The Food Thread

[Zandrav Ibistenn]

What people eat varies greatly around the world due to the availability and nature of food sources. Naturally, this have made characteristic impacts upon cultures sustained by one set of food sources compared to others relying on something else.

I'll try to keep this brief and get to the point:
Do you eat something from where you're from that other people consider... ehm - unusual? Or have you been somewhere where you've been offered an edible selection you had similar thoughts about?

Also be sure to dump any food-related stories and trivia you're dying to share in here.


(This thread was created as a result of the fabulously innovative source that is the "start a thread"-thread. Place your hopes for the future at the shrine).

[Maz]

First of all, it's great to see you in here Zandy This place has missed your sharp opinions

And I'm bound to agree with you about natural resources influence on cultural foods. Of course my Grand Grand fathers have been eating mostly the food that is been available. And of course they have breed their kiddies with the wery same food... ... ....

And yes. I think Finns do eat food that's quite odd to many others. Food like rye bread (rye is perhaps the best surviving eatable plant in here). Potatoes are also one of the Finnish 'main foods'. Also meat and fish are really common. Furthermore finns do drink lots of milk. I assume milk is not as common drink in warm countries, and the reason is quite obvious.

Some of my favourite finnish foods are:

'kalakukko'. It's mixture of pig meat&fat and fish baked inside a rye based 'shell'.
Finnish dark rye bread.
'mämmi' which is too odd foof to be explained, but it includes rye too
There must be more, but since I wan't to continue practicing assembly I shall stop the list and wait for your 'odd' foods

[Pager]

Well, I'd have to say I'm pretty normal in the things I eat, and generally don't veer too far off the known trail...but I will share a tale with you all that my friends share amongst themselves at parties that often leaves me quite embarrased.

The time, Spring 2003, around noon on a tuesday during exams at University. I had awoken after a night of studying sometime around 11:30am, deciding that I wanted some eggs for my breakfast and that it was nearly noon, decided it be better to make some egg salad sandwiches instead.

So, after I managed to scrounge the community refridgerator, found 3 eggs not near expiration, 1 half an onion, and 3 pieces of bread. So I slaved for at least a half an hour over a stove making these egg salad sandwiches. Until perfection had emerged. I loaded my plate with 1 and a half very full egg-salad sandwiches, and a handful of pickles, and poured myself a large glass of McCain's Grape Juice.

I think this would be a perfect time to note, since I had pretty much began cooking right as soon as I woke up, I was dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts. So back to the story, being happy with the feast I had created, decided what a wonderful idea it would be to go to join my fellow housemates in the basement to watch some television.

So I carefully picked up the plate and glass of juice and made my way for the staircase. And with my signature prowness and horrific luck, managed to slip on the first step, and completely fall down the entire staircase. As a friend of mine came to check to see if I was still slive, he immediately burst into laughter, because there I lay, at the bottom of this staircase, in my underwear, completely covered head to toe in egg-salad goodness, with grape juice all over my face and several pickles in the glass.

Miraculously, there was no food or juice on the carpet or walls. Needless to say, that was the last time I ever tried to make egg-salad at University.

[Dot O'Rock]

Rye bread will rock everyones crotch. Best bread ever.

Maz mentioned mämmi. It's thoroughly explained in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4mmi . Personally don't like it. But love Kalakukko ^_^ <- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalakukko

And being a Tampere-native, I love Mustamakkara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustamakkara Mmmm...

[Chroelle]

Well rye bread goes in Denmark too. We also eat a lot of potatoes in different form, size and shapes. Minzed Cow meat goes in almost all dishes, and minzed pig meat goes in Frikadeller which is a meat ball but a lot tastier that general meatballs.
We also eat lots of different vegetables as agriculture takes up a good percentage of the Danish soil.
Milk is very common and comes in: Skummetmælk (skimmed milk), kærnemælk (buttermilk), Letmælk (classic milk), Sødmælk (Very fat and sweet milk), minimælk (Which is slightly lighter than letmælk). This is all cowsmilk!
Cheese is a good snack and in general a lot of dairy products gets consumed...

And a little story:

Once when I cam home after a binge on the town I decided to do my classic coming home trick and got a carton of milk containing a liter (1/4 gallon) and took to bed with me. Turned on the TV, and put the carton to my mouth - and feel asleep - well to make a long story short I woke up rather fast - and well...the matress had to go after a couple of months when the stench of rotting milk was unbearable....

[elgado]

I got another milk story, Chroelle


Don't bother reading this one, Dot; you must've read it some 2-3 days ago =D

When I first came to Holland, I was a bit surprised at how many Spanish-sounding words they had here.

Library in Spanish = Biblioteca; in Dutch it's Bibliotek
Free in Spanish = Gratis; in Dutch it's also gratis
Page in Spanish = Pagina; it's the same in Dutch

With that in mind, I went on one of my first trips to a Dutch supermarket, in search of something to drink. Looking back on it, it felt a little bit like an adventure; I wanted something I'd never tried before, but at the same time, something normal enough for me to stomach. That's when I came across something in the dairy section: karne melk. At that point, my beginner's Dutch was good enough to know that 'melk' meant milk, but what of the 'karne'? In spanish, 'carne' is meat, so I thought that must've been some beefy milk. Curious, I bought it. Little did I know that I would end up paying dearly for my mistakes.

Once I got home, I opened the milk and took a gulp.... the room started spinning as I felt the white, lumpy goo ooze down my throat. I ran to the kitchen sink and spat out as much as I could. The rancid smell of regurgitated butter milk filled the kitchen as well as my lungs, and I knew then and there that my Spanish would only serve me in the occassional trip to the Argentine steakhouse. =|