Local Foods

[oz diva]

This isn't strictly local as I know it's made in other countries, but perhaps not so much the US. I just put a fruit cake in the oven for Christmas and beyond. It's got loads of sultanas, currants, raisins, glace cherries, peel & apricots, mixed with a little cake mixture and brandy and topped with almonds. It's the most amazing cake, and if necessary will last years.

Fruitcake is somewhat... infamous in the US.  There are stories (tales, one might say) of families trading the same fruitcake around for years like a White Elephant gift.

Actually, if I got one, no matter how old it was, I would probably try it. Traditionally couples keep the top tier of their wedding cake to serve at the christening of their first child. My brother was married 13 years before they had their son, and the cake tasted great!

If you think you don't like fruit cake, you just haven't tasted mine. I will honestly say, without fear, that it is delicious.

[Diane AKA Traska]

This isn't strictly local as I know it's made in other countries, but perhaps not so much the US. I just put a fruit cake in the oven for Christmas and beyond. It's got loads of sultanas, currants, raisins, glace cherries, peel & apricots, mixed with a little cake mixture and brandy and topped with almonds. It's the most amazing cake, and if necessary will last years.

Fruitcake is somewhat... infamous in the US.  There are stories (tales, one might say) of families trading the same fruitcake around for years like a White Elephant gift.

Actually, if I got one, no matter how old it was, I would probably try it. Traditionally couples keep the top tier of their wedding cake to serve at the christening of their first child. My brother was married 13 years before they had their son, and the cake tasted great!

If you think you don't like fruit cake, you just haven't tasted mine. I will honestly say, without fear, that it is delicious.

Oh, I don't doubt that American fruitcake is one of those things that was *so* close to the way it should be yet leagues away.

But really, there are tales of people using them as paperweights, doorstops, ballast...

[Thipu1]

I seem to remember a fruitcake toss in which people see who can get the longest distance from the brown bricks. 

However, a good fruitcake is a thing of beauty.  One of the mail order cheese merchants used to offer a Hawiian fruitcake made with macadamia nuts and pineapple.  It was scrumptious. 

There's also a bakery in Texas that turns out a fruitcake to die for. 

Darn!  Now I want fruitcake.

[Bethczar]

My mother has passed the torch to me this year... I'm baking the fruitcake. I just hope I can do her fantastically delicious recipe justice!
On the other hand, I have also tasted fruitcake that would definately scare a person from ever trying it again.

[oz diva]

Talking of local foods, did you know that macadamia nuts are indigenous to Australia. They are practically unopenable and it was an American who came up with a method of opening them without destroying the kernel in the process.

[jenny_islander]

Smokefish, or Alaska style smoked salmon.  This is salmon that has been filleted and hung over a carefully tended wood fire until it becomes so hard it goes "clunk" when you drop it.  If kept dry, it will remain edible for more than a year without refrigeration.  It is delicious, but has a penetrating smoky odor and is very chewy.  Can be eaten on its own or used as a substitute for very firm dry sausages, bacon bits, or country ham.

Backstrap.  This is the two back muscles of a not very large deer--deer here are not much bigger than dogs.  Delectable braised with wine, new potatoes, and onions.  In a larger animal this would yield filet mignon.  I should also mention the "deer-ky," which is an especially small adult deer (just the two flank halves and the haunches) trimmed, trussed, and oven-roasted like a very large turkey.

Halibut cheeks.  Simply put, the two "cheek" areas of a large halibut, cut away and sold separately.  Tender, delicately flavored morsels, easily substituted for scallops.

[Maujer]

Halibut cheeks.  Simply put, the two "cheek" areas of a large halibut, cut away and sold separately.  Tender, delicately flavored morsels, easily substituted for scallops.

I have the hardest time convincing my husband that fish cheeks are often the best part of the fish. He thinks I'm a total weirdo.

[siamesecat2965]

Halibut cheeks.  Simply put, the two "cheek" areas of a large halibut, cut away and sold separately.  Tender, delicately flavored morsels, easily substituted for scallops.

I have the hardest time convincing my husband that fish cheeks are often the best part of the fish. He thinks I'm a total weirdo.

I saw something on a cooking show where they used fish cheeks and I think I could eat them, as long as  they came nicely served...I don't know if I could if I had to detach them and prepare them myself.

[oz diva]

I have the most delicious (but involved) recipe for beef cheeks and I've had them at a restaurant. It's the most amazingly wonderful dish. The meat is so deliciously moist and tender.

[General Jinjur]

There's also a bakery in Texas that turns out a fruitcake to die for. 

Collins Street Bakery. We had some at Thanksgiving this year. My MIL always buys it and no one will touch it, because it's fruitcake...I don't sing its praises too loudly, the last thing I want is to set the locusts upon it. I think part of what makes it so great is that it lacks the typical demon fruit that infests most of these kinds of cakes: raisins. Foul, horrible, disgusting, vile raisins. I feel a little angry just thinking about them.

[oz diva]

What's wrong with the maligned raisins? They don't taste so amazingly different to sultanas, surely? I was so happy this year I found the candied apricot my recipe requires, for the first time.

[iridaceae]

My sister made Spatzle and green beans last night as one of our Thanksgiving sides.  It was the first time she made it, though we;ve had them plenty of times before.

Love Shnitzel but not so hot on Stollen.

Oh, I love spatzle the next day when you fry up the leftovers and they get so wonderfully crunchy and browned.

And stollen is good- as long as it's heavy on the marzipan.  I love me some marzipan.

[bigozzy]

Talking of local foods, did you know that macadamia nuts are indigenous to Australia. They are practically unopenable and it was an American who came up with a method of opening them without destroying the kernel in the process.

When I grew up in QLD we had a macadamia nut tree in our back yard and we kids loved being given or gathering great bags of them. The fun but difficult part was cracking them.
First you had to get the outer fibrous shell off before you even got to the bullet/bomb proof shell.
Bricks and hammers need just the right force applied or the whole thing would mush or go shooting off at speed. Not to mention the banged finger hazard! I was somewhat of an expert at using a hammer to quicly crack and open up a whole nut.

One Christmas we ound that you could crack them eaily by lodging a nut in the door jamb and forcing a door open on them. My father was a bit annoyed at the dents in the frame thoough!

Then came Bazza's Mac nut cracker which made it easy and I still refuse to lower myself to its use, silly I know but i have standards.

[General Jinjur]

What's wrong with the maligned raisins? They don't taste so amazingly different to sultanas, surely? I was so happy this year I found the candied apricot my recipe requires, for the first time.

They are horrible, rancid, wretched, and disturbing. Also, when bitten into they pop in a distressing way - like bugs. Soft, sour bugs  I loathe them immeasurably, and I like almost everything.

[blue2000]

What's wrong with the maligned raisins? They don't taste so amazingly different to sultanas, surely? I was so happy this year I found the candied apricot my recipe requires, for the first time.

They are horrible, rancid, wretched, and disturbing. Also, when bitten into they pop in a distressing way - like bugs. Soft, sour bugs  I loathe them immeasurably, and I like almost everything.

I love cooked raisins, but I have to say, this description made me howl. I'll have to think of this next time I am eating fruitcake. "Mmmm, nice and maggoty! Extra protein!"