Culture Questions!

Swikan · Post by **Swikan** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:28 pm

Mmmmmm.. brats...

Rpin: Sweet just doesn't keep you from being hungry. I was just thinking that my husband eats breakfast about 7am and his lunch isn't until 1pm.. so whatever I serve him has to last 6 hours. And he has been known to skip lunch. A piece of fruit or a sticky bun just won't do the job.

Who was it that said American biscuits don't have butter in them? I certainly put butter ON them.. as well as jam or syrup for a sweet treat.. but the best is to put eggs and bacon on them like a sandwich! HAHAHAH!
Biscuits and buns and rolls are three different things in my lexicon, too. I am going to have to look up a recipe for "scones" online.

Speaking of regional foods, I have been in Texas for 5 years now. I am totally addicted to Tex-Mex style food, which is basically Americanized Mexican food. Can't have a lot of it, tho.

Mercury Hat:

The traditional English breakfast usually comes with black pudding, too. To my horror, I watched Bob and War consume theirs the day we met up to go to Alton Towers. It's black, all right, but it was all crumbly like a brownie of horrors. Bob says it helps not to think about what it is.

So..er... what IS it? (I ROFL at "brownie of horrors")

War · Post by **War** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:37 pm

Black pudding, blood sausage or blood pudding is a sausage made by cooking animal blood with meat, fat or other filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.

Swikan · Post by **Swikan** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:38 pm

on PURPOSE?

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:47 pm

Mmmm. Blood. I must try that sometime.

mcDuffies wrote: Awful. I think I've said it before, killing animals for food is a natural order of things, but torturing them their entire life just to get them fatter faster, simply can't be excused any way. And food produced that way is unhealthy.
(It's done with chickens too, have you seen chicken farms? They're held in too small cages, stuffed with chemistry that makes their flesh grow faster, but their bones can't follow that growth, so when they grow to a full-size chicken, their bones are still in stadium of half-grown and they can't even stand on their legs.)
Bah, I'm just happy that we here keep our poultry running around the yard, they should at least live a nice life, if short.

That's why a lot of people around here pay extra for a particular "range fed" chicken. Thing is 'though, my dad read a magazine article about the farm where the chickens are raised: free range there, aparently, means several thousand chickens have access to a manicured lawn the size of a tenis court, which they hardly ever use because for the first 2/5 of their life they're kept indoors and are scared to pieces by the thought of going outside.

Swikan wrote:Who was it that said American biscuits don't have butter in them? I certainly put butter ON them.. as well as jam or syrup for a sweet treat.. but the best is to put eggs and bacon on them like a sandwich! HAHAHAH!
Biscuits and buns and rolls are three different things in my lexicon, too. I am going to have to look up a recipe for "scones" online.

Indeed, they are all different. My major point was that even a seemingly small difference in a recipe can make something a much different dish. (At least in baking.) Although I could have been mistaken about wether biscuits have butter since I've only glanced at the recipe for them, not actually made any.

Mercury Hat wrote:
TRI wrote:The other difference is in how they're served. Nobody I know dips scones in gravy or has biscuits with jam on them.
Have you been to the (American) south? Biscuits go with all meals of the day, they're really good with jam in the morning.

Nope, and I really only know one southerner and we have an unspoken agreement not to talk about food with each other since each of us finds the other's diet disgusting.

Mercury Hat wrote:Apparently, Americans putting (Italian) sausage on pizza is weird.

Not this American, but maybe that's just my Sicilian heritage showing.

Noise Monkey wrote:
Mercury Hat wrote:Contrary to War's protests, grit is something you do put on the street, but gritS are a wonderful foodstuff which he must be forcefed so he can learn to like it.
I had grits once in all the years I've lived in the south.

It's kinda like eating out of a baby's diaper, but not as tasty.

I don't know how anyone could dislike grits. They're so warm and gooey. But then I don't put cheese on mine: I eat them with milk and sugar like oatmeal.

