COnfessions of a MAD Antique Dealer

Today when having a discussion with people about food. their likes and dislikes.....and better yet, things that make them gag, barf, naseated....or things they just hate......my response is that I almost like everything.  Well everything, that is on the normal menu of the Aericans and Europeans,. I cannot vouch for things exotic, that are found in places like CHINA, the rest of ASIA and Africa. There are things that seem disgusting that I might  ventur a taste aprehensivly, and still others like eating the brain out of a live MONKEY that I wouldnt even dare witness.....Live worms are also on the NO NO list. I would however try a large roasted tarantual....becasue I did see the charcoal broiled white meat that looked like crab or lobster. ...and I might try a few of the deep fried bugs...but In Italy, they have a cheese that is crawling with live maggots....which I do not think the visual image in my brain would allow to swallow, but I probably might like the taste....

When I was growing up the very first thing that gross me out was PIZZA. YEp, when my father brought home a pizza for the very first time with my UNCLE ABE< I freaked me out. Looked like vomit  in a circle......and once it was covered with anchovies...which is still not my favorite....(PIZZA T ODAY is a favorite of mine.....) Next, when I was still very small, maybe 5 or 6 we went to a CHINESE PALACE, atop the MONTAUK Theater in PASSAIC.....It leaves an awesome meory in my mind..of Dragons painted everywhere...and carvings..and big red luxurious booths....and statues of QUAN LIN and BUDDA and the IMMORTALS....and I remember them bringing out  all this gooey looking stuff.....dead lobster in a white sauce..yeeeeech....and all other types of things....I cried.. I was hungry but wouldnt even try them....and my parents were cool, they diodnt force me....they askedme if I wanted a scarmbeld egg. I said YES....and they brought out an egg foo yoong....and although it had some icky stuff in it I ate it and loved it....and have been addicted to it ever since....and as for the LOBSTER in  cream sauce..(CANTONESE with garlic etc) I crave for it, as an addict craves for his fix.

My parents never forced me to eat anything I didn't want to....and maybe that is why I never really fought them If I didn't like anything they had, MOM would say, ok, then go cook something for yourself...AND I DID>...and haven't stopped cooking since then. But somehow.....I would follow their lead, and I figured, that if they liked it, it much be good...and I grew to like everything she made. There wasn't one veggie, meat or fish, casserole.....that I didn't like. EVERYTHING BUT, Blue cheese on salads..or in a dressing..It grossed me out. It smells like feet. SHE was making a salad dressing from old socks, marinated in garlic, vinegar and oil.  I couldn't even try it more than the initial trial... I was GROSS OUT...and mom liked two more things that went on my BARF list.  Avocados and Butter MILK.     I since began not only to love avocados, but I started a religion around it...It is the HOLY SYMBOL. People now bow down to worship it....It contains the secret of the universe.....with is giant pit...that <SPANCLASS=CORRECTION id="">contains all the mystery of life itself.....I love it with a sauce of olive oil,soy sauce, fresh garlic, and vinegar.....(ginger and cilantro optional) or in Guacamole....hmmmmm In the Church, OUR LADY OF THE DIVE AVOCADO, the priestess(a woman) give the parishioner a spoonful of Guacamole which is the Eucharist replacement.....(a tortia chip) and now for the only.....thing I cannot handle in the world of food and drink...BUTTERMILK

Buttermilk, which my mother drank as Nectar of the GODS freaks me out. It is liquid PUS, its moldy milk, its spoiled milk...I finally learned to handle yo...which was the 4th thing that I earlier forgot I acquired a taste for including blue cheese (and a dressing of it made with garlic)... BUTEER mILK would make me barf I couldn't drink it...I would start gagging before the glass hit my lips. It would be worse in my mind than guzzling remnants from a sperm bank....(yes I know grass, but it made me laugh)....Buttermilk should be outlawed except in Biscuits...where I think it belongs.......YET. I will still try it again, because I feel that everything should be acceptable and like able.  I like liver and kidney and tripe in soup or tomato sauce; I have eaten brains and eggs down south in in Vienna, I have eaten boiled eels with green sauce in the COCKNEY side of LONDON (not that good) the first time I ate CALAMARI was in Portugal 40 years ago....and it was an adventure  SQUID, now its eaten nightly in every DINER and  Italian restaurant in the USA....When about 12, my first adventure of imitating my DAD eating live Oysters and Clams...too courage.....I didn't like how they smelled..but learned to like them...and one MOTHERS DAY when I was about 12, I almost choked to death on a clam att eh ALEXANDER HOTEL  in Paterson NJ...which no longer exits....sad to say...There is nothing left in PATERSON that is classy anymore....I think its time for it to sink into the ground into a giant sinkhole and get devoured....

That leaves me to my message abotu food tonight. Above I didnt mention sushi. Well I didnt consider it food. Not that I thought it was gross or discusting.... I never was around JAPANESE  places, and only heard about it. It was raw. Not cooked with delicious sauce... Raw fish and rice.. How boring....Maybe if I was half Eskimo and Half CHINESE and starving, I would eat it to fill up. But why would I want to bother eating it..  Well as the years past, I heard more and more about it..and finally, I went to a all you can eat JAPANESE Buffet with sushi.....and since I really wasn't paying anything extra, I tried it....it was ok. I didn't love it and I didn't mind it.. At first its like eating a water chestnut. NO taste at all,except what's around it....and as time went on, I enjoyed the nothing ness of it...the ginger. pickled and pink, the soy _sauce and the green wasabi....and now...I really like it. I like it in a different category than I like other foods. The flavor isn't what I like...nor the smell. Its a combination of the textures...the spiciness of the ginger and wasabi horseradish......and the experience itself....and tonight, I ate about 16 pieces as I sit in front  of the computer...... They had a 50% off sale tonight......and I splurged.

Tomorrow I take my Membership card to DR ROBERT SAPPORITO...the membership card that makes me an official member of HYPOCHONRIACS ANONYMOUS.   You see my blood pressure has not been responding to my blood pressure...My feet hurt when I first stand up and I wabble for about a month now, and my ankles are somewhat swollen (called EDEMA).... and a few other symptons...of this and that....and when you look them up....its not necessarily very good.....SO I am hoping he can find some reasonable answer to the pressure, pain, swelling...etc, and not what I looked up on the computer..

I immediately stopped eating red meat (one whole day) cut out soda..even diet, ate some fruit.....and will cook veggies...and use lemon juice....and I didnt use any soy sauce on my sushi tonight.....So I will keep you posted....to see what's up beside my pressure.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this