Day 340

Nectarine Mango: I've eaten quite a few varieties of mango during this blog, but that's fine by me. Mango is one of my favorite fruits, and I jump at any chance to try a new one. When I saw this unusually named "nectarine mango" at the Buford Highway Farmers Market a few days ago, I knew I had to try. It was unlike any I'd seen, with a shape/size that was more like a peach than anything else.

It was still a bit firm and under-ripe when I bought it, so I let it sit on my kitchen counter to ripen. The green color it originally had eventually turned to a greenish-yellow, and since I didn