RPin · Post by **RPin** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:54 pm

Swikan wrote:Sweet just doesn't keep you from being hungry. I was just thinking that my husband eats breakfast about 7am and his lunch isn't until 1pm.. so whatever I serve him has to last 6 hours. And he has been known to skip lunch. A piece of fruit or a sticky bun just won't do the job.

I eat my breakfast at 8am and lunch at 3 pm on weekdays, and I don't get that much of a hunger.

He could always take snacks with him anyway. It's better to eat little throughout all day than to eat a lot in a few meals.

Jim North · Post by **Jim North** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:56 pm

Mercury Hat wrote:
TRI wrote:The other difference is in how they're served. Nobody I know dips scones in gravy or has biscuits with jam on them.
Have you been to the (American) south? Biscuits go with all meals of the day, they're really good with jam in the morning.

And gravy goes on everything in the South.

Especially the fried stuff.

And everything is fried in the South.

And it is delicious that way.

. . . dammit, now I want some sausage gravy and fried deer . . .

Noise Monkey wrote:I had grits once in all the years I've lived in the south.

It's kinda like eating out of a baby's diaper, but not as tasty.

Why must you turn this forum into a house of lies?!

Noise Monkey · Post by **Noise Monkey** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:01 pm

Jim North wrote:
Noise Monkey wrote:I had grits once in all the years I've lived in the south.

It's kinda like eating out of a baby's diaper, but not as tasty.
Why must you turn this forum into a house of lies?!

It's like you don't even know me anymore.

Swikan · Post by **Swikan** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:03 pm

HAHAHAH! I'm originally from South Carolina.. I love grits! I just put a little salt and a very little bit of butter/margarine on them. And (unique to me) spread it on toast.

My husband calls grits "Romulan Space Rations" and he won't eat them.

JimNorth, *Agreed*!

Laemkral · Post by **Laemkral** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:27 pm

First time I had grits was in college. I found them tasty but only when heavily cheesed. It's like oatmeal but smaller and served for dinner.

I don't understand why people get so weirded out by food. I'll eat just about any cuisine once. If some other culture considers it normal, then clearly its just fine to eat.

Except puffer fish. If you don't prepare it right it kills you. Whoopee? Whoever figured out the "right" way to eat puffer fish must have been thinking "Damn it, God put things here for me to eat, and I will find a way to make this lethal fish edible!" Or was very interested in population control methods. "Here, try this food! It might kill you but that's because only cool people can eat it. You ARE cool, aren't you?"

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:02 pm

How is grits bad

? It's just a corn-like porridge.

And Jim, not only does gravy go on everything... gravy and mashed potatoes go on everything. It's not fried chicken if you aren't dipping it in your mashed potatoes and gravy first. Plus biscuits.

Southern meats are all good, it's most of the vegetables I don't like. I can't stand greens or okra. But lima beans are excellent, and sometimes you get the bonus piece of pork in your helping.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:05 pm

mcDuffies wrote: Pork sweet, hm, not the way we prepare it. In our cuisine mixing sweet and salty is considered , we leave sweet food for desert, save for a few combinations like adding potato to cakes or wallnuts to salad.

But...but what about kettle corn!

Truly a heavenly food.

You usually only find it at faires over here, but they've started selling it bagged and in a microwavable form. These are usually vastly inferior.

At fairs they'll have these giant cauldrons that you could fit a person into bubbling over with popcorn. Oil is added, and salt and sugar. So it's sweet and salty and warm and crunchy...mmmmmm. Now I want some.

I should say, though, that a lot of americans are getting more fat concious. My family always was because of hereditary heart problems. However, companies over here also put corn syrup in EVERYTHING. This is soooo not healthy. Granted we have a lot of corn...hell, Iowa grows a lot of it and I"m as big a fan of corn on the cob as any, but this is SOOO not good for you. Corn is very sugary and full of empty calories.

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:06 pm

Ohhh kettle corn! It's great, sometimes you get a piece that's all coated in sugar.

