Extreme Cuisine & Strange Ingredients

[tollbaby]

*SQUICK*

[daetara]

hey brad...i was visiting up in DC this weekend and saw "kippered king salmon collars" at a grocery store. can you weigh in on what those are/how they taste/etc?

[Darb]

Sure. Your question actually has 2 parts ... what's "kippering" and what are salmon "collars".

KIPPERING: This is a term used in Europe to describe a process whereby fish (that have already been par-cured with salting or dry-rub) are further preserved/cooked by smoking them for 1-3 days. The smoking process typically starts cold, and then finishes hot until the fish is fully cooked.

COLLARS: Depending on how a gilled-fish is butchered, sometimes the collar is left on, but usually it's removed. The 'collar' is the cartilaginous ridge of flesh just behind the gills. This part of the fillet is often the tastiest and has excellent fat content ... but it's typically removed because of the awkward ridge of cartlidge. The Japanese call this part the "Kama". However, it's often left on if the fillet is going to be smoked or roasted whole ... and the collar is also excellent in soup.

I havent had kippered collars ... only cured and cold smoked ones, which I've used when making a creamy salmon chowder. What you're referring to are probably very similar, only cooked ... so the flavor is apt to be very smoky, salty and fishy. You can probably use kippered salmon collars for similar use (i.e., flavoring the broth base for a creamy slamon chowder, and reserving any meat that flakes off for the finished soup) ... or, if there's a lot of meat on them, you can try taking the meat off, and making a pureed salad, ala smoked whitefish salad.

[daetara]

cool...one of these days i'll be able to start experimenting with stuff like this.

thank you, oh knowledgeable one!

(oh wait, not supposed to be bowing... )

[Darb]

BTW, "Collars" are sometimes referred to by the innacurate and misleading term "cheeks".

[tollbaby]

mmmmm trout cheeks are *tasty*

[mccormack44]

I'm glad "beavertails" are pastry. When I was a kid, I had an adventure book (a boy's book as is being discussed on another topic) about fur trapping in the North Woods (Canada). In the book, they did eat the tails of beavers which had been trapped for furs.

And no, they didn't eat the tough skin. The tails were roasted on a metal surface (a shovel blade?) and the skins peeled off. The flavor is described as being something like pork, and very, very good.

Of course, the entire book is probably ecologically unsound. And as to tasting like pork — have you noticed how often exotic foods are described as being like chicken or being like pork? I doubt these comparisons.

Sue

[tollbaby]

well, rattlesnake sort of tastes like chicken... as does pigeon.

[mccormack44]

Pigeon I can understand – they're both birds. But rattlesnake? I guess the texture could be similar; after all , texture is always part of taste. The rest of the taste of chicken is probably just "delicate flavor."

[Darb]

Daetara: speaking of 'collars', I had a really tasty impromptu dinner last night, at my usual sushi haunt. I'd arrived late, and my chef friend had already put away the seafood, broken down the counter, and was washing up, so I just ordered a bowl of rice and a bottle of daiginjo, and chatted with them as they prepared to leave. He suddenly disappeared into the kitchen ... and emerged 5-10 mins later with a treat: the frame, and collar of a wild sockeye salmon, which he'd just sprinked with salt and roasted simply on a screen over a roaring gas burner.

Apparently, he'd served the meat as sashimi earlier in the day, and was planning to take the frame and collar home for dinner ... but he cooked it for me instead, since I got there late.

Anyway, it was exquisite ... the flesh was dark red, with a stronger flavor than regular farmed salmon, and it was both crispy and succulent, and with a good fat content. You just scrape/suck the meat right off the bones, eat the crispy bits of skin clinging to the frame, and nibble the charred tips off the fins. There's a surprising amount of meat that clings to the bones and collars, so it's not the skimpy meal it sounds like.

He didn't charge me for it either (since it was a throw-away item) ... so I left a fat tip instead, to comp him for both the great meal, and the loss of his dinner.

[daetara]

if i'm ever up that way, i'm going to hunt you down and make you take me to that sushi place...we ain't got nuthin' like that here.

[daetara]

It's in the Blood: A Fading Legacy

[tollbaby]

geez.... you can buy Boudin at any grocery store here.... I thought you could everywhere. It's always in the meat case near the tripe, liver and kidneys.

