The Food thread

[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by cheebacheeba

Squid and Octopus aren't considered exotic here at all really...squid is more common though I'd say.

Even kids eat squid, as fast food, crumbed and fried with chips (er, thicker fries).

A very popular cafe/bar dish here is
salt & pepper squid
in which the outside of the squid is scored and tossed in a seasoned flour, and flash fried so it cooks just right (which is fuck all) and the outside gets crispy. Usually served in quite an uninspiring way atop a bed of roquette (arugula) under a light dressing.

We have a large asian population here, and they're big with the seafood...so I see a lot of it, and it's quite often in stirfry.

Octopus I actually love. Love. love. LOVE.
It's nowdays often served at places that have grilled/fried fish etc.
Usually baby octopus. Whole thing fits in your hand.
I love it grilled, and lends itself really well to thai seasoning, goes great on its own or in salad.
Often served on sticks at a bbq with nothing but a lemon squeeze.

Big Octopus can be rolled, tentacles out, tied into a ball, trussed and immersed in a seasoned liquid (water, white wine, peppercorn, bay leaf, lemon...that kinda thing), boiled until tender, refrigerated whereby the galatinous content adheres it all together, at which point you can untie it, and slice along the entire thing...it makes a cool white coloured slice with purple channels through it.
You can eat that on a salad, on its own, even on top of a soup or laksa.

Mussels and Duck are pretty commonplace too, usually used in italian and Chinese/malaysian cuisine respectively.

Exotic?
So we're not talking beef and chicken, or turkey right?

Well, here you can get Lamb a lot which I understand is not super-available in a
lot of parts in the world.

Pretty much all seafood you can think of, we can get.

What else...these are commonplace:
Goat.
Camel.
Crocodile.
Moreton Bay Bugs (this is a shellfish here)
Kangaroo.
Eel.
Venison.
Of course there's a whole bunch of smaller birds that we can access to eat here too, cornish hen, pheasant, pigeon, quail. Ones like that.

Little less common:
Snake
Emu
Wild Boar
Goose
Razor Clams.
Asian restaurants serve jellyfish, and bullfrog.

...and you may have heard of our Aboriginal people and their "bush tucker", which includes the witchetty grub, which is like a large hairless caterpillar type thing that lives in, and feeds on the insides of trees.
They're served various ways, some are eaten raw.
A popular way seems to just be to cook the things on fire/roast them...They get crispy, and from what I've heard the inside (mainly processed wood I guess) is similar to eating potato.
I have not myself tried these, and I'm not entirely sure if there's any farms or suppliers, or if it's a "harvest yourself" type thing.

That's all I can really think of.

You should try a thai green curry next time.

Where do you live again? NZ or AS? I love calamari too. Especially deep fried, butter and lemon. I'm pretty sure I've never had octopus, it's all squid here in the midwest US, but I don't know if they taste any different, do they?

[cheebacheeba]

Cow brains eh?
Well, I've had sheep/lamb brains.
Texturally it's quite like firm silken tofu. It kind of has a very slightly liver-like texture, though a lot softer. Like all organs, it tends to taste like the flesh of the animal but it's less pronounced.
I'd get the brain, ziploc/vac seal it with some seasoning, then freeze it.
This makes it easier to slice without it falling apart/getting everywhere.
Take it out when it's half way to frozen, cut it into 1cm slices.

Then flour/bread it in a seasoned mixture. I'd recommend the inclusion of some lemon zest and chilli powder, similar to a schnitzel mix.

Pan/shallow fry until golden/brownish. Drain. Serve.
If you get it right...and the semi-freeze helps with this also...it'll be crunchy on the outside, and quite soft inside, it may remind you of a slightly more solid bone marrow.

I'd put a bit of lemon juice or a vinaigrette/glaze drizzled over the top - just not enough so that it becomes wet and becomes compromised in texture.

The texture contrast is really needed with brains in my opinion...it's very soft, and some people would liken it to pudding in texture, which to me, doesn't really work for this kind of thing.
Same as tofu when it isn't part of a soup - Really needs the crunch.

Nothing to be afraid of, but you'd want it fresh from a butcher. Right now it's not really an "in" cut, at least not here anyway, so it's pretty much super cheap.

Where do you live again? NZ or AS? I love calamari too. Especially deep fried, butter and lemon. I'm pretty sure I've never had octopus, it's all squid here in the midwest US, but I don't know if they taste any different, do they?

Australia yeah, I'm in Sydney. The place with the bridge and that funny spiky building down by the water.

It's kind of like the difference between two types of fish. It's there but it's not super pronounced. Usually with the squid the more desired part is the head, which is long and almost conical - that's what they cut the rings from.
With Octopus, the more desired part is the tentacles - which are a lot thicker ratio wise than the squid tentacles.
I find Octopus has more of a resistance/bounce to the texture, squid is "softer" when cooked. They are similar, I can taste the difference but I'm not entirely sure how to articulate it...I think Octopus has a more pronounced flavour or like higher concentration of flavour.

[cheebacheeba]

Humph. I wish Vodstok and Austin were here.

[Sculpt]

Hey Cheeb, ever have cow, or other animal, tongue? I haven't, but would think that would be more appetizing than any organ, being tongue is actually meat. I was thinking of trying it.

What's it taste like? And what would be the best way to prepare it?

Thanks!

[Morningriser]

I'd be willing the cock slap an old lady for some homemade biscuits and gravy right now.

[cheebacheeba]

Originally Posted by Sculpt

Hey Cheeb, ever have cow, or other animal, tongue? I haven't, but would think that would be more appetizing than any organ, being tongue is actually meat. I was thinking of trying it.

What's it taste like? And what would be the best way to prepare it?

Thanks!

Yeah I've had cow tongue.
Absolute peasant cut...and in this case, it kind of shows.
It's almost zero fat so it's quite dry. It tasted ever so slightly metallic?
I'd probably braise it, after skinning it (you don't want tongue texture...).
Serve it finely sliced, maybe under a compound butter?
I don't really know any recipes for it.
I believe some people use it for soups?

[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by cheebacheeba

Yeah I've had cow tongue.
Absolute peasant cut...and in this case, it kind of shows.
It's almost zero fat so it's quite dry. It tasted ever so slightly metallic?
I'd probably braise it, after skinning it (you don't want tongue texture...).
Serve it finely sliced, maybe under a compound butter?
I don't really know any recipes for it.
I believe some people use it for soups?

So skin, braise, and probably crock pot it? I'd like to say a stupid joke like, how do you know it's not tasting you?

[cheebacheeba]

Ghost cow is tasting you

[Morningriser]

Ghost cow sounds like some sort of beef and ghost pepper dish. I'm a sucker for hot peppers in case you guys haven't noticed. I forgot to mention when we were talking about spicy noodles the other day Cheeba, but I can make a damn good such one beef stir fry. It's definitely not for the weak of heart on the spicy Factor either.

[Bloof]

I don't mind chicken hearts and livers at all. Squid, octupus etc. But thats about as adventurous as I get.