18 Responses to “A Toast from Denvention”

1. Nathan Says:
   August 9th, 2008

   Are you toasting with water? That’s just blasphemous. (And I suspect I’d like PF Chang just fine.)

2. Michelle K Says:
   August 9th, 2008

   UCF SHIRTS!

   AWESOME!

   Have you been asked about the shirts? Did you find Scalzi? Are you having a blast? It looks like it!

3. Nathan Says:
   August 9th, 2008

   I didn’t even notice the T-shirts…I was too busy whining about unholy water.

4. John the Scientist Says:
   August 10th, 2008

   While decidedly inauthentic, I suspect that PF Chang’s does not offer any menu item that would cause Nathan to exclaim “OMG This is so #^%$ horrible I can hardly $&%# believe it”, so I guess he’d be perfectly happy there. The man does eat Dominoes Pizza, after all.

5. Eric Says:
   August 10th, 2008

   I have to confess… P.F. Chang’s offers a lot of menu items that would cause me to exclaim “OMG this is so….” But then I’m still working myself up to the daring necessary to try the rooster’s feet at the decidedly more authentic Chinese restaurant up on Central Avenue in Charlotte’s tiny “Little China” zone.* So consider me quirky in that regard, and in no position to judge you for going to… that place….

   ——–

   *Honestly, it may never happen. But I really have been trying to get up the nerve. I don’t remember if they have stinky tofu on the menu there or not.

6. Nathan Says:
   August 10th, 2008

   The man does eat Dominoes Pizza, after all.

   Not any time recently.

7. John the Scientist Says:
   August 10th, 2008

   Eric -rooster feet? C’mon dude, go for the frog. With fresh garlic.

8. Eric Says:
   August 10th, 2008

   I’ll see if it’s on the menu next time I’m there.

9. John the Scientist Says:
   August 10th, 2008

   Alternatively, you can make a trip up to NYC and join Nathan and I at Spicy and Tasty.

   Frog and stinky tofu in the same meal. Who will survive? Next time on UCF Adventures in Totally Effed Up Food.

   /announcer mode

10. Jeri Says:
    August 10th, 2008

    There are no frogs legs, shrimp or fish with heads, or chicken feet at PF Changs. But – there were rare ahi tuna, spicy shrimp & scallops, chicken wraps, shrimp dumplings, and lots of other interesting items.

    Yes, Nathan, we were toasting with water – service was a little slow on the foo-foo drinks. Plus – water is what I drink, I’m a cheap date. We also failed to use chopsticks consistently, we got confused on our passing to the left vs. passing to the right, we may have double dipped and probably dropped a napkin or two. Some may call us rude – I prefer to think of us as rugged individualists.

    Besides – the company – which included Janiece’s awesome husband Terry, and Tania’s friend Lance (from Making Light) as well as her dad – was superb. It would have made a meal at McDonalds into a feast.

11. Jeri Says:
    August 10th, 2008

    Actually – Bryan and the son ate at a very authentic Chinese place on Friday night back home that had shrimp and fish with heads – and frog legs. (no stinky tofu though) They indulged in both. Go, smug family!

    Nathan, John – if I ever join you in NY for a Chinese meal it can be adventurous – but it does not need to be how low can you go, but rather how great can it get. It also needs to *not* include stinky tofu for anyone. Ground rules.

12. John the Scientist Says:
    August 10th, 2008

    Well, I do know a place to get great Chow Fun with frog legs.

    But Nathan is persona non grata in Chinatown right now… :p

13. Nathan Says:
    August 10th, 2008

    Hey! Cut that out!

14. Eric Says:
    August 11th, 2008

    Ironically, scallops make me sick. But I’d like to think I’m game for just about anything else if I’m in the neighborhood.

    See, the thing that’s tough is I’d like to think I’m bold enough to at least try stinky tofu, horror stories notwithstanding. And yet it’s sort of like “what would you do if you’re mugged?” or (for us civilians) “what would you do in a firefight?”–questions that you can’t really answer until you’re there, and you’d hope to acquit yourself well under the circumstances.

    Not that eating should be like combat, but rather that it’s funny how the issue of “what’s edible?” is so much a component of culture and upbringing. There are things we find revolting and “not food” in the West because that’s how we were reared; it’s also funny how it changes–when I was a kid, only 20 or 30 years ago, it was just taken for granted that eating raw fish is gross and unsanitary, but now you even find sushi places (or attempts at sushi places) even in towns you wouldn’t expect to have ‘em.

    In other words, it’s almost conceivable that our kids or grandkids might laugh at how we’re all a bunch of obsolete squares as they zip off to Soying Dis Odor, the hip and punnily-named stinky tofu cafe downtown, where trendy waiters serve up eighteen varieties of stinky tofu amidst the din of the latest Chi-Punka bands. Or something like that.

15. Eric Says:
    August 11th, 2008

    (And yes, I know much of my last comment consisted of me stating the obvious. Sometimes I like to ruminate on obvious things. Sue me.)

    

16. Jeri Says:
    August 11th, 2008

    Eric – I agree that what’s edible is a function of culture & upbringing, but I do think that pleasant vs unpleasant scents go a little bit deeper than that. (Although we westerners – particularly Americans – are especially persnickety in that regard.) I think that unpleasant scents, like painful touch, are nature’s way of telling us “Don’t go there, bad for you, may injure your body) I do have a fairly sensitive nose and am usually not game for eating things that smell, to me, bad – I sometimes even find fish sauce and/or overripe mango a little bit unpleasant.

    Is scent cultural? Is the smell of stinky tofu – or lutefisk – or balut – or whatever else considered a pleasant thing in the cultures that eat it? Or is the scent still a negative association that folks overcome as part of the cachet of “eating a delicacy”?

    I couldn’t say – although I suppose if I were less lazy I could research it. Still, if warm, aromatic stinky tofu is being served at the table – I’m probably going to be leaving it.

17. Michelle K Says:
    August 12th, 2008

    I think it’s both cultural and personal. At least for me.

    I don’t eat mammals, and with fish and poultry, have difficulty of what I’m eating looks like a body part, because it bothers me to think about eating a living, breathing creature. (Which is a problem because I love steamed crabs, but opening them up freaks me out.)

    As far as stinky things, long exposure strong odors often gives me a migraine, so I tend to recoil from any strong odor. (A student who came into our facility smelling strongly of curry and BO sent me home after an hour with a migraine of the throwing up variety.)

    That said, however, at the Thai restaurant we like to visit in Cincinnati, I’m bothered not by the smell of the food, which I like, but by the fact that it always smells faintly of the wash rags restaurants use to wipe down their tables. That faint musty, clorox smell.

18. John the Scientist Says:
    August 13th, 2008

    No, no no. The Chinese call it “stinky” tofu. 臭豆腐 for the lingusitically inclined. The first character is the same character used in the child’s word “poop”. It doesn’t smell good to them either. There’s this sort of mass psychosis where they overcome the gag reflex and eat it anyway.

    The thing about sushi is that it does not smell bad, and once you overcome the squick factor it tastes good. Tsou dofu smells bad, and it tastes bad.

    And Chinese not from Chiekang or Fujian think it’s disgusting, too. Find someone from Beijing and ask them about it…

    Nathan asked me what food of ours disgusts the Chinese. Cheese, especially bleu cheese is an acquired taste to them because of the smell.

    Eric – I used to have an allergy to scallops as well. Eating sushi daily for almost 2 years seems to have cured me of it – I suspect it’s bacterial and I built up a tolerance. I say bacterial because older scallops still make me a bit queasy.