What foods have you recently tried for the first time?

[Shaun]

We routinely eat the same things at home. Meals that are quick and easy to prepare, simple ingredients that are tasty and that the whole family enjoys. Boring maybe, but we like what we like and there is a convenience and consistency to making the same meals over and over.

Every now and then though, we try something different, just for the hell of it - as I'm sure many of you do too.

What foods have you tried recently for the first time?

 

[Morning Glory]

I recently ate kimchi for the first time - I bought it in a Japanese/Korean specialist shop and it is 'made in Korea' so I suppose, the real deal. I think in parts of the US its readily available - but no so easily found in the UK.

 

[Duck59]

I had some loquats a couple of weeks ago. I'd never come across them before. Kumquats I know, but not loquats.

The taste was somewhere between an apricot and a plum. Quite sweet and juicy. Big on the stones, though. Three stones seems to be the norm.

 

[Cinisajoy]

A new squash to me but cannot think of the name of it.

 

[buckytom]

I tried shrimp and grits for the first time this past spring.

It was delicious, certainly not shy of melted butter.

 

[Francesca]

@ Home: Courgette ( zucchini ) Hummus ..

@ Restaurant: A Lebanese Dessert with stuffed apples, filled with apricots, ginger, raisins, and lemon and lime zest with a syrup prepared from Rose Water, and apples and Brown sugar .. My husband and I shared this .. It was lovely ..

 

[Morning Glory]

I tried shrimp and grits for the first time this past spring.

To me this means simply prawns with corn meal (impossible to find proper corn grits in the UK). I'm assuming there is more to the dish than this? Where does the butter come in?

 

[Elawin]

Artichokes - not particularly impressed though. Too much messing about

 

[buckytom]

I'm sure there's a million recipes, but the one I had the shrimp aere swimming in a rich, buttery sauce that was ladled into an indentation in the middle of cheese laced grits.

 

[Cinisajoy]

To me this means simply prawns with corn meal (impossible to find proper corn grits in the UK). I'm assuming there is more to the dish than this? Where does the butter come in?

Grits are not made from I think the cornmeal you are talking about. They are typically made from hominy.
Hominy is corn soaked in lye.
You put butter in the grits after they are cooked.
Now I have never had shrimp and grits but I have had grits with butter and syrup or sugar or molasses.
Same as you do with Malt o meal or oatmeal.
Oh you can also do cheese grits.
Grits are a southern side dish.

 

[Cinisajoy]

I'm sure there's a million recipes, but the one I had the shrimp aere swimming in a rich, buttery sauce that was ladled into an indentation in the middle of cheese laced grits.

You just made me hungry.

 

[Morning Glory]

Now I have never had shrimp and grits but I have had grits with butter and syrup or sugar or molasses.

Its annoying we can't get proper grits here as you describe. I'm thinking that the butter element must be as you describe above and is part of the 'hominy' dish. So are the shrimps cooked separately or are they cooked in with the grits, I wonder?

 

[Morning Glory]

You just made me hungry.

I'm sure there's a million recipes, but the one I had the shrimp aere swimming in a rich, buttery sauce that was ladled into an indentation in the middle of cheese laced grits.

OK the question is answered. I now have a real sense of this dish.

 

[Cinisajoy]

@morning glory,
The two staples in southern food are pork fat and butter or margarine (oleo). You typically see one or the other in most southern foods.

 

[Morning Glory]

@morning glory,
The two staples in southern food are pork fat and butter or margarine (oleo). You typically see one or the other in most southern foods.

Sounds good to me!