BS: fried alligator?

Subject: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jun 22 - 11:02 PM

Okay, the answer before the question:
I chickened out when I saw this on the menu.
I just couldn't even.
I got in my car and got a quarter-pounder with cheese
at the golden arches of last resort, instead.

I'm getting residential treatment, and for whatever reason,
fried alligator was the main course on the buffet menu.
Right, so I walked over to the buffet servery to look.
Fried something. Fillets, maybe. Deep fried and no way to tell what was under all that batter.

See, I'm chicken even to say this:
I'm a mental patient at the moment. Residential long-term mental health treatment.
So this is what was on the buffet menu tonight at the treatment center dining hall.
Maybe it was a sanity check?
If I ask, they'll say, "You made that up"?

Anyway I don't know how it tasted because I couldn't poke it with a fork,
much less touch it.
Sorry. Thanks for listening,
I just HAD to tell somebody about the deep-fried alligator.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 21 Jun 22 - 11:15 PM

I had fried alligator at a Canadian Festival in the 1990's and lived to tell the tale. Deep fried and breaded, it sort of tasted like fishy chicken.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 03:15 AM

Waiter, waiter. I'll have an alligator sandwich, and make it snappy..........




I'll get my coat.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 03:42 AM

Hahahaha Mr Red - that's really funny! :)

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 04:25 AM

Mr Red - I have PMd you on another matter!

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 04:58 AM

What kind of croc-ery was it served on?

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 07:42 AM

I used to buy from a Cash n' Carry in Huddersfield, the butcher there sourced all sorts of weird and wonderful meats from across the planet.
Ostrich, Kangaroo, Zebra to name but three.

I bought some Alligator steaks there a few times, as Phil Cooper above describes it, it was a fishy chicken flavour. Very good though.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 07:50 AM

Chicken fish indeed but if you cook it wrong it gets tough and rubbery like overdone lobster.
CRISPR could possibly cross alligator and lobster genes to produce 345 lbs 'Southern lobsters'.
It could be bigger than cotton for the gulf states.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 03:24 PM

The other problem is this:
sometimes the menu has mis-spellings, typos, mistakes.
Consider the following:


Rock of Beans
Steamed Cattors
Baked Beaks


These turned out to be:
Crock of Beans
Steamed Carrots
Baked Beans


How could some other thing in God's creation
end up mis-spelled "alligator", though??


Today's lunch was tandoori chicken, or so it said.
Didn't taste a lot of tandoori this time,
but the chicken tasted like chicken, which is fine with me.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 22 - 04:51 PM

Steamed carrots tonight, and for once
they spelled carrots right.

Tomorrow is Friday and
that means something fried. I feel anxious already.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 07:04 AM

I've stopped steaming most veg. I think it tastes better boiled (discounting roasting for the sake of this argument). The only exception is cabbage, which can get a bit waterlogged in the boiling.

Subject: RE: BS: fried delicious Dodo/Chicken?
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 08:12 AM

Not yet but the legendary most delicious fowl has at least one chance in hell of being de-extinct for culinary purposes.
Oxford Universary

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Raggytash
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 08:33 AM

Universary ................... ????

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 10:31 AM

> Universary ................... ????

We are everywhere.

I'll get mi gown.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 10:43 AM

Steve, before being admitted to this clinic
and eating in this dining hall,
I had not eaten roasted vegetables before, to my knowledge:
grilled, to be sure, but not roasted.

Roasted brussels sprouts actually made a believer out of me.
I don't want to eat brussels sprouts, now, UNLESS they are roasted.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 04:51 PM

It is safe to exhale this Friday.

Supper features fried perch.
I grew up near the Great Lakes
and I know from perch, pickerel . . .
many times yum yums.
I can forget about the alligators this week.

