unusual cuisine?

[Momo]

Tenshi AKA Robyn asked:

Pinkpickles, may I ask what pink pickles are? (Beyond the obvious description!?) What are they made of?

They are pickled turnips that are cut like french fries. They get their bright pink color from a piece of beet root that is added in the preperation process!

Pink pickles sound intriguing...I guess they're one of those things that have to be tasted to be understood?! I wonder if I could find them somewhere?

I realised amongst all this talk of exotic food that I had committed a serious oversight. I never even mentioned Vegemite! Absolutely love the stuff. Have any of you guys tried it?

[DCJenn]

Robyn-

Here's the review for the favorite Ethiopian place at home (DC) by the Washington Post critic:

You don't get forks or knives; as is typical of Ethiopian dining, the food at Dukem is eaten with fingers and pieces of injera, the slightly sour crepe that also stands in for a plate. If you're a novice, be advised: No staff member I encountered at this corner dining room spoke much English, if any. But pointing and enlisting the help of native Ethiopian customers, who seem to treat this as a community center as much as a place to eat, can land you some pleasant memories to take back home. One signature is kitfo, a mound of raw ground beef blended with house-made cottage cheese, herbed butter and hot red pepper. Imagine steak tartare mixed with fire. You don't have to be a carnivore to eat well, though. Follow the lead of seemingly every other table and request the vegetable combination: Out comes a floppy round of injera, dolloped with a variety of earth-toned dishes, from chopped greens and yellow lentils to a tomato salad sparked with jalapenos. Afternoon soap operas and CNN on TV yield to live Ethiopian music onstage Thursday through Monday evenings.
-- Tom Sietsema

Love the stuff.

as for vegemite, my room-mate from college was into all things Australian for a while and I'm sorry to say I just couldn't wrap my head around it. BUT, I'm sure we weren't eating it correctly and I'm equally sure that if I were on a lovely beach with a lovely beer? I could probably do just fine!

Jenn

I like duck. I love scallops. None of these are all that weird though, are they?

I like those too and like you, don't think of them as being that strange.

I love eggnog and don't consider that weird either though some might consider my affection for it a little over the top.

Jenn, that sounds pretty cool! I love trying new types of foods. DH is not so keen, so we don't go out experimenting that much. (Not that we could anyway, with a toddler in tow!)

Can you tell me how you manage to rip a piece of bread off with just your right hand?

you use your last 3 fingers to hold the bread down while using your thumb and index finger to tear a chunk away. I've mastered it.

[ides]

I don't eat anything exotic but dh loves blood pudding. :: The few times he has made himself a 'fry' I had to go sit by an open window just to keep my stomach from turning inside out. yuck.

[Meenah]

I haven't had pink pickles, but I love pickeled okra!

[Vishenka69]

Can you tell me how you manage to rip a piece of bread off with just your right hand?

you use your last 3 fingers to hold the bread down while using your thumb and index finger to tear a chunk away. I've mastered it.

Just trying to picture that give me a hand cramp. I don't think many foods or cuisines are thought of exotic anymore. Although I remember in college my roommate ran out of the room clasping her hand over her mouth when she saw me cutting cow tongue for a sandwich. I love thinly slided boiled tongue on some rye bread with butter. Jenn, did you try it in Russia?

Cristina, I think lard sandwiches are an Eastern European thing. My dad (in his pre-cholesterol days) used to freeze a chunk and then thinly slice it for sandwiches. Only he'd eat it with white onions. I was never a big fan. Bacon is far as I'd go in terms lard.

[Stella]

I love calamari, quail and duck with polenta, and I put mayo on my fries. Nothing too crazy here.


Cow tongue? :!

[Lo]

I very often crave chicken mukhni or palek paneer

and then for dessert gulab jamun...mmmmm

DF is going to have a field day when the day comes that we have kids and I am pregnant trying to figure out how to make or where to find my cravings...haha

and then for dessert gulab jamun...mmmmm

how did you stay a skinny ballet dancer eating those things? for those that don't know - they're basically donut holes (made w/ricotta cheese & cardamom along w/various other things) fried, then soaked in syurp. I'm not a fan - but dh is.

[Lo]

and then for dessert gulab jamun...mmmmm

how did you stay a skinny ballet dancer eating those things? for those that don't know - they're basically donut holes (made w/ricotta cheese & cardamom along w/various other things) fried, then soaked in syurp. I'm not a fan - but dh is.

Haha...indulge occasionally??

[Momo]

Tenshi if you go to a Lebanese restaurant you will surely be able to get some pink pickles! For me it was getting over the fact that they were fuchsia in color...I don't think I had ever even eaten candy that bright pink! They compliment humus well.


As for Vegemite...hmm I'd definitely be up for trying it. The mere mention of it took me back to a song from my youth...I'm pretty sure most of us geriatrics can hum & or sing it :

...

Buying bread from a man in Brussels.
He was six-foot-four and full of muscles.
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich.
And he said,

"I come from a land down under.
Where beer does flow and men chunder.
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

[Amiens]

I love chantrelles. They're tougher to come by in the shops in Chicago - my mom says they sell them at Costco in Seattle. Yum, yum. Otherwise I'd try making the crepe at home. I wonder what the cream is. Do you think it's heavy whipping cream?

I really like France, especially the Elsace Lorraine region, where the older folks speak German. We did a trip through wine country. We at least don't embarrass ourselves with our atrocious French. Maybe we can go with you and your family and you can translate for us! :>

Oh, by the way, what is fruit de soupe. Dh wouldn't ask for me, so we left the restaurant without dessert.

If it was a dessert then it would have been fruit such as raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc. macerated in sugar, cream, and other things- depends on the recipe. There is also a savory soup called Fruit de Mer- which is a hodgepodge of things from the ocean.