Hiromi_X
I love gravy, but...
I love local grines*. Hawaiian food is part of my upbringing. I love mac salad. I respect local chefs who give the finger to food snobs and serve Spam with pride. But it can go too far. As much as I hate to admit it -- being a staunch lifelong opponent of low-fat anything -- there is such a thing as too much grease. There were two notable local kine grotesqueries during my recent trip to the Big Island.
Gravy cheeseburgers, for instance. Now, I love gravy. When I make roast beast and put some on my plate, it looks like beef stew, I put so much gravy on it. Same with turkey; except with turkey, I strip off all the skin and eat that first, and then drown the rest in turkey gravy (in order to prove my gravy cred, I make gravy with actual stock, always). But gravy and yellow cheese together? That counts as gravy abuse to me. And I'm sure I'm gonna get pilloried for this, but so is that nasty thick white breakfast sausage infested crap they defile biscuits with here.
The other example of grease gone too far was the chili dog rice bowl. You're familiar with rice "bowls", right? It's a mound of white rice with a topping such as pork cutlet and eggs with broth or thinly sliced beef or tempura served in a, surprise, bowl. One lovely Hawaiian version of the bowl is the loco moco. The loco moco is neither gravy abuse nor bowl abuse as brown gravy and rice is a match made in heaven. But chili and hot dogs on rice?
They need to put defibrillators in some of those places.
*grines (or grinds) = food in pidgin
Comments
Spam spam spam spam. Baked beans. Spam. When I was a kid (early 70s) my workaholic accountant mom would amaze the family with spam dishes gleaned from some "Let's Make Life Easy For Mothers" cookbook. Her favorite was "Spam Hawaiian Style," which was nothing more than baking 1/4 inch slices of spam topped with cinnamon, brown sugar and pineapple rings. Whenever I dredge up this memory, I can still taste the caramelized sugar coating the spam slices. As for gravy AND cheese? I think dredging up THAT memory would necessitate some Tums or Maalox.
1. Posted by Brian on August 15, 2007
The nasty thick white gravy is so nasty because they either don't make it right or use a mix (and the mixes are seriously nasty). Try sausage and biscuits with a jus or a brown gravy instead of the white glue stuff. OR make your own white stuff with CREAM instead of milk and butter too and a huge amount of pepper and/or hotsauce. It's a heart attack on a plate, but it can be good. And yes... use the drippings. Gravy tastes wierd without them.
2. Posted by darkneuro on August 15, 2007
The white stuff is really good if you make it right.
Start with a pound of good sausage. Brown it. Take out the sausage and all but 2 tablespoons of the grease. I put half of the sausage in the food processor and whirl it a few times to get a better mix of textures.
Make a roux out of the grease and 1/4 cup flour. Add salt and a lot of pepper. Cook 5 minutes or so, or just until the roux starts to move from blonde to beige. Add 2 cups of milk if you want it library-paste thick, 3 if you want the gravy a bit thinner. Cook until it starts to thicken, and add the sausage back in.
Pour over the biscuits you put in the oven before you started.
Random aside: If I had a time machine, this is exactly what I'd use it for - putting something in the oven that I should have started before I started whatever else I was cooking.
Anyway, you should try it once. If you still don't like it, you'll have to realize that you'll lose 5 Texan points, and you may have to go buy a gun to maintain a positive balance in your account.
3. Posted by Tina Marie on August 15, 2007
Don't knock the great heart-stopping duo of Gravy + Cheese, they have their place. On french fries. It's called Poutine and it's delicious, especially late at night after drinking a lot of beer. Health food it's not, but it's definitely popular.
4. Posted by Claire on August 15, 2007
Brian said:
baking 1/4 inch slices of spam topped with cinnamon, brown sugar and pineapple rings.
That sounds like Pineapple Upside-down Spamcake.
...I can still taste the caramelized sugar coating the spam slices.
And then you wake up in the night screaming?
Darkneuro, I'm a total fanatic about some things, two of which are the purity of barbecue and biscuits. Both of those things in their finest form should never, ever be defiled with gloppy sauces.
Tina, that's essentially a breakfast sausage grease-based bechamel.
::shudder::
If you still don't like it, you'll have to realize that you'll lose 5 Texan points, and you may have to go buy a gun to maintain a positive balance in your account.
I think I more than make up for it in my fondness for Ranch dressing.
Claire said:
It's called Poutine and it's delicious, especially late at night after drinking a lot of beer.
Wow. You'd have to be drunk to eat that! But that would probably be really popular in Hawaii.
5. Posted by Hiromi on August 15, 2007
My own personal envelope was pushed a whee bit to far by the "fried Coca Cola" (and no, I'm not kidding) at last year's NC State Fair.
6. Posted by Peter on August 16, 2007
This comment is more about volume that grease per unit, but your post reminded me of a funny incident from my college years. One night my roommate and I took some time from studying to go to the S. family's pizzeria and Italian bakery and deli. The S. family was famous for two things: their great homemade food (pizza, bread, baked goods, gorgeous sausages, etc.) and a certain...spherical quality to them.
As we ordered slices of pizza, we watched little Anthony S. (the 10 or so year old child of the owners) slip his hand under the display case to grab a cannoli. His mother at the register said "ANTNEE!!!!" (that's Antnee, not Anthony, in the proud tradition of old-timers like my Grandma when she is truly vexed) "THAT'S YOUR EIGHTH FUCKIN' CANNOLI TODAY!!!! THOSE FUCKIN' CANNOLI ARE FOR THE FUCKIN' CUSTOMERS!!!! MAKE YOURSELF A FUCKIN' SANDWICH!!!"
At that point Anthony-sorry: Antnee-proceeded to make an Italian cold-cut hero by a most peculiar means. He grabbed two metal lids for sauce pots and placed them in a vice-grip. He then proceeded to place ingredients (cheese, meets, peppers, whatever) in between the two lids and tighten to compact them. The final sandwich must have had about 18 pounds of ingredients. At some point the ingredients just became some homogeneous meat/cheese/lettuce/peppers mixture slick with mayonnaise grease. But I give him credit: he rendered a sandwich that should have been about 15" thick just 5" or so inches thick.
I walked out of their store and have never since eaten cannoli or a hero-sandwich like that, despite the fact that they had been favorites of mine until them.
I'm done sharing now ;)
7. Posted by Peter on August 16, 2007
Yeah, poutine is pretty much suited for late at night at the pub, when everyone is trying to get some solids in their system. That said, I have eaten it sober. And up here you can get it in most fast food places. I think even McDonald's will do "poutine fries" in most parts of Canada. You'll notice that you don't hear much about 'Canadian cuisine'!
8. Posted by rufus on August 16, 2007
My friend Linda (who owns 'bubbles below', the dive op I was just diving with on Kauai) described the loco moco as 'what makes those really big local dudes that big'. The loco moco is a thing a incredible greasy goodness and pretty much enough meal to last one an entire day. Not generally recommended though just before diving B^).
But you are correct. Gravy may be one of life's best foodstuffs, but there are some places is does not belong. Imagine if you will, gravy and sashimi.
I think the correct term is aw, hell no!
9. Posted by elvis on August 17, 2007