Food fleeting thoughts

[Peaceful Whale]

Mangos are ok...
This new brand of dried mangoes dusted in sugar is the devils work... they are so goooood...

Slightly related: I have a serious dried mango addiction and need help...

[poxic]

Wait until the manufacturers start cheaping out and it all goes shitty. Worked for me.

[Sandry]

I don't really understand why anyone ever dusts mango in sugar. They have plenty of sugar already. Unsugared dried mango is delicious.

[pogrmman]

Re: Grapefruit

I love grapefruit, but really only the yellow or lightly pink varieties, not the dark red ones you see on the market here (California), which don't taste...grapefruity...enough in my opinion.

Being a Texan, I’ve only ever had the red ones. As Central Texas is not a very good citrus growing area, we just get the ones from big growers in the Valley.

The climate out here isn't very good for grapefruit (not nearly hot enough), so I've been hunting for some grapefruit-hybrids which will produce satisfactory analogs in more northern climes

Do you know if summer heat or a warm winter is more important for grapefruit? Also, I’ve been toying with the idea of growing some citrus. I’ve seen pictures of fruiting oranges, mandarins, and grapefruit in Charleston, SC (admittedly, done by a very skilled grower in a good microclimate) and they get more hard freezes than we do in the winter (~10 vs ~5). So, it is probably doable (there is the occasional yard with a mandarins or even grapefruit or oranges, but they’re not common). The tricky part, I think, is the speed at which we can alternate between warmth and cold in the winter — it’s not uncommon for a 70° day to be followed by a night at like 25° (so there isn’t necessarily much semi-dormancy). Also, it’s probably an issue that our thin, alkaline soils aren’t good for trifoliate orange rootstock... Do you have any tips/suggestions?

Mangos are ok...
This new brand of dried mangoes dusted in sugar is the devils work... they are so goooood...

Slightly related: I have a serious dried mango addiction and need help...

Mangos aren’t citrus! They are really tasty though. I don’t know why anybody would dust dried mango with sugar — it’s sweet enough on its own that I sometimes feel the need to wash out my mouth afterwards...

[natraj]

mangoes are plenty sweet as-is & are ideal to be dusted with chili & lime, or cumin & kala namak. yum.

[Zohar]

Pomelos may be my favorites but barring those - some type of orange probably.

[freezeblade]

Do you know if summer heat or a warm winter is more important for grapefruit? Also, I’ve been toying with the idea of growing some citrus. I’ve seen pictures of fruiting oranges, mandarins, and grapefruit in Charleston, SC (admittedly, done by a very skilled grower in a good microclimate) and they get more hard freezes than we do in the winter (~10 vs ~5). So, it is probably doable (there is the occasional yard with a mandarins or even grapefruit or oranges, but they’re not common). The tricky part, I think, is the speed at which we can alternate between warmth and cold in the winter — it’s not uncommon for a 70° day to be followed by a night at like 25° (so there isn’t necessarily much semi-dormancy). Also, it’s probably an issue that our thin, alkaline soils aren’t good for trifoliate orange rootstock... Do you have any tips/suggestions?.

The heat in summer is most important (along with a long summer), and grapefruits actually need the cold winter (well, chilly, not too many nights under freezing) in order to color up properly. For your climate, I'm betting that some form of satsuma mandarin would work, they are really cold hearty, and don't require too many hot days to sweeten up nicely (they're also ripe pretty early). It's going to be difficult to find a commercially grown mandarin that isn't on trifolate stock nowadays, especially as the typical alternative sour orange stock has been phased out pretty aggressively (and the replacement in California by four winds growers is cuban shaddock, and very cold intolerant)

[pogrmman]

Do you know if summer heat or a warm winter is more important for grapefruit? Also, I’ve been toying with the idea of growing some citrus. I’ve seen pictures of fruiting oranges, mandarins, and grapefruit in Charleston, SC (admittedly, done by a very skilled grower in a good microclimate) and they get more hard freezes than we do in the winter (~10 vs ~5). So, it is probably doable (there is the occasional yard with a mandarins or even grapefruit or oranges, but they’re not common). The tricky part, I think, is the speed at which we can alternate between warmth and cold in the winter — it’s not uncommon for a 70° day to be followed by a night at like 25° (so there isn’t necessarily much semi-dormancy). Also, it’s probably an issue that our thin, alkaline soils aren’t good for trifoliate orange rootstock... Do you have any tips/suggestions?.

