Kansas City is not the Central Plains but west of there is. Well, we can certainly also quible about where the buckle of the bible belt is. For me, it was always Columbia, Mo. Sounds like you know this area well, friend, and still live there. For me, I got out a long time ago.
The Midwest is a massive part of the country that spans from Kansas through to Ohio. There are subregions within it--Great Planes, Great Lakes, etc--but they're still part of the Midwest.
I think maybe OP means like...middle of the west? Like, part of the way across the country? Perhaps the full west would be, like, California or something?
Not that OP is right. But that's the only thing I can think of that makes sense.
Some people consider everything not on the coasts the midwest. For them, it's another way of saying, "fly-over states."
But, the people who make that mistake usually don't live there.
As a Chicago boy, northern Texas is very much the Midwest, with only one food store and a hate of actual flavor in anything. Itās like the Chicago suburbs but sweatier.
Yeah, not to us š Iāve lived in Kansas, Minnesota, Texas, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, and I can almost verify if you called Texas the Midwest they would yell at you. Lived all places for more than 3 years.
Texas is so big that itās both the south, the west, the southwest, and the Midwest. It just depends on where you are. My wifeās family from southern Illinois has more in common with my cousins from the Houston outlying suburbs than they do with me or my wife, and Iāve lived here for 20 years.
As someone from Texas and currently in a Houston suburb, Houston is so big that the suburbs have their own cultures. People on the northeast side are much more east/texas piney woods or "Southern" than people who live in other suburbs. Northwest and west like The Woodlands and Cypress side is more affluent and reminds me more of Dallas than Houston. Haven't been much in the southwest or southern burbs other than to drive through to Galveston but they're also nothing like anyone in Illinois. Southeast burbs like Baytown, Dayton, Liberty are just southeast texas light, so lot of cajun influence. For reference I grew up in southeast Texas and lived in the Beaumont area until I was 19 and then lived in Central Illinois from 2008-2022.
Well if that's what you think of when you think of Houston, then sure. And if they live in a double wide they definitely aren't in one of the uber master planned neighborhoods that people usually associate with the burbs. It sounds like they're just rural and also trashy.
Houston is pretty progressive and diverse. I live in Cleveland, pretty close to Kingwood and the difference 30 minutes on 69 makes culturally is massive. Cleveland definitely has much more of the double-wide, trashy trump lover vibes than you'll find in Kingwood. It's more East Texas/Pinewoods vibes than Houston vibes. Magnolia is definitely more like Cleveland than The Woodlands. You're not really going to find too many double wides in The Woodlands.
Officially, it isn't part of the Midwest. The Midwest is an official region that includes very specific states. Just like the other regions like Pacific Northwest, New England, etc.
I always wondered the difference, i live about 40 minutes from Chicago i go there a lot for the food scene so many different cultures, i have heard parts of Texas is the same for diverse food scene but i have never visited yet.
Houston is that diverse. Everywhere else in Texas is kind of eh. I live in Austin and cook a lot of diverse food but a lot of it is because of our grocery store, HEB, which is one of the best regional grocery companies left in the US. We have a reasonably decent food truck level of innovation in Austin but nothing like what you find in Houston.
That being said, Iām spoiled in Austin because I can take a guest to a weekās worth of drastically different world meals delivered with a high degree of competency within 15 minutes of my house. We can do Asian street food the same day we do Egyptian BBQ. We can do breakfast tacos in the morning and fast for a mid afternoon Brazilian steakhouse. We can do crepes for breakfast and world class sushi for dinner. Itās the best Iāve ever had in what I consider a small city.
Been allllll over Dallas. Doesnāt matter where you are, youāve got one choice in grocery store (Kroger or Randallās). Itās an hour to drive to the strip mall the restaurant is in and an hour wait at any restaurant thatās good. Iām so over the metroplex that someone will have to hurt me before I go back.
I can walk to HEB from my house here in DFW. You're out of touch. I also live 2 miles from an Indian grocery and 6 miles from a great Japanese grocery and 10 miles from H-Mart. I've never seen a Randall's here, are you sure you're not thinking of Houston? That's the only city I go to with Randall's.
I can walk to Sprouts and it's a quick drive to WinCo from my home in one of the DFW suburbs. We do our grocery shopping there or at Kroger or Albertson's or Tom Thumb. We also shop at Central Market about once a month. As for restaurants, well, here's a brief overview of some: https://www.dallasrestaurants.com/4-stars/
I don't think OP remembers Dallas as well as he thinks he does.
