Hiromi_X
New tricks
Proof that old dogs can learn new tricks; food issues I'm no longer doctrinaire about:
1) Fruit and chocolate together is now acceptable. Or at least berries and chocolate, and some limited citrus. I've also come to love dried fruit and chocolate after much experimentation with the bulk bins in Central Market. The chocolate-covered Bing cherries, blueberry chocolates, and mixed berry chocolates are to die for.
2) Fruit and meat. I think my distaste for fruit and meat together started as a child, when my mom would open a can of jellied cranberry sauce on Thanksgivings. But I'm starting to come around; for example, I had cranberries and wild boar sausages together the other night. I've also had dried fruit with various meats recently, and liked them. Which leads to the following:
3) Raisins. I've always liked raisins, but only by themselves. The only other form I would eat them in was raisin bread. But lately, I've had raisins in pilaf, raisins in various kinds of salads, and even chocolate-covered raisins (something I never used to even consider food) and enjoyed them. However, I remain close-minded about nuts. I accept them in one of three forms only: by themselves, in a trail mix, and finely chopped peanuts in certain Asian dishes. Otherwise, their very hard texture is off-putting when mixed with other foods. This rule is suspended for things like pine nuts or sunflower seeds; their softer texture makes them easier to incorporate into foods. But never desserts! Nuts do not belong in desserts, except when they come in brittle form (I don't like chocolate-covered nuts, except when combined with dried fruit).
4) Sweetness in entrees. The only sweet entree I used to like was sukiyaki. I liked to segregate the savory and sweet portions of my meal -- entree savory, dessert sweet. This has changed gradually over time and is related to my acceptance of the pairing of fruit and meat. I still reject overly sweetened curries and reject sweetness in soba sauces altogether, but it was the slightly sweetened nuoc cham, or dipping sauce, in Vietnamese cooking that brought me around with its irresistible combination of sweet-savory-fiery.
I wonder if I'll ever get over my aversion to organ meats, though.
Comments
1. YESYESYES... But it can't be a LOT of chocolate, and it really should be darker chocolate. Sets off the sweetness of the fruit better. Something to explore: Melt a *really* good choco bar in the micro (30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir) and then dip bits of melon into it. YUM!
2. Not a fan.
3. Golden raisins ROCK. You can also put raisins and peanuts together and get a healthy candy-corn tasting mix.
4. Like you, depends on how sweet and I'm picky-picky-picky. Something to explore here would be mashed sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. It's a nice change and a little cinnamon just enhances the whole thing.
1. Posted by darkneuro on May 8, 2008
One of the best new food tricks I learned this year was adding cranberry sauce to some dishes I prepare in the slow cooker. I didn`t think it would work but tried it anyway and the results were delicious.
2. Posted by tom on May 8, 2008
Access to really superior sausages has helped me over my aversion to organ meats, with which I was beaten as a child. There's a threshold of tastiness, beyond which the only reasonable response is, "Goddamn that's tasty, who gives a fuck what's it's made of?!"
3. Posted by Holly on May 9, 2008