The heat in summer is most important (along with a long summer), and grapefruits actually need the cold winter (well, chilly, not too many nights under freezing) in order to color up properly. For your climate, I'm betting that some form of satsuma mandarin would work, they are really cold hearty, and don't require too many hot days to sweeten up nicely (they're also ripe pretty early). It's going to be difficult to find a commercially grown mandarin that isn't on trifolate stock nowadays, especially as the typical alternative sour orange stock has been phased out pretty aggressively (and the replacement in California by four winds growers is cuban shaddock, and very cold intolerant)

I was thinking that satsumas would be easiest — my aunt has had a small satsuma for 3 years, and gotten fruit from it. I think the lost important factor is the earliness of the fruit — probably by mid-December, it will have gotten cold enough to damage the fruit.

I’m mostly just trying to expand my fruit options from the “p”s that normally do so well here — peaches, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, and “ph”igs. There is a suprising amount of more tropical stuff that does OK here — loquats are common (but sometimes don’t fruit), I’ve grown passionfruit successfully, gotten bananas to flower (too late, but I didn’t fertilize them), I’ve got edible ginger in the ground that comes back every year. I’m guessing citrus could do OK, especially in a warmer microclimate (like my house!).

[freezeblade]

Sour citrus might be doable as well, and can be very cold hearty. Here's a few more obscure citrus that may work for you:

Meyer Lemon - more cold hearty than regular lemons, who need a more Mediterranean climate, is otherwise a great replacement, grown and used extensively in California.

Yuzu - Japanese sour citrus, is awesome for cocktails and for marinade/baking applications. Very unique taste, ingredient in ponzu sauce.

Kishu Mandarin - Tiny ornamental mandarin (fruit no bigger than a golf ball, usually smaller), great taste, seedless.

Chinnito sour orange - Sometimes called myrtle leaf orange, very ornamental, small size, great for marinades and cocktails

kumquat hybrids are more cold hearty, and can produce great fruit outside of the range of the un-hybridized varities: Limequat (limes are notoriously cold-intolerant), Lemonquat, mandarinquat, Calamondin (naturally occuring hybrid, great in cocktails or a lime replacement in Philippine cuisine).

[CelticNot]

I don't know if this is the right thread for this, but I hate when you eat something that taints your tastebuds for some time afterward. I had some packet garlic pasta last night that left a bad taste in my mouth, and it still hasn't gone away 18 hours later, making everything taste gross.

[Zohar]

Huh, I wonder if a tongue scraper would work for that. I don't think I've had that issue except with stomach bile or throwing up, where brushing my teeth didn't seem to resolve everything.

[poxic]

I had that with a gross dental thing. Nothing budged the taste until, in desperation, I tried a danish pastry. I think it was the fat plus fine-grained sugar that finally muscled out the grossness.

[PAstrychef]

Gargaling with mild salt water might help. Otherwise, whisky until you just don’t care anymore.

[moody7277]

The same cycle as this exists with pancake mix and maple syrup.

[dubsola]

Disappointed. I just discovered the pumpkin soup I defrosted last Tuesday. I forgot about it. It was really fantastic soup, but it's been almost a week. Surely I can't eat it now.

[PAstrychef]

Has it been kept cold? Taste it, sniff it. It may be just fine. When you heat it, bring it to a boil for a minute. You’ll be fine.

[dubsola]

It has, but I think it doesn't quite pass the taste test. Think I can just taste that little spritz you get with off food. Oh well. It's not a lot.

[Thesh]

FFT:

Water is an ingredient, people. So is salt. You can't just ignore them and call it three ingredient mac and cheese.

[PAstrychef]

The water is a cooking medium for the mac. The salt, well i guess you’re correct.

[Mikeski]

[citation needed], I suppose, but the mac absorbs some of the water you cook it in, and it winds up in the end product that you eat. I vote "ingredient".

[Thesh]

In the Serious Eats mac and cheese recipe I use, the water isn't drained and becomes a part of the sauce.

[pogrmman]

Why do some people prefer white meat chicken to dark meat chicken? I know a lot of people who do, but it’s always made very little sense to me. I’ve always found white meat to have a lot less flavor than dark meat and to be harder to cook well than dark meat. Is it just because people are adverse to having bones and tendons and stuff in their meat? Is it because it can be somewhat less tender? Is it because the chicken breast is a nice, big hunk of meat? I tried searching for answers, but just found a bunch of articles mentioning the massive disparity of consumption between the two in the US.

[Thesh]

I think the primary reason is just that white meat is leaner and the fact that the breast is a nice big piece of meat without a bone running through it like the thigh.

