[Sca-cooks] Non edibles, was pantry items

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 5, 2007, at 6:43 PM, aeduin wrote:

> Yes, balut is the Philippine version of the fertilized duck
> egg.  It's occasionally chicken.  After it gets to a certain stage of
> maturation it's boiled in brine to cook it.  My 20+ year old memories
> of the dish say it tastes like duck soup, with crunchy bits.

I'm sure it's harmless. I still don't want to eat it ;-).

> But this is from a guy who has eaten rhino (very tough and gamey),

I would think so... I'm assuming this was not grain-fed and  
slaughtered under conditions designed not to allow adrenalin buildup.  
Do you know what anatomical portion your meat was from?

> live scallops 20ft below the surface while diving and other  
> assorted oddities.

I wasn't diving for them, but I tried live scallops in the kitchen of  
the Grand Central Oyster Bar (which is in fact an oyster bar in New  
York's Grand Central Station, but also sells a lot of other,  
extremely fresh seafood, in two cavernous underground dining rooms --  
we always love to show visitors the Mysterious Echoing Tunnel outside  
their main entrance) the one day I worked there. I was fired when the  
union rep complained about me after I went and got a stack of plates  
for my station from the dishwashers, as I had run out and asked  
repeatedly for more ;-). Which probably gives you an idea of the  
quality of their cooking, too, but the amazing thing is that the  
quality of their raw ingredients is so exceptional that, no matter  
how hard they try to ruin it, the food is always good. They've got a  
buyer who routinely turns down offers to be a seafood buyer in Japan...

Adamantius