Got any local farmer's markets, MM? Ours back home has a kettle corn group, you can buy it all fresh.

Jim North · Post by **Jim North** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:09 pm

The chicken mashed potato bowls at KFC are absolutely magnificent. They are really just a pale shadow compared to a true Southern meal, but they are still most definitely the best substitute you can find in a pinch. Anything that puts fried chicken, cheese, gravy, mashed potatoes, and sweet corn all in one bowl has to be good.

I'm not much for mustard greens myself (even though I love spinach, go figure), and I think okra's only so-so. But, man, I haven't had butterbeans in forever. Or blackeyed peas, for that matter.

Or catfish. I want some catfish.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:09 pm

Mercury Hat wrote:Ohhh kettle corn! It's great, sometimes you get a piece that's all coated in sugar.

Got any local farmer's markets, MM? Ours back home has a kettle corn group, you can buy it all fresh.

Oooh yeah! =D We had two different ones in my home town. There used to be a guy that would come buy and sell it, too, but I'm not sure that he's been around for some time. They also sell locally made root beer. Mmmmm.

Sput · Post by **Sput** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:12 pm

RPin wrote:
Swikan wrote:Sweet just doesn't keep you from being hungry. I was just thinking that my husband eats breakfast about 7am and his lunch isn't until 1pm.. so whatever I serve him has to last 6 hours. And he has been known to skip lunch. A piece of fruit or a sticky bun just won't do the job.
I eat my breakfast at 8am and lunch at 3 pm on weekdays, and I don't get that much of a hunger.

He could always take snacks with him anyway. It's better to eat little throughout all day than to eat a lot in a few meals.

pin, your schedule reminds me of how they eat in spain. very light brekkies, ENORMOUS FUCKING LUNChes OH MY GOD and dinner at like 10pm.

i could get used to that.

kefir = amazing.

grits = disgusting ! D:

...i refuse to eat biscuits till they are soaked in butter. <:D

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:14 pm

RA wrote: pin, your schedule reminds me of how they eat in spain. very light brekkies, ENORMOUS FUCKING LUNChes OH MY GOD and dinner at like 10pm.

Ooh yeah! I remember that! Funnily enough, that's about my schedule anwyhow. Although I suppose my dinners tend to be heavier than lunches.

There were some NICE communal salads for dinner, too. And jamon is damn tasty...if very, very, VERY chewy.

Swikan · Post by **Swikan** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:16 pm

Kettle corn = popcorn, right?

Our favorite movie-watching snack is popcorn and M&Ms... MmmMmmMm...

Sput · Post by **Sput** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:18 pm

Swikan wrote:Kettle corn = popcorn, right?

Our favorite movie-watching snack is popcorn and M&Ms... MmmMmmMm...

only way tastier than the shit popcorn tastes like.

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:27 pm

MixedMyth wrote:There were some NICE communal salads for dinner, too. And jamon is damn tasty...if very, very, VERY chewy.

I can't think of jamon without remembering a little mixup I had at a Mexican restaurant regarding "jamon" and "jabon."

mcDuffies wrote:Pork sweet, hm, not the way we prepare it. In our cuisine mixing sweet and salty is considered , we leave sweet food for desert, save for a few combinations like adding potato to cakes or wallnuts to salad.
I guess it's a thing of being used to national cuisine. I like to try all kinds of international food so I didn't have problem getting used to sweet/sour Chinese meals, but most of people here won't even touch that.

I bet I could really freak people there out with a few packs of that Mexican "candy" made of sugar, salt, dextrose and powdered chiles (and sometime lead).

"Candy," by the way, is in quotes not because of the taste, but because it's a powder, so it's not really candied in any way I know of.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:28 pm

RA wrote:
Swikan wrote:Kettle corn = popcorn, right?

Our favorite movie-watching snack is popcorn and M&Ms... MmmMmmMm...

only way tastier than the shit popcorn tastes like.

Yeah, it's slightly different. IT's sweet and salty, for one thing.