Really Good Foods You Probably Haven't Tried

[Martha]

Compared to exotic animals, wild greens should not scare anybody, at least as it comes to the taste. Toxicity is something else, however. I am sure you already check out the edibility of these plants.

Yup, I am careful.

My father was very good at plant identification and we ate things from cattail root to wild mushrooms. I would not trust myself on the mushrooms so I have not eaten any except morels and puffballs for for years.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm picturing you in a public park on your hands and knees, grinning up at the tourists between bites.

This is making my pants feel funny...

 

[Khan]

Yup, I am careful.

My father was very good at plant identification and we ate things from cattail root to wild mushrooms. I would not trust myself on the mushrooms so I have not eaten any except morels and puffballs for for years.

I had forgotten about the puffballs, they grew very large in Upstate NY.

 

[Urchina]

I love those little peanuts covered in a crunchy coating. They were really common in Belgium when I lived there, but now I find them imported from Japan in our asian food market.

I also like thinly sliced smoked horse meat (again, acquired the taste in Belgium) but can't find it here.

Those Cannibal sandwiches you are talking about? They're called "Americain" in Belgium. I thought that was funny, I'd never even heard of raw steak sandwiches before.

Finally, you can get a pretty good beer here: DeKonick, my favorite european brew.

 

[ERD50]

Mochi is Japanese sweet made from sugar and sticky rice. It is very good by itself, great for people who are intolerant to wheat products. But when you combine Moochi with Ice Cream yum yum.

What a coincidence! I never heard of these before, and just last night we were out to dinner and were offered these for dessert. Very good - passion fruit, honeydew melon and strawberry flavored. Passion fruit was my fav by far.

Of course, I was able to 'impress' everyone at the table and say ' Oh yes, Mochi is a Japanese sweet made from sugar and sticky rice.'

Thanks clifp!

These were the ice cream filled ones, like what you pictured:

Mochi ice cream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-ERD50

 

[WanderALot]

Very cool thread T-Al.

My favorite non-traditional foods are:

1. Banh Mi. Vietnamese sandwiches made with freshly baked baguettes. They have pickled carrots and a few other assorted veggies. You can get anything from chicken (Ga), BBQ pork (Thit Nuong) or pate. They put an interesting clear mayo in it too which is quite good. The bread makes this sandwich great and it's LOADS better than Subway/Quiznos or other mass market. The best part is that you can eat for about $2! Top this off with a Ro Ma (sp?) which is a refreshing neem juice type drink (lot like wheatgrass) and you're good to go. In SoCal we have small Banh Mi places because of the large Vietnamese population that are very good. There's a more mainstream place called Lee's Sandwiches which are opening up all over the US which is good but not as good as some of the local joints.

2. Hot Soba with slivers of pork. Very flavorful soup with buckwheat noodles (soba) with tons of flavor. You can also get cold soba in which the noodles are served on a bed of ice and dipped into the broth. Good on a hot day.

3. Masala Dosas (Indian crepes stuffed with potatoes). The vast majority of Indian restaurants are north Indian style food (kormas etc). This south Indian snack is quite good.

 

[NW-Bound]

Banh mi, as described above, is a popular contribution to the American food culture. Another is the Vietnamese Pho, a beef noodle soup with a clear broth. In general, if you liked Chinese noodle or wonton soup, you would like Pho, although the taste and flavor are completely different. When I went to Montreal a few years ago, I saw Pho was popular there among the natives. On a cold day, a big bowl costing $6 (Canadian) hit the spot, and made you fell warm all over.

 

[Marquette]

In general, if you liked Chinese noodle or wonton soup, you would like Pho, although the taste and flavor are completely different.

I mentioned having Pho soup with beef heart and tripe (stomach lining) earlier. At least the last time I went, Pho 79 in Minneapolis was the best place around here... they have less exotic stuff than beef heart and I agree that it was very tasty.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The standard uses soft tendon and tripe. But there are dozens of permutations including chicken and seafood versions, and the mysterious and slightly frightening 'beef ball'.

We have pho all the time. I learned to make a bastardized version a few years ago but its easier to go buy an extra large to go for $5 and split it with my wife.

The original involves blackening onions and ginger, and adding them to a broth made from long simmered ox tails...its a wee bit of work...

My quick version uses decent canned onion soup mixed with beef broth, 5 spice powder, ginger, and adds from there.

Good site and description:
Vietworldkitchen.com -- Pho beef noodle soup history, recipe

I havent ever tried the sandwiches at the vietnamese restaurants...sounds like something we oughta try this week.

 

[NW-Bound]

For the uninitiated, the "beef balls" are simply meat, not ground like burger, or shredded, but mashed, then rolled. That way, the meat fibers are finely separated, but not cut. So, the meatball has a very different texture than the common spaghetti meatballs. There's nothing to be afraid of, I have checked.

The Vietnamese just do not know how to translate!!! They also have "pork balls", "shrimp balls", "fish balls" etc... made the same way.

About Pho, if you do not care for offals, you can order just sliced beef, either precooked, or raw thinsliced so that the hot broth will cook it when they poured on top. It is still with the same clear broth, where all the flavors are.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

the "beef balls" are simply meat

Eh heh.

 

[HFWR]

I'd bet the [-]bull[/-] steer doesn't think that...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I think I'd be a little more concerned with catching a fish with a set.

