mx594m

iTrader: (1)

I get a laugh out of people that would not touch calf's tongue, but would rather have an egg. each to his own

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Ah, yes. You're right- my bad. Propylene glycol is the *safe* antifreeze which replaced ethylene glycol.

Long story short: Just about everything is toxic in sufficiently high doses. Hell, vitamin C is toxic if you consume too much of it, and can be fatal in people who have hemochromatosis. That doesn't mean that small doses of these same substances aren't perfectly harmless, or even beneficial. Just because something has a long, chemical-sounding name doesn't mean that it's synthetic / harmful / etc.



And that's fine- I totally get that argument. I have no problem whatsoever if someone wants to stand up and object to GMO foods on the basis of monopoly politics, negative long-term impact to crop yields, effects on the economics of farming, etc.

But do not try to pass off an argument which says "OMG, you should avoid eating such-and-such because it's made with GMO crops" in the middle of an article which is otherwise about the effects of certain substances on an individual's health. Because you're mixing messages here, and it detracts from the overall credibility of everyone else trying to make reasonable arguments about the same thing.

petrolmed

iTrader: (8)

There's one particularly scary guy in the south called Palmer Amaranth or 'pigweed'. It's super persistent, has developed glyphosate resistance, and coupled with its aggressive growth it proves to be a major problem in crop fields. On the bright side though, this 'weed' isn't useless if it manages to take over. Actually used to be eaten by Native Americans and is super nutritious.


And regarding pollination and cross-contamination, it actually can be prevented in certain applications. A certain protein produces sterility in the plant and cessation of pollen production. Provides a couple functions; allowing for resale of seed the next year since the crops wont replant themselves as well as preventing such crossing over to non-GMO passerby. Naturally could bring up other problems, but still interesting. Take a looky:

Transgenic Horticultural Crops: Challenges and Opportunities - Google Books

petrolmed

iTrader: (8)

Irradiated foods are another example. While not exactly the pinnacle of gastronomy and sensory wonder, foods that have been irradiated have an insane shelf life. It works really well in a couple processing situations. Not ideal, but has a purpose. Humanitarian aid, military rations, or SHTF reserves come to mind. However, the technique has essentially been given the boot due to the scariness that comes with anything relating to the word radiation. It is safe, but consumers wont be having any of that nuclear bomb food!

Godless Commie

iTrader: (2)

How the hell did I miss this thread?

Joe, just hop on a plane to Istanbul next time you have some time off.
I mean, if canned sarma or dolma impresses you that much, I have no idea how you would react to the real thing over here.

For the record, sarma is usually stuffed with ground beef and rice, and is served hot, usually with yogurt on the side. Dolma could be stuffed with either with ground beef and rice, or exclusively with rice.
If dolma is cooked in olive oil, it will not have meat in it, and is served cold.

Actually, Turkish cuisine is pretty rich in terms of cold vegetable dishes, all cooked in olive oil.

Incidentally, I am in Adana for business for the past four days now.
Adana is a kebap heaven, and is the indisputable center of the universe in terms of all sorts of meat cooked on an open fire. I have been eating non-stop since I got here.
I took a Vet from UK, a surgeon from Scotland by way of South Africa, and an equine specialist from Australia to a couple of places in Adana, and they all went nuts over the food.

Anyway, Tamek is a reputable brand. Try whatever you can get from that brand.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Ignorance? Apathy? Communist Conspiracy? The possibilities are really limitless.


I am seriously tempted to do this, given that we have direct flights from JFK and I'm getting a bit restless with my new job that doesn't involve much travel.


I suppose I should venture back to that market and see what else they have. I do have a hankering for some genuine buffalo mozzarella, and I believe they have it there.





Oh, an interesting find: Some people may recall my interest at learning, while in Germany and the Netherlands, of the fascination that these countries seem to have with American-style frozen foods at the supermarket. In particular, I was especially fascinated by Dr. Oetker's Big Americans frozen pizza. Of all of the things that a European company could choose to mimic, why on earth would it pick American-style frozen pizza?

Well, just a few days ago, I happened to be at the local A&P Supermarket, when I saw this:



Now, given the history of my interest in this company, there was obviously no chance that I was not going to buy it. And I must admit that, for $5.99, this actually turned out to be one of the better frozen pizzas that I have had!



The taste was subtle, rather yeasty, and you could actually detect the individual cheeses in the mix. A gourmet experience? Hardly. But for a Germany copy of an American approximation of an Italian delicacy, well, I must say they did a pretty good job. Much more gratifying in terms of flavor and mouthfeel than a typical Tombstone / DiGiorno / etc.

And yes, I checked the label on the back. These are, in fact, imported into the US from Germany.

(WTF?)

