Food Peeves

Discussion in 'Food & Travel' started by bungadiri, Mar 6, 2012.

  1. Moishe

    Moishe Moderator
    Staff Member

    Boca Juniors
    Argentina
    Mar 6, 2005
    Here there and everywhere.
    Club:
    CA Boca Juniors
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    I would hardly call all or most Mexican cuisine spicy. If you were to say that chiles show up big in a or many dishes that is fine and I would agree but someone with some know how in the kitchen can utilize those chiles and spices to accentuate or strengthen the flavor without setting your mouth or innards on fire. Of course you might just be one of those people that can't handle anything remotely spiced. I've traveled all over Mexico and to make a blanket statement that all Mexican food is spicy is off base.
     
  2. afgrijselijkheid

    Dec 29, 2002
    mokum
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    1 - I did say chiles are a big part of Mexican food. That is a large part of my original point.

    2 - Again, I said nothing about a setting innards on fire level of heat.

    3 - I love spicy food. Not sure how you figured otherwise.

    4 - I never said all Mexican food is spicy.
     
  3. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    no. you're wrongbecause you made an absolute categorical statement -- read your post #744 -- that was incorrect. Food in Jalisco and D.F. plus Sinaloa is not particularly spicy as a rule.
    where have you been in Mexico?
     
  4. afgrijselijkheid

    Dec 29, 2002
    mokum
    Club:
    AFC Ajax

    By definition, if food has things like cumin and coriander seed and chile powders and black pepper in it (a ka spices), then it is spicy. That is before we even get to things like fresh/dried chiles and peppers. The problem here is you take me saying spicy to mean some high degree of heat. It does not mean that. But, hey, if you think saying bland, tasteless food should not be rightfully called Mexican food is wrong, there is not much else I can do here. It seems among the least controversial statements ever.
     
  5. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    nobody uses the word 'spicy' the way you are suggesting but you. the term i would utilize is 'savory'.
     
  6. Moishe

    Moishe Moderator
    Staff Member

    Boca Juniors
    Argentina
    Mar 6, 2005
    Here there and everywhere.
    Club:
    CA Boca Juniors
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    That kind of depends on which definition you go by. Oxford and Merriam Webster for example are for the most part identical until MW adds the qualifier;

    Look at it this way, pumpkin pie contains the spice "allspice" but have you known anyone to ever refer to a pumpkin pie as spicy? Oh and I do stand behind my comment that not all Mexican cuisine is spicy regardless of them nearly all containing some sort of spice.
     
  7. afgrijselijkheid

    Dec 29, 2002
    mokum
    Club:
    AFC Ajax

    The phrase "and especially ones" does not cancel the first part of the definition.

    And I am fully aware that not all Mexican is spicy in terms of heat. However, you would be hard pressed to find a Mexican restaurant with a menu full of only super mild dishes. Spice, and yes quite often some level of heat, is a large part of the cuisine. Again, I do not think this is any sort of wild claim here.



    Nobody but me? You have already spoken at enough length about food to every human alive? Well then I digress.
     
  8. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    I would say that it's not wildly inaccurate to claim that if someone said a certain dish was "spicy" the overwhelming majority would assume they mean it's hot and spicy, rather than just a dish containing spices.
     
  9. afgrijselijkheid

    Dec 29, 2002
    mokum
    Club:
    AFC Ajax


    Fair enough. But then people are taking it to the logical extreme and behaving as if spicy food is automatically and only food so spicy it blows your head off. There is miles of distance between poblanos and habaneros, but both could be considered as parts of spicy food.
     
  10. YankHibee

    YankHibee Member+

    Mar 28, 2005
    indianapolis
    FWIW, this spicy discussion was one frequently had back when I worked in restaurants. Most people when they used the word were referring to heat, but certainly not all. To the chefs and owners of the last place (all So Italians) using the word that way was very odd, and if the server wasn't absolutely sure what was meant, the chefs wouldn't prepare the food until confusion had been cleared.
     
  11. bungadiri

    bungadiri Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 25, 2002
    Acnestia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I always liked the fact that the Indonesian language distinguishes between hot hot (panas) and spicy hot (pedas).

    Or, to put it peevishly: I think it's an outrage that I have to use extra words to convey that distinction when I'm speaking American.
     
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  12. YankHibee

    YankHibee Member+

    Mar 28, 2005
    indianapolis
    We have plenty of words, just not plenty of people who use specific language.
     
    AfrcnHrbMan repped this.
  13. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Damn: third post this afternoon that references my time living in southern Minnesota 25 years ago...

