Finding the New and Unusual

flyinglentris

flyinglentris

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I watched a great Japanese movie, Memoirs of a Geisha, last night and this morning went to look for something Japanese at the grocery store. I was thinking Udon.

What I found was something I had never seen before ... Pocky.

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Very light and tasty.

What have you found while shopping for food or kitchen stuff that is new and unusual?
 
I will add to this thread by asking - where do you all go to find the new and unusual? Do you forage in the woods, in the field or in ethnic stores? I'm lazy - most of my unusual ingredients are foraged on-line. :oops:
 
I can walk down any isle in several local Asian (mostly Chinese) markets and find many unusual things. I've seen the Pocky and many other snack type things there. Being from south Florida, I consider finding live geoduck, live dungeness crab and live razor clams unusual.

@flyinglentris , got a good Cioppino recipe I can mess with?:D
 
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morning glory said:
The Pocky look rather elegant. I love to forage in ethnic stores and I have quite a few ingredients that I have not much Idea what to do with! 'New and Unusual' is my motto! My latest unusual ingredient was Achiote (foraged on-line). I love it. Thanks to @CraigC!
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I have never used Achiote myself by obtaining it as a spice, but living in California, I have certainly consumed it. I did some research for you and found a nice wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixa_orellana

The more surprising things that this article reveals is that one of the more primary uses of Annatto as it is alternately called, is as a pigment, originating as native American body paint. It is described as a suitable substitute for Saffron in that regard and also, is said to have a similar flavor and color to Paprika and is a suitable substitute. I had thought that Annatto was used in Red Mole and yes, my research confirmed this.

BTW: Achiote is another food source that has arils. It is the arils that are harvested for Achiote. Annatto is the seeds in the arils, apparently.
 
CraigC said:
I can walk down any isle in several local Asian (mostly Chinese) markets and find many unusual things. I've seen the Pocky and many other snack type things there. Being from south Florida, I consider finding live geoduck, live dungeness crab and live razor clams unusual.

@flyinglentris , got a good Cioppino recipe I can mess with?:D
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The things you find unusual in Florida are common here in California, especially here in the Bay Area, Dungeness Crab.

Cioppino is a favorite of mine. I went on a date once and took the woman to Santa Cruz for the day. It was a weird situation where I was trying to make another woman jealous and pay some attention. At a Seafood restaurant, she ordered something petite and I spent over an hour wearing a plastic bib and cracking King Crab legs, Dungeness Crab, Clams and so forth, generally having a splash while this woman went hang-jaw on me. :cool::laugh: I meant no harm. It was something that wouldn't have worked out as my objective was someone else and when she tried to influence me by flaunting her new Toyota Celica, I went into turn-off mode. I fessed up and it was awful. She cried. I'll never do that again. It was long ago and younger, less wise me.

Anyway, I love Cioppino. The recipe for it depends a lot on what is available. I once lived down in Key West, Florida and the Cuban restaurant down there made a dish that was like Cioppino on steroids. You have a much wider variety of stuff to toss in down there. Between those two dishes, it's really the sauce that is different, but they are both tomato based.
 
Here's a nice example of the unusual used for food. Bunya Bunya nuts.

Bunya Bunya is a type of conifer tree that is not a pine tree and therefore, it's nuts are not pine nuts. The tree is of the family Araucaria, Araucaria bidwillii which grows in the Bunya Mountains of Southeast regions of Queensland, Australia. There are three existing non-extinct species of Araucaria. Until recently, it was thought that the Monkey Puzzle tree of Chili, Argentina and Brazil in South America was the only other species until in 1994, a small grove of a new species was discovered in the Blue Mountains in Australia, Wollemia. All Araucaria are considered fossil trees in that they are the only surviving members of the family of Araucaria which dates back to the Jurassic.

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The cones of Araucaria are huge, often larger than a basketball and heavy. It is dangerous the stand under these trees when the cones are ripe an falling. Deaths have occurred. The seeds or nuts are internal to the blades of the cone.

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Originally, the aboriginal natives in Australia would eat the nuts, crushed nut paste or bread from nut flour, as well as the shoots and fermented nut. Today, the nuts are sold and used for a variety of cooking purposes to include pancakes, biscuits, bread, pesto, hummus and casseroles. [Source Wikipedia, photos taken in Northern California]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_bidwillii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_bidwillii
 
morning glory said:
The cheeses look good but I'm struggling with the concept of banana ketchup! What does it taste like?
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We were given a taster and I wasn't sure to be honest as I don't like bananas. We had some yesterday with lunch and it tastes a bit like piccalilli but it has chillis in so it is a bit hot rather than a strong mustard taste you get with piccalilli. No banana flavour which for me is a bonus.
 
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