Karen Foley
Lynn Raye Harris
Ellen Hartman
Diana Holquist
Samantha Hunter
Shirley Jump
Dee Tenorio
Jeannie Watt
Food, glorious food...and a comp
Food is a subject close to my heart - and usually my mouth, as well. Love the stuff - probably a little too much. One of the great things about working on Island Heat, my Mediterannean Nights book, was that my hero and heroine were both chefs. I got to play around with food a little, have a food fight, and explore the native cuisine of the Caribbean Islands. Yum.
Then I went on to write my next Blaze, due out in Feb 2008, Burning Up. Purely by coincidence, since I had submitted the prop for Burning Up before I was offered Island Heat, my heroine in this book is also a chef. More food. More yum.
I drew on my dining experiences at a now defunct Melbourne restaurant called Reserve for Sophie's culinary revolution during the book. Reserve was part of the controversial Federation Square district in Melbourne city, and had the most interesting menu I have ever encountered in my life. The chef was young, and he experimented with lots of interesting ideas - like savoury sorbets and parfaits, and odd combinations like tuna and banana. Now,I'm sure you think that last combination sounds gross, but I had it on three different occasions I liked it so much. A beautifully cooked tuna fillet, with a banana and butter sauce, capers, thin slices of banana fritter, and a banana icecream. None of the banana items were sweet - if you think about it, only really ripe bananas are very sweet - and it was so interesting and cheeky and fun, I loved it. My partner had licorice ravioli with one of his mains, once. I can't remember what the meat part of his meal was, but it was bound to be interesting.
Anyway, Reserve won restaurant of the year its first year of operation and kicked serious culinary butt for a while there, but the owner apparently decided to pull out and the chef has since gone on to open his own place, sadly putting his days of savoury ice-creams and other inspired combinations behind him.
All of which brings me to my question for the week. What is the most delicious, interesting, disastrous, or disgusting thing you have ever eaten? I'd love to hear your food stories - since it's one of my favourite topics!- and posters who are registered members here at Cigars will be in the running to win a complete set of my recent Blaze trilogy, Secret Lives of Daytime Divas (Take on Me, All over You and Hot for Him). So, go on, make me drool, or freak me out. I dare you...
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So unfair!!
GROSSSSSSS
You didn't win anything???
lol
Demand a recount
Fear Factor is wrong. Plain wrong. On Big Brother over here a few years ago, they did a Friday Nights Games segment (do they do that in the US? Where they get the contestants to play silly games to win priveledges?) and they made people eat a raw pig's eye, a really hot chilli, a fish eye, a bit of raw tripe, a big spoonful of wasabe, a witchity grub... I could barely watch it, but the interesting thing was that the prettiest girl with big fake boobs was the one who just bravely ate it all. Go figure. I thought she was very brave and determined. Especially when she threw up straight afterwards, as any right thinking person would. Okay, have I grossed you out enough yet? Kudos to you for taking on the slimy fish. I can't even look at sushi. I wouldn't be much fun on camping trip...but I'm great at shoe shopping...
Yummmmmm
Now, Mayan chocolate is more savoury than sweet, yes? I would love to try this. I have had Chicken Mole, which I believe is cooked in cocoa powder, and that's delicious. If it makes you feel any better, ani, I am tucking into high bran weet bix right now. Not exactly haute cuisine over here, either...
Wildest food I have eaten
Game for game
Squirrel. See, that's just too cute an animal for me to chow down on it. Pretty much any animal that has been made into a Disney cartoon is off limits - except for Porky pig, who is welcome alongside some sunny-side up eggs on my plate any time. I find it interesting that all the gross things people are coming up with are animal-related. I guess it's hard to find a really scary vegetable, huh?
grossed out as a kid
Say no to hairs
Anything that still looks remotely like it could once have been alive freaks me out. I don't even like fish with their heads still on. I have to make a little shroud out of my napkin and cover their faces if I am served a whole fish like that. Yes, that does make me a big girl's blouse, but I can live with that if it means keeping my meal down. Muskrat. Let me guess, tastes just like chicken, right?
Well, we're Chinese, so
why, hello there!
