One food you have never had... but are curious

[bleme]

So a few weeks ago I brought my inlaws to one of my favorite restaurants in Astoria, Pachanga Patterson.

I had to look up their menu online. Good thing I don't live close! I always order the strangest thing on the menu, then work my way down. I usually won't order the same thing twice unless I have tried everything else. I am having a hard time figuring out where to start with that menu! I guess I'd just have to try them all in order...

 

[AdamLucko]

I'm really not sure ? Everything that has come up I have at least tasted from chocolate covered ant to duck fetus eggs to live squid. I haven't really tried the Canadian road kill scene. I could hunker down on a squirrel or a mashed skunk maybe?

 

[dinnerstick]

haggis part two. including preparation advice! wrap in tin foil. into a tray of hot water so the water comes ~1/2 way up the delicious ball of entrails, into a medium (150-180c) oven, 2-4 hours depending on the size of your sheep's stomach stuffed with beef fat, sheeps lungs and heart, oats. then, once it's hot through, unwrap halfway and let the top brown up a bit. careful as it may explode at this point, mine slipped off one of the clips allowing the stuffing to creep out. serve with neeps & tatties (mashed turnips or swede/rutabaga and mashed potatoes) or in my case creamy mashed celeriac and mashed potatoes, a whisky sauce is nice (cream, mustard, whisky, salt, white pepper, brought briefly to a simmer), or even just a splash of whisky over the top. recite robert burns' ode to a haggis in your worst scots, and plunge the knife in at the right moment.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

That actually looks delicious. No lie.

 

[BeerGrylls]

Early in the morning and you've already won HBT's post of the day!

 

[Jacob_Marley]

The haggis pics remind me a bit of kishka, which I absolutely love ... the buckwheat/barley/groats type ... rather than the matzo type.
Kishka is easily one of my very favorite breakfast foods, kishka is one of those smells coming from the kitchen in the morning that, along with coffee brewing and bacon frying, is legend. I'd eat a whole ring of it myself if given the opportunity. "Who Stole the Kishka?" indeed.

 

[Quaker]

Either of those look like they'd hit the spot right now with some runny fried eggs.

 

[ChefRex]

Why doesn't my store have pre made haggis in the freezer? I'd be all over that!
The kishka looks good too, I may have to try the polish market to see what I can find.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

The haggis pics remind me a bit of kishka, which I absolutely love ... the buckwheat/barley/groats type ... rather than the matzo type.
Kishka is easily one of my very favorite breakfast foods, kishka is one of those smells coming from the kitchen in the morning that, along with coffee brewing and bacon frying, is legend. I'd eat a whole ring of it myself if given the opportunity. "Who Stole the Kishka?" indeed.

Those kishka pics look good enough to eat. I'm wondering what the side is in the last pic. Looks like it could be taters or maybe apples/pears? Seems like either would be a tasty accompaniment to the kishka. Now I have to figure out where I can get some!
Regards, GF.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Man, would I LOVE to take a culinary tour of the world; excluding those unstable/war-torn places & places that wouldn't welcome Americans, of course.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

... I'm wondering what the side is in the last pic. Looks like it could be taters or maybe apples/pears? ...

I went back to the site where the pic was located ... it's fried potatoes and onions. Sounds good to me but I think I'd have mine with some hot German potato salad ... the type made with vinegar & bacon dressing with scallions and served hot. That and a side of either sauerkraut or Polish kapusta (bigos).
Time for lunch.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I've never tried kishka (kishke?), looks like the closest place for me to get it is Columbia Falls; maybe I can make a run up there when I head up to the flathead for cherries this summer.
Regards, GF.

 

[two_hearted]

Is kishka kind of like goetta? I love some goetta for breakfast.

 

[drainbamage]

Is kishka kind of like goetta? I love some goetta for breakfast.

I was thinking the same thing when looking at those haggis pics...reminded me of goetta.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Is kishka kind of like goetta?

Yep, er, yah.

Because when I was growing up my family were Germans right off the boat, we called kishka, “Grützwurst” ... tho most Americans are more familiar with it being called kishka (sometimes Kaszanka) . So unless you know a German butcher, the Polish version “kishka” is what you might find most commonly available.

Yes, goetta and grutzwurst are very similar, and both German, but whereas goetta is made with oats. the general recipe for Grutzwurst is traditionally made with buckwheat (sometimes barley) and also pork, blood, liver, onion, pepper and herbs, and is in a casing.

For what it’s worth ... the “gotte” in goetta and the “grutz” in Grützwurst are from the same word ... just one is low German (gotte) and one is high German (grütz) ... cousins.