    ... but my wife and I volunteered at the local food coop, which had a sandwich shop that sold pre-made sandwiches, a hot dish or two, soup, etc. (common today but very rare back then, esp. in towns with a population under 10,000). We'd just moved their from Louisiana. One day, by request, my wife made some very unspicy red beans and rice. Maybe a pinch of cayenne pepper, where normally we'd use a tablespoon or more for that quantity. The sandwich shop manager put out packages of sour cream for people who found it too hot. The sour cream ran out before the red beans did.

    About a year later, I was working there one day and I noticed there was something in the suggestion box. One of the condiments available in the sandwich shop should probably, we were told, have some sort of warning for how hot it is. The condiment?

    [​IMG]
     
  14. YankHibee

    YankHibee Member+

    Mar 28, 2005
    indianapolis
    Well, when you're used to a diet of only lutefisk...
     
    Dr. Wankler repped this.
  15. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    My wife's grandmother used allspice in lieu of other spices for recipes, because that one container had all spices. It simplified her life. She put allspice in spaghetti sauce, for example. (Yeah she did.)
     
    guignol, Moishe and bungadiri repped this.
  16. Funkfoot

    Funkfoot Member+

    May 18, 2002
    New Orleans, LA
    I know a guy who did the same thing, only he bought the allspice at costco. When he found out that the stuff was good only for making pies, he calculated that he had enough to make something like 10,000 pies. His wife does all the grocery shopping, now (he also once brought home a bag of offal of some kind - lungs, I think - that was intended as bait for crab traps).
     
    Dr. Wankler repped this.
  17. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    Ha!

    I bought fish heads this last weekend, for soup. I got a couple of funny looks but it beats getting a bag full of lungs, I should think.
     
  18. Cascarino's Pizzeria

    Apr 29, 2001
    New Jersey, USA
    Can only be 1 song to go with fish head soup...

     
  19. Funkfoot

    Funkfoot Member+

    May 18, 2002
    New Orleans, LA
    Global Foods, where I frequently shop sells fish heads but they are clearly for people - you wouldn't believe what they get for salmon heads. Or maybe you would, if you buy them yourself.

    The guy I was referencing bought his lungs in the crab bait department (they have such a thing in south Louisiana). They were on sale (such a deal!) and he got so excited, he didn't pay attention to what he was buying. Actually, when I heard the story told, an older woman who was raised in Arkansas insisted that those lungs were good eating. Nevertheless, he has been relieved of grocery shopping duties!
     
  20. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    You mean, how much they cost? I paid $1.99 per pound. Several kinds of heads, salmon included.
     
  21. bungadiri

    bungadiri Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 25, 2002
    Acnestia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    What freaks me out is that occasionally, like when I get slap-happy from driving on a long trip and am trying to stay awake, I will sing this to myself. Used to drive my kids crazy.
     
  22. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    But were the certified sustainable free-range organic locally harvested fish heads?

    Used to fish a lot when I was a kid. We'd bury the heads and entrails in the part of the garden that was resting at that particular time. Upon review, given that my dad grew up during the depression, and given that he actually liked things like beef tongue and head cheese, I'm surprised we didn't use the heads for soup. Unless mom (who also grew up during the depression but didn't grow up in Minnesota so didn't learn to fish until she married dad) had some say in that not happening.

    Given how she made him hide the head cheese and the tongue in the fridge where she didn't have to see it, that might be the case.
     
  23. Nacional Tijuana

    Nacional Tijuana St. Louis City

    St. Louis City SC
    May 6, 2003
    San Diego, Calif.
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Warm donuts. And I'm sure I'm the only one. It just never even occurred to me until Krispy Kreme stormed the USA. I like mine room temp right out of the bin at the grocery store.
     
  24. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    OK. I see the problem clearly. If you purchase doughnuts at a grocer, you are so gustatorially impoverished that anything you say regarding doughnut temperature at point of eating must be taken with a tub of...cooking oil(?).

    Here's what you might consider. There's a place called Rose Donuts in Clairemont. It's cash only. I hope that's not a problem. They have 4.5 stars on yelp. Go there fairly early on Sunday morning, this Sunday would be good. Liverpool isn't playing till Monday. Ask what they have just coming up. Eat it warm. Lemme know what you think. Grocery store...#help...#ouch

    Here's the address.

    7612 Linda Vista Rd
    Ste 101
    San Diego, CA 92111
     
  25. guignol

    guignol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 28, 2005
    mermoz-les-boss
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    donuts in general belong next to the bacon, no matter what vector or purveyance.

    as for bacon doughnuts that's RIGHT OUT!!!!
     

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