03-13-2003, 07:44 AM
LOL!
I prefer the term "chips" myself. US-style "shoe-string fries"(a la Mickey D's) are generally crap, and the only good thing I see about them is I can throw them in the freezer for a week, take them out and deep fry them for 5 minutes, and they'll be as crisp as ever. But UK Fish and Chips-style potatoes come in nice thick chunks. Usually wave-cut too.
For true culinary weirdness, you should try the Orient. Sushi is NOTHING compared to:
Pig viscera soup(intestines, liver, kidneys, maybe stomach sometimes)
Century eggs(actually, just 100 DAYS old)
And there's probably others, but I won't delve into that at the moment.
Pig Viscera Soup:
A combination of garlic, black pepper(unground) and some other spices boiled together with the various innards of the pig. Overall very tasty. Try to make sure your liver is properly cooked, not too hard(overdone) nor too soft(undercooked) At the very least the outside should not be red. Same rules for kidney, except that it's "properly cooked" only when you can snap it in half simply by folding it.
Century eggs:
Made from duck/chicken eggs. Used to be wrapped in straw and bunged into a mixture of horse manure and piss. Nowadays they still wrap it in straw but use ammonia instead. The albumen(white) becomes a transluscent black jelly.. The yolk becomes a greenish yellow powder(kind of like when you hard-boil an egg) It's actually pretty good. Sometimes eaten with raw ginger to "balance" the flavour. Some people may not like the overpowering ammonia flavour though(depends on how well they did the chemical process)
I prefer the term "chips" myself. US-style "shoe-string fries"(a la Mickey D's) are generally crap, and the only good thing I see about them is I can throw them in the freezer for a week, take them out and deep fry them for 5 minutes, and they'll be as crisp as ever. But UK Fish and Chips-style potatoes come in nice thick chunks. Usually wave-cut too.
For true culinary weirdness, you should try the Orient. Sushi is NOTHING compared to:
Pig viscera soup(intestines, liver, kidneys, maybe stomach sometimes)
Century eggs(actually, just 100 DAYS old)
And there's probably others, but I won't delve into that at the moment.
Pig Viscera Soup:
A combination of garlic, black pepper(unground) and some other spices boiled together with the various innards of the pig. Overall very tasty. Try to make sure your liver is properly cooked, not too hard(overdone) nor too soft(undercooked) At the very least the outside should not be red. Same rules for kidney, except that it's "properly cooked" only when you can snap it in half simply by folding it.
Century eggs:
Made from duck/chicken eggs. Used to be wrapped in straw and bunged into a mixture of horse manure and piss. Nowadays they still wrap it in straw but use ammonia instead. The albumen(white) becomes a transluscent black jelly.. The yolk becomes a greenish yellow powder(kind of like when you hard-boil an egg) It's actually pretty good. Sometimes eaten with raw ginger to "balance" the flavour. Some people may not like the overpowering ammonia flavour though(depends on how well they did the chemical process)