Most of my family were East Prussians (ze only “true” Germans, according to my grandmother) ... these were the old “royal” Germans. We were mostly from the Baltic Sea area in Northern Germany, particularly around Konigsberg. I had a very Prussian Great Uncle that called grützwurst “Tote Oma” ... or “Dead Grandma” a common name with ze old folks for grützwurst in some northeast parts of Germany. Some sort of archaic, morbid German humor. Can I get a bon appetit?

 

[ChefRex]

"Can I get a bon appetit?"
Most definitely, I love my german sense of humor.

 

[unionrdr]

There's an old German guy in Cleveland that has a sausage shop that also sells at West Side Market on 25th. He has all manner of German meats. Have to see if he has that stuff. My family's from Upper Bavaria. My ancestor's grandpa was some kind of warlord or other. He got what is now 3 counties of land deeded to my ancestor in Corley,WV. Gotta get into more German foods. I have a cookbook from Luecho's in NYC dated 1951 that's all real German recipes.

 

[kcm7473]

I'm a Louisiana boy, so I'm not picky. We'll make a feast out of something we caught in a ditch on the side of the highway. There are a few foods I'd like to try. Morels, Kobe beef and a few others. As far as "exotic" foods, I've had rabbit, squirrel, beaver, coon, bear, several kinds of ducks & geese, coot, rattlesnake, turtle, coonass caviar (fried crappie eggs), bear, moose, deer, elk, pronghorn, ostrich & God knows what else that I've forgotten about. I don't eat this stuff because it's exotic, I eat it because it's damn good food.
On a side note, what's the difference in a Louisiana zoo and a zoo anywhere else?
Most zoos have a pic and description in front of the animal's cage. Louisiana zoos have the same pic and description along with a recipe😃

 

[Hello]

Squirrel.

 

[kcm7473]

Squirrel gumbo or sauce piquant is one of my favorite meals.

 

[unionrdr]

Try Kentucky fried squirrel. Now that's good eatin'! My daughter loved it when she was little.

 

[Goofynewfie]

I gotta ask..... What is coot??

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Coot AKA Mud Hen...
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_coot/sounds

 

[bleme]

I just heard about a rotted and dried shark from Iceland that smells so heavily of ammonia that people have to hold their nose when they take a bite to prevent gagging. That sounds interesting...

 

[unionrdr]

I saw that on No Reservations & Man vs Food. Bloody awful from the faces & descriptions.

 

[Subsailor]

Yeah, even Andrew Zimmern had problems with it on Bizaare Foods, he had it in Iceland and it was called Hákarl.

 

[rlmiller10]

I'm a Louisiana boy, so I'm not picky. We'll make a feast out of something we caught in a ditch on the side of the highway. There are a few foods I'd like to try. Morels, Kobe beef and a few others. As far as "exotic" foods, I've had rabbit, squirrel, beaver, coon, bear, several kinds of ducks & geese, coot, rattlesnake, turtle, coonass caviar (fried crappie eggs), bear, moose, deer, elk, pronghorn, ostrich & God knows what else that I've forgotten about. I don't eat this stuff because it's exotic, I eat it because it's damn good food.
On a side note, what's the difference in a Louisiana zoo and a zoo anywhere else?
Most zoos have a pic and description in front of the animal's cage. Louisiana zoos have the same pic and description along with a recipe😃

Had most of those other the coot and the caviar. I will also add giraffe, Buffalo (American and Cape), Hart Beast and Thompson Gazelle.

I would like to try whale and abalone.

 

[dobe12]

Yeah, even Andrew Zimmern had problems with it on Bizaare Foods, he had it in Iceland and it was called Hákarl.

I believe I saw that too. Didn't they have open shed like buildings for hanging/drying the rotted meat? And they had to be kept so many kilometers from the city due to the stink? I'll try almost anything once and go back for more of most of the time, but I think I'd have a problem getting that down. Weird food is fine. Old, rotted "food" is not.

 

[kcm7473]

Coot AKA Mud Hen...
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_coot/sounds

Or as we call em swamp chickens or poule d'eau. They make damn good gumbo & the gizzards are great in dirty rice.
As far as the fermented shark, I'd try it. It's not poisonous.
A few things came to mind that I'd like to try. Osetra caviar, smoked sturgeon, most African plains game, Sandhill crane and of course a big mug of rauchbier with a plate of schweinshaxe in Germany😃.

 

[dinnerstick]

on the same page as the icelandic shark is the swedish fermented canned herring called surströmming. never had it, never will... have heard it's illegal to bring on planes as if it explodes in the low pressure everyone will puke.
love this video...