The Dream

I'll bet you thought I was only going to babble about food, didn't you? heh, heh...!

So this morning after I hit the snooze alarm, I had a dream. Well, to be honest, it was my third dream after having hit the snooze alarm for the third time. But I digress...

I was standing in a long line in a big white room, waiting to enter a second room beyond. Suddenly I knew that I was waiting in line for a Rosh Hashanah seder.

(Yes, I know a seder happens at Passover, but this is a dreeeeeammm, remember? Pay attention!)

The line goes into a large sort of community room with large folding tables and chairs, and the room sort of curves, with the line going around the perimeter. It's darker in the community room, and I am having trouble keeping up with the line. There seems to always be a big space in front of me, but I don't want to be unseemly and run to keep up.

I finally sit at one of the tables with my three other non-Jewish friends who have accompanied me. We are chatting very loudly, back and forth, when I suddenly notice the rest of the room is very quiet, speaking in hushed voices. I comment on this to my companions. An elderly lady with white hair, wearing an orchid-colored dress, leans over from the next table, puts her finger to her lips, and says in a breathless whisper, "Of course, that's why it's called Rosssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh Hasshhanah!" Well, whaddaya know.

At which point, the Gentile friend sitting next to me returns from the seder buffet with a plate of what looks suspiciously like corned beef and cabbage. Is that what they eat on Rosssssshhhhh Hasshhanah?, I ponder just before waking...

image courtesy of momskitchencooking.blogspot.com

Interestingly, as I was Googling for images of corned beef and cabbage for this post, I found several articles that indicated that corned beef and cabbage is actually an American dish that is an example of Irish and Jewish fusion cuisine, as the Irish purchased Jewish corned beef as a substitute for the bacon they would use back home in Ireland in the preparation of Bacon and Cabbage. Curiouser and curiouser....!

Did you notice I still somehow managed to include food in my babble?

Spotted Dick and Nasty Natto

I know who you are. You're that guy or girl who is hitting that 3:00 slump at work, and decided to Google for something juicy on the internet while your boss is out meeting with a client for the afternoon.

I hate to disappoint you...

Spotted Dick

I had written previously about my early attempts to locate Spotted Dick in some of the local markets. I finally happened to be killing time at Cost Plus/World Market, and in their international foods section, found a can of Heinz Spotted Dick.



www.britishdelights.com

I was so excited to actually find it, that I forgot the very important bit of information some friends in the UK had given me - Spotted Dick is always served with custard.

So I opened the can (the Spotted Dick looked like a small cake with raisins) and commenced to steaming as instructed on the label - open the can, fill a pot with water enough so that the can floats in it, set the can in the water (open end up), and boil for about 35 minutes.

As I started the boil, I remembered about the custard. Panic! I recalled that custard had something to do with milk, egg yolk, vanilla, and sugar, so I quickly started creating an ad hoc custard in a pan on the stove. (My cookbook, meanwhile, sat on the shelf unnoticed, staring at me as if I were some sort of culinary cretin.) It wasn't thickening, so I added some cornstarch. Still swirling, white and liquid in the pan. "It just needs to chill," I thought optimistically. But I wouldn't have enough time for it to chill sufficiently before the Spotted Dick was finished, so, genius that I am, I poured it into a bowl and inserted it into the freezer.

20 minutes later

It had been 35 minutes since starting the steaming process, and the Spotted Dick now looked a bit soft around the edges, so I presumed it to be finished. Dutifully following instructions, I ran a knife around the inside of the can to loosen it, opened the other end, and pushed it out onto a plate. Yup, cake with raisins.

Retrieving my still-liquid-but-now-with-ice-crystals custard from the ice box, I spooned some onto a plate, topped it with a slice of Spotted Dick, and sat down to watch something on BBC - might as well get the full experience, right? I have to say, I really, really did like the Spotted Dick, even though my ersatz custard did it no favors. It was very much like the raisin spice cake my grandmother makes, and "old lady cakes" (as I like to call any type of cake you will find at a church coffee social) are my favorite type. I've been told that real Spotted Dick is suet based, and this was not, so I imagine the suet based type would be much more moist, but this was still quite good!

Verdict: I would definitely eat this again, and next time I will be prepared with a proper custard!

edit: An English friend just read this and informed me you are not supposed to open the can before boiling...obviously I had low blood sugar which impeded my ability to read the fine print when I began this endeavor...!

Natto

bookmice.net

Natto. Natto, natto, natto. Sigh. If you've ever made Rice Krispie treats, but cheated and pinched a piece of the sweet, crunchy goodness to put in your mouth before it had set, you will have an idea of the stickiness and appearance of natto. But instead of sweet, crunchy goodness, prepare your tastebuds for an adventure in mealiness and putrid decay.