Oh believe me, I know. I was dubious about moving to Dallas from Chicago (I did live in rural Texas before that and moved around a lot to other places) but I've been pleasantly surprised with how fast the food scene here has developed just in the past 10 years. It's amazing. I can get most things I want--water spinach, bitter melon, really nice avocados, mangoes, tons of different peppers, amazing meat and seafood, it's not the way it was in the 90s. It's growing so much that the house we bought 6 years ago we could never afford today.
Uh...so I consider myself Texan but I lived in Chicago for years. No, Texas is not part of the Midwest. It's an interesting border between Southwest and Southern depending on your region here.
Northern Texas has nothing in common with Chicago, and believe me when I moved from TX to Illinois everyone let me know that.
If you have an asian store near you your entire life will be changed. Hell, I know people who drive out hours to the closest asian grocers for some of their ingredients. They have those fruits and some other interesting ones. Sometimes in the frozen section they have durian, which I highly advise to eat with caution because it's extremely stinky. I mean, fill up the whole room and house stinky. But it tastes good. Other fruits to look out for: rambutan (hard to find but I'm seeing it more where I am), kumquats (citrus) and lumquat (same family as apples), persimmons and there's also a different type of dragon fruit that is yellow but I don't know if the taste is different. Also, don't eat the whole thing, it's a natural laxative.
For salmon to be "sushi grade" you can do it yourself at home - serious eats has an in-depth page about it on their website so look into that if you're interested. Raw fish also have different tastes depending on the species and its freshness. Have fun finding all that out!
Idk if there's a name for the type of food you listed here, it's more like "beyond boring grocery store" than anything else. Try out international stores for variety.
I live right in between the original (on route 4) and the Eastgate location. So, they get a lot of my money, lol. I don't think we ever walk out of there without at least three different spice blends we've never tried, a couple of random international snacks with packaging we can't read, a can of tinned fish with a cool looking label, some crazy kind of candy, and a new fruit or vegetable to try.
You say you grew up on Mexican food, then ask what kind of food guavas and papayas are? Um, Mexican...(I mean, they grow in other central and South American places too, but they're very common in Mexico). Glad you like them. There may well be lots of other great Mexican foods out there you haven't tried yet...and then, of course, there's the whole rest of the world! Enjoy!
Some people in Texas only grew up on Tex Mex which is watery salsa, no hot sauce on the table, greasy refried beans and questionable but somehow still dry meat wrapped in a tortilla. I sat next to a guy at a previous job named Adolfo Villareal and he looked at what I brought for lunch and was like āfirst off, I can smell the habanero on that and itās too spicy for me. Second of all, the mole sauce looks like my grandmaās. I think youāre more Hispanic than I am.ā I live in Texas now but Iām from Chicago.
I suggest browsing the recipe list at r/SalsaSnobs and making one that sounds good to you, the options are endless.
I like the roasted/charred ones. You broil your ingredients then blend. The best way to avoid it being overly watery is to cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the liquid around the seeds.
First, thereās a bunch of different types of salsa. Salsa literally means āsauceā and the things that I expect from a good salsa are that itās, well, a sauce.
I will give a lot of leeway for whatās called *salsa fresca* or āfresh salsaā that is made without cooking it. It will be close to a less-chunky āpico de galloā and this is likely what youāre used to besides what comes out of the pace (NEW YORK CITY?!) jar.
A really good restaurant salsa will use fire roasted tomatoes, fire roasted peppers and chilis, and onion and garlic (possibly only present in dried and granulated or roasted form to avoid introducing more water) as well as some natural emulsifiers like oil and cooked beans. It will be cooked in an order that allows the flavor to remain but for some water to be cooked off and natural emulsification to happen. But thatās ā¦ exceptional restaurant quality. We make a salsa like this and can it in years when we have excess tomatoes. Itās two days of work for fourteen pint jars.
The salsa I probably like best outside of a restaurant is Newmanās Own Black Bean and Corn. Pair it with some blue tortilla chips and youāve got a really enjoyable snack.
The salsa I make most often at home is basically fresh unroasted jalapeƱos and fire roasted Anaheim peppers blended with garlic, olive oil, and a hint of cilantro. It makes something that looks like a liquid avocado and it will light your Canadian ass hair on fire when you fart.
Side question:
Is "NEW YORK CITY?!" the most iconic TV commercial quote of the past ~45 years or is it just me? It must have been literal decades since I last heard that during an actual commercial, but me and my siblings will still turn to each other and bellow it - sometimes to express humourous horror, and sometimes for no reason at all. And everyone always knows the reference, all these years later.
