How Diverse is your Palate?

[aVocado]

How do you people eat those sorts of things? I'm not judging or anything, but just reading about them disgists me..

 

[Ununhexium]

How do you people eat those sorts of things? I'm not judging or anything, but just reading about them disgists me..

You just eat them before you find out what they are. If you like it, then it isn't an issue.

 

[Demoness]

I honestly wish I could eat a wider variety of foods, but for whatever reason, I am annoyingly picky when it comes to food. I cannot stand most vegatables, especially when they are raw, because of how it feels in my mouth. I just have a physical reaction to them and often end up activating my gag reflex and making my eyes water up when I don't want them to. One particular offender is oninions in general. I cannot stand to hear the "crunch", especially because people seem to think that throwing little bits of onion in almost everything is a good idea -_-. Another thing that I cannot stand is sausage. I don't know how people can stand to eat it. It justs has the absolute worse texture of any meat I have eaten, and I find myself over-chewing it and making the problem even worse. I also don't like steak or ribs. I can eat them, but I will never eat them unless they are the only other main source of food in a meal. Why, I have no idea. If left alone, my main diet would consist of packaged and canned goods mostly because I have an aversion to actually trying to experiment, which is kinda bad when I plan to live on my own.

jumpluff OMG, finally I have found someone else who can't stand their food touching. My parents always ridicule me on it, saying that "it all goes down the same hole". I don't want my food to be touching because I consider each kind of food to be seperate and should eaten by itself, which may sound really stupid, but it's true. Besides, it just feels right when each food is in its own little section of the plate.

 

[Cresselia~~]

jynx: I agree with you halfway on the "British cooking is lazy" thing, but I think actually it's more that Brits are just ignorant about food. It's not that we can't be bothered to season vegetables, it's that we don't know how to. (Also, vegetables tend to be boiled rather than fried or roasted, which means that any seasoning we did add would all just be dissolved in the water anyway rather than absorbed into the vegetables. So bland vegetables are an inherent flaw in the culture.)
)

Oh... I see.
To season boiled vegetables, you don't add the seasoning when it's boiling. You do it after you had gotten rid of the water.
With a separate pan, stir fry some garlic with oil to golden brown. Then after the vegetables have gotten rid of the water, you can either put the vegetables in the pan to stir fry for a while, OR you can also just pour the garlic onto the vegetables. The former will smell nicer though.
You can also choose to prepare a tomato paste, and pour it on the veg when the water's gone.

It is actually also possible to add like a soup kind of thing when boiling vegetables. Though this is more difficult and involves stuff like chicken stock/ pig bone stock/ shrimps and other rarer ingredients.
Also, it takes longer because you have to over-cook the veg for it to absorb the essence of the soup. But you only do this to a limited selection of veg, mostly the leafy ones without stems.

The "3 Kings" of French-- Caviar, Foie Gras, and Truffles, of which I've only tried the second (which is good!). Sturgeon is the "royal fish" in Europe and the "Imperial fish" in China, but I've heard it's just similar to very fine Carp?? (and Carp is pretty meh as far as fish goes...) Sturgeon's are also falling fast and take forever to become adults, so not something you'd want to promote fishing of...

The "3 Kings" of Chinese-- Swallows Nest, Abalone, and Sharksfin. Abalone, I don't really get what's the big deal (besides it being so expensive...) since it's just another shellfish. Sharksfin tastes AMAYZING for something with almost no flavor, and I can totally appreciate why there's such a huge black market for the stuff (though I'm totally against the over-fishing of sharks). Swallows Nest, definitely something on my to-do list...

I've eaten all 6 of these, but I kind of feel guilty for my past for exploiting environmentally un-friendly/ inhumane foods.
I don't think I would like more of these in the future, not because of taste, but because of the ethics involved.

 

[WaterBomb]

The first option partially applies to me, but the difference is I don't get bored of it. One of my goals in life is to try food from every region of the world, and I haven't yet come across a type that I didn't like.

 

[whistle]

anyone else just eat a shitton of pasta?

 

[Rugi]

Living in Australia and having Latin American descent I eat at least 3 or so different cuisines daily. (By cuisine I mean vegimite, crumpets, sweet potato paste simple stuff like that) Though I do usually stick to eating latin and western food at home. Whenever I got out I never eat at a latin or western restaurant. It's usually some Asian cuisine and more then often is Indian or Chinese. Interestingly though no restaurant seems to be over-saturated with anyone of any specific culture. It's often just full of whatever ethnicity lives in the area.

