Weekend Meme: Nasty Food Meme

From Spo-Reflections' Ur-Spo again comes this week's Meme, entitled Nasty Food Meme. It's about food that we dislike and kitchen blunders, oh boy, I've had quite a few. Food is one of my favorite topics, I love to eat and there's little to nothing that I won't try at least once. Although, like friends, once you get on my bad side, it'll be hard for me to give it another chance. (I'm talking about you dried oyster!)

Here we go:

1.Your oddest craving?
My cravings are more towards dishes than ingredients: crab meat pasta in a tomato sauce, crab and celery salad in half avocados, Ajisen Ramen's soft pork bone ramen. I will spend time running around restaurants that I think might have those stuff and "cruising" their menus and if all else fail, I'll make it myself.

2. The forbidden food?
I will eat almost anything but dried oyster. It is great for making broth but horrible to eat. It's a Chinese thing, so most people are immune to it.

3. A dish that makes you queasy?
Brains, the Chinese believes that if you ingest a specific body part, it'll be beneficial to that part of your body. Some parents insist on making brains for students. Yuck.

4. Your least favorite food vegetable?
I think it has to be Brussels Sprouts, hard to make tender and there's a slight bitterness to it. I'll still eat it, it's just my least favorite.

5. Your worst cooking disaster?
For a X'mas gathering at a friend's place, I followed a recipe to make a hazelnut almond torte. I stayed up late the night before and I was not really present. The recipe called for a meringue that required boiling a syrup to it's softball stage. In my tired mind, I was thinking how do I know it's softball stage? So I stuck my finger in the boiling sugar thinking I could test it out. My index finger received a third degree burn, putting my finger in running water only made a sugar crust around my finger (hard ball stage). Although I remade the meringue despite my burn and finished the cake and it was the best cake I've ever made. I think it hurted for a week and I've since purchased a candy thermometer.

6. A Cooking exercise you don’t do well?
Baking genoise and tempering creme anglaise. It should be so basic.

7. Food that arouses the most suspicion?
Clams and oysters. I won't eat them if they are not from high volume restaurants. I don't want to bite on sand or get food poisoning, you know.


Raw oysters and clams for $1.50 each at SF farmer's market in Ferry building. Yum.

8. A drink you used to drink but no more?
Coffee. Well, at least I only drink it "recreationally" now which is about once a month or less.

9. Least favorite fast food chain?
Taco Bell, I'm not a fan of refried beans.

10. When in doubt, eat….
Wonton and BBQ pork noodle soup, or fried an egg and put it on top of my instant noodles. So my answer should be noodles then.

11. A restaurant faux pas that would get you to speak up?
Lack of/bad/slow service.

12. Is there something spoiled in the fridge right now?
There are sauces that has been in there for months and I'm afraid to open them and find out.

13. Food you can’t buy as your spouse/partner won’t allow it in the house I'm single now, but a picky eater is grounds for divorce. Hehe... Well, my ex doesn't eat pork or shrimp or anything spicy and we were together for 6 years, but he never not allowed anything in the house. (As if I need to be get permission.)

14. Food your spouse/partner likes that you don’t like.
Not a picky eater here, so I wouldn't know. Plus, I'm usually the cook in a relationship, so it's harder for me to find out what I don't like.

15. Your least favorite type of cuisine?
Moroccan. The use of spice is very different.

16. A food you hated as a child but now love?
Fermented tofu, it's an acquired taste.


For me, it doesn't get much nastier than this. You actually know that you're eating decomposing carcasses. It'd be vulture's favorite, but then they'd have to fish, deshell and dried them under the sun. It's too much work.

Have a great weekend.