CUISINE

I didn't know that.  We have pancakes at dinner sometimes but it's usually seen as a "breakfast for dinner" moment.  Outside of dessert, I think most sweet foods are associated with breakfast here.  Although not all breakfasts are necessarily sweet.

Yeah, it's a bit odd. (Though I guess we are. ) As you would almost think pancakes with blueberry jam more desert-ee if it should play any part in dinner, but it's a big dnner thing here. Though you normally have soup or something first. So, it's like a two dish meal.

The adding bacon was a revelation though. I didn't try that.. before I went to folkehøyskole in Trøndelag oddly.

What's amazing and disturbing to me about the bacon thing is how many people seem not to want to think of what they're eating as pig meat.

I'm by no means vegetarian, but I like to be honest about what I'm eating. I like to think of bacon as salty-pig-strips and bacon bits as pig-scraps-from-the-packing-house.

I'm gonna get me some of those fresh jams.

Is MAD still going ???

Yeah, surprisingly, we actually still carry them at work. I still enjoy their movie parody comics.

Talking of things US I ate something today I havent eaten since the US Navy left, a friend got a big bag sent over from America- tootsie rolls. I'd forgotten how much I used to like those as a kid. One of Americas better confectioneries- Eru alone knows who taught you how to make chocolate but Hershey bars are not it!

And tootsie rolls are?

I used to love tootsie rolls as a kid but haven't tried one in a while. I can't remember how they taste tbh. There was a parade in my hometown every year though and when they tossed out candy, so much of it was tootsie rolls that I called it the tootsie roll parade.

It tastes like chewy plastic chocolate.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Eru alone knows who taught you how to make chocolate but Hershey bars are not it!

Milton Hershey has a fascinating story. He was a utopian and wanted to create many things from scratch rather than be stuck in old paradigms. Hershey Pennsylvania was one. The Hershey bar was another.

As I remember the story, he wanted to make an affordable mass-produced chocolate for the masses, something that could be shipped long distances and be shelf-stable for a long period of time, and something that tasted unlike European chocolate. (It's not far from the model of all of our American mass-produced shelf-stable mediocre food.)

For whatever reason he chose to base his milk chocolate on sour milk rather than fresh milk which is what gives Hershey chocolate it's "distinctive" taste. And the rest is history!

I grew up going to Hersheypark every summer and visiting Chocolate World and doing the tour and everything, so Hershey's is tied up with all those memories.  I do tend to prefer 60-70% dark chocolate these days, but I'll always have a soft spot for their milk chocolate.  The fresh stuff you get at the park is heavenly.  Bars that have been sitting on a shelf for months, sometimes less so.

Eldorion wrote:I grew up going to Hersheypark every summer and visiting Chocolate World and doing the tour and everything, so Hershey's is tied up with all those memories.  I do tend to prefer 60-70% dark chocolate these days, but I'll always have a soft spot for their milk chocolate.  The fresh stuff you get at the park is heavenly.  Bars that have been sitting on a shelf for months, sometimes less so.

Did my honeymoon at Hershey Park... many moons ago... Had a lot of fun but the smell of Chocolate in the air does get a bit overwhelming after a while. Funny my wife was just tall enough to ride the tallest rides. i have a picture of her showing she only made it being able to ride all the rides by about an inch

wanted to create many things from scratch rather than be stuck in old paradigms. Hershey Pennsylvania was one. - Sin

Not sure thats new- Cadbury and Rowntree both built entire towns just for their factory workers making their chocolate.
My problem with the chocolate is that if you are used to European milk chocolate Hershey tastes, well artificial, chemically, brittle and well, a bit nasty.

'Funny my wife was just tall enough to ride the tallest rides.'

Your chocolate factories come with Amusement Parks attached? Boy you Americans sure do know how to take commercialism to a whole new level of ridiculousness!

Pettytyrant101 wrote:wanted to create many things from scratch rather than be stuck in old paradigms. Hershey Pennsylvania was one. - Sin

Not sure thats new- Cadbury and Rowntree both built entire towns just for their factory workers making their chocolate.
My problem with the chocolate is that if you are used to European milk chocolate Hershey tastes, well artificial, chemically, brittle and well, a bit nasty.

'Funny my wife was just tall enough to ride the tallest rides.'

Your chocolate factories come with Amusement Parks attached? Boy you Americans sure do know how to take commercialism to a whole new level of ridiculousness!

well Hershey's does... It's pretty cool we toured the factory too, but it is definitely NOT like Willie Wonka's. It really was a lot of fun even if they are exploiting the commercialism of it

Viggo Mortensen wrote:The McDonald’s french fry is unbelievable. When you bite into it, you think: It’s so tasty, it can’t be real. As soon as it gets cold, it turns to lard and flubble. I mean, have you ever tried to eat a McDonald’s french fry that’s gone cold? That’s one of the circles of hell. The gulf between the warm, fresh, lightly salted McDonald’s french fry and the cold McDonald’s french fry is as great a gulf as any I know.

https://medium.com/what-ive-learned/viggo-mortensen-on-the-tough-lessons-he-learned-from-his-son-5957ea278cd4

Ah... ok.

'Lightly salted' french fries

I don't mind the occasional Mcdonalds as fast food goes its tasty enough and reasonably fresh, if you are paying a couple of quid for a meal you can't complain too much, its' certainly improved in recent years...

Always nice to read an interview with Mortesen he seems a really friendly guy (wish he took part in the LOTR commentaries, his appearances in the Appendices Docs were fascinating)

I can't stand it to be honest. I jut found it interesting that was one of the big life lessons he felt like sharing.

malickfan wrote:'Lightly salted' french fries

Yeah..

Bluebottle wrote:I can't stand it to be honest

At to be honest with you, I'm not always sober when I visit

(Note to self, even when merry and drunk, four double cheeseburgers is not a good idea)

I think he had it right: the McDonald's french fry is an ephemeral thing. If you poke it in mayonnaise treated with crushed garlic and smoked paprika, it's a wonderful thing.

I prefer something with more potato in it. Like.. a potato.

malickfan wrote:

Bluebottle wrote:I can't stand it to be honest

At to be honest with you, I'm not always sober when I visit

(Note to self, even when merry and drunk, four double cheeseburgers is not a good idea)

That.. does help, true.

Pure seductive evil:

http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/1084914/deep-fried-tater-tot-burger

My dreams will never be the same. I suppose it could be baked, not fried.

I was watching this documentary on wine called Mondovino, that by focusing on the difference between big and small producers (within the high quality segment of wine) and the role PR and publicity plays in the world of wine today, highlighting how all the modern so called great wines more or less taste the same, hiding their natural characteristic with high usage of new oak barrels and modern wine making methods like micro oxygenation, makes a really interesting case for the industry's inherent problems. It does this, not really by stating a case, but simply by interviewing central characters in the world of wine and letting their answers speak for themselves. It's a bit of an eyeopener actually.

Anyway, this quote really struck me. And I do think it says something about the modern world of food production that we don't necessarily like to admit to ourselves.

“Le vin est mort. Soyons clairs, le vin est mort. Et pas seulement les vins, mais aussi les fruits. Les fromages... Le vin, c’est une relation quasi-religieuse de l’homme avec les éléments naturels. Avec l’immatériel. C’est un métier de poète, de faire un grand vin.”
AIMÉ GUIBERT
40 hectares,
Appellation Mas de Daumas Gassac (Aniane, Languedoc)

And the whole documentary is on youtube for anyone interested.

I need to learn how to make a Spanish omelette thing. I know nothing.