O is for Olive

For ABC Wednesday, where the week’s letter is O, I am taking you to a small medieval town in Provence, France. (I’d rather have posted something O about my recent trip in Guangdong, but my creative juices couldn't take me there.)

Prior to making my way to Asia in May 1985, I spent about half a year with my parents in their tiny apartment in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue; it was a mini-chapter between major chapters of my life. I had turned my back on a career in law and was experiencing a bad (and recurring) case of the what-do-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up blues. In hindsight, living among charms provençal was a terrific space to sort out the color of my parachute. (I now only wish I'd had a camera then.)

Flash forward twenty years, long after my parents had moved to a larger nearby city (and my father was no more), I returned for a quick visit... with my early model digital point-n-shoot. There's much I could say about Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, including that this 13th Century town sits among seven tributaries of the river named Sorgue and has a few lovely waterwheels... but I must get on to the letter O. 

Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, 2005

Among the attractions to the town is its Sunday market.  Along the river in temporary covered stalls an immense range of local and not-so-local products - fresh, cooked, processed and manufactured - are for sale. 

It is here one fine Sunday that I found one of my favorite foods: olives. From the unripe green French picholine to the ripe black Greek kalamata, there are thousands of cultivars.

Olives are cured/marinated and packed a gazillion delicious ways - such as with herbs, garlic or salt-brine - and I pretty much like them all (except the flat tasteless canned ones). 

Just thinking about spiced olives in Moroccan cuisine or an olive tapenade appetizer and I begin to salivate! And of course no other oils but olive oil go in my salads. In Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, the selection is almost overwhelming.

[Our World] Queasy Stomach? Don't Read This.

Most Asian visitors to this blog post won't comprehend my title. What's the big deal, they'll ask? But the rest of you...? If you do not have an adventurous palate, or you are vehemently vegan, this post may not appeal to you.

For Our World today I want to tell you how something outwardly repugnant can be oh so delicious. I am referring to chicken feet.

Wikipedia explains:

Chicken feet are a part of the chicken that is eaten in Chinese, Trinidadian, Jamaican, South African, Peruvian, Dominican, and Philippine cuisine. Most of the edible meat on the feet consists of skin and tendons, without much muscle. This gives the feet a distinct texture different from the rest of the chicken's meat. There are many small bones which makes it difficult to eat for some; these are often picked out before serving. Being mostly cartilage, chicken feet are very gelatinous.

I venture to say that people are put off because the feet are, not to mince words, hideously ugly.

Manila, 2011

But that makes them nonetheless tasty. Oh, and for the curious, the hard yellow scaly outer skin the live chicken stomps around the yard on is removed, usually before the feet get to the market.

There are a number of standard Chinese recipes for chicken feet. Perhaps the most famous is the dim style in black bean sauce. My honey stews them with black eyed peas, preserved bean curd, peppercorns, cloves and laurel leaves. Served with garlic stir-fried bok choy and a red-brown rice combo, and we've got a perfect meal.

To eat the feet, you bite off a piece at a joint, roll it around your mouth to chew off anything that is soft, then, as gracefully as possible, spit out the bones. Yumm!

Decades ago, my European-bred mother would have been mortified at the thought of any of this. But over the years, as she traveled to visit me, she too came to appreciate the wonders of Asian cuisines.

So, have I totally grossed you out? What is your favorite "strange" dish?

Japanese Pickles

I like trying new foods. I do have boundaries, but I will generally try anything offered in good faith at least once. 

I was intrigued by the specialty food sold in this store in a food mall in Kyoto. But I did not get to taste any of it. My guess is that these rolls right in front are some kind of vegetable in a mustard sauce, but I must call on my blogger friend Kaori from Shinjuku Daily Photo to set me straight.

Postscript: Thanks much, Kaori! Here we have one of numerous kinds of pickles - tsukemono - often served with a Japanese meal. This particular pickle delicacy originates from the Nara period over twelve hundred years ago. The famous kasuzuke, known as shiru-kasu-zuke or narazuke, was made for samurai by pickling fish or vegetables (typically melon, cucumber or eggplant) in a mix of sakekasu (sake lees, what remains after pressing sake mash), mirin, sugar and salt. The amazing part is that a great kasuzuke takes 1 to 3 years to make!  One more reason for me to return to the beautiful Kansai region of Japan.

Kyoto, 2009

The scene certainly fits right in with Mellow Yellow Monday.

How about you... how open are you to new taste experiences?

Sticky Stuff

Suman is a Filipino delicacy served over the Christmas holidays, which in the Philippines, it is jokingly said, goes from early September to end January. Traditionally suman is served as dessert at the Noche Buena meal (Christmas Eve after late night mass).

This delicious dish is made of sticky rice cooked with coconut milk and steamed in banana leaves. The rice mixture is then skillfully wrapped in buri leaves. There are regional variations in the recipe, and these days we can buy them flavored, including chocolate suman!

I found these being sold in front of the Quiapo Church in Manila just a few weeks ago.

Manila, 2011

Suman is typically served with sugar and grated coconut, or with a coconut based sauce, or with ripe yellow mango.

This is my offering for Mellow Yellow Monday.

E is for Eggs

Manila, 2011

Today my photo story is about egg delivery to the market. The eggs are brought in from the countryside in a jeepney (a vehicle that will get its own story one day)... I am astonished that the eggs survive the trip! They are hauled by humans into the marketplace from where they are distributed to the many private retail kiosks.

As always, all images can be enlarged with a click of the mouse.

And this is my post for ABC Wednesday and also for Signs, Signs. 

A little late note added for sign enthusiasts: It is typical for private trucks and carriers of all sizes to have a sign "not for hire"... and that is done to discourage drivers from using the vehicle to moonlight.

[MyWorld] Dessert Buns

In the weeks before and after Chinese New Year, family and friends gather to celebrate. As in every culture I know, food is at the center of the social activities. 

In southern China, these steamed or deep fried dessert buns are offered to guests in households and restaurants everywhere. 

Some make the buns at home; others buy them from makers like this.

Wuchuan, 2011

When they are fresh, still warm, they are mouth-watering delicious.

Eating (too much) with good friends was a big part of my world during my travels in China last week. I link this with the community at MyWorld Tuesday.

[MyWorld] Don't Pick Me!

For Cantonese the only seafood worth eating is fresh... very fresh.

In Hong Kong, people have a hefty appetite for seafood - consuming an average of nearly 50 kg (110 lbs) a year - and are willing to pay a premium for it. Thousands of tons of live seafood, most of it caught in the wild, are flown in from around the world. It's a half-billion dollar a year trade... for this one city.

The crabs, lobster, clams, scallops, oysters and other seafood is distributed to countless tanks in wet markets and restaurants throughout the Special Administrative Region. These are snapshots of a wet market I recently visited where customers choose their own live dinner for a nearby restaurant to cook and serve.

 Hong Kong, 2010

I "caught" these red fish in a tank. The perfectly prepared meal we had was to die for. But don't tell these fish that!

This is for Klaus and team's My World Tuesday - you'll find plenty of scenes from around the globe there! And there are more great takes on the theme RED at Mary's Ruby Tuesday.