 

[Chou Toshio]

I've eaten all 6 of these, but I kind of feel guilty for my past for exploiting environmentally un-friendly/ inhumane foods.
I don't think I would like more of these in the future, not because of taste, but because of the ethics involved.

Jealous~ I'm thinking Caviar / Sharksfin are the most environmentally unfriendly? I'm not researching, but I can't imagine there being great environmental repercussions to digging up mushrooms or collecting used birds nests. Over fishing is a major problem, and the shark especially is a keystone species group (being an ocean top predator), and one that man has heavily over-fished. I just want to clear up that when I say "got to try" applied to basically any ingredient, I mean under market conditions restricted by protection to enforce environmentally sustainable practices-- yeah, I get that said market conditions don't really exist, and are currently far from realistic in regards to fishing, but I got another 60 or so years to live, I'm not in a rush (and hopefully sharks and sturgeons aren't going extinct any time soon...).

WaterBomb-- good for you mate. I want to have an even more open attitude, but as mentioned, there are some times I can't help but get bored.

 

[elcheeso]

There's also the wasteful/cruelty aspects to shark fishing, as (generally speaking) people don't eat shark meat and instead only want the fins. People who do shark finning basically just cut off all the fins and then throw the still living shark back into the ocean so it sinks to the bottom and either starves or drowns. There's a reason why this shit is very often banned.

 

[Chou Toshio]

I personally only consider the environmental / resource management issues and not the "ethical ones", because the consumers of Sharkfin have an entirely different ethics/cultural background then the west (you're not going to get them/us to change, on that point...).

 

[Cresselia~~]

Same as telling them how eating dog meat is cruel. They aren't going to get it, because the majority of the people who oppose dog meat eat other meats anyway.
And "dog is man's best friend" sounds like a complete joke in the entire Asia. The vast majority of Asians do not agree with this sentence anyway.

Jealous~ I'm thinking Caviar / Sharksfin are the most environmentally unfriendly? I'm not researching, but I can't imagine there being great environmental repercussions to digging up mushrooms or collecting used birds nests. Over fishing is a major problem, and the shark especially is a keystone species group (being an ocean top predator), and one that man has heavily over-fished. I just want to clear up that when I say "got to try" applied to basically any ingredient, I mean under market conditions restricted by protection to enforce environmentally sustainable practices-- yeah, I get that said market conditions don't really exist, and are currently far from realistic in regards to fishing, but I got another 60 or so years to live, I'm not in a rush (and hopefully sharks and sturgeons aren't going extinct any time soon...).

WaterBomb-- good for you mate. I want to have an even more open attitude, but as mentioned, there are some times I can't help but get bored.

Guess so, usually eats the oceanic ecosystems that get the most problems because they are very chained together in the food web.
(It's not a food chain, it's a complex food web)

 

[elcheeso]

I personally only consider the environmental / resource management issues and not the "ethical ones", because the consumers of Sharkfin have an entirely different ethics/cultural background then the west (you're not going to get them/us to change, on that point...).

Really? Like I understand the cultural differences with regards to what is considered an acceptable source or type of meat between the east and west, but I would be genuinely surprised if most people in the east were completely aware of how sharks are finned and genuinely did not give any shits about it re: it being an inhumane method of farming. The comparison with dogs isn't great since killing dogs for food isn't usually considered cruel per se, just that in the west it's usually considered SUPER HORRIFYING to eat animals that are primarily used as pets. It's not an attitude I agree with, honestly... unless people's pets are literally being stolen to be cooked, but I seriously doubt that's the case. I don't even think this could even be compared to whaling, though the environmental effects are probably similar (I'll admit I don't know much about the cruelty aspects of whaling though). It's just that the whole thing is sort of similar to chopping off the feet and tail of cattle and then leaving them hobbled in a field somewhere to starve to death. Even for people who are happy to eat beef, that sort of shit probably wouldn't fly.

I guess my main question is do you guys think most people who are living where shark's fin soup is culturally significant don't give a shit about the methods in which they're farmed? Are the methods generally unknown and would probably cause more controversy if people knew, is it considered a necessary evil or is it just more like if someone was beating the shit out of a shark with a bat until it died they wouldn't care because animal cruelty is no big deal and leaving a shark to starve or drown in the bottom of the ocean isn't really cruelty anyway? And to you specifically jynx, which of those 6 foods do you consider inhumane if not shark's fin soup?

