Foreign dishes

[greenmann]

Most American cities have a number of ethnic foods offered, and Seattle is no exception. I love most of them, as long as they don't get too spicy. I don't realy consider the Chinese restaurants all that authentic, they are more like "Chinese American" (like fortune cookies, invented in San Francisco), but there is a dish that a number have started making that I love; "walnut prawns". The bottom layer is steamed brocoli and water chestnuts, with fried shrimp on top. Candied walnuts sprinkled on top of that, with a honey mayonaise kind of sauce over the top of everything. Sounds strange, but it is heavenly when cooked properly.

 

Our own "native" foods are pretty simple though. Probably the best thing that's really indigenous to this area is alder or cedar smoked salmon. You can get red cedar shakes in gourmet stores now to do it in the over, but usually on an open campfire or barbeque, you would butterfly the fish to spread it open, skewer it, and let it roast slowly over the smokey fire. The smoke from the alder and cedar makes the salmon to die for, and it drips most of the fat off into the fire that way. In the oven, you need to char the plank a bit, then put the fish on top (skin down) and broil or bake at 400-450 for around 15-20 minutes. Serve with a baked potato (Washington actually processes more potatoes than Idaho, and produces almost as many as well, lol). Add some corn or asparagus (steamed of course) and some Columbia Valley chardonay, and you have a very nice meal A simpler way to cook salmon we grew up with is to clean out the guts, stuff with a lemon and some herbs (parsley, chopped onion, a little rosemary or oregano), wrap it in tin foil and either throw it in the oven or on a grill. It's done when the skin will peel right off. Heavenly Of course, we have 5 different kinds of salmon to choose from here (well, if the fisheries don't collapse on us).

 

A favorite food memory of mine is a desert we used to get at a little East Indian restaurant in Panama City, Panama while I was in the Peace Corps. It was made of candied grated carrot with ginger and some other spice I was never able to identify. I have never seen it offered here in the states, nor come across anyone who recognizes it, but it was really good!

[old bob]

.....Come on try it, you'll like it!!

MMMMM.....

It remembers me that we have 2 dozens Burgundy snails in the freezer...

its 10 am here, they will be ready just in time for the first part of our lunch today

Before a nice plate of italian raviolis, with basilic and garlic and a mixed green salat, and at the end a fruit salad for desert. The problem is the wine. white (dry) with the snails, red (italian) with the raviolis, and a sweet one with the desert ?

I will need to take a nap after lunch .

BTW about garlic, has anybody (apart Fran

[Benji]

I really like dear meat. I'd LOVE to try reindeer meat. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it says that caribou in the US are considered reindeer. I wonder if there's a difference between that and what you guys eat. Everything else you described sounds scrumptious, too.

 

 

.........Unfortunately I'm a bit turned off on deer meat, nothing wrong with it, but when I was 6-7 years old we basically ate it for a year straight.

[greenmann]

I've tasted aioli, Old Bob, brought back directly from south France actually from one of my sister's student's families (she is a kindergarten teacher) who lived in France. It was good, though a bit salty for my taste.

 

I don't eat red meat, so I'll take a pass on the reindeer. I have noticed the last month or so that beeffalo (american bison meat) has started to appear in a bunch of local markets. Not likely to try it myself, but I do think that could be a welcome shift in American ag, and might open up some possibility of restoring some kind of more ecological approach to food production. Hopefully.

[corvus]

Most American cities have a number of ethnic foods offered, and Seattle is no exception. I love most of them, as long as they don't get too spicy. I don't realy consider the Chinese restaurants all that authentic, they are more like "Chinese American" (like fortune cookies, invented in San Francisco), but there is a dish that a number have started making that I love; "walnut prawns". The bottom layer is steamed brocoli and water chestnuts, with fried shrimp on top. Candied walnuts sprinkled on top of that, with a honey mayonaise kind of sauce over the top of everything. Sounds strange, but it is heavenly when cooked properly.

 

I know exactly what you're talking about. Yes, they are so good, and they are so un-Chinese. Interestingly I couldn't find it in any of the Chinese restaurants I've been in in Boston, not that I've been in many.

 

Our own "native" foods are pretty simple though. Probably the best thing that's really indigenous to this area is alder or cedar smoked salmon. You can get red cedar shakes in gourmet stores now to do it in the over, but usually on an open campfire or barbeque, you would butterfly the fish to spread it open, skewer it, and let it roast slowly over the smokey fire. The smoke from the alder and cedar makes the salmon to die for, and it drips most of the fat off into the fire that way. In the oven, you need to char the plank a bit, then put the fish on top (skin down) and broil or bake at 400-450 for around 15-20 minutes. Serve with a baked potato (Washington actually processes more potatoes than Idaho, and produces almost as many as well, lol). Add some corn or asparagus (steamed of course) and some Columbia Valley chardonay, and you have a very nice meal A simpler way to cook salmon we grew up with is to clean out the guts, stuff with a lemon and some herbs (parsley, chopped onion, a little rosemary or oregano), wrap it in tin foil and either throw it in the oven or on a grill. It's done when the skin will peel right off. Heavenly Of course, we have 5 different kinds of salmon to choose from here (well, if the fisheries don't collapse on us).

 

Wow, that salmon sounds really good... And cooking jargon sounds, oddly, very beautiful. At home, my dad steams salmon with onions and garlic, which is pretty simple, but very effective. On the other hand I rather hate steamed version of other fish (shudder). A word about fisheries: I spent a year doing policy debate on conservation of marine natural resources, and New England fisheries popped up again in my social analysis class on collective action. I think we'll only be able to draw pictures of certain fish and describe their texture to the next generation.

[AFriendlyFace]

Great topic!

 

I love exotic food! Growing up my mom would take me to many different types of restaurants and I've tried quite a few different cuisines. We used to eat out quite a lot and rarely ate basic "American" food.

 

Swiss people are very simple-minded (James would say

[corvus]

That's great! I was feeling like quite a minority around here!

 

My flatmate is a vegetarian, which I think is highly unusual, because all Germans are supposed to eat wursts (sausages). Sadly, she makes me wash out the pan after I use it for meat. (Sadly, because, without the grease, things stick like mad. Grr.)

 

But yeah, just so you know, Kevin, there are freaks of nature in Germany too.....

[Benji]

My flatmate is a vegetarian, which I think is highly unusual, because all Germans are supposed to eat wursts (sausages). Sadly, she makes me wash out the pan after I use it for meat. (Sadly, because, without the grease, things stick like mad. Grr.)

 

But yeah, just so you know, Kevin, there are freaks of nature in Germany too.....

 

 

..........You could buy another pan! I've got one buried outside right now! (Veggies are a pain)

Edited June 27, 2008 by Benji

[AFriendlyFace]

My flatmate is a vegetarian, which I think is highly unusual, because all Germans are supposed to eat wursts (sausages). Sadly, she makes me wash out the pan after I use it for meat. (Sadly, because, without the grease, things stick like mad. Grr.)

 

But yeah, just so you know, Kevin, there are freaks of nature in Germany too.....

LOL, dude, as it happens my ancestry is more German than anything else (with another good bit English, followed by French, then a bit of random other European). So maybe it's a German thing...I hear Hitler was a vegetarian