The food thread

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I've never worked out why they call goat 'mutton' in india either. Wife being vegetarian from birth can't help on that one.



@Scott: Should you ever hit UK again, try and find some salt marsh lamb. The French call it pré-salé . Whilst doens't have the kick of mutton apparantly exceedingly nice. I went to the dark side before it became widely available.



True story, a friend of my brothers had a field on his house, so got a few ewes and borrowed a tup* to sort them out. When the produced lambs were slaughtered he gave a leg to my brother. He put it in the freezer and a few months got it out to roast and called my mother complaining it smelt a bit. Her reply was 'yes and it'll actually taste of something as well'. :)


*We tend to call entire Rams 'tups' in UK. Up close they are bigger than they look in the field.
 
Yes, everything you said is what I grew up with.

And this is the part I learned yesterday, but when I do the wiki, it doesn't struck me as a euphemism as seen from my attachment.


when I had 'mutton' in India, it was always accompanied with a very polite smile! I saw perhaps 10 goats for every one real sheep! (live ones, that is).


If cooking lamb from old Indian recipes, be careful, as young lamb needs different recipes and cooking techniques. Rogan Josh is for goat, and needs prolonged cooking, and heavy spicing, to allow for loses. It is for long winter nights in Kashmir and Jammu!
 
Unfortunately the lamb available to me is all the popular pieces, but frozen. Sides also, but again frozen.

Same with goat, except that it seems to be mostly available in frozen cubes, bone on, or whole frozen sides.

I cook a fair bit of both and have learned not to stew lamb and not to grill goat. :)


valuable lessons, Cal, which many don't learn. :)
 
Vindaloo is only made with pork, and old, strongly flavoured pork, steeped in wine vinegar and garlic. HTH

In Goa, in Mumbai they used lamb, in Pakistan I had fish vindaloo. You are right but locals use what they have and seem to simply refer to the vinegar and garlic marinade and unbearably hot (to my taste) peppers.

I have a rhetorical question, does anyone think there is anywhere to experience food that we read about in the history books from the 15th -17th centuries. Case in point pork from Portugal packed in barrels with vinegar, wine, and garlic, traveling for months to colonies in the far east?
 
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I suspect Pho is often made in Vietnam directly with retired work animals (NOTHING wasted either).

And man’s best friend, which is just hard to accept as a westerner. The really hard part is that they claim the meat tastes better after torturing the animals.

Frozen lasagna tonight, have been up since 2:00 AM here, so nothing adventurous for dinner today here.
 
00940's pic of the moussaka reminds me of grad school in Chicago -- Greektown on the southside and a whole bunch of grad students would take the train a few blocks for dinner. most of the expense was for wine and ouzo -- how we would get back to the herding pen was a mystery but I do remember that in the morning there were bodies all over the floor scattered in one gal's room.
 
I get my lamb from these modest folks.

Order Natural Pasture Raised Lamb at Jamison Farm Latrobe PA

They will provide any parts to order. I get kidneys, livers and flanks on occasion. Never gone for the middle eastern tradition of eyeballs.

My uncle told me lambs eyes in honey are sort of like a grape. As it is a great offense if you refuse the hospitality when offered he ate one on several ocasions. Probably one food Scott hasn't tried. But if he wants to I am sure I can send him some.
 
From Quora.....
I have 3 dogs that I love like my own children.
I have eaten dog meat several times in Chinese and Korean restaurants. I remember the first time was recently after arriving in China and I wasn’t sure what I was ordering. The dish arrived on a table-top burner to keep the soup on a continuous simmer. It was obvious what the meat was when an unmistakable dog nose floated to the top. I later opted to try it again several times after that.
How do I feel about it? The meat wasn’t my favorite - quite dry, tough, stringy every time, but the flavor was OK, like a mix between beef and rabbit.
 
And man’s best friend
Only the country folk and usually the poorer ones. City folk don't.
Pho is definitely beef broth with hearts, kidneys, tripe and tendon.
This is only done at home now. Restaurants have a hard time keeping up with real broth, so it's a reconstituted product. Home broth is bones, flank (or other), onion, ginger, star anise, fish sauce, salt and assorted goodies. The tripe and tendon can be cooked in the broth but not simmered away as of course they are later served with the dish. Not heard of heart or kidneys being used but I bet they would go a long way to making some of the more watery broths a little more palatable.

There's also an accepted chicken version.
 
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There are numerous foods in Asian countries that are more medicinal or aphrodisiacal than enjoyable, when pressed no one says they actually enjoy eating a live snakes gall bladder or squid gonads. The squid gonads really were gross, to each their own.
Are any of these Chinese Medicine animal foods beliefs based in fact ?.
Scott you seem to have sampled just about every kind of food there is, do you find these Chinese Medicinal foods have the claimed benefits or are they the original snake oil ?.
 
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We do a lot of broth here as it's easy and so much better.
Pho broth isn't really as important as it's made out to be. After its plated, you add more fish sauce, lime juice, chili in oil, fresh jalapeño, basil, green and yellow onion and mung bean sprouts.
Some also add sesame oil and sriracha.

I've even used pork neck bones and it was hardly noticed.