 

[Cresselia~~]

Really? Like I understand the cultural differences with regards to what is considered an acceptable source or type of meat between the east and west, but I would be genuinely surprised if most people in the east were completely aware of how sharks are finned and genuinely did not give any shits about it re: it being an inhumane method of farming. The comparison with dogs isn't great since killing dogs for food isn't usually considered cruel per se, just that in the west it's usually considered SUPER HORRIFYING to eat animals that are primarily used as pets. It's not an attitude I agree with, honestly... unless people's pets are literally being stolen to be cooked, but I seriously doubt that's the case. I don't even think this could even be compared to whaling, though the environmental effects are probably similar (I'll admit I don't know much about the cruelty aspects of whaling though). It's just that the whole thing is sort of similar to chopping off the feet and tail of cattle and then leaving them hobbled in a field somewhere to starve to death. Even for people who are happy to eat beef, that sort of shit probably wouldn't fly.

I guess my main question is do you guys think most people who are living where shark's fin soup is culturally significant don't give a shit about the methods in which they're farmed? Are the methods generally unknown and would probably cause more controversy if people knew, is it considered a necessary evil or is it just more like if someone was beating the shit out of a shark with a bat until it died they wouldn't care because animal cruelty is no big deal and leaving a shark to starve or drown in the bottom of the ocean isn't really cruelty anyway? And to you specifically jynx, which of those 6 foods do you consider inhumane if not shark's fin soup?

Most people by now would know what shark finning is. But still continue to have shark fin soup during their celebration.
Though the awareness had made a small fraction of people decide to stop eating shark fin soup. Small fraction, ya.
A lot of traditional Chinese foods are even worse. There's this dish about eating fresh goose feet and it's being cooked when the goose is alive, so that it's the most fresh.
There are also some Japanese foods that are about the same degree, there's this iced fish that's alive but you eat it alive...slowly.

Of the 6 kings Chou Toshio mentioned, I think Foie Gras is the most inhumane. Because the geese are actually brought up in a suffering way. They were forced fed and are very unhealthy. I think their liver swells up to 5 times the normal size, which is quite sick.
I'm quite a Westernized person when it comes to animal ethics though. Most people from the older generation don't care.

As for the dog meat question... dog keepers are still a minority in this side of the planet. So most people do not establish anything between dogs and themselves.
They aren't going to get the "dog is man's best friend" thing. (Actually me neither) I don't think it's scientific anyway.

 

[-Flygon-]

I like this thread, great idea! I'm an interesting case imo. I love different starchy foods, like rice and potatoes, and I usually eat two different starches for dinner. My philosophy on food is combining many different flavors. I like to, like my family calls it, "stack", which is basically putting my entire dinner together, whether in a bowl, on a sandwich, or whatever.

I will pretty much eat anything, including weird combinations, like syrup + ketchup on pancakes (fucking delicious btw), and making sandwiches out of anything (Everything tastes better on a sub roll imo ;)). Pizza is probably my favorite food, because of the sheer diversity (like sandwiches). Best place to eat is Wawa (Gas station in the US, mostly Midwest and southeast iirc), they make amazing subs and old-fashioned glazed donuts.

It's amazing how diverse Smogon is, it's great that we can bring people together from around the world! <3

 

[Chou Toshio]

Really? Like I understand the cultural differences with regards to what is considered an acceptable source or type of meat between the east and west, but I would be genuinely surprised if most people in the east were completely aware of how sharks are finned and genuinely did not give any shits about it re: it being an inhumane method of farming. The comparison with dogs isn't great since killing dogs for food isn't usually considered cruel per se, just that in the west it's usually considered SUPER HORRIFYING to eat animals that are primarily used as pets. It's not an attitude I agree with, honestly... unless people's pets are literally being stolen to be cooked, but I seriously doubt that's the case. I don't even think this could even be compared to whaling, though the environmental effects are probably similar (I'll admit I don't know much about the cruelty aspects of whaling though). It's just that the whole thing is sort of similar to chopping off the feet and tail of cattle and then leaving them hobbled in a field somewhere to starve to death. Even for people who are happy to eat beef, that sort of shit probably wouldn't fly.

I guess my main question is do you guys think most people who are living where shark's fin soup is culturally significant don't give a shit about the methods in which they're farmed? Are the methods generally unknown and would probably cause more controversy if people knew, is it considered a necessary evil or is it just more like if someone was beating the shit out of a shark with a bat until it died they wouldn't care because animal cruelty is no big deal and leaving a shark to starve or drown in the bottom of the ocean isn't really cruelty anyway? And to you specifically jynx, which of those 6 foods do you consider inhumane if not shark's fin soup?

Summation: If they take out a big cleaver and chop the thing's head off, everyone would be cool with it.

That's really what all you're saying comes down to.