[PAstrychef]

It also hearkens back to the cultural feeling that “pale =good”, which gave us wonder bread, white zinfandel and Michael Jackson.
It was seen as delicate and pure, and so must be more desirable. Foods were highly spiced and seasoned until exotic spices became available to the middle classes. Then very plain, “pure” cooking became the status symbol. White bread was a status symbol for centuries.

[poxic]

When I was a kid, dark meat "tasted funny". I was a sensitive little squirt.

[pogrmman]

That all makes sense. I guess I’m just not a fan of less flavorful, “pure” foods — even if they’re more attractive to look at :p Give me all that highly spiced, delicious food, and I’ll be happy. Sure, it’s sometimes nice to appreciate a more delicate flavor, but it gets boring with out some excitement.

When I was a little guy, I preferred drumsticks and thighs for the flavor — breasts were too bland for me. Admittedly, we also had more of those as a family because it’s my parents’ preference too, so it could be a preference because of that.

[Moo]

I prefer dark meat but some things you can only do with a chicken breast, such as pounding them into schnitzels, or cutting pockets into them for cordon blue or other stuffing endeavors.

[sardia]

I prefer dark meat but some things you can only do with a chicken breast, such as pounding them into schnitzels, or cutting pockets into them for cordon blue or other stuffing endeavors.

What happens if you use dark meat?

[PAstrychef]

Because of the bone down the center of the thigh it’s hard to get a piece that’s flat and even. Schnitzel works best with a cutlet. I suppose you could get some “meat glue” and create a cutlet from thigh meat.

[sardia]

Because of the bone down the center of the thigh it’s hard to get a piece that’s flat and even. Schnitzel works best with a cutlet. I suppose you could get some “meat glue” and create a cutlet from thigh meat.

Why not remove the bone, and then pound flat? I sorta get why you can't make a pocket, but a flat meat sounds easy enough. Eg chicken fried steak, similar principal.

[PAstrychef]

It ends up sort of chunky, not a neat solid piece. Maybe workable, but awkward.

[Zohar]

We got really amazing peaches in our CSA this week. Some of them are definitely going in a pie.

[sardia]

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but apparently there are waiters out there that don't know what the fuck aioli is. I asked if they could give me some aioli for my fries because they were offering it on their burgers. I get charged 50+ cents for it, which is steep but whatever. After trying it, I can't really taste the garlic. I ask them about it, and the waiter was like "Oh, you must be looking for the garlic aioli. I gave you regular aioli."
Fuck you. I hate you and I hate your boss. That's the kind of restaurant that tricks ladies into buying fried food via exotic labeling like "tempura".

[heuristically_alone]

Looking for suggestions:
What do you eat when you're stomach isn't feeling top notch and you don't feel like eating anything but you are starving and know you need to eat something, but absolutely nothing sounds appetizing or appealing?

[PAstrychef]

I go for chicken soup, which I always have in the freezer. Otherwise ramen noodles, or scrambled eggs with butter.
The basic diet for upset tummies in my family is saltine crackers and ginger soda, or lemon-ginger tea. That’s for when nausea is happening and puking is likely.
Ginger tea is good at calming the digestion, just a few slices in hot water, with lemon juice and a bit of honey.

[Zohar]

I usually have plain rice, maybe with a bit of butter, or buttered toast.

[Angua]

I find it's better for me to start out with sugary drinks. For some reason cold drinks go down really well (like, ice cold). After that, my go to is sitting with a pack of dark chocolate digestives and picking my way through them. That tends to last me the day and then I pick at whatev's the SO is eating, so long as it doesn't smell strongly.

[Moo]

Toast with marmite or honey and black rooibos tea (bitter or with honey). Rooibos tea has a calming effect on the stomach. I avoid anything fatty when my stomach's upset, so I usually skip the butter on the toast.

A few years ago, when I was recovering from the measles, my liver couldn't handle any fat whatsoever, so I ate nothing but reconstituted powdered mashed potato (Smash) for weeks. Good times.

[techblogger911]

I find it's better for me to start out with sugary drinks. For some reason cold drinks go down really well (like, ice cold). After that, my go to is sitting with a pack of dark chocolate digestives and picking my way through them. That tends to last me the day and then I pick at whatev's the SO is eating, so long as it doesn't smell strongly.

I have never tried dark chocolate digestives, how would it be for someone who likes mild dark chocolate?

[Angua]

They are not that 'dark' tbh, so I think you'd be fine. It's mainly a contrast to the milk chocolate ones which are too sweet.