BS: New foods

Subject: BS: New foods
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 18 - 01:55 PM

Black seedless Sapphire grapes product of USA- Anthony brand
At first glance they look like mini eggplants.
Thirst quenching and crisp they are just sweet enough.
With the diameter of a middle finger and half the length
they taste better than red or green table grapes.
Their fun shape makes them easier to eat and just plain good without an exotic flavor.
Their own yeast makes them long lasting for weeks.

The best GM apple is the Honey Crisp. Once cut it doesn't turn brown and it truly is crisp and uniquely flavorful. Long tasty life.

Wegmans Supermarket is sort of half farmers market and vastly superior grocery store with internal restaurants.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 18 - 02:11 PM

Hard to find are Opal apples and Niagara grapes.
I've never tried lab meat or shrimp from desert farms.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Aug 18 - 04:00 PM

That's made me hungry Donuel. I like most kinds of fruit but I've never tried a kiwi or an ugli fruit. And I'm quite fussy about oranges. They have to be sweet and not under-ripe and sour.
Husband cooked some sweet potatoes the other day. They smelled horrible, so I wasn't tempted!

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jos
Date: 21 Aug 18 - 04:41 PM

Sweet potato is supposed to be very good for you (anti-oxidants and all that) but for me it is just too sweet and has a rather muddy taste.
I find kiwi fruit taste bitter, but that's a very personal thing. For me fruit crumble tastes bitter, but a pie made with the same ingredients is fine. I can't cope with chicory or campari because they are so bitter, but I love black coffee and dark chocolate, also partly because they are bitter. Weird.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Aug 18 - 05:43 PM

Husband also cooks 'gumbo' (I think it's called okra) and yams. And cous-cous, none of which I've tried. I suppose I should taste them, but they don't smell all that appetising...

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: JennieG
Date: 21 Aug 18 - 05:47 PM

Couscous is very easy to prepare, and can take on the flavour of whatever is added. We use it here......makes a change from rice when it comes to soaking up sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 04:14 AM

Gosh you are missing out on a lot Sen.

What I have not tried is the range of new seeds, which feature in no regional cuisine of which I am aware. Seem like new age rubbish to me. Label something a superfood in order to double its price, or to sell stuff to humans which really ought to be pet food.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jos
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 04:33 AM

Okra can be very slimey, but word is that if you soak it in salt and vinegar before cooking it the slime is removed. I haven't tried it yet.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 05:40 AM

I've taken, in rebellious fashion, to deliberately mispronouncing "quinoa" whenever I say it, saying it exactly as it looks on paper. I will NOT say "keen-wah!"

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 05:44 AM

Ha Steve, I do the same just to infuriate my sis! She falls for it every time and corrects me, it's great fun.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: G-Force
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 05:51 AM

Here in the UK, thanks to immigration, foreign travel and globalisation generally, there are loads of foods readily available and quite familiar which our parents' generation would have been unfamiliar with.

Okra is commonly used in Indian restaurants. Couscous comes ready made in tubs in Tesco for use in salads - their Moroccan flavoured stuff is wonderful. I don't bother with quinoa - I just have muesli for breakfast.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 06:03 AM

Husband cooks confidently with all these weird and wonderful foods. He copies what he saw his mum and sisters doing. Peanut butter goes in (?!), plus oodles of oil, far too much salt, a load of garlic). Then he chucks in tablespoons of Madras curry powder and three or four Scotch bonnet chillies and gasses me and the cats. How he can tolerate the fierceness I'll never know.

He was very disappointed with vindaloo. I told him it was fiery hot and he whizzed over to the Indian takeaway full of hope. He was what my Irish mother would have called 'torolly dasgosted'. It reminded me of that scene in Crocodile Dundee ("That's not a knife. THIS is a knife!")

I agree with you G-Force that all these global influences have enriched our culture immeasurably.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Thompson
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 06:49 AM

What's happened to porridge lately? It's almost impossible to find proper porridge - there's only the slimy, bulk-less quick-cook stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 07:43 AM

Have you tried Jordan's organic porridge oats Thompson? A bit expensive, but very firm, chunky flakes not over-milled. Lovely flavour. (I eat them raw sometimes out of the packet)
I wouldn't touch quick-cook stuff with a barge-pole. As you say, slimy.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 08:29 AM

It feels ages since I had porridge but my parents choice is Flahavan's Irish Organic Porridge Oats.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: G-Force
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 08:45 AM

Porridge - lovely. Nothing wrong with good old-fashioned Quaker Oats, which seems to be freely available and costs diddly squat!

Subject: RE: BS: OLD foods
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 08:55 AM

Mastadon steaks, Dodo puree', Passenger Pidgeon, Moose veal... mmmm

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 08:58 AM

Steve, it seems that Kinwa is right, its from an ancient language of the Andes. It seems that its the spelling which has been garbled by the "health" food industry, not the pronunciation.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: JHW
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 10:29 AM

I tried Quinoa, long winded and fiddly to cook though often packeted ready.   I've been told though its not Kwinoah but Keenwaa, or maybe that's just for Waitrose shoppers?

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 11:27 AM

How about a quick look back - I just learned of this site but it has lots of food photos from old recipes.