Great to have you with us, Fedora. How nice that you came from my website - my very badly maintained website! It's so out of date, and I really need to pull finger and get onto it...but am too busy writing to do so at present. I have to say, you are a brave, brave person. While I am a very safe eater in terms of offal and game-y things, I have eaten Emu and Kangaroo, and would definitely try crocodile or snake. But that's where my taste for the other species of the animal kingdom dies a quick death. I do think it's pretty funny that western culture has designated certain animals "food" and other animals as "pets" or wild life. Congealed pigs blood wouldn't even make it into the same room as me, I'm afraid. The older I get, the more squeamish I become. And the more I love gelato!!!! We're about to head off to Paris for a month, and Italy for two, and there will be countless opportunities for gelato in both places. Blissful sigh... This one place in Le Marais in Paris does an Orange Cake ice cream that tastes exactly like orange poppyseed cake. Bigger sigh...
Food
Chocolate vs Oppossum
I think Oppossums are like our possums down here in Australia - nocturnal furry little creatures that climb trees and sometimes live inside roof cavities? If so, they are a protected native animal here in Australia, but in New Zealand, where they were introduced by settlers to build a fur trade, they are considered pests and fair game. It's a very strange dichotomy for someone who has lived in both countries - in NZ can you buy possum slippers, in Australia, if you have a possum in your roof, you have to pay a man to come and catch it and lovingly relocate it. Needless to say, popping it on the dinner menu is frowned upon. Having read your post, should I ever have the opportunity of chewing on a possum drumstick, I will refuse. Not so on the Death By Chocolate, however. Drool is pooling in my mouth just at the thought. It's lunchtime, too. Would it be very wrong to have chocolate cake for lunch? My stomach says yes, my thighs no. Hmmm... it might be a battle to the death...by chocolate.... Mads, if your name comes up, I can hit you with some of my backlist books, if you haven't read them yet.
Food
Yummmm
You know, I am warming to duck. And I could definitely go a maple syrup and walnut glaze. I have a big pot of genuine maple syrup sent to me by a good friend - it has pride of place in my fridge and my brother has to be warned off it at knife point when he comes around to visit.
Hmmm...
I've eaten a lot over the years, so searching my memory...
I don't like game meat very much, have had deer and bear, and they are too strong, but I did have a bite of moose, and it was fantastic. My BIL is a hunter, and he came upon a moose that was badly hurt by another hunter who didn't finish the job, so he killed it even though it was technically out of season, and not liking game meat, I watched him eat a lot of it until I got up the nerve and then wished I had more, because it was really, really good. Better than the best steak I've had.
I can't think of anything really awful I've ever eaten -- there are these Italian cookies, Bones of the Dead, that the old Italian lady next door used to make. I love Italian cookies, but not these -- they pretty much look and taste like what their name suggests. They were probably supposed to be dipped in coffee or something, but you can break a tooth on them easily.
Oh, and broccoli rabe -- ICK.
Desserts... have had too many good ones to name.
Sarah, you make me want to write about food as well. ;)
Sam
You know...
I think we get off lightly in the game department down here in Australia because most of our native animals are protected - no chance to have a go at a bit of platypus or nibble on a fillet of wombat. If it was available,I would probably try moose. It's cow-like, and I suspect that it wouldn't excite my squeamish-ness too much. But basically I am a complete wuss when it comes to food. I don't even eat shellfish because they freak me out. I am trying to think of my favourite dessert... sticky date pudding is a perennial fave. As is the enormously high lemon meringue pie we ate last time we were Paris. Mmmm. It's rather sad that when I think of Paris, the things I think of the most are food and not art of architecture... In fact, if the Mona Lisa was made of chocolate, I'd probably eat it instead of admire it...
Blushing Bunny and other interesting dishes
Those wacky Germans...
They like a pigs trotter over there in Germany, too. Goose fat sounds really repellent. Usually, I'm kind of an equal opportunity animal fats consumer, but I'd have to draw the line at smalz, too.
As for Blushing Bunny - Dad food rocks! My Dad was very fond of cheese and honey sandwiches (weird), and peanut butter and honey sandwiches, which I still have an unheathly fondness for to this day.