Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Live blogging the pig ear salad, pt. 5

He thought it was "bacon salad." I don't generally approve of lying to children, but oh well. What's done is done. In any case, he spat it out. I also spat it out, though in a more quiet and ladylike fashion. The smoky, jellied, cartilaginous nature of David Tanis' pig's ear salad was extremely challenging.

My father's opinon:  "I was the only one brave enough to eat it. Lousy texture, lousy taste, slimy, slightly crunchy."


There we have it. Insane stunt complete. Full report on the rest of the meal tomorrow.

9 comments:

  1. i am so glad that i didn't eat that! was it supposed to look like jello? if so then why did you make it. I liked the duck though!

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  2. Well as Thucydides says, “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it...” Now, let's move on to Olives and Oranges, shall we? You have to LOVE a cookbook graced with a chapter entitled "Chicken and Other Backyard Livestock"!

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  3. Talk about a blind date gone bad!

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  4. "It was disgusting" says Jennifer (the Tipsy Baker) not even thinking about insulting her own work. Usually I wouldn't eat her food, which doesn't ALWAYS mean I do not like it. But she always likes it -- except not this time!

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  5. I'm curious whether how the Insinkerator handled the leftover ears.
    Where's David Lynch when you need him?

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  6. I woke screaming at 3 am. The nightmare was horrible -- giant flying pig ears chasing me through the dark.

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  7. While the pig ear "salad" may be a bit of an outlier, I'm curious why you think these recipes aren't working out. I had great success with some simple Tanis recipes published a few years ago in a spread on him in Saveur, and his approach -- use your hands, not an equipment freak, Mediterranean influence -- seems like it should be home-cook friendly. Really, really enjoying the blog; it seems a bit unfair that we get the pleasure even when the food is challenging to make and doesn't pay off. So thanks.

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  8. Telepsychic,
    I'm not sure what is going wrong with the recipes that are in fact going wrong. Even if I ignore the pig's ear salad which was kind of a joke, the food hasn't been anywhere near as good as I had expected. The chicken tagine was actually BAD and I'm so glad Philomere can back me up on this. I'm honestly puzzled.

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  9. Your experience suggests that reviews don't mean much for cookbooks because the recipes almost certainly haven't been tested. (Thank you, Tipsy, for ruling this one out for me.) Maybe Alice Waters can mentally prepare a dish or menu by reading the recipes but I know I can't. Or maybe Winter is just a tough season in the Tanis home. The more troubling point is the one you raise: you're inviting me over and start with pig's ear salad and end with chilled prunes? Our friendship will need to be strong.

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