Sidebar: If memory serves (and, admittedly, it's been a while), I think that this is actually less expensive here in the US than it was at the Kaufland markt in Papenburg.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

I had one of those pizzas in the Netherlands, Joe.

IIRC, it was 2 or 3 euros in cost, which is even more baffling.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Was that all? For some reason I thought it cost more.

I just thought it was interesting. The whole time that I was in Germany, I never had access to a kitchen. It was either dining in restaurants every night, or the kanteen at the shipyard, or in the galleys aboard ship once they were operational. I spent a fair bit of time in town browsing through the shops, but was never able to partake of certain of the local frozen food offerings owing to a simple problem of logistics.

So, when I saw one of the more recognizable German brands sitting right here in a supermarket in New Jersey of all places, I was just floored. Say what you will about the east coast, I'm re-acclimating to the fact that while the fish tacos suck, we do, in fact, have a wonderful diversity of European and Asian foods here.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

It could be Netherlands-centric.

I do remember being very surprised at the food prices where I have been in the Netherlands. Typically, they were cheaper than US food prices.

Godless Commie

iTrader: (2)

Speaking of Dr. Oetker, their brownies rule. Or, rather, their brownie mix rules.

I also agree with you guys on food variety/availability in the US.
There are times when I miss having a huge selection of options to choose from.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Hmmm. I shall have to keep my eyes open for this. So far, I have seen only their pizzas here in the US, though I admittedly have not been searching very hard.

Well, variety and quality are not necessarily the same thing. Personally, I prefer to shop in smaller markets which offer a lesser variety of higher-quality merchandise (Fairway and Trader Joe's are about the largest supermarkets that I routinely visit these days.) There are many reasons that I avoid grocery-shopping at WalMart, for instance.

Anyway, Biber:





A hearty rice-based filling inside a thin green pepper skin. It has a nice, coarse texture to it, and a decent flavor, though I think I still prefer the bitter, oily taste of the lahana sarma. I know it sounds gross when I put it that way, but there's something really unique and satisfying about them.

TrickerZ

iTrader: (6)

Sounds similar to holopchi, which is what my Ukrainian grandparents used to make. Stuffed cabbage with rice, meat and some sauce. I never used to like it, but I also haven't had it since I was a kid. I'm not sure if things have changed. I love perogies, though. I'll be making some for Christmas Eve. The only way to get good perogies is from a Ukrainian church unless you make them yourself. Polish ones aren't as good IMO.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Wait, what?

Are you telling me that if I show up at the front door of the Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church at 4 Taras Shevchenko Place (near 3rd Ave & E. 7th St) in downtown Manhattan, and ask to buy some perogies from them, they will sell them to me?

Godless Commie

iTrader: (2)

I'd say, chances are they will just serve you some.

TrickerZ

iTrader: (6)

Probably, as long as it's near a holiday (like now). Talk to someone at the church and they'll tell you when/where to purchase. They tend to sell out in highly populated areas very quickly, so there may be pre-sales/ordering necessary. They do it for fund raising, usually. You can get other things like babka, keilbasa and kubinasa, too.

They like to have craft fairs as well. You should check out the church calendar if they have it available.

TrickerZ

iTrader: (6)

Just looked at their site and they have a festival every year. That would be pretty awesome to attend, I'm sure.

http://www.stgeorgeukrainianchurch.org/5222.html

TrickerZ

iTrader: (6)

This. Go to this.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Kielbasa! Yes!

chiefmg

iTrader: (5)

Ship and shipyard? Do tell. I know it's outside of the subject matter, but I'm interested because I go to sea for a living.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, which was a really amazing little town.

The ships were the Disney Dream (hull #687) and Disney Fantasy (hull #688).

At 130,000 gross tons and 1,115 ft length, they are bigger than a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, with a max capacity of 4,000 passengers and 1,500 crew. Big ******' ships, and utterly gorgeous as well:




That project was a hell of a lot of fun. I had utterly nothing at all to do with the ships' mechanical systems, my job was to lead the team which outfitted some radio studios up on deck 14 (top of the forward funnel, which was hollow), as well as what they called the Broadcast Control Center, which was a combination production studio, master control and cable headend located inboard on deck 4, forward. On this deck map, BCC is the grayed-out space just aft of the Walk Disney Theater balcony level.


The yard itself is pretty much impossible to comprehend in terms of scale without actually being there. By volume, their #2 enclosed drydock is the fifth largest building in the world:



That's a garage large enough to house not one but TWO cruise ships, sitting side by side.



I have a picture somewhere that I took of one of the roll-up doors on the side of the building. I was walking towards it from the other end of the yard (about .5km away) and I saw this weird little black thing at the bottom of the door which I couldn't figure out what it was. As I got closer, I realized that it was a bus. In this image, point A is where the bus was, point B is where I was, and, for scale, the tiny little objects at points C and D are full-sized shipping containers: