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Food Thread: Fish Eggs, Fish Eggs, Roly-Poly Fish Eggs!

Ooh! That looks good! Except it is an odd dish that many people will carefully step around on the way to more conventional pasta dishes. Spaghetti alla Bottarga is a deceptively simple dish made of fish eggs, oil, and garlic...essentially Aglio e Olio with caviar! Except the Italian version of caviar is, A. much less expensive, and 2. made from the whole egg sac of Mullet, then salted and dried.

Yeah, it sounds a bit weird, but it is delicious, and a dish that I will order every time I see it, which is, sadly, very infrequently. I guess I should head to Sardinia, where it is a famous and popular dish, but that's a bit much for one plate of pasta, even for a glutton like me!

The base recipe can be used with pretty much any seafood, although I would stick to briny flavors like vongole (clams) or even anchovies! I think the pasta should be cooked in less water so the starchy water used to thicken the dish is as powerful as possible. And do not skimp on the garlic! But I shouldn't have to tell you that!

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65 Organizations Petition FDA to End Routine Preventive Antibiotic Use in Food Animals

A coalition of 65 health, consumer, environmental, farming, and animal welfare organizations has filed a citizen petition urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to withdraw approvals for the routine use of medically important antibiotics for disease prevention in food-producing animals.

The petition argues that administering antibiotics through feed and water to livestock and poultry that are not diagnosed with disease contributes to the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that AMR is associated with approximately 35,000 deaths and 2.8 million illnesses annually in the U.S alone.

I have no particular resistance (Hah! See what I did?) to decreasing antibiotic use in agriculture. Antibiotic Resistance is a huge problem that isn't getting any better, so we should certainly address overuse.

But that coalition of 65 organizations makes me deeply suspicious, especially the "environmental" and "Animal Welfare" organizations. They tend to be lunatics with political agendas, so let us tread lightly!

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'Cooking Oil Thieves' caught on camera in Fenwick Island

"They ride around with two large hundred gallon tanks inside their vehicles. Then they hook up to the tanks and are out of there in three to five minutes," Robert Quirk with the Fenwick Island police department told WBOC.

As opposed to "two small hundred gallon tanks?"

Well, it's Delaware, and they elected Joe Biden, so the assumption that everyone who lives there is a retard isn't unreasonable.

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From lurker "LF" comes more proof of the superiority of the American south (except for no snow!).

Green garlic is available at farmer's markets in the south. Bought and used fresh, until frost. Clean, delightful.
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Green garlic is a hint milder in the bulb, and the green stems are edible, yet a bit milder. Just happy to known it's not from a filthy polluted country.

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David Lebovitz is pompous and irritating, but he does know how to cook, and his recipes are rarely fussy. Here he makes something I have never made...Strawberry Jam. Well, I have cooked down fruit for compotes and such, but I am not a significant consumer of jams and jellies, because I am not, nor have I ever been a big big breakfast guy. Vacations are different though; I love trying local joints, which can often be amazingly good, even in areas that are not known for their food.

And...jams and jellies tend to be quite sweet, which is a big No-No for breakfast, especially the dreaded Maple Syrup on French Toast mania!

But Lebovitz's recipe is straightforward and gives the option to cut the sugar, which makes it intriguing, even though he is a toad.

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The garlic is doing well! I think. I know all of you are worried, but it is still tall and green and healthy! And if they survive the deer and squirrel apocalypse, and actually grow into something edible, I will be in garlic heaven! Now I have to figure out when to harvest! Late June into July seems like the consensus. But I'm a Dildo, not a farmer! In case it doesn't work out, send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!