[Sca-cooks] Lutefisk and strange dreams...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Apr 9, 2006, at 11:17 AM, Sue Clemenger wrote:

> In a phrase, yes it is.  That bad.  At least, to my nose.  Dunno  
> about the
> cheese--don't think I've ever seen or smelled it.

Well, there's the thing. This is one of those things where people are  
prepared to go on long tirades about its awfulness even when they  
haven't seen it, but have heard from a friend of their uncle's, when  
they were seven, that it smelled bad.

> It's that awful gelatinous texture, though, that really gets to me.
> <<shudders violently>>  I freely admit that my personal bias  
> against foods
> that are slimy or gelatinous probably means that I miss out on some  
> tasty
> treats, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice. ;o)

Well, that's fine, but it's incredibly easy, in a case like this, to  
confuse, or allow to be confused (which is not the same thing)  
quality (which is more or less an empirical concept, up to a point)  
with personal preference (obviously subjective). There's almost  
nothing in the world I, as a cook, find more stultifyingly tiresome  
than listening to people complain about foods they don't like, above  
and beyond the fact that they don't care for any, thank you very  
much, to the point where it becomes clear they consider the existence  
of the offending food on the planet a personal affront.

I'm about quality, about finding out why something is bad, if it is,  
and, if at all possible, what can be done to improve it. Once it  
becomes clear that nothing will help and the person is going to  
complain no matter what, as long as the item in question exists, even  
in intangible concept, this is no longer the jurisdiction of the cook  
and I lose interest very quickly. It is, IMO, the jurisdiction of the  
psychiatrist, or perhaps more appropriately, the child psychologist.

> --maire, who grew up in an area settled by Norwegians, and who was,  
> as a
> child, exposed to lutefisk a few times...

And as such, is entitled to a real, honest-to-gosh opinion that can  
be taken seriously. Unlike most of the people who b*tch about the  
stuff...

Hey, lutefisk isn't my favorite food, either. "No, thank you, please  
pass the meatballs." What that means, though, is that I do not like  
it, and not that it is bad.

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