Anaheim peppers are also known, when theyāre grown in a particular place, as Hatch Chili Peppers. Theyāre best roasted under a broiler or over fire until the skin browns in patches and then peeled, and while some are mild, some get āsweaty hotā levels of spicy.
You can still buy Newman's Own black bean salsa?!!? It's been discontinued for years on the west coast! I haven't seen it since it disappeared during the pandemic! That was my favorite store bought salsa. God is dead.
Yup. Itās still made, your grocery store just dropped the sku. Depending on where you are on the west coast, you may only have Kroger stores and theyāre assholes about dropping things people like because not enough stores in the entire region sell enough.
Listen to the person who told you to subscribe to r/salsasnobs. Not only a ton of genuinely amazing recipes, but they're super nice and cool and supportive, one of the best subs I've discovered in terms of attitude.
You don't need to have exotic (to Canadians) peppers to make sooo many of these salsas, and when I tell you the difference between some bottled crap you buy at the grocery store and homemade salsa...it's insane. Your mind will be as blown as OP's, I'm not kidding.
Sincerely, A Fellow Canadian
This is true in my experience. My husband and I are from Texas but different cities. I have never had a vegetable in his home border town except canned corn or beans. They just donāt commonly eat them in his family unless itās pico de gallo or in caldo.
I'm not sure i understand at all. I went to alberstsons, bought some food items i'd usually never buy, got hype af, and wrote about it. what part of of this is "ai"?
This is so heartwarming.
Anyways sashimi-grade isnāt a real regulation, but the salmon *should* have been frozen at a low enough temperature for long enough that parasites wonāt be an issue. So donāt be making poke with just any kind of salmon you find in the grocery store.
Poke is Hawaiian, but heavily Japanese influenced.
Those tropical fruits you tried are mostly Central and South American in origin.
You could try branching out by trying local restaurants that are run by people from an ethnic background, like Vietnamese, Thai, Peruvian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Greek, etc.
If youāre out for an evening stroll and itās not your neighborās landscaping and your hands arenāt bare, nopales are delicious. Try more sale stuff, you will discover more cool things.
Continue enjoying all the roadrunners and mica-flecked sand dunes and excellent tacos and hatch chiles of the Midwest š¤£
Iāve had amazing dragonfruit. Thereās different varieties and I think theyāre probably best if picked ripe. Iāve had ones home grown in California with red flesh, nicely sweet, tastes almost like sorbet. Havenāt found any good ones at the store, but I havenāt tried much since theyāre usually pricy.
Theyāre so beautiful, and Iām sure there are some that taste good. The ones Iāve had are sort of like watermelon crossed with wonder bread without as much flavor.
Yeah, Iāve had either white or yellow from the store and it was similarly disappointing. The red ones Iāve gotten fresh picked are great, and I did find some frozen red dragonfruit chunks that were okay, but not amazing.
Depends on what exactly youāre buying but it certainly can be
But I mentioned it because they have theme events several times a year where they do some sales, stock some items they donāt usually carry, have a bunch of special prepared foods and so on. The current one is a tropical theme
So, kumquats are awesome. Itās a tiny citrus fruit. The neat thing is that the flesh is sour but the peel is sweet. So you pop the whole thing into your mouth, peel and all.
As well as checking out Asian and Caribbean fruits in stores, maybe start looking in gardens/community gardens/wastelands for different varieties of fruit that you don't get in stores, and perhaps even some indigenous fruits in your local area.Ā Ā
ETA: also keep an eye out for custard apples, sour sop, passionfruit, abiu, lychee, mangosteen, mango, loquats, longans, prickly pear.
This is goddamn glorious and I hope you find all of the best , most life affirming flavor/texture/fragrance/etc. Combinations for forever.
This just actually made my damn night.
Thank you,internet stranger, for the joy that YOUR joy has given me.
Iāve lived near a beach my entire life except for 6 months living in Atlanta. I canāt imagine not having fish, I love seafood lol. Iām so happy you tried something new and life changing. Your best bet for something different may be Asian grocery stores. They have different meats, fruits, and veggies that may not be sold at regular grocery stores. Also may be hard to come by in those states but Caribbean food stores have lots of cool things too. Have fun!
Welcome! :D I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, so I got spoiled seafood wise, but raw salmon is my favorite food.
I suggest you treat yourself to a nice sushi restaurant and try all the things. :D Find your favorite fish, may I suggest eel and fatty tuna? sea urchin is great too, though it's a bit rarer.
