After twenty-five years of thinking about this problem I decided to write a web page about it. Here is the problem:
Can you find three foods such that all three do not go together (by any reasonable definition of foods "going together") but every pair of them does go together?
The page is extremely funny, but also serious - my favourite combination.
Loved the page, myself.
Korean marinades use pears for kalbi iirc.
PB on a hot dog isn't crazy tho the addition of banana is slightly more odd.
But my god. Strawberry and shrimp. Especially that very rich full bodied shrimp would be awful with strawberry! Gross!
And yet the brain is ticking, if you chose sweeter prawns that were very fresh and steamed them, I could see them going with milder raw strawberries. At least not contradicting them. Maybe some balsamic can bridge the two.
Well met, friend! After writing that, I started reconsidering how it could be done. I arrived at a sibling comment's observation, that ceviche could be a better approach. Not so far from the balsamic! Onion in the ceviche may help (on second thought, it might be another strike against the strawberries). But no, the original incident was a grilled skewer -- yikes.
One flavor that I've found to be a a very flexible "strange bridge" is mustard. But... ye gods... that'd only turn the retch up to 11.
I do enjoy this side of cooking, it's basically a form of problem solving where the pay off is delicious food!
Happy I'm not the only one out there that enjoys pushing the limits. Although I am also at other times the staunchest of traditionalists...
yeah I'd definitely try balsamic, or maybe sour apples, or orange marmalade? Shrimp, mayo, apple is definitely a thing right? Is the cream part required? What about a citrusy balsamic shrimp banana crepe, with a light sugar dusting? ok weird but I'd love to try it
you're on the right track, using a sweeter shrimp, in this case a langoustine, small red shrimps would work too. lightly cooked or seared. salt, fat and depth comes from the pork belly to provide a base layer. and instead of balsamic as an acid to bind, they used a lemon beurre blanc with lemon thyme oil to add even more zing.
balsamic glaze should work too, strawberry and balsamic vinegar is amazing combination.
fried prawns in mango puree and sweet mayo is a fairly popular dish in parts of china. prawns in honey wasabi is another sweet variant.
One day I decided to make a cobbler with thanksgiving leftovers... turning it into a "shepherds pie" thing but as a turkey cobbler.. that thing was delicious.
I love taking and combining familiar concepts in unfamiliar ways... it's at least one way to pass time during the pandemic...
Marvelous. I did an "all-in-one" dish for a winter potluck one year. Ham, cranberries, and (a few) brussels sprouts, in a base of potatos au gratin. It got a few weird looks, but there were no leftovers.
I also got the peanut-butter-and-mozzarella-on-english-muffin sandwich from him, which I legitimately enjoy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flavour_Thesaurus?wprov=sf...
I genuinely can't find the book (it's not modernist cuisine) but he recommended a book which is sort of part chemistry textbook part cookbook.
Pot may have been involved.
I've watched that show way too much...
The cultural differences between the UK and US versions are really something
Though I haven't seen either. I have seen both original UK & US The Office, which after the first few episodes of the latter (which just uncomfortably rip off the former, making the same jokes but poorly IMO) are each good in their own right, and definitely highlight differences between the respective television cultures, even if not actual society too.
Just to pick up the point about the office - the office US is really good, but the office is UK is an order of magnitude deeper. The US version hits it's stride long after they ran out of UK-material.
They do serve as analogues of the countries they're set in, but ultimately the office UK is much more of character study of Brent and is generally really uniquely shot and directed. Michael Scott is funny, Brent is truly tragic.
Also one thing that really annoys me about US television, is that they clearly assume their audience is too stupid to get many gags, i.e. the office UK is full of clever little gags that don't really make you laugh but really sell the format and location of the show, even if you don't notice them.
To prove "British" can be shit too -> Afterlife is rubbish.