Foods headed for Extinction

Originally Posted by ratboycom

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My Italian Grandmother always had canned Smoked Oysters out whenever there were family holiday parties and it became somewhat a tradition on that side of the family. Until I read the few posts on here I have never met anyone outside of my Father's family that enjoys (or even tried) Smoked Oysters. Is this some kind of regional thing? In the Pac NW everyone thought I was crazy for eating them.
You know what, I have no idea. My fathers side of the family is a mix of different European races (English and German are the two I know for sure but there's quite a few others mixed in). I eat so many different kinds of food that none of my friends/family have ever eaten.

Originally Posted by Dburr

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Posole is my favorite peasant food. Not exotic enough for you?
A good bowl of posole is something to be cherished.

My dad loves chicken gizzards, and especially hearts. We grew up eating fried gizzards, they were rubbery but didn't taste all that bad. I don't think my mom ever had the, umm, heart to serve hearts to my brother and me. My usual grocery is a big Korean-owned market that has all these delectables in quantity, however, so I can try them someday if the mood strikes me.

Chicken salad will be around. Lots of flavors you can do with it to. Had some awesome curry chicken salad at this place a few months ago

Originally Posted by Dburr

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Posole is my favorite peasant food. Not exotic enough for you?

Posole was only ate on special occasions, and mostly royalty NOT peasants would feast on it.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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It's not only legislation, but it's also animal rights folks. Apparently, they have been such assholes to some fine eating establishments, that the owners simply stopped serving it to avoid the bullshit. Charley Palmer's place, in Healdsburg, is just one example. I don't think it is going to take legislation, just the concerted idiocy of a bunch of people that should be out going to school or earning a living vs. what someone wants to eat.

It is almost certainly going away soon. The animal rights people are always harping on it, and it's one of those foods associated with "snobby rich people" so it'll be a nice appeal to populism to outlaw it.

It's a real shame because it is absolutely delicious.

with food, and probably with other things, but food is what i know best, it's important to separate quality and fashion. food of quality can be fashionable, but maybe not. and fashionable food can have quality, but maybe not. sometimes foods become fashionable for reasons that have no relation to flavor. when socal was going through its "trattoria-er than thou" phase, I used to joke that one day some restaurant on Melrose would charge $25 for a bowl of acorn polenta (hey, it's tuscan, even if it was something that was only eaten to avoid starvation). i don't know that that ever happened.
i think the whole "nose-to-tail" thing is on the whole a good thing. but there is a certain percentage of people for whom it is nothing but gastronomic thrill-seeking. we'll just ignore them and focus on good souls like our own pio.
re: sardines, no, don't use canned for the en saor.
re: oysters ... yup, smoked oysters are a great holiday treat at my dad's house. and pickled herring!
and what about canned foods in general? the american attitude is very, very different than the spanish. check out a good spanish market and you'll find all kinds of great canned fish -- ventresca (tuna belly) is just one. these are old methods of preserving that have just been updated in packaging. to ignore them because of hte box is pretentious.

Swan's ovaries

Still trying to find bottarga in my local Italian supermarket.

Originally Posted by M. Bardamu

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Still trying to find bottarga in my local Italian supermarket.
di tonno or di muggine?

Originally Posted by M. Bardamu

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Swan's ovaries

Still trying to find bottarga in my local Italian supermarket.

I've only ever seen it in Pescara. Some foods aren't distributed outside their point of origin because of national and EU import/export laws.

Edit: There's some variety on Amazon, but I don't trust mullet that didn't just come from the water...

if anyone is serious about getting bottarga, gustiamo is a good source. they have both tuna and mullet. there is some variability, but it is a dried preserved product (roe), so it shouldn't be that big a factor if you're buying from a reputable source. but wow is it expensive.

You just can't find good lark's-tongue-in-aspic anymore.

The Lucky Pork Store is quite near where I live, and I always get a laugh out of the name. I think of it as the Not-So-Lucky Pork Store.

Originally Posted by foodguy

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di tonno or di muggine?

Either/or, although the mullet sounds earthier and nummier

Originally Posted by harvey_birdman

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It is almost certainly going away soon. The animal rights people are always harping on it, and it's one of those foods associated with "snobby rich people" so it'll be a nice appeal to populism to outlaw it.

It's a real shame because it is absolutely delicious.

I really don't think they'll need to even outlaw it. They are having great success at just making it not worth the trouble for good eateries to carry it. That will make farming it less profitable and then they will attack the weakened farms, so it won't be availabe to the private buyer either. I foresee a market in importing French foie in the next 15 years.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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I really don't think they'll need to even outlaw it. They are having great success at just making it not worth the trouble for good eateries to carry it. That will make farming it less profitable and then they will attack the weakened farms, so it won't be availabe to the private buyer either. I foresee a market in importing French foie in the next 15 years.

sadly, production is under pressure here in europe as well..

another foodstuff that might disappear is freshwater eel. Tremendous pressure on the species because of fishing, and farming them only made it worse. There is a light at the end though, ive heard about some lab around these parts that has succesfully made the eels spawn. Which might be the beginning of a whole new industry.

Originally Posted by Dburr

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Posole is my favorite peasant food. Not exotic enough for you?

I like Posole & Menudo.

As far as gizzards go, down here in South Texas they are very common.

I only tried Foie once several years ago...Nasty!!!!

But I don't like anything that's an organ, Liver, kidneys ect...