[Sca-cooks] Ethnic was American Diet was Anchovette

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 14, 2005, at 11:15 PM, Bill Fisher wrote:

> I like the tamarind flavor and it is one of those items whose  
> flavor is
> best described using its own name.

Well, if you're describing something to someone who has no frame of  
reference, you have to be creative ;-).

> I can get the whole pods here in town, or sweetened or unsweetened
> processed paste.  I haven't played with it as its own ingredient  
> though.

Yeah, me, too. I can get the whole pods, too, but mostly I buy the  
scraped pulp pressed into bricks and semi-dried, with the seeds in it  
that look like nuts in fudge. I keep waiting for the day when I get  
to see someone pick up such a brick and take a big ol' bite out of it.

> I grew up with the tinned anchovies that were packed in oil.  It  
> was what
> was for lunch when I was at my late grandfather's house.  Bread, some
> kind of tinned fish (or cuttlefish), and unsweet tea (he was diabetic
> due to an accidental
> overdose when he was receiving chemotherapy, I think).  But he had  
> picked
> up the taste for it when he was in England during WWII.   He also said
> he liked salted fish from his depression era upbringing as well in the
> Coal Regions
> of PA (Summit Hill/Tamaqua).

FWIW, my own experience with chemotherapy patients is that there may  
well be some decrease in taste sensitivity. My father-in-law used to  
cook with ridiculous amounts of salt near the end, claiming he  
couldn't taste anything without it. I wonder if there's some  
connection with your late grandfather.

> I remember the first time I ordered anchovies on pizza and I had  
> assured my
> friends that they would be great, and they were the little salt  
> bombs.  I called
> up the pizza place and asked for my money back.  Didn't get it.

Well, I can see their point. They saw no point at which their  
treatment of it made the food bad, so it was your fault for ordering  
it ;-) <puts on Oliver Hardy voice> "Let _THAT_ be a lesson to you!"

> I do like pizza with fresh or pickled anchovies on.  I just found a  
> place
> (World Market) here where I can get the brined ones with hot peppers.

Cool! Mostly I see the little tins, and the best ones I can normally  
find are in large glass clamp-top mason jars packed in real olive  
oil. I'm sure if I dug around I could find other types.

>> That's the one.
>>
>
> Balut gives me the heebies.....

Yeah, me too.

> Now if someone can tell me where I can find Gentleman's Relish here in
> Atlanta (I used to get it in NYC when I was up north), I'd greatly  
> appreciate
> it.

I'm surprised no one has been able to reproduce the formula "by  
accident" (it appears to be mostly seasoned/spiced anchovy butter),  
and simply sold it under another name. Lots of commercially-produced  
foods have proprietary formulas, but few are as well-protected as  
this one, and none, AFAIK, for as long as this has been around. It's  
as if people had been trying to get the recipe for Coca-Cola since  
1828, and failing, with the major difference that Coke isn't made  
from ingredients commonly available in most kitchens.

Incidentally, I have a recipe for gravlax somewhere, written by some  
Em-paaah-building English military traveller or other, maybe in the  
1920's, and in the text, he refers to gravlax as the Gentleman's  
Relish of Sweden.

Adamantius


"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04