Afterwards, the "waste" of focusing on the fins-- to me, there's always going to be waste. Whether you're eating 10% of the animal or 60%, it's really no different from an ethical perspective; you're just accessing a food resource, with powers of demand put to work on the market. The Chinese have possibly the oldest culinary culture in the world, with knowledge of more ingredients than likely any other. If there was a use for shark meat that would be widely demanded, I think they'd know.

I mean, if we talked about crayfish-- Crayfish are said in French culture to have excellent brains/shells that can produce a bisque finer than lobster bisque. But the edible meat is probably only the small amount of tail muscle that can be easily popped out-- seriously about 10% of the animal. And yet, the vast majority of Crayfish you'll see eaten in China and the Southern US (probably the two biggest consumers) are not being used to be smashed down into good soup, but boiled and stacked up to easily pop out and eat that tail meat-- same with all the crayfish tail meat dishes you'll see in Britain and "cajun pasta" served across the US. Does that really bother me? Not really.

The "suffering" of the shark could be an ethical issue, but that just means that if we were to build a highly regulated and honest industry of shark finning, we'd have them bring cleavers (and some large cleaving device for the bigger sharks).

 

[Cresselia~~]

Summation: If they take out a big cleaver and chop the thing's head off, everyone would be cool with it.

That's really what all you're saying comes down to.

Afterwards, the "waste" of focusing on the fins-- to me, there's always going to be waste. Whether you're eating 10% of the animal or 60%, it's really no different from an ethical perspective; you're just accessing a food resource, with powers of demand put to work on the market. The Chinese have possibly the oldest culinary culture in the world, with knowledge of more ingredients than likely any other. If there was a use for shark meat that would be widely demanded, I think they'd know.

I mean, if we talked about crayfish-- Crayfish are said in French culture to have excellent brains/shells that can produce a bisque finer than lobster bisque. But the edible meat is probably only the small amount of tail muscle that can be easily popped out-- seriously about 10% of the animal. And yet, the vast majority of Crayfish you'll see eaten in China and the Southern US (probably the two biggest consumers) are not being used to be smashed down into good soup, but boiled and stacked up to easily pop out and eat that tail meat-- same with all the crayfish tail meat dishes you'll see in Britain and "cajun pasta" served across the US. Does that really bother me? Not really.

The "suffering" of the shark could be an ethical issue, but that just means that if we were to build a highly regulated and honest industry of shark finning, we'd have them bring cleavers (and some large cleaving device for the bigger sharks).

Traditionally there weren't any waste for sharkfins though. People use the shark meat for adding flavour to fish balls.

But times have changed, and the African countries supplying the fins don't want to supply the rest of the shark.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Traditionally there weren't any waste for sharkfins though. People use the shark meat for adding flavour to fish balls.

But times have changed, and the African countries supplying the fins don't want to supply the rest of the shark.

Thanks for the info Jynx-- that's supply and demand at work.

From what I understand though, there's a lot of harvesting in South America as well...

edit:

I just turned on the TV and there was a special about "making use of the rest of the shark." In Japan, apparently they've started a new business/action group to popularize products made from non-fin shark parts and to create demand for dishes using the meat. Also sharkfin wallets and belts. kewl.

My wife: "Hehhh... I had no idea fuka-hire (shark fin) comes from Sharks. I always just thought 'wow, fuka-hire is sooooo good!', you see."

Me: -______________________________________-

I forgive you honey since you come from an in-land prefecture with no Ocean...

 

[BenTheDemon]

People say that if I eat enough pizza that I'll get sick of it.
I haven't gotten sick of it yet.

 

[MrIndigo]

Shark is used in fish and chips. True story.

I don't regularly eat diverse things, but I have done.

 

[horyzhnz]

I will eat most types of foods from pretty any cuisune, but for some reason I cannot eat any type of shellfish. Even my stereotypical Australian 'prawn on the barbie' actually makes me throw up right there on the spot, and don't get me started about the time I was tricked into eating lobster meat; I blew chunks all over my plate and the immediate vicinity.

 

[Cresselia~~]

I will eat most types of foods from pretty any cuisune, but for some reason I cannot eat any type of shellfish. Even my stereotypical Australian 'prawn on the barbie' actually makes me throw up right there on the spot, and don't get me started about the time I was tricked into eating lobster meat; I blew chunks all over my plate and the immediate vicinity.

I'm actually allergic to prawns and other crustaceans.
That makes it really inconvenient in the seafood based diet of Hong Kong.

But now, I somehow find that coke can sooth the allergy.
If the allergy is still overwhelming, there's also a pill I can take.