The Gallery of Regrettable Food

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jos
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 12:00 PM

If people deliberately pronounce 'quinoa' as if it is English, just to be annoying, maybe the people who mispronounce 'chorizo' as if it is Italian are doing it to be annoying as well. (It is very annoying.)

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 12:12 PM

Severed bird heads swimming in sweet potato gravy are new to me but the thread was intended to explore the premiere of foods that are new to Earth societies. GMs, new breeds and such.
I am appreciative of the olde tyme authentic recipes from Vashta the most.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 01:41 PM

"Cheritso" is even worse!

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Thompson
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 01:59 PM

Got the Flahavan's and it's chunkier than the normal slime, but still hasn't got real body. Might give Jordan's a try.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jos
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 02:27 PM

Thompson, if you have an Aga-type cooker with a slow oven, try pin-head oatmeal (actual bits of oatmeal, not rolled) cooked in water slowly overnight - it'll be a revelation.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: MikeL2
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 02:43 PM

hi G Force

We are with you on Quaker Oats for our porridge and occasionally we will use Scotts Porridge oats.

At the moment we leave porridge for the colder weather. My wife uses when I change from sandals back to shoes as the time to get the porridge out.

I lived in Scotland for some years and where I was porridge came very thick and salty. In fact sometimes it was almost like a slice of cake !! Not for me.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: JHW
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 03:41 PM

Dare I say I've used Tesco Jumbo oats (the elephant in the room?) and Neals Yard from Holland and Barrett. I tend to add a quarter or third Muesli to the oats before cooking (always in a pan, not very long, water only, no salt, no sugar)

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jos
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 04:21 PM

I like my porridge with a little salt and a generous amount of cream - no sugar, no syrup, no fruit, no honey, no jam, just salt and cream.
(But I don't eat it standing up with my back to the fireplace - I'm not as trditionally Scottish as that.)

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: G-Force
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 05:15 PM

My father ate porridge nearly every day of his life, laboriously prepared overnight in a double boiler, which then had to be scraped clean the next morning (by my mother, of course). These days we just stick it in the microwave and cook on low power for about 7 or 8 minutes, watching carefully to see it doesn't boil over. Proportions - about 1 cup to 2 1/2 cups of milk and water. Delicious, and just as good, but definitely no salt!

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jos
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 05:28 PM

No scraping needed to clean porridge off pans. Just soak in cold water and it floats off.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 08:43 PM

Whilst I'm not averse to dairy at all, we take milk in tea and coffee only. I make my porridge with unsweetened soya milk (Alpro). I can't be arsed to measure anything, so it's a dollop of oats (Mornflake out of a big plastic bag), a dollop of soya and a dollop of water. A pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of sugar. Stir well and microwave for about four minutes, or until the bugger looks like it might overflow. Stir like crazy. Allow to sit for at least five minutes then devour it, swamped with the amount of soya that makes the texture agreeable to you. Porridge perfectionism is even more boring than listening to wine bores.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 18 - 11:35 PM

We're into old foods again. Oatmeal - a favorite from my childhood that my grown children have finally decided is an okay food. I've used steel cut oats bought in bulk for several years, and for many more years before that I've used a 1 quart low-powered (47 watt) crock pot that I set up at night with the oats, raisins, cut up dates or figs, something like that, a little salt, and pour the boiling water over it and by morning it is cooked and creamy. And anything that might be sticking to the sides near the top of the cereal soaks off in the sink. A little brown sugar or honey and milk over the top. (If there is too much that is really crusty on the sides of the pot there probably isn't enough water in it.)

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Jos
Date: 23 Aug 18 - 03:23 AM

Traditional porridge is 'old foods', but I had never heard of putting fruit in it until fairly recently, so that counts as 'new foods' - for me at least.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Aug 18 - 05:20 AM

Dunno about perfectionism; I just don't want a mouthful of slime when I'm half-awake. I tend to eat my porridge with an apple or other fruit on the side - a slice and bite of apple washed down with a spoonful of porridge. And the porridge is cooked with water and milk, and salted, and served with dark or light brown sugar and more milk.

New foods: I use a fair bit of miso these days, influenced by a new cafe around the corner that makes its salad dressings with miso. I like a little in cheese sauce, for instance.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Aug 18 - 05:20 AM

By the way, where do you go to get steel-cut oatmeal in bulk?

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 18 - 12:18 PM

In the US there are various grocery stores with bulk food sections. I first found them in a store in Texas called Central Market, but I suspect they are also at Whole Foods, that has a broader footprint (and is now owned by Amazon). There is a discount employee-owned grocery spreading around the US called WinCo and their bulk steel cut oats are less expensive. Last time at Central Market they were $2.58 a pound, at WinCo they are $0.69 a pound. Same exact grain.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Aug 18 - 03:42 PM

Ah. A bit far for me to travel. But thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 03:34 PM

I think it's hilarious!
Everything turns into In Praise of Porridge!

(I like muesli when it's done really nicely)

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 04:15 PM

I expect people have been milling oats for centuries, even perhaps millennia, so it's hardly a new food.
I love Jordans four nut muesli. (I eat it with double cream)

Subject: RE: BS: New foods
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 09:25 PM

So I bought some steel cut oats and was surprised how dense and heavy they are.