I've always wanted to try natto since, along with tempeh, it is considered to be one of the better forms of soy protein. Here's what I found about natto on one site:

"Natto is fermented soy beans. The beans are boiled, wrapped in straw and left to ferment for several days. They have vitamins, fiber and protein and thus are a good source of nutrition. Natto dates back at least 1000 years and eventually became a favorite of people living in Edo, the capital city of Japan at that time. People sold natto basically door-to-door. Some people added it to miso, others added minced onions and soy sauce and then poured the entire sum over some hot rice. It's cheap and has a rather strong odor. Natto is sometimes used as a breakfast food, mixed with beaten raw egg and soy sauce, then poured over steaming hot rice. Natto is definitely not a favorite of non-Japanese, though, and even many Japanese do not care for it." from bookmice.net

Now, I like tempeh. Tempeh is Indonesian, and is also made from fermented soy beans formed into a cake.

Natto is not tempeh.

I'm a fairly adventurous eater, and it's rare that I refuse to finish something that I order in a restaurant. I felt a bit sorry, because I was out to dinner with friends, and Markov was so gentlemanly to include it in our sushi order after seeing how excited I was to find it on the menu. And Todd was so generous in hosting our dinner. But I just couldn't. Jess agreed - the two of us left our natto and rice sushi on our plates after just a few torturous nibbles.

Verdict: Natto has surpassed Gefilte fish on the list of Horrific Foods I've Tried.

Pocky Sticks and a Black Horse Culinary Candidate

This evening after going to the gym, I stopped by the market on the way home for groceries, rebelliously asserting my right to shop in my workout gear. I say rebelliously because I have been informed by more style-savvy friends that doing anything in your workout clothes besides working out is très gauche, but ya know what? I don't give a rat's patoot. That's how much I care for that.

And now back to my story.

I happened down the Asian foods aisle and remembered that I forgot that I wanted coconut milk. As I was reaching for the can of coconut milk, my eyes wandered to the right and what did I see? Pocky sticks! Right there on the shelf of my regular market! I added a box to my basket, excited to cross one more thing off of my list of foods to try, and thought I might as well see what other treasures were to be found in the Asian foods aisle. I spotted jackfruit, which reminded me that I had breadfruit on my list. No such luck. So I thought, "Well, I've never had jackfruit, either! New one to add to the list!" And I grabbed a jar.

No, it is not cheating.


Pocky Sticks


The first to be sampled were the Pocky sticks. I was starving, since I'd only had two fruit smoothies and some coffee all day. A small box has 210 calories, so I reminded myself that no matter how dainty they were, 210 calories was 210 calories, and resolved to eat less than half the box.

They are very slender, and about 7" long or so. About 2/3 of each cookie stick is covered in a thick layer of chocolate. The taste reminds me of those Petit Écolier cookies, which are kind of like thin shortbread with chocolate on one side. (I guess there are strawberry pocky sticks, too, but I didn't see them.) Yum!

Verdict: Yum! A good cookie treat!

On to the tropical portion of our evening...

Jackfruit

After dinner, I decided to have the jackfruit for dessert. I opened the jar and sniffed. After my gefilte fish experience, I was feeling a little more cautious about what is to be found inside of jars. It smelled sweet, and I was surprised to see that it looked like sheets curled in on itself. From the outside appearance I expected big slices, like papaya. It is golden colored, almost the color of a peach, and the shape is almost like a larger, thinner-fleshed lychee. In fact, the flavor of the jarred jackfruit was quite like a cross between canned peaches and canned lychee. Quite good. I imagine that fresh jackfruit tastes very different than the jarred variety, just as fresh peaches and lychee taste very different than canned.

Here is a video that shows what the inside of a fresh jackfruit looks like and how to eat it. I'm including a picture of the jar of jackfruit, as well as what it looks like fresh. They are actually very large, but the insides come apart in pieces (see in the video).
It seems to be even more common in cans than jars.

Chose a photo with a person holding a jackfruit so you could see the size!


Verdict: Tasty! I would buy it again just for the heck of it (though I don't usually buy canned fruit other than pineapple), and maybe someday I'll have the chance to taste it fresh.

Note - Thank you to the following sites for these images: 2.bp.blogspot.com, pacificisles.com, proscitech.com.au

Pardon Me, Do You Have Prince Albert in a Can?

On my quest to try new foods, I searched for breadfruit, purple yam ice cream, and Spotted Dick at Whole Foods. They didn’t have it, but by the time I circled back ‘round to the same market-worker-guy with weird request #3, he was laughing.

_{Third conversation with market-worker-guy:
Me: “Um, where would you keep the imported dessert-type things?”
Him: “Like what are you looking for specifically?”
Me: “Well, like…British stuff. Ummmm, I really am not sure I want to saaaaaay...”
(Market-worker-guy’s coworker pauses from restocking milk to listen in)
Him: “I might be able to tell you if we have it if you tell me what you’re looking for.”
Me: “Well…this isn’t a joke…I’m, um, the British have this dessert called ‘Spotted Dick,’ and…”
(Co-worker’s eyes dart to market-worker-guy for reaction)
Him: (smiling broadly and laughing) “Oh, yeah! Spotted Dick! I know!”
Me: (relieved) “OH, so you’ve heard of it! Phew! I didn’t want you to think this was some sort of inappropriate ‘Prince Albert in a can’ thing…”}

_{Bonus for my dear friend BH – market-worker-guy bore a striking resemblance to Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords…mwah!}