[violetblue]

OK, now I realize I'll probably be ridiculed for listing this in the Extreme Food thread, but I tried raw oysters for the first time last weekend. I was at a cocktail thingy and this lady who grew up on the shore of the upper East Coast decided to take me under her wing and show me the ropes.

Well, I mean, I ate it, but it just tasted like salt and olive oil (because there was some EVOO in the shell). I probably won't seek them out again. Slimy little beasties.

[laurie]

OK, now I realize I'll probably be ridiculed for listing this in the Extreme Food thread, but I tried raw oysters for the first time last weekend. I was at a cocktail thingy and this lady who grew up on the shore of the upper East Coast decided to take me under her wing and show me the ropes.

Well, I mean, I ate it, but it just tasted like salt and olive oil (because there was some EVOO in the shell). I probably won't seek them out again. Slimy little beasties.

Raw oysters are on my "extreme" list, too, along with raw clams. They're the kinds of food that, after trying them once, I'll now only eat on a dare. Slimy doesn't begin to describe them....

[Darb]

Aww c'mon ... a fresh plump kumomoto oyster, freshly harvested, with a squeeze of lemon, or a drizzle of mignonette sauce, is one of the sublime culinary wonders of the world.

Perhaps you just had oysters that were out of the water a bit too long ... they get flat, limp, fishy and insipid when that happens. When they're fresh, they're plump, creamy, briny, clean tasting and oh so delicious.

And as for clams - anyone who puts heavy cocktail sauce on them obviously prefers to eat the cocktail sauce itself, and can probably just skip the bivalve completely.

- Grew up treading barefoot for clams

[KeE]

Well. I have tasted real caviar (as in from sturgeon) now. The only extreme was in the price, the taste was rather nice but bordering on bland.
Did I get a bum sample? If not, it certainly isn't worth the price.
-
Plus, the sturgeon suffers from overharvesting. I'll eat if it (or its caviar to be precise) is served, but will not choose to have it or buy it for myself, since I realy can't be sure it comes from those fisheries that harvest in a sustainable way.

KEE

[violetblue]

You know, I think I tasted some sand, too, in the oyster. I think there were some of the kumomoto oysters in the ice (they're the little ones, right?) but the lady told me to find the biggest oysters and eat those, so I didn't try them. I found out later the little ones were a different kind.

I didn't know people ate clams raw, too, laurie. Although I love the beach so I would probably have fun digging them out.

I like it when the Italian restaurants bread and mince the clams, cook it up, and then stuff it back in the shell. I'll eat them like that.

[Darb]

the lady told me to find the biggest oysters and eat those, so I didn't try them. I found out later the little ones were a different kind.

Yes, oysters come in many sizes, sharpes and sub-species, but size is NOT an indicator of quality. The biggest factor in determining taste is the quality of the environment they're raised in, plus freshness (i.e., proper handling and minimal time since harvesting).

Kumomoto's tend to be small, but plump for their size, and very creamy/sweet ... they're probably my favorite variety, among the 12 or so regions I've tried.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've had 20+ yr old giant oysters on several occasions that each took 2-3 large bites (and a fork and knife) to eat, and were wonderful ... but for the same price, I'd rather have a dozen kumomotos.

Well. I have tasted real caviar (as in from sturgeon) now. The only extreme was in the price, the taste was rather nice but bordering on bland.

KeE: I stopped eating most varieties of caviar about 8 years ago, for 3 reasons:

1) Primarily because sturgeon is terribly overfished, and if I get a craving there are companies here in the states that farm-raise a species of paddlefish whose roe resembles it in taste and texture. It's not quite as good as real sturgeon, but it's still 10x better than that crappy lumpfish roe that some specialty markets sell to the clueless & undiscerning.

2) A chef friend, as a wedding present, gave my Wife and I not one but two eight ounce tins (big tins !) of sevruga and golden ocetra caviar, respectively. He was in the caviar business at the time, and got it for me at wholesale. One tin went to my wife's family, and one tin went to mine. Yep, you guessed it ... everyone mostly wrinkled their nose at it, and I wound up eating most of it myself, over the course of 2 days. Let me tell you, a full pound of caviar is a LOT of caviar to eat, and so much in so short a time pretty much destroyed my taste for it.

