Foods off the beaten track

[chrose]

In the spirit of posting in the right forum........................

The topic of American and then Canadian food got me to thinking a little (save the comments )

When I lived in Alaska there were at least 2 items that were new to me. I'm not talking about MukTuk and Matteak!

I mean Alaskan Spot Shrimp

And the inimitable Alaskan White King Salmon (no that's not me)

The shrimp have a clean flavor that can only come from ICE COLD waters. The shell is like armor. The ends of the tail shells are like knife tips. These are hard shrimp to shell. Many of them are full of eggs which are great for coloring a dish, but too much is not a good thing. These shrimp truly taste different from any shrimp you have tasted before.
The White King is also a magnificent fish that has to be tasted to be believed. It does not taste like regular salmon. It has a rich, buttery flavor and texture. It is great as sashimi and deserves only the simplest treatment, though it's hard not to play with it and experiment.
It is not a regular species as such, rather I believe it is an anomoly, not unlike an Albino. Some are all white, some are mottled with pinks and oranges running through the flesh. When we could score some it was a treat and never lasted, sold it out in a flash.
Is there anything in your neck of the woods (animal or vegetable or mineral) that fits this topic? Please educate us. (or me anyway)

[W.DeBord]

Well maybe I'm off course here, but I think the beef here (in the mid-west) is by far the best I've every had. I remember living in CO and I couldn't even eat the beef there, it was like shoe leather.

I also don't recognize the pizza or gyros in other cities, their not as good as Chicagos'.

[DaveB]

Originally posted by W.DeBord
I remember living in CO and I couldn't even eat the beef there, it was like shoe leather.

When I lived in Texas (guest of USAF), I also discovered that the beef was terrible. The stuff you got in local stores and cheap restaurants was local grass-fed range beef. We had one local restaurant that specialized in 2-lb. steaks. They were around 12" x 18" and half an inch thick. Range beef cut any thicker required a chain saw rather than a steak knife.

The town's expensive steak house advertised "Kansas City Corn-fed Beef." It turns out that virtually all high-quality beef passes through mid-western feed lots prior to slaughter.

[Isa]

Not off the beaten path but none the less memorable. In Paris at 5am, a croissant just out of the oven at the corner bakery.

[ziggy]

Isa - you bring back the memories! When I was living in Bordeaux I was in the same building as a boulangerie...ummmm...I can still taste the pain au chocolat and pain au raisin hot out of the oven that I would grab on my way to the bus! And the smell!! Haven't thought about that in ages...thanks for bringing it back!

[nancya]

One thing that I have had here and no where else is "Mountain Salmon." These are really just mountain trout, but something about the cold water [?] makes the flesh pink - well, like salmon!

Yum.

By the way, also agree with the beef issue. Local beef eats sage brush and is really nasty as far as I'm concerned. Not sure where Elk Creek gets their beef or if it's grain fed there...but it sure isn't sage brush beef.

[cape chef]

There was a time that I used to buy all my salmon from Norway.
One day the gentleman I delt with brought me a sample of medium size head on and shell on shrimp from the waters of Norway.
The interesting thing about them is when they were bought aboard the vessel they were cooked in sea water right away.

I remember there flavor as salty but the meat itself was so sweet.
I couldn't stop eating them.

cc

[Jim]

As part of the Chesapeake watershed, we get some superb shellfish. Specifically, the Chincoteague oysters from just south of here are top notch. Nice and fatty... plenty of "oceany" flavor. The Maryland Blue Crab is reknowned 'round these here parts... buy 'em at the peak of the season at the roadside stands on your way back from the beach. Ummmm, good.

[chrose]

I spent a good deal of my childhood on the Chesapeake Bay, over by Solomons Island. I must disagree with you on one part Jim only in that I found the Chincoteagues to taste more like the bay than the ocean. A bit more of a brackish taste. It to me tastes like home, more charactor than just an ocean taste. Delicious!!!
And Maryland Blue Crabs! It simply does not get any better than that
PBR, crabs and Old Bay! Ah to be home again!
Brad I love the idea of those shrimp. that is what I'm talking about with "off the beaten track" cooking them in the water that they came from is brilliant. I like that idea of keeping it all together like that. It reminds me of the Iron Chef when Morimoto allowed the lobster water to jell and used it as a dressing and then used the dried salt water to season it. There is a term for that and I don't remember if it's french or japanese or even American Indian for that matter. Along the lines of Confit in so far as cooked and preserved in its own..