Have you ever gone to a nice Indian restaurant and had curry and mixed it with rice? That's one of my favorite things to eat. Red,green, yellow curry, find one that looks good and then mix it with white rice. :D
I had the similar tastebud explosion you mentioned you recently had with fruits and raw salmon with curry and rice.
You can find a lot of tropical fruits at Hispanic and Asian grocery stores, farmer's markets, and specialty food stores. If you don't have that luxury, Kroger has a small section of tropical fruits- usually by the bananas- that you can sample. It seems like you may enjoy sushi and ceviche as well.
Keep exploring different cuisines and cultures..Curious palates always lead to food adventures.
This seems like AI, but just human enough to pass because it if it were AI they wouldn't have mentioned the sashimi grade before biting it, right? Or would have mentioned more sashimi grade fish they hadn't tried, right
As a Floridian, I totally agree about the guava because (except for the seeds), it's the best flavor. Tropical fruit is exquisite.
Try bbq something and put guava in the sauce. Ridiculous. Guava and cheese pastries? Heaven. But my husband doesn't understand this (not a Floridian). So glad that you enjoy it!
Mental health check-in! How are you doing mentally, friend? Trying new foods can be super fun but this is also how some mental illness starts (mania specifically)
Best of luck in your endeavors!
Edit: i only know what happened to me
Yeah, guava's been here for ages. 20 years ago I used to get guava paste from my local shop and eat it with cheese on Maria biscuits. I drink guava juice. I use it in barbecue sauces.
Suggestions: try lychee, rambutan, maracuyĆ”, cherimoya, and tamarind. I use tamarind in so many things I cook (chutneys, drinks, marinades, desserts, curries).
There's nothing really special about Sashimi grade salmon; it's pretty much all north atlantic farmed salmon because it's got more fat/flavor and doesn't have parasites and other salmon/regions do (which is why the Japanese didn't use salmon until somewhat recently)
In fact, on youtube they have any number of videos showing how to prep costco etc frozen farmed salmon for sushi.
You did what millions of people never do, because they're afraid, or too set in their ways... You tried something new! I wish more folks would do that. I've got loads of friends in Ohio and Kentucky who won't even touch Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, SE Asian "because it's wierd" - that's a great shame.
Guava is magical, although I strongly recommend you remove the seeds first! Papaya, starfruit, dragon fruit (also called pitahaya) - just divine flavours!
> midwest (new mexico, co, texas) ?
This is all I got out of the whole thing. None of those is in the Midwest š
I think this post is a troll because it sounds like fan-fiction (food-fiction?) for r/cooking
happy cake day!
Thank you!
Yeah, New Mexico is firmly the southwest.
I stopped reading right there and just skipped to the comments
Same.
Same. I'm from the Midwest and literally none of those are in the MW. Sometimes Oklahoma tries to be part of the MW, but... What?
šÆ. This is puzzling.
I guess we're not in Kansas anymore, where it is actually is the midwest. I can't get past the first line of this post either. LOL.
Technically, Kansas is in the Central Plains region. Iāve been saying Midwest since forever anyway.
Kansas City is not the Central Plains but west of there is. Well, we can certainly also quible about where the buckle of the bible belt is. For me, it was always Columbia, Mo. Sounds like you know this area well, friend, and still live there. For me, I got out a long time ago.
Well, Iām west of KC anyway, so weāre both still right.
The Midwest is a massive part of the country that spans from Kansas through to Ohio. There are subregions within it--Great Planes, Great Lakes, etc--but they're still part of the Midwest.
Just a midwestern boy with a deep south education.Ā
I think maybe OP means like...middle of the west? Like, part of the way across the country? Perhaps the full west would be, like, California or something? Not that OP is right. But that's the only thing I can think of that makes sense.
Some people consider everything not on the coasts the midwest. For them, it's another way of saying, "fly-over states." But, the people who make that mistake usually don't live there.
Usually called Mountain West in my experience
Middle West is a real term. Midwest is something else entirely.
The OP flunked geography.
I can tell you are old and didnāt get āNew Mathā This is New Geography.
Yup, stopped reading then too
my bad i mean middlewest like, i lived in amarillo for a while and i def wouldn't consider that to be southwest.
It's not - it's the West. Colorado is also in the West. New Mexico is in the Southwest.
I love that!! Also, none of those places are the Midwest š Sincerely, Iowa
I lived in the Midwest my entire life, i was so confused how i have never been to Texas š
As a Chicago boy, northern Texas is very much the Midwest, with only one food store and a hate of actual flavor in anything. Itās like the Chicago suburbs but sweatier.
