Favorite foods

"Timo Valtonen" wrote in message
...
"Markku Grönroos" wrote in message
...

"Hatunen" wrote in message
...

I'm rather partial to the reindeer and elk/moose served widely in
Finland.

Well, in restaurants perhaps and in Lappland in particular but in
southern
Finland you seldom see this stuff on the shelves of groceries. It is
expensive and I guess it also is more laborous to prepare than meat of
domestic herd. The consumption of this sort of meat is really marginal
in
Finland (apart from northern most Finland were few people live).

You don't see reindeer meat on the shelves, it's always sold frozen so you
have to look for it in the freezer... ;-)
More expensive than packed minced meats, yes, but laborous to prepare, no.
Poronkäristys (reindeeer stew) is easy to make and when served with potato
puré and crushed lingonberries is very tasty and low-fat. A nice change
for
ordinary hospital-food-like meatballs, but preferences do vary. Any way,
the
taste is strong, like wild game.

You just get three times bulkier piece of beef by the same fare (in a case
there is reindeer stuff available). For everyday life it is too expensive
for most. Most Finns eat reindeer one time in maximum per annum in average.

Jeremy wrote:

Really? What Norwegian food is under-rated?

All of it.

My experience is that, apart
from the excellent fresh fish, Norwegian food ranges from the tastless
(Norvegia cheese etc) to the disgusting (pinnekoett, lutefisk et al).

Thanks for proving my point.

David

--
David Horne- (website under reconstruction)
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

Donna Evleth wrote:

As to lamb, in France it is cooked more on the rare side than Americans or
English are used to. Was that why it disappointed you? We have a couple of
friends who have been disappointed in lamb for this reason. I always cook
lamb for them myself, doing it just the way they like it, which is medium
well.

Actually, it was overdone. One time was at a restaurant on rue Tibourg just of rue
Rivoli just eat of the hotel de ville. It was a lamb dish with potatoes and a
sauce. The lamb was overcooked and bland. It was a real pity because the rest of
the meal was outstanding. My wife and I were torn when ordering the appetizers and
decided to each order something different. We then tried each others and switched.
Both selections were incredible. The desserts we had were also incredible. It was
difficult to understand how they could do such a tremendous job on the first and
last course and have such a disappointing main dish.


France does indeed have great bread. Unfortunately I am gluten intolerant
and cannot eat it at all. This is why I didn't mention it. Bread, "the
staff of life," makes me truly ill.

My sympathies. My wife is allergic to bread and was celiac as a kid so still has
trouble with gluten. I had many tasty baguettes during my trips to France. The bet
we had was while visiting relatives between Lausanne and Geneva and slipping across
the border to a little patisserie where they had the best bread I have ever tasted.
It made really good sandwiches with the local country pate.

(David Horne) wrote in message news:1g7ifge.mjfh2sp4ncn0N%this_address_is_for_sp ...
S Viemeister wrote:

Owain wrote:

"Derek McBryde" wrote
| Oh and did I mention the poached salmon I ate in a caravan
| in Donegal in Ireland. )

Poached always tastes better than shop-bought.

True, wild salmon does taste better than farmed.

I have both with some frequency, probably about 3/4 of what I eat is
farmed, and I think it's largely (if not exclusively) true that wild is
better, but the way farmed salmon has been described by some
chefs/restauranteurs recently, you'd think it tasted like raw horse's
brain. I don't think it's that bad at all- and at least in the UK, it's
a good cheap, and very healthy food. (It's probably the cheapest fresh
fish you can buy, per pound here.) What would a japanese restauarant use
for sake sashimi- only wild? It always tastes good in that kind of
restauarant, wherever I've had it.

David

I think they were joking...

Jeremy wrote:

On 13/1/04 20:26, in article , "S Viemeister"
wrote:

[...]

Good Scottish cooking with fresh, high quality ingredients, is also
excellent, and, like Norwegian food, often under-rated.

Really? What Norwegian food is under-rated? My experience is that, apart
from the excellent fresh fish, Norwegian food ranges from the tastless
(Norvegia cheese etc) to the disgusting (pinnekoett, lutefisk et al).

Speak for yourself! One of the things I most miss from my youth in
Minnesota is the Christmas Eve meal of lutefisk (served with a rich
cream sauce seasoned with allspice) and warm, spicy, raisin-filled rice
pudding for dessert!

On 13/1/04 11:26 pm, in article
1g7iu3s.1fcpjajz7ysvjN%this_address_is_for_spam@ya hoo.co.uk, "David Horne"
wrote:

Jeremy wrote:

Really? What Norwegian food is under-rated?

All of it.

My experience is that, apart
from the excellent fresh fish, Norwegian food ranges from the tastless
(Norvegia cheese etc) to the disgusting (pinnekoett, lutefisk et al).

Thanks for proving my point.

Eh?

J;

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote in message ...
Jeremy wrote:

On 13/1/04 20:26, in article , "S Viemeister"
wrote:

[...]

Good Scottish cooking with fresh, high quality ingredients, is also
excellent, and, like Norwegian food, often under-rated.

Really? What Norwegian food is under-rated? My experience is that, apart
from the excellent fresh fish, Norwegian food ranges from the tastless
(Norvegia cheese etc) to the disgusting (pinnekoett, lutefisk et al).

Speak for yourself! One of the things I most miss from my youth in
Minnesota is the Christmas Eve meal of lutefisk (served with a rich
cream sauce seasoned with allspice) and warm, spicy, raisin-filled rice
pudding for dessert!

Bleughhh!!! ;-) You've just reminded me of another abomination -
what's it called ... roemmegroet or something?

Honestly - I spent a number of months in Norway a few years ago and
before I left a colleague invited me to her home for a "traditional
Norwegian meal". I'm not generally a picky eater, but it was all I
could do to choke it down.

(In Sweden, however, I would agree that the food is under-rated.)

J;

Jeremy wrote:

Honestly - I spent a number of months in Norway a few years ago and
before I left a colleague invited me to her home for a "traditional
Norwegian meal". I'm not generally a picky eater, but it was all I
could do to choke it down.

Well, as most people seem to like it, maybe you are a picky eater, in
this case.

As for 'proving my point' in the other post, well you named a couple of
foods, one of which is rarely eaten more than once a year (pinnekjøt),
lutefisk isn't eaten at all where my family comes from. However, they
_are_ examples of what some people pull out of the proverbial hat when
berating Norwegian food (though I like pinnekjøt a lot, and I've said
before it's an acquired taste, and you don't _want_ to eat it that
much.) Well, some my favourite foods, would include potato balls,
meatcakes (homemade, and taste like nothing else on earth), lamb and
cabbage stew, various roast meats, I've mentioned reindeer already. And
it goes on, and they taste quite unique and tend to be distinctive to
the particular areas they come from. You don't need to like any of it,
of course, but given what you describe as 'disgusting' I'm not sure if
I'd trust your tastebuds.

David

--
David Horne- (website under reconstruction)
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

David Horne wrote:

You don't need to like any of it,
of course, but given what you describe as 'disgusting' I'm not sure if
I'd trust your tastebuds.

That makes two of us! (Even within the same family, food preferences
can vary widely - I don't think I would describe ANYTHING considered fit
for human consumption as "disgusting", even if it was not to my personal
taste.)

S Viemeister wrote:

Good Scottish cooking with fresh, high quality ingredients, is also
excellent, and, like Norwegian food, often under-rated.

The Mars Bars and Creme Eggs should be fresh, then.

--
PB
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