The Anchorage, Part 3

[McGyver]

The problem with frozen vegetables is depending on your freezer type and the frequency and duration which you open up the freezer, they can develop a not so fantastic texture fairly quick.
In general I find if you have them in a freezer that doesn't get opened a lot, and you use them with a month, they can be pretty good.
I make an evil chile stew using frozen peppers (sometimes)... I'm not really fond of the frozen onions because they are very bland for some reason... But that might be because around here they only seem to have the store brand.
The onions I tend to use fresh.
Unfortunately lately frozen vegetables have become somewhat popular and now instead of offering more varieties of vegetables and using better quality vegetables, the veggie companies are jazzing them up with sauces and trendy mixes like quinoa... So just like when soups became popular a few years ago, the prices have gone up.

 

[Dragonsegg]

If you just want the flavor of peppers try this. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Goya-Frozen-Sofrito-14-0-OZ/105070318 There is no texture to it however. It works for stews, chili, etc. I can get it even in middle tennesse in a rural area so it should be available about anywhere.

 

[Terre]

Maybe its the textural difference between canned and frozen he didn't want Terre?

Possibly. If they ask me again I'll find out.

 

[Terre]

I'm going to check up on these ideas and see what the customers think if they approach me about it again. Thanks guys.

 

[Terre]

I just went looking to see what sofrito is and discovered it's got the same kind of history as teriyaki: Sofrito - Wikipedia
My guess is the Corfu recipe is the original. For those who don't know why I'm referencing teriyaki it's because it's original is also as a dish. Specifically it's the dish Americans call beef teriyaki.

 

[Terre]

McG mentioned pig snouts.... In a few months there will be several in the store. Frozen whole pigs heads actually. There are a few Hispanics in the area who make tamales the traditional way (roasted pig head) instead of the common way (pork roast) for their families around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I try to remember to warn the newer checkers about those heads before they come in. They are rather startling if you aren't expecting them.

 

[McGyver]

Mmmmm... Snouty...
My mom used to love the pickled pigs feet.
Me... not so much love for them...
It's a German thing I guess... They gotta pickle everything.
What spoiled it for me was having met real farm pigs before...
Their feet are not the cleanest...
It's not a picture you can ever compensate fully for really, so aside from politely trying them and passing on it thereafter, it's not something I voluntarily consume.
I've had roast pig head before, but I don't really remember where... May have been a Chinese event... Probably...
Most of the meals with faces still on them that I've had were at Chinese events.
That reminds me of a a long and somewhat funny story, (which I'll spare everyone the details of) where me and my friend Rich were offered "Fay's pork", but we were both so tired and hungry that even though we both thought we heard "Face Pork" (several times) and assumed it was some pig face dish, we accepted it happily.
Ah, hunger... The equalizer of all mankind.

 

[Terre]

Pigs feet are a common second meat in this area for menudo. The other common second is chicken. Somehow cow guts just have never sounded like food to me. Adding pig feet doesn't sound any better.

 

[Mythocentric]

One popular food in Lancashire, though not as common now, is tripe. Otherwise known as the lining of a cows stomach. There were quite a few variations including one called bull's wessel (which definitely not stomach lining). I still remember my niece Susan trying it for the first time and pronouncing it delicious, until we told here which part of the bull it came from*. That was the first time I've ever seen anyone's face turn green!

* If you're still unsure, think reproductive organs!

 

[Terre]

So it's another word for Rocky Mountain Oysters. OK.

 

[McGyver]

Yeah... Tripe...
I have terrible childhood memories of that cooking in our house.
Depending on how you make it, it can have a terrible smell when cooking.
Apparently the preferred method was the smelly one.
My mom was fair about that though... I usually ate anything without complaints, so the few things I didn't like, I didn't have to eat.
My friend's dad used to on occasion buy or make "Thousand Year Old Eggs"... they are a horrifically nasty looking preserved egg.
Very, very pungent, with a strong urine-o-rrific odor...
Like a hundred horses peeing in one spot for a thousand years...
If you know horses, you know horse pee smell and this stuff was oddly specific to horse urine.
They were not so bad in the rice porridge (a congee-like dish, maybe called panyin or pinyin) he used to make, but he would also slice them up and just eat them like that.
I miss his cooking... He was a very talented fellow... A master musician and very good cook.
When he was near the end, his daughter (my friend) started to write down a lot of the recipes he used to make.
He made all of his dishes from memory or by taste, so it was not an easy task and he didn't make it long enough to cover all the best ones...
She is still trying to figure out his Cantonese fried chicken.
And I know his dried shark fin rice congee is gone forever, because me and him were the only ones who would eat it.
And the curried snails too... And the fried gizzards... Those were both great.
There was a place in lower Manhattan that made the snails similar, but they closed when they started "gentrifying" the canal street/china town area about ten or more years back.
Now the area is full of lousy mall franchises and trendy tourist crap.
Megh...

 

[Mythocentric]

Right! There's something going on here. I've just learned that Hurricane Gert is on its way across the Atlantic bringing torrential rain and high, blustery winds to the UK through the weekend and into next week. Especially the northern bit where I live! Thing is, this is the fourth time in three years that this has happened and it's beginning to look mighty suspicious, so come on you lot in the USA. What are you up to? I've got to tell you we are not going to take this lying down (well, at least the one's who don't get blown over!). Be warned! If you don't pack it in, we've got a whole mountain of unsold Barry Manilow records here and we're not afraid to use them!

 

[AlphinaNovaStar]

Is Tripe the stomach or the **** of a bull?

 

[Mythocentric]

Is Tripe the stomach or the **** of a bull?

Mainly cows Alphina but there are specialities (like the bulls bits). It's actually the stomach lining not the stomach itself. It's a long time ago now but the market in the town where I lived before had a stall just selling tripe in quite a few varieties from all over the UK and Ireland! If I recall correctly it can also be derived from sheep.

 

[Terre]

Yup. Tripe is the digestive parts. The twin bull bits have other names.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Bring on the Barry Manilow records, Myth! They don't scare me. In the least.

 

[Terre]

Same here, actually.
(His older music anyhow. I'm not familiar with his new style. I might like it. Dunno.)

 

[Terre]

Laughing at myself in a way here: At work I'm looking forward to the computer upgrade and having to learn new programs for doing the store's pricing.
At home my hubby and I just want basic flip phones so that is what I ordered from TMobile yesterday to replace his dead 11 year old one and my 10 year old one that is starting to have problems.

 

[Miss B]

Bring on the Barry Manilow records, Myth! They don't scare me. In the least.

I saw him in concert once at an outdoor stadium not far from here. Of course, that was many years ago, because they closed the stadium to concerts after Son of Sam showed up on the scene in the mid-1970s. Most of his crimes were in Queens County, and one of them just 4 short blocks from here, and it's only 3 more short blocks to the stadium.

 

[McGyver]

My wife likes Barry Manilow.
I have never intentionally or consciously purchased any of his music for myself.
I'm more of a Springsteen kinda guy...
But I will admit his songs are catchy and I do know the words to most of his songs...
But then again I know most of the words to most songs I've heard more then three times.
Even songs I can't stand.
I know it's not a Manilow song, but enough people confuse their songs that it may as well be him, but I swear if I hear "Sweet Caroline" one more frikin time, I'm gonna bore a hole straight down to the earth's core with my own two hands and tear the planet to pieces from the inside out, and it will all be the Hyundai Corporation's fault for putting that damn Sonata commercial on 56 times in a row on ten channels at once!!
Damn it... Just mentioning it... It's now playing in my head.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!