Domino's pizza.
We're just now getting some places in town that serve more of an 
artisanal pizza (Going Beyond Pizza Hut <g>), and they serve some tasty 
things.  I've found that I really enjoy eating ones similar to those 
that Master A describes......
--Maire, who drinks her coffee black, hot and a little sweet (for a 
special treat, I use some of the demerara sugar I brought back from England)
p.s.  Isn't "balut" a food comprising unhatched ducklings?

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
> 
> On Jul 11, 2005, at 1:03 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
>> Adamantius wrote:
>>
>>> OK, I'm an oddity, and I'd
>>> rather eat an anchovy at any time of the day or night than have a
>>> spoonful of molasses (let's not even discuss high-fructose corn
>>> syrup)
>>>
>>
>> Well, i'm right there next to you about the horror that is high- 
>> fructose corn sweetener... but i like molasses and anchovies...  well, 
>> not necessarily together, other than in Worcestershire Sauce  - which 
>> tastes more strongly of tamarind than either molasses or  anchovies.
> 
> 
> Oh, good. There's one other person on the planet, at least, who can  
> find the tamarind flavor. And that person has spent some time in SE  
> Asia. I feel a lot better about it now ;-).
> 
>> Heck, for a brief while i was drinking my very dark coffee with  whole 
>> milk and a heaping spoonful of dark molasses. I liked it. But  i'm not 
>> really that fond of sweetened coffee in general, so after a  while i 
>> went back to just coffee and cream (or half-and-half or  whole milk)
> 
> 
> I think I could detect some sulfurous undertones when I was a kid  (also 
> wasn't a fan of mayonnaise or hardboiled eggs), and reading  Alan King's 
> comments about blackstrap molasses (in which he asserted  that sugar is 
> processed to remove dirt and other impurities, and then  what you have 
> left after you remove the sugar from the stuff is  blackstrap molasses, 
> which suggests that blackstrap molasses is, in  fact, dirt... okay, it 
> makes perfect sense when you're eight or nine)  didn't help.
> 
>>
>> I just don't understand why people think anchovies are so awful.
>>
>> One of my favorite pizza toppings included anchovies, shrimp, and  
>> garlic. And i often bring anchovy-stuffed olives to events - along  
>> with the garlic-&-jalapeno-stuffed olives which I know aren't not  
>> period, but they're a good pick-me-up on a warm Saturday afternoon  or 
>> during break-down on Sunday afternoon.
>>
>> It was great living in southern France, because it was so easy to  get 
>> all sorts of delicious foods that included anchovies.
> 
> 
> I'm a confirmed pissaladiere junkie, myself. For you non-Provencale- 
> types out there, this is basically a pizza topped with olive oil,  
> caramelized onion, garlic, anchovies, black olives and herbs instead  of 
> the more recognizable cheese-and-tomato stuff. I never lived in  the 
> South of France, but my first restaurant job, the one where I May  
> Conceivably Have Killed Craig Claiborne ;-) , was at a Provencale  
> restaurant in New York...
> 
>> Then, again, when i was in junior high (1960-62) i used to take  bags 
>> of wheat germ in my lunch and people teased me, but i knew  they were 
>> idiots, so while they were annoying, they didn't hurt me.  So i've 
>> always been secure in my taste for odd food.
> 
> 
> I wish I could remember who it was, but I remember reading an  interview 
> (probably in the NY Times) with some well-known female  chef, who said 
> her parents had both been cooks on some level, and  they used to send 
> her to school somewhere in the American Heartland  with Westphalian Ham 
> and Brie sandwiches, and the other kids used to  make fun of her, 
> sitting over their PB&J. In the interview she  expressed astonishment 
> that anyone could find that strange in a  planet that also contains 
> balut -- which she then described in fine  detail. Since then that's 
> been pretty much the only food that truly  scares me.
> 
> Adamantius