3) I've discovered that my palate prefers salmon roe to caviar ... and it also has the advantage of being a lot cheaper and more ecofriendly. My chef friend (see #2 above) heckles my preference of salmon roe, but hey ... I like what I like.

[nzilla]

[pedant]Small nitpick, but since Brad wrote it the same way twice, the mistake sounds funny in Japanese, and almost as many sites seem to be using the mistake as the way it really should be written, I'll make it. The prefecture and the oysters are actually called "Kumamoto," meaning "origin of bears." "Kumomoto" sounds like it's supposed to mean that it's where spiders come from.[/pedant]

[tollbaby]

small, but valid nitpick You've just educated us, since I doubt anyone else here would have caught the mistake

[Darb]

Fried Tongue

I've already had beef tongue in a variety of ways ... but until today, I've never had it griddle-fried (until well browned), in a soft taco. It was served in three hot corn tortillas (well dampened with the fat on the griddle), and garnished with sauteed onions, cilantro, and sliced radishes, and a choice of two sauces: a hot spicy mayo, and a green tomatillo sauce. And there was a lime wedge for acidity.

Tasty, if a bit greasy.

I also had the tongue in a tongue and vegetable soup. It had braised cabbage, yucca, carrots, parsley, and the broth from the pot that the tongue was pressure-cooked in ... and a large chunk of tongue from the bony and flavorful base (stewed until falling apart tender).

Also very tasty.

I guess that means I can speak in tongues for the rest of the day.

[voralfred]

I've already had beef tongue.......

Well maybe I should not highjack the topic to tell a joke but I just cannot resist (an administrator can move this post elsewhere if needed)

A husband comes home, and his wife tells him:
"I'm not sure you'll be happy with tonight's dinner. I wanted to make an experiment, I had a recipe for tongue in my cookbook, and I bought beef tongue and cooked it. I tasted it, it's really quite good..."
Says the husband
"Aw.. I'm sure you meant well, but.. you know.. eating something that has been in the mouth of an animal... You know...

Spoiler: show

Can't you make me an omelet instead?

[StefanY]

Hey, the joke was in context with the aforementioned cuisine and it was FUNNY!!

[voralfred]

Well, I'm happy StefanY liked it.
And to go back to the topic, I'm afraid I did not have so extreme stuff.

Frogs legs (yes, actually, I did eat some once)
Pretty tasty, like chicken wings.
But we regularly eat "coquelets" which are bigger than mere chicks, but not quite mature chicken, very delicate. So I don't need the frogs to get the same taste.

Snails, once, but not in garlic butter, with champagne gravy
The gravy was superb, but why serve it with bits of rubber in it? At least they were small enough to be swallowed

Squid
The taste was fine, and the tentacles could be easily chewed. But then there was the big white part. I tried to cut it into pieces small enough to be swallowed, but it was a losing game. My girl-friend (we were only just recently together then) who had cooked the meal lovingly and was struggling as hard as I did acted with decision. She took both our plates and threw the content into the garbage. That was the beginning of a great relationship.

Brain
Not sure what animal it came from; probably veal. Very nice.

"ris de veau" (thymus gland of the calf)
Quite nice, really. The restaurant was not a great one, and the chef had put too much salt into the gravy, so it was a bit of a waste.
And shortly after that, "mad cow" hit us and brain, "ris", and similar stuff became unavailable in France.

Raw fish
I love that. Whether as sashimi or as sushi. But I restrict myself to rather "ordinary" fish: tuna, salmon, bream..

Sardines
That is extreme? Hardly. But I'm referring to a previous post by Brad. In Spain, they will wrap sardines in aluminum foil and cook them on ashes. Before wrapping them the will remove the intestines, but if there are pinkish or whitish bags just above, they would leave them in. The pinkish ones when cooked contain little pinkish spheres: eggs. The white ones will just become a single object. They are sperm bags, of course. Well, you just eat them together with the flesh of the fish, it's quite good.

Licking green ants
In Australia, last summer, our guide showed us biggish green ants and told us that they exude lemon-tasting liquid. So I caught one (carefully, in order not to crush it) and licked it. The taste was indeed lemon-like. Then I let it go, it did not seem worse for the wear...