 

[weird mon]

i can eat any type of food kept in table but i dont eat fish or mutton or pork

 

[Alice]

I have eaten 5-7 different cuisines -authentical dishes, not fusion crap- in a single day. Cooked by myself. That should speak by itself.

 

[Chou Toshio]

I don't know why fusion gets such a bad rap. There are many dishes I love that might constitute as "fusion".

For instance, while I love true Italian pasta, I also am a big fan of Japanese-style Spaghetti, or 和風スパゲッティー (Wafuu Spaghetti)

Amongst Japanese Italian restaurants that could be considered "Wafuu" (as opposed to Authentic Italion), Angelo Pietro's is without a doubt my favorite (pictures above from Pietros). Their sauces are so amazing, and truly bring out a perfect marriage of the rich flavors of both Italian and Japanese cuisine.

It's typical for Wafuu Spaghetti to incorporate Shoyu (soy sauce), dashi, katsuo (bonito), sesame seed oil, and other Japanese base stock flavors into traditional Italian sauces to make sophisticated sauces with an Asian sensitivity. Pietro's dishes master this

No meal at Pietro's is complete without a raw potato salad, which you would top with one of their savory salad dressings that come from the same flavor base of Italian and Japanese tradition their sauces use. From let to right: Miso-Red chili, Ume (Plum), Shoyu (Soy), Ginger

Moving away from Pietro's to talk about Wafuu Spaghetti in general, here's an example dish:

Kinoko Spaghetti (Mixed Mushrooms) is a very typical example of Wafuu Spaghetti. Several types of Japanese mushrooms including Enoki, Shimeji, and potentially Shiitake, Maitake, and/or Eringi are gently pan fried into a garlic sauce that utilizes Shoyu. Using a Daikon-based Dashi for the sauce is typical too, but in this example Daikon Oroshi (grated Daikon Radish) is also sat upon the pasta, along with typical Asian garnishes like sliced green onion and nori. Yum! When I make it, I just grill the Spaghetti and Mushroom's in Pietro's Shoyu Salad Dressing-- lazy! lol

In addition to Japanese flavors, there are usually many dishes that utilize Japanese ingredients.

Using Fish Eggs as a sauce base or topping for pasta is a practice wafuu Spaghetti is famous for. The savory Tarako and spicy/bitter Mentaiko are the smallest egg types that are typically used as a base for sauces, sometime with cream, but sometimes just with Garlic and Olive Oil. Squid (the calamari is unfried) is a typical accompanying topping that has a firmness that strikes a delicate balance with the fish eggs, while Octopus, clams, shrimp, and even raw or cooked tuna also work well. For a really rich fish egg sauce (that'll really lighten your wallet), sea urchin could be blended into the sauce. Tobiko (flying fish eggs) and Ikura (salmon eggs) are the ones most people are more familiar with for their role in sushi, and these also make good toppings for spaghetti dishes (sometimes in dishes with sauces made from Tarako or Mentaiko fish eggs!).

Cold Spaghetti dishes are also an invention of Japan, and have since become popular around the world. In the picture above, raw Maguro Tuna brings a meatiness that matches the fatty Avacado and tart Tomato, and strikes a balance like sushi with cold Spaghetti and a vinagrette sauce. I personally like Maguro with Basil Leaves, Cold Tomato slices and Mozzerella instead though.

A Spaghetti Salad done by Peitros-- these things are AMAZING. Notice that peeking out between the corn and lettuce is also a small mound of warabi-- edible ferns. Delicious!



I won't say that all fusion dishes are amazing, but they definitely have their place. As the world globalizes, a sharing of cuisine traditions is unavoidable-- and just as many of the world's greatest dishes have their roots in "fusion" (a meeting of different culinary cultures), I'm sure many more great fusion cuisines will be born going into the future.




One personal "fusion" recipe (purely my own invention):
-Boil one bowl of Harusame Glass noodles
-Pan fry glass noodles with onion slices, garlic, and olive oil
-Remove noodles to large bowl
-Pan fry canned beef chilli with sesame oil (very little), shoyu, vinegar, and a little sake.
-Dish out Chili on top of Glass noodles, and sprinkle Tepatio Mexican hot sauce (or Siracha!) on top
-eat

easy, amazing, and probably pretty terrible for you.

 

[Cresselia~~]

I don't know why fusion gets such a bad rap. There are many dishes I love that might constitute as "fusion".

.

I love fusion foods as well.
Not to be confused with cheap localizations of whatever food. (Is that the reason why they are hating?)