It's got vitamin C. Where's the sappy tag?

Interested:

Approves.....



/You know he died of Dutch Elm Disease?

Shakes fist @ Guuberre....

Shouldn't have taken the time to write the joke.

kokomo61: Shakes fist @ Guuberre....

Shouldn't have taken the time to write the joke.

Hell, I'm just glad I'm not the only one that remembers that crazy old fart.

Guuberre: Interested:
[www.mentalfloss.com image 400x300]

done in 3.
Yule, have to pardon me.

Invariably, the summary of any review of these "molecular gastronomy" restaurants is that things are hit and miss but definitely memorable. When presenting the items that were hits, it's always foods that are already well known and common. The items that are misses are frothy fake foods made of cellulose.

Can we drop the charade that these places are somehow the best restaurants in the world?

I bet it hurts when you poop after eating pine needles.

Bet you couldn't get a decent steak over there.

Proving once again that if you are starving, almost anything is edible, and no amount of money is too much. I'm somewhat puzzled that the author couldn't make a cheaper, quicker reservation for twinkies at the local convenience store. Sounds more nourishing, and much cheaper. I've had nasturtiums, though, and they taste ok. It takes a bunch to make a salad, though.

My favorite "hunter-gatherer" salad, which I call spring fever salad, is this:
red-buds, from the red bud tree.
(Ignore the tiny little bugs. They're tasteless, and add protein.)
violets
red cabbage, shredded
iceberg lettuce, shredded.
Mix the cabbage and lettuce, and cover the top with a generous layer of redbuds, and cover that with the violet blossoms.
Poppy seed dressing goes particularly well with it.

gregscott: Proving once again that if you are starving, almost anything is edible, and no amount of money is too much. I'm somewhat puzzled that the author couldn't make a cheaper, quicker reservation for twinkies at the local convenience store. Sounds more nourishing, and much cheaper. I've had nasturtiums, though, and they taste ok. It takes a bunch to make a salad, though.

My favorite "hunter-gatherer" salad, which I call spring fever salad, is this:
red-buds, from the red bud tree.
(Ignore the tiny little bugs. They're tasteless, and add protein.)
....

But don't the bugs make the salad unsuitable for vegetarians?

I'll stick to carpet munching.

No, because I don't need to show my appreciation of something by consuming it. A real treehugger doesn't think that nature can only be appreciated by marketing and using it up.

Tree porn for those into that
Link (new window)

Pine needles are all poisonous (to varying degrees) so you might want to pass on that, or make it the last thing on your Bucket list at least.

AverageAmericanGuy: Can we drop the charade that these places are somehow the best restaurants in the world?

The best place is somewhere that isn't on anyone's list, because YOU like it, and restaurants are a really personal thing.

I've heard plenty of stories about places with Michelin stars. One friend of mine hated his experience in the Waterside Inn because it was all rushed (fitting in multiple sittings) and the tables were too close. Another friend thought the Fat Duck was pretentious and overrated. I've eaten at Rick Stein's place and thought it was overrated and overpriced for what you got.

My favourite ever meal was at a tiny restaurant in the middle of rural France. It included a chocolate mousse that was just perfect. It had no Michelin stars, and cost almost nothing. Then there's a tiny place by the seafront on the ile-de-re that serves mouclade, and for lunch, cost us maybe £30 for 2 with some local wine, which was lovely. Then there's the pub I sometimes go to in Devizes in Wiltshire that gets fresh fish every day, and is as good as any "named" fish restaurant (but charges about half the price). At the swanky end, I pay about £50 to an excellent local restaurant that's always warm and welcoming (unlike most fancy London places where they think they're doing you a favour).

You can spend millions on decor or farking around with food, and the tiny Indian place I went to in Birmingham (UK) that was run by a couple and full of tattooed locals drinking BYO lager will probably be a more enjoyable evening. Food that was cheap as hell, tasted great and had a great atmosphere.

hitlersbrain: Pine needles are all poisonous (to varying degrees)

Umm....not really.

It depends on how they're prepared. You can eat white pine needles straight off the tree just fine, or heat them up with water and steep them for a bit in hot (not boiling) water. You can also make tea from cedar needles, as well as a few other similar trees. Just don't boil them, because it could turn into a turpentine-like solution, which I assume is what you meant.

Ah... You make turpentine from pine sap.

hitlersbrain: Pine needles are all poisonous (to varying degrees) so you might want to pass on that, or make it the last thing on your Bucket list at least.

Ummm... no, they're not. You can eat the needles, the seeds (nuts) and the inner bark of true Pines without getting the least bit sick - except for the taste, perhaps.

There are many poisonous evergreens - but the Pines do have many edible parts.

Tree Huggers wouldn't touch it; fir is murder, after all.

FTFA: Was it delicious? Well, as the curate said of his egg, it was in parts. But even when it was not, the experience was extraordinary.