There's always next week for the kitchen to spring surprises on us.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 06:46 PM

It's always worth trying a new way of doing things, keberoxu. I'm not a massive fan of roasting veg, though my Ottolenghi recipe for roast cauliflower is brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Jun 22 - 06:28 AM

Steamed carrots tonight, and for once

Just thought I's share - seen on a Tesco's Lorry (UK supermarket)

"Baby Carrots on board"

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Jun 22 - 05:01 PM

Well...some folks used to and some still do eat beaver tail. Umm...no thanks. I shan't go into some of the more exotic stuff they still eat out here in the Far West, where the men are men much of the time, usually, unless they're politicians or worse. Women seem to be soooo much better, with certain exceptions.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 25 Jun 22 - 07:12 PM

Hybrid lobstergators might prove "bigger than cotton for the Gulf States", but more likely they'd be bigger than Godzilla. Just started working on a screenplay, "Claws".

Subject: RE: BS: fired alligator?
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jun 22 - 09:00 PM

DO NOT CROSS SALT WATER CROCS WITH RETICULATED PYTHONS and inject growth hormones for 3 years


except in Fukashima Japan











You heard it here first.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jun 22 - 09:23 PM

Tonight in the dinner buffet servery I was confronted with ...
no, not fried alligator.
Barbecue.
Barbecued chicken,
barbecued   ...   what were they?   pork ribs?

and barbecued I forget what vegetarian thing, probably tofu.

I didn't have any of it.
I guess this makes me an overly finicky eater.
Looking forward to breakfast in the morning . . .

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jun 22 - 08:41 AM

You've got this wrong Keberoxu. All wrong.

If you spatchcock a chicken and marinade it a mixture of soy sauce, honey, lemon, oil and numerous spices and then barbeque it, it can be a thing of beauty, remember to slice into each leg (to the bone) before cooking.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Jun 22 - 05:38 PM

In the past,
the split pea with ham soup was good comfort food here.
Last time they served it, though,
it came out sort of uuuuuuggggghhhhh.

Maybe next time it will be as I remember.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jun 22 - 07:09 PM

How can anyone possibly make a b**locks of Pea and Ham Soup, food of the Gods I might add .....................

Although in Lancashire we make it with dried Marrowfat peas.

1. Soak the peas overnight.
2. Boil the ham hock slowly.
3. Retain the liquer, skim and reduce.
4. Cook the peas until soft.
5. Cut the ham hock in slivers.
6. Add to the boiling peas and simmer for a few minutes.

Result ............... Heavenly food!!

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jun 22 - 07:37 PM

Agreed. The liquid is paramount. The ham hock method is good. I've tried to make less salty stock by soaking a ham and rinsing it several times, but the stock, however flavoursome I've tried to make it with fresh herbs, onion, carrot and celery, always comes out too salty. Diluting the stock defeats the object somewhat, but I've had some success by using ham stock and home-made chicken stock half and half. My chicken stock is not salty. It's what I do!   

And I use my marrowfat peas for mushy peas. There's nowt wrong with green split peas for the soup, old chap. These days, for some reason they're a bit hard to get round here.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Jun 22 - 07:39 PM

How, you ask?

This is a kitchen for a clinic, institutional, and makes things in bulk.
More to the point, while a few stalwarts have stayed at their posts for the entire two-years-and-a-bit-extra that I have been here, other kitchen employees come and go, getting thrown into the routine here and having to learn on their feet.
In other words, stuff happens.

it's possible that, last time when it wasn't very good,
the split-pea-with-ham soup actually started out promisingly,
but things went wrong while the cooks/employees were scurrying about doing three or four things at once.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 08:56 AM

Find out when the food delivery truck comes. Look for the name on the truck. If it says SYSCO the food will be crap.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Raggytash
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 09:41 AM

Again not so Keberoxu.

Many years ago, in previous life, I worked as a chef. I got a job in a hospital where we cooked in bulk for the most part. The catering manager insisted that the food we presented was restaurant standard (he reasoned quite correctly that the only thing the patients had to look forward to were visits from Doctors and mealtimes).

In order that we could cook for large numbers we had a "bible" of receipes for larger amounts of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 etc.