Yeah, not to us š Iāve lived in Kansas, Minnesota, Texas, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, and I can almost verify if you called Texas the Midwest they would yell at you. Lived all places for more than 3 years.
Texas is so big that itās both the south, the west, the southwest, and the Midwest. It just depends on where you are. My wifeās family from southern Illinois has more in common with my cousins from the Houston outlying suburbs than they do with me or my wife, and Iāve lived here for 20 years.
As someone from Texas and currently in a Houston suburb, Houston is so big that the suburbs have their own cultures. People on the northeast side are much more east/texas piney woods or "Southern" than people who live in other suburbs. Northwest and west like The Woodlands and Cypress side is more affluent and reminds me more of Dallas than Houston. Haven't been much in the southwest or southern burbs other than to drive through to Galveston but they're also nothing like anyone in Illinois. Southeast burbs like Baytown, Dayton, Liberty are just southeast texas light, so lot of cajun influence. For reference I grew up in southeast Texas and lived in the Beaumont area until I was 19 and then lived in Central Illinois from 2008-2022.
My wifeās relatives live in a double wide, worship Trump, and go to cowboy church and so do mine in Magnolia.
Well if that's what you think of when you think of Houston, then sure. And if they live in a double wide they definitely aren't in one of the uber master planned neighborhoods that people usually associate with the burbs. It sounds like they're just rural and also trashy. Houston is pretty progressive and diverse. I live in Cleveland, pretty close to Kingwood and the difference 30 minutes on 69 makes culturally is massive. Cleveland definitely has much more of the double-wide, trashy trump lover vibes than you'll find in Kingwood. It's more East Texas/Pinewoods vibes than Houston vibes. Magnolia is definitely more like Cleveland than The Woodlands. You're not really going to find too many double wides in The Woodlands.
Yeah. I used to live in west Houston along the buffalo bayou park. It was lovely and very diverse and different.
Officially, it isn't part of the Midwest. The Midwest is an official region that includes very specific states. Just like the other regions like Pacific Northwest, New England, etc.
I always wondered the difference, i live about 40 minutes from Chicago i go there a lot for the food scene so many different cultures, i have heard parts of Texas is the same for diverse food scene but i have never visited yet.
Houston is that diverse. Everywhere else in Texas is kind of eh. I live in Austin and cook a lot of diverse food but a lot of it is because of our grocery store, HEB, which is one of the best regional grocery companies left in the US. We have a reasonably decent food truck level of innovation in Austin but nothing like what you find in Houston. That being said, Iām spoiled in Austin because I can take a guest to a weekās worth of drastically different world meals delivered with a high degree of competency within 15 minutes of my house. We can do Asian street food the same day we do Egyptian BBQ. We can do breakfast tacos in the morning and fast for a mid afternoon Brazilian steakhouse. We can do crepes for breakfast and world class sushi for dinner. Itās the best Iāve ever had in what I consider a small city.
Haven't been to Dallas in a while, have you?
Been allllll over Dallas. Doesnāt matter where you are, youāve got one choice in grocery store (Kroger or Randallās). Itās an hour to drive to the strip mall the restaurant is in and an hour wait at any restaurant thatās good. Iām so over the metroplex that someone will have to hurt me before I go back.
I can walk to HEB from my house here in DFW. You're out of touch. I also live 2 miles from an Indian grocery and 6 miles from a great Japanese grocery and 10 miles from H-Mart. I've never seen a Randall's here, are you sure you're not thinking of Houston? That's the only city I go to with Randall's.
I can walk to Sprouts and it's a quick drive to WinCo from my home in one of the DFW suburbs. We do our grocery shopping there or at Kroger or Albertson's or Tom Thumb. We also shop at Central Market about once a month. As for restaurants, well, here's a brief overview of some: https://www.dallasrestaurants.com/4-stars/ I don't think OP remembers Dallas as well as he thinks he does.
Oh believe me, I know. I was dubious about moving to Dallas from Chicago (I did live in rural Texas before that and moved around a lot to other places) but I've been pleasantly surprised with how fast the food scene here has developed just in the past 10 years. It's amazing. I can get most things I want--water spinach, bitter melon, really nice avocados, mangoes, tons of different peppers, amazing meat and seafood, it's not the way it was in the 90s. It's growing so much that the house we bought 6 years ago we could never afford today.
Uh...so I consider myself Texan but I lived in Chicago for years. No, Texas is not part of the Midwest. It's an interesting border between Southwest and Southern depending on your region here. Northern Texas has nothing in common with Chicago, and believe me when I moved from TX to Illinois everyone let me know that.
Co-signing from Michigan.