 

[bright eyed]

The standard uses soft tendon and tripe. But there are dozens of permutations including chicken and seafood versions, and the mysterious and slightly frightening 'beef ball'.

We have pho all the time. I learned to make a bastardized version a few years ago but its easier to go buy an extra large to go for $5 and split it with my wife.

The original involves blackening onions and ginger, and adding them to a broth made from long simmered ox tails...its a wee bit of work...

My quick version uses decent canned onion soup mixed with beef broth, 5 spice powder, ginger, and adds from there.

Good site and description:
Vietworldkitchen.com -- Pho beef noodle soup history, recipe

I havent ever tried the sandwiches at the vietnamese restaurants...sounds like something we oughta try this week.

The sandwiches are great! you can get them for about $2-3 bucks and the buns are usually freshly baked...

try all the flavors - there is usually a house one that has the more unidentifiable meats and pate...the grilled pork/beef or chicken are more standard.

Also, the deli's that usually sell these also sell lots of different pre-made lunch bites - some combo of rice noodle or rice cake with pork, pork crumbles, shrimp, or fish cake. try them all they are yummy!

 

[WanderALot]

try all the flavors - there is usually a house one that has the more unidentifiable meats and pate...the grilled pork/beef or chicken are more standard.

Yeah, the combination sandwich or special is called Dac Biet (I think). I've tried several varieties and just come to the conclusion that I just don't like pate. The Vietnamese that I've talked to really like the pate though.

I just had a nice bowl of Pho last night. For those who like Pho, you can also get a Vietnamese soul called Mi. The broth is different and the noodles are yellow egg noddles (Pho uses white rice noodles). They also come with different types of meat. When it comes to a bowl of soup though, I really think the Japanese hot soba with chaysu (pork slivers) hits the spot. DW uses to love Pho, but now she's switched to Bun (pronounced boon) which are the dry rice noodles with meat and vegetable with fish sauce.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

We make a little 'bun' from time to time. I get some thin sliced flanken style short rib, marinate it in soy, fish sauce and Lee Kum Kee sweet chili and garlic paste (realllly good, available in most supermarkets), and grill it. A bowl of cooked drained rice noodles, bean sprout, shredded carrot and shredded carrot. Rib on top, little vinaigrette made from rice vinegar, sugar, fish sauce and some more of the chili/garlic paste. Bam!

In the Lee Kum Kee repertoire is also a black bean and garlic sauce. Steam some eggplant or toss some green beans in a fry pan for a couple of minutes until you get a little bit of brown on them and they're al dente, then toss in a few spoons of the black bean/garlic sauce and a few spoons of water, toss quick to coat and plate. Good and quick...

 

[BOBOT]

Peanut butter & tomato on whole wheat. Really.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hmm, made me think of another one...a pizza with a whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, shredded carrots and raisins. No cheese. Thats it.

Surprisingly sweet and nutty.

 

[BOBOT]

Hmm, made me think of another one...a pizza with a whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, shredded carrots and raisins. No cheese. Thats it.

Surprisingly sweet and nutty.

Wow. Must have been invented by a stoner with serious munchies.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This came from an earthy crunchy place in the fru fru brownstone section of Bostons Back Bay around 30 years ago. My girlfriend at the time had a vegetarian sister who had a vegetarian boyfriend and they took us there for dinner.

I was supremely suspicious.

 

[Jessica08]

Has anyone here tried Milo? I think its one of the most amazing chocolate drinks, and the powder can be eaten out of the can straight. It is just like the chocolate crunchies that you find in ice cream cake. I'm pretty sure it was a lot of nutrients in it.

 

[ladelfina]

CFB, I think I remember that place.. and I had that whole wheat carrot/raisin pizza many times -- it was good -- kind of a high puffy crust.. but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the joint. I didn't even remember it by your description, but when I then read "brownstone" the pizza flavor came flooding back. Are you sure it was Boston? Because I want to say the place was "Pi Pizza" which I recall as having been in Cambridge.. and I always got the version with crumbled sausage, too.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh yeah, it was right near boylston street. My girlfriends parents were loaded and had set up her sister in a top floor condo in a newly renovated building and we were visiting for the first time. She was very nervous about them having spent over a hundred thousand dollars on an apartment! : Probably worth close to a million now.

May have been a multiple location sort of thing. Never seen that pizza for sale anywhere else, so must be!

 

[NW-Bound]

-ERD50

I do not know if Henry Thoreau ate quiche. But he sure ate purslane!

"I learned that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength. I have made a satisfactory dinner off a dish of purslane which I gathered and boiled. Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries but for want of luxuries." Henry Thoreau.

I saw the above quote in a book I have, entitled Feasting Free on Wild Edibles by Bradford Angier. It is an excellent book, which I do not refer to as often as I should, due to lack of color photographs for plant identification. The simple line drawings do not give me enough confidence to try more wild plants.

"Purslane ... the tastiest crop in the home gardens ... is native to India and Persia ... has been a food for more than 2,000 years. An early mover to Europe, it has been eaten there for centuries." Bradford Angier, Feasting Free on Wild Edibles, 1972, p.71.

A quick search on the Web showed that some books even devote an entire chapter to purslane. Hmmm. Perhaps I should start a purslane farm, instead of trying to grow more finicky vegetable.

P.S. In answer to Martha's post below, I have not had a chance to try it, having eradicated it from my yard.

 

[Martha]

Don't. It isn't that good. But it is easy to identify.