In fact it was easier in many instances to cook for 200 than it was for two.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 10:04 AM

There are a couple hospitals in DC area that I have seriously considered going to just for their cuisine but then the pandemic hit.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 10:04 AM

I really enjoyed the food I had when on a detox in a mental hospital over 10 years ago. They never tried anything fancy (or with posh names) but it was very good honest cooking. Four meals a day with cooked lunch and tea both with one vegetarian option on offer. The system they used where food from the main kitchen was taken down to some of the wards including mine by van and then plugged the units containingg the food into the ward kitchen/serving area worked well too. I doubt the hospital does food the same way now though.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 01:39 PM

For some of the most, ah... exotic (if that's really the word I'm looking for) foods I've ever seen prepared, go to YouTube and check out a fellow from China who calls himself Uncle Rural Gourmet.

He's got quite a lot of videos out there (most with English subtitles), preparing everything from camel head, ostrich leg, donkey intestines, ox genitalia, sheep lungs and... wait for it... crocodile.

And that's just scratching the surface.

Each video starts with Uncle Rural gleefully displaying the items to be cooked, then everything seems to be either stewed or stir-fried with a ton of Sichuan peppercorns, hot chillies, spicy bean paste and other similar items.

The first half of the videos deals with the prep and cooking. The second half has Uncle and either his wife or buddies sitting at the outdoor table eagerly scarfing down dinner and commenting on what they're eating.

Though he actually does, from time to time, prepare more mundane things like chicken, fish, etc., the sheer amount of hot seasonings he uses would char my innards like one of his more exotic dishes.

Still, if you really want to see how crocodile (and other things) can be prepared in the north of China, Uncle Rural Gourmet is your man.

Jay

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 02:31 PM

I gave up looking at Chinese cooking since I saw the skinning and boiling of live cat.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 04:52 PM

Oh, I never knew that dodo birds were eaten and human consumption,
I thought it was all about the plumage, like the ostrich or peacock or something . . .

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 04:54 PM

and tonight on the supper menu,
prime rib with a dessert of apple crisp. Sorry to boast …
but, that's way more like it.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 05:31 PM

> I never knew that dodo birds were eaten and human consumption

Why else would it have had such a central role in an Aardman film?

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 03:00 PM

I know, I know how spoiled-rotten this sounds, but:

I do NOT want nachos for lunch.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Jul 22 - 01:46 PM

No fried alligator today --
the cooks would be run out of town if they tried that one
on an Independence day festival cookout.
No,
it's tried and true
beef hamburgers and beef hotdogs.
Although I think that some vegan alternative has been provided,
made of something , well, vegan.

I recommend the potato salad.
And I ought to check out the ice cream
before it's all gone, or melted. 'Bye . . .

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jul 22 - 04:04 PM

All right, I recently read a comment about
the mating calls of alligators and how
they are keeping somebody awake at night.

I have no idea what a mating gator sounds like.

And I hope I never ever find out.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Jul 22 - 04:36 PM

It's Friday again.
Something fried was served in the buffet.
The menu screen, disclosing the dishes' identity to those of us who eat from the buffet, was blank.
Not even a mention of fried alligator, or fried anything.
I did bring this to the attention of the head chef.

Anyway, I ate the chicken vegetable soup.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jul 22 - 06:41 PM

Import regulations ban the import of alligator meat, so whatever you eat is genuine All-American gator. Just like Gator-Ade (which does not contain a single bit of alligator), but you could contribute to Gator-Aid, a charity I just created to help poor starving US alligators.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 09 Jul 22 - 02:37 AM

> The menu screen, disclosing the dishes' identity to those of us who
> eat from the buffet, was blank.

Je ne sais quoi du jour?

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Jul 22 - 08:21 AM

Artificial salmon grown in a lab from dna is already real but stuck in FDA regs. Humans like eating big things, so with a little CRISPR magic we may have plenty of hairy mammoth meat again.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Jul 22 - 08:26 AM

"a charity I just created to help poor starving US alligators."

Just use the money you raise to create swimming areas in alligator territory. That way you wouldn't have to fork out money for their feed.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Jul 22 - 08:32 AM

Disney park faces that threat after a 6 year old was eaten.

25 species of elephants have made Earth their home. We are down to just 3 now with a rapidly declining population.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 08:26 PM

Barbecue again,
and again I settled for a cheeseburger.

Subject: RE: BS: fried alligator?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Jul 22 - 01:22 AM

The only time I've eaten alligator was in Dublin. I can't recall what kind of restaurant it was. It was okay but not particularly memorable.