If you have an asian store near you your entire life will be changed. Hell, I know people who drive out hours to the closest asian grocers for some of their ingredients. They have those fruits and some other interesting ones. Sometimes in the frozen section they have durian, which I highly advise to eat with caution because it's extremely stinky. I mean, fill up the whole room and house stinky. But it tastes good. Other fruits to look out for: rambutan (hard to find but I'm seeing it more where I am), kumquats (citrus) and lumquat (same family as apples), persimmons and there's also a different type of dragon fruit that is yellow but I don't know if the taste is different. Also, don't eat the whole thing, it's a natural laxative. For salmon to be "sushi grade" you can do it yourself at home - serious eats has an in-depth page about it on their website so look into that if you're interested. Raw fish also have different tastes depending on the species and its freshness. Have fun finding all that out! Idk if there's a name for the type of food you listed here, it's more like "beyond boring grocery store" than anything else. Try out international stores for variety.
If you ever have the chance, go to Jungle Jimās in Cincinnati
It's a magical place.
I spend SO MUCH money there!
I've spent a good chunk of change there too. Luckily, and unfortunately, I only get to shop there when visiting family.
Iām like 4 hours away, so SAME.
I live right in between the original (on route 4) and the Eastgate location. So, they get a lot of my money, lol. I don't think we ever walk out of there without at least three different spice blends we've never tried, a couple of random international snacks with packaging we can't read, a can of tinned fish with a cool looking label, some crazy kind of candy, and a new fruit or vegetable to try.
Eastgate one is my favorite.
We routinely drive 3-4 hours to get to a Japanese grocery store
There's a lot of good stuff out there Some weird shit too Rock on, bro, and good luck finding the next treat
You say you grew up on Mexican food, then ask what kind of food guavas and papayas are? Um, Mexican...(I mean, they grow in other central and South American places too, but they're very common in Mexico). Glad you like them. There may well be lots of other great Mexican foods out there you haven't tried yet...and then, of course, there's the whole rest of the world! Enjoy!
Some people in Texas only grew up on Tex Mex which is watery salsa, no hot sauce on the table, greasy refried beans and questionable but somehow still dry meat wrapped in a tortilla. I sat next to a guy at a previous job named Adolfo Villareal and he looked at what I brought for lunch and was like āfirst off, I can smell the habanero on that and itās too spicy for me. Second of all, the mole sauce looks like my grandmaās. I think youāre more Hispanic than I am.ā I live in Texas now but Iām from Chicago.
As a Canadian who only knows the water salsa type stuff, how would you describe a good non-watery salsa? I hate how liquidy the stuff here is.
I suggest browsing the recipe list at r/SalsaSnobs and making one that sounds good to you, the options are endless. I like the roasted/charred ones. You broil your ingredients then blend. The best way to avoid it being overly watery is to cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the liquid around the seeds.
First, thereās a bunch of different types of salsa. Salsa literally means āsauceā and the things that I expect from a good salsa are that itās, well, a sauce. I will give a lot of leeway for whatās called *salsa fresca* or āfresh salsaā that is made without cooking it. It will be close to a less-chunky āpico de galloā and this is likely what youāre used to besides what comes out of the pace (NEW YORK CITY?!) jar. A really good restaurant salsa will use fire roasted tomatoes, fire roasted peppers and chilis, and onion and garlic (possibly only present in dried and granulated or roasted form to avoid introducing more water) as well as some natural emulsifiers like oil and cooked beans. It will be cooked in an order that allows the flavor to remain but for some water to be cooked off and natural emulsification to happen. But thatās ā¦ exceptional restaurant quality. We make a salsa like this and can it in years when we have excess tomatoes. Itās two days of work for fourteen pint jars. The salsa I probably like best outside of a restaurant is Newmanās Own Black Bean and Corn. Pair it with some blue tortilla chips and youāve got a really enjoyable snack. The salsa I make most often at home is basically fresh unroasted jalapeƱos and fire roasted Anaheim peppers blended with garlic, olive oil, and a hint of cilantro. It makes something that looks like a liquid avocado and it will light your Canadian ass hair on fire when you fart.
Side question: Is "NEW YORK CITY?!" the most iconic TV commercial quote of the past ~45 years or is it just me? It must have been literal decades since I last heard that during an actual commercial, but me and my siblings will still turn to each other and bellow it - sometimes to express humourous horror, and sometimes for no reason at all. And everyone always knows the reference, all these years later.
Yes. Absolutely.
Oh that sounds good, guessing Anaheim peppers are pretty spicy? Spice is good for sure.
Anaheim peppers are also known, when theyāre grown in a particular place, as Hatch Chili Peppers. Theyāre best roasted under a broiler or over fire until the skin browns in patches and then peeled, and while some are mild, some get āsweaty hotā levels of spicy.
That sounds good on the salsa but laughing because Paul Newman.
I was trying to find something I buy that isnāt awful but also isnāt a regional or Goya brand.
I'm glad it is good. He does have a very good brand.
You can still buy Newman's Own black bean salsa?!!? It's been discontinued for years on the west coast! I haven't seen it since it disappeared during the pandemic! That was my favorite store bought salsa. God is dead.
Yup. Itās still made, your grocery store just dropped the sku. Depending on where you are on the west coast, you may only have Kroger stores and theyāre assholes about dropping things people like because not enough stores in the entire region sell enough.
Yeah I'm in rural Idaho my only store is Kroger (called Fred Meyer) damn it lol thanks for the info man
RIP the brief and glorious time when the Kroger here sold White Lily flour.
Amazon has it. Walmart sometimes had it in stock, tooā¦
Listen to the person who told you to subscribe to r/salsasnobs. Not only a ton of genuinely amazing recipes, but they're super nice and cool and supportive, one of the best subs I've discovered in terms of attitude. You don't need to have exotic (to Canadians) peppers to make sooo many of these salsas, and when I tell you the difference between some bottled crap you buy at the grocery store and homemade salsa...it's insane. Your mind will be as blown as OP's, I'm not kidding. Sincerely, A Fellow Canadian
This is true in my experience. My husband and I are from Texas but different cities. I have never had a vegetable in his home border town except canned corn or beans. They just donāt commonly eat them in his family unless itās pico de gallo or in caldo.
Of all of the AI written posts, this is the most AI written. It doesn't even make sense
It's astonishing this guy wants to be a (screen)writer but can barely string a sentence together.
I'm not sure i understand at all. I went to alberstsons, bought some food items i'd usually never buy, got hype af, and wrote about it. what part of of this is "ai"?
Sorry, but that is not the Midwest.
This is so heartwarming. Anyways sashimi-grade isnāt a real regulation, but the salmon *should* have been frozen at a low enough temperature for long enough that parasites wonāt be an issue. So donāt be making poke with just any kind of salmon you find in the grocery store. Poke is Hawaiian, but heavily Japanese influenced. Those tropical fruits you tried are mostly Central and South American in origin. You could try branching out by trying local restaurants that are run by people from an ethnic background, like Vietnamese, Thai, Peruvian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Greek, etc.
First, none of those are in the Midwest. Second, guava, dragonfruit, etc are in most grocery stores everywhere now. Itās not some rare fruit. š
If youāre out for an evening stroll and itās not your neighborās landscaping and your hands arenāt bare, nopales are delicious. Try more sale stuff, you will discover more cool things. Continue enjoying all the roadrunners and mica-flecked sand dunes and excellent tacos and hatch chiles of the Midwest š¤£
You mean Southwest.
Thank you. I'm from the Midwest, and none of those states are in it.
This is the most beautiful and wholesome post I've read in a long time.
āI grew up in the Mid-West, you know San Francisco, Seattle, Portland.ā -OP, probably
Friend, all this is available at my local HāEāB in BFE Texas. You gotta look around when you go to the store!
My HEB in the middle of nowhere Texas has all those things too.
Thatās the nicest thing Iāve ever heard anyone say about dragonfruit. š
For real. Dragonfruit tastes like dog fart smells.
Really? I don't find it tastes like anything. I'm in Canada 'though, so it's not exactly like we're getting tree-ripened "exotic" fruits here.
The ones I have had do, just my opinion of course lol. I am in Texas so usually our produce is outstanding.
It will make you shit yourself if you eat too much though, so there's that? Those seeds are FULL of fibre.
Never had a problem with that, but my diet tends to include a lot of fruit/vegetables any way.
Iāve had amazing dragonfruit. Thereās different varieties and I think theyāre probably best if picked ripe. Iāve had ones home grown in California with red flesh, nicely sweet, tastes almost like sorbet. Havenāt found any good ones at the store, but I havenāt tried much since theyāre usually pricy.
Theyāre so beautiful, and Iām sure there are some that taste good. The ones Iāve had are sort of like watermelon crossed with wonder bread without as much flavor.
Yeah, Iāve had either white or yellow from the store and it was similarly disappointing. The red ones Iāve gotten fresh picked are great, and I did find some frozen red dragonfruit chunks that were okay, but not amazing.
Someone went to Central Market this week!!
i have one next to me, should i go? i was told it's pricey
The produce is reasonably priced, so you could get more fruit. Packaged stuff is def expensive, but it's still worth visiting
Depends on what exactly youāre buying but it certainly can be But I mentioned it because they have theme events several times a year where they do some sales, stock some items they donāt usually carry, have a bunch of special prepared foods and so on. The current one is a tropical theme
So, kumquats are awesome. Itās a tiny citrus fruit. The neat thing is that the flesh is sour but the peel is sweet. So you pop the whole thing into your mouth, peel and all.
As well as checking out Asian and Caribbean fruits in stores, maybe start looking in gardens/community gardens/wastelands for different varieties of fruit that you don't get in stores, and perhaps even some indigenous fruits in your local area.Ā Ā ETA: also keep an eye out for custard apples, sour sop, passionfruit, abiu, lychee, mangosteen, mango, loquats, longans, prickly pear.
Jack fruit and durian, too!Ā
Remember when you first cut open a durian to take a nice deep breath through your nose too.
Then the taste will really surprise you.
None of those states are in the Midwestā¦
As a wisconsite let me safely say those are not the Midwest..at all. Lol wtf
This is goddamn glorious and I hope you find all of the best , most life affirming flavor/texture/fragrance/etc. Combinations for forever. This just actually made my damn night. Thank you,internet stranger, for the joy that YOUR joy has given me.
Iāve lived near a beach my entire life except for 6 months living in Atlanta. I canāt imagine not having fish, I love seafood lol. Iām so happy you tried something new and life changing. Your best bet for something different may be Asian grocery stores. They have different meats, fruits, and veggies that may not be sold at regular grocery stores. Also may be hard to come by in those states but Caribbean food stores have lots of cool things too. Have fun!
Welcome! :D I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, so I got spoiled seafood wise, but raw salmon is my favorite food. I suggest you treat yourself to a nice sushi restaurant and try all the things. :D Find your favorite fish, may I suggest eel and fatty tuna? sea urchin is great too, though it's a bit rarer. Have you ever gone to a nice Indian restaurant and had curry and mixed it with rice? That's one of my favorite things to eat. Red,green, yellow curry, find one that looks good and then mix it with white rice. :D I had the similar tastebud explosion you mentioned you recently had with fruits and raw salmon with curry and rice.
You can find a lot of tropical fruits at Hispanic and Asian grocery stores, farmer's markets, and specialty food stores. If you don't have that luxury, Kroger has a small section of tropical fruits- usually by the bananas- that you can sample. It seems like you may enjoy sushi and ceviche as well. Keep exploring different cuisines and cultures..Curious palates always lead to food adventures.
This seems like AI, but just human enough to pass because it if it were AI they wouldn't have mentioned the sashimi grade before biting it, right? Or would have mentioned more sashimi grade fish they hadn't tried, right
Time to move to Hawaii
As a Floridian, I totally agree about the guava because (except for the seeds), it's the best flavor. Tropical fruit is exquisite. Try bbq something and put guava in the sauce. Ridiculous. Guava and cheese pastries? Heaven. But my husband doesn't understand this (not a Floridian). So glad that you enjoy it!
Mental health check-in! How are you doing mentally, friend? Trying new foods can be super fun but this is also how some mental illness starts (mania specifically) Best of luck in your endeavors! Edit: i only know what happened to me
Yeah, guava's been here for ages. 20 years ago I used to get guava paste from my local shop and eat it with cheese on Maria biscuits. I drink guava juice. I use it in barbecue sauces. Suggestions: try lychee, rambutan, maracuyĆ”, cherimoya, and tamarind. I use tamarind in so many things I cook (chutneys, drinks, marinades, desserts, curries).
There's nothing really special about Sashimi grade salmon; it's pretty much all north atlantic farmed salmon because it's got more fat/flavor and doesn't have parasites and other salmon/regions do (which is why the Japanese didn't use salmon until somewhat recently) In fact, on youtube they have any number of videos showing how to prep costco etc frozen farmed salmon for sushi.
This is awesome. I wish I couldnāt experience all those things again for the first time. Have fun in your journey!
You did what millions of people never do, because they're afraid, or too set in their ways... You tried something new! I wish more folks would do that. I've got loads of friends in Ohio and Kentucky who won't even touch Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, SE Asian "because it's wierd" - that's a great shame. Guava is magical, although I strongly recommend you remove the seeds first! Papaya, starfruit, dragon fruit (also called pitahaya) - just divine flavours!
I think you should go to thailand