Sorry, but I prefer my food to taste good.

Then again, I'm a composer, and I am often at odds with people who think that all music should sound "pretty." If they're willing to shell out $150 to eat food they don't even like, I suppose I should let them.

Lone Stranger: sexy_trees_16.jpg


*sap*sap*sap*sap*sap*sap*

simon_bar_sinister: Bet you couldn't get a decent steak over there.



Ask for the Thorn-e À la carte

farkeruk: AverageAmericanGuy: Can we drop the charade that these places are somehow the best restaurants in the world?

The best place is somewhere that isn't on anyone's list, because YOU like it, and restaurants are a really personal thing.

I've heard plenty of stories about places with Michelin stars. One friend of mine hated his experience in the Waterside Inn because it was all rushed (fitting in multiple sittings) and the tables were too close. Another friend thought the Fat Duck was pretentious and overrated. I've eaten at Rick Stein's place and thought it was overrated and overpriced for what you got.

My favourite ever meal was at a tiny restaurant in the middle of rural France. It included a chocolate mousse that was just perfect. It had no Michelin stars, and cost almost nothing. Then there's a tiny place by the seafront on the ile-de-re that serves mouclade, and for lunch, cost us maybe £30 for 2 with some local wine, which was lovely. Then there's the pub I sometimes go to in Devizes in Wiltshire that gets fresh fish every day, and is as good as any "named" fish restaurant (but charges about half the price). At the swanky end, I pay about £50 to an excellent local restaurant that's always warm and welcoming (unlike most fancy London places where they think they're doing you a favour).

You can spend millions on decor or farking around with food, and the tiny Indian place I went to in Birmingham (UK) that was run by a couple and full of tattooed locals drinking BYO lager will probably be a more enjoyable evening. Food that was cheap as hell, tasted great and had a great atmosphere.

The best place I ever ate at was called Elizabeth's in Marietta, Ga. Sadly, it's no longer there but they had a bourbon pecan pie that would leave you unfit to drive. Their fried chicken was cooked in honest to god lard they made at their local farm (along with the chickens themselves) and the sides, oh my god the sides. The macaroni and cheese (done in an oven, correctly) was to die for. Unfortunately the hospital they were located next to bought out the land and that icon of southern food is now lost forever.

Fyi, pine needle juice is less gross than wheatgrass juice.

I know some carpet munchers in college and several at work.

Sonnuvah: fir is murder

Well played. And here I am making a mandatory appearance for such a headline.

I'll tell you what's murder, it's those damn logging companies clearcutting beautiful mountain land into mudslides, and reducing the old giant redwoods to 2% of their original population.

(Can I get 'funniest' votes for this? Hilarous innit.)

Hopefully this was submitted on a cell phone, so I can see it on dyac someday.

Oh God, the stupid. A chef should already know this:

NEVER eat plants that were cultivated for display purposes. All safety limits (with regard to type and amount of insecticides, fungicides, and any other agents) that are placed on foods intended for consumption, are not demanded for cultivation of plants meant for display. (And just because you've done it before without any apparent harmful result does not mean it's safe to continue doing. Each time you try it, you could be eating something harmless, or you could happen to be eating a plant that has sprayed with toxic chemicals, which might not have immediately apparent effects.)

/this goes, for example, for any Jews consdering making etrog (citron) jam after they're done using the etrog for ritual purpose during the holiday of Sukkot.

Good point on the chemicals. I don't use anything in my yard, so I never concern myself about herbicides when making my spring fever salad. I shall repeat your warning whenever I mention it from now on, though it is just basic common sense, I would hope, to most. Most people who harvest edible wild plants are careful about such things as a matter of routine.

gregscott: Good point on the chemicals. I don't use anything in my yard, so I never concern myself about herbicides when making my spring fever salad. I shall repeat your warning whenever I mention it from now on, though it is just basic common sense, I would hope, to most. Most people who harvest edible wild plants are careful about such things as a matter of routine.

Thanks. And yeah, it should be common sense, but common sense always eludes a few people, unfortunately (otherwise I guess it'd be "ubiquitous sense", wokka wokka wokka)

/ Of course, the term "common sense" was probably originally meant as "sense shared by (i.e. common to) all" (not "sense that is frequent in occurrence"), but hey, it's a joke
//....Huh, now looking it up in the OED, I see that the "understanding common to all" was indeed the meaning it took in popular usage by the 16th C., but predating even that was a sort of proto-proto-proto-cognitive-science meaning, referring to a core organ/faculty wherein (philosophers hypothesized) inputs from the five senses were combined to synthesize perception of the exterior world
/// And the easy joke (which I've thoroughly killed by now) is, of course, an old one, as a quotation in the OED from 1726 attests
//// Sorry for the tangent, I find etymology fun sometimes, and can get easilly distrac Squirrel!!!

WHAT if it's a datura speciminem??

SHOULD IW EAT??

YES OR NO