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Friday Fun Thread for February 17, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Hate to put out the AskReddit tier question. But what did you find to be grossly overrated?

I'm a Chinese food enthusiast and shop far and wide for authentic ingredients to recreate dishes at home. Once I found out that a 'chili oil with beef 'is a thing that exists and is apparently delicious, I immediately hit the Asian grocery store and got some. It was even more enticing to me because said product is not available in North America, well I don't live in a communist country (joke) so I got my hands on some fairly easily.

It was meh. Really did not live up to the hype from the linked video. Regular chili oil with fried minced beef, that's it. Maybe the American who made the video just finds it to be better because he knows there is a forbidden quality to it and his subconscious mind does the work. Obviously, not everyone's tastes are the same. Mildly regretting driving 45 minutes each way to the Asian market for one product.

I tried watching that channel for a while, and bounced pretty quickly for some reason. Not sure why: the methods are decent and the presentation is high quality.

I watch that channel without feeling any noticeable sense of repulsion. But if I were to choose something that bugs me on a subconscious level, it would be the presenter's dweeb voice, It's a perfect "well akkshually" voice 🤓. On another note, I don't know why is that voice so widespread on youtube. Voice is a big thing for me, I just about can't watch foodwishes because Chef John uptalks more than a 13-year-old valley girl, absolute torture for my ears.

Watched a few, it's fine (other than the way he says longyau every goddamn time). Guess it wasn't the sort of food I was interested in--they haven't done much lamb, although that one northern cumin one really helped me figure that method out.

On your original question, it sounds like you might have hyped it up a bit yourself on the hour and a half drive lol. I suffer a lot of that with curries--getting frustrated because it's good but not anything special.

What kind of curries are you struggling with Indian or Thai?

Indian. (But I'd love to try thai, since the only restaurant within a hundred miles just microwaves all their stuff.)

Think I've got it though. I'd switched from a standard slow cook that was giving wonderful roasted-flavor to the faster and easier to batch-cook base gravy method, and it wasn't nearly as good for a while.

Finally figured out the point of layering spices so you get both fresh flavour and the slow-roasted taste. The one tonight was excellent, just blew my head off a bit too much. Last things I need are that smoky flavor and a few missing whole spices.

Every time I butcher an animal now all the bones go in the pressure cooker with some old onions and veg, to make either a base gravy or a stew base (do the indians not use bones except for one-pot bone-in stuff?). 2-3 shoulders get diced & pre-cooked immediately rather than wrapped, then put in freezer portions along with the gravy.

Makes it much easier to do big batch cooking without having way too much of one curry, and keeping it flexible for flavour and heat level.

(But I'd love to try thai, since the only restaurant within a hundred miles just microwaves all their stuff.)

You must really live in the middle of nowhere. Thai restaurants are usually subsidized by Thailands government as a part of their "Gastro Diplomacy program". Which is one of the reasons that Thai food is usually more consistent in taste/quality and so numerous relative to other foreign ethnic restaurants (having accounted for population ratio).

Thai curry is much easier than Indian curry imo. Less technique is required. And if you start off with a good curry paste, coconut milk and fish sauce; you are more or less all the way there. All those things can be ordered online.

Think I've got it though. I'd switched from a standard slow cook that was giving wonderful roasted-flavor to the faster and easier to batch-cook base gravy method, and it wasn't nearly as good for a while.

The base gravy is a technique not from Indian cooking but British Indian cooking. Some Indian restaurants have also adopted it because it makes cooking restaurant food a lot easier, but it's not a necessary component to good curries.

And also all curries cooked with the base gravy taste kind of the same. In India they start every different curry from scratch, and they don't all taste the same as they often end up doing in Western Indian restaurants.

do the indians not use bones except for one-pot bone-in stuff?

Nope.

Using Meat/bones or base ingredients like onions/carrots for a baseline flavor is a Western (French) tradition. Indian cuisine mostly relies on spices and East Asian cooking on condiments/sauces.

However, Indian curries are improved using western techniques such as using stock instead of water, browning meat, etc.

Finally figured out the point of layering spices

This is the key.

You also need to fry the initial batch of spices in the pan a lot longer than you think. Usually something wet like onions or tomatoes or coconut paste is there to prevent things from burning, that gives you the roasted flavor and prevents you from ruining your curry with the overwhelming taste of raw spices.

The goal isn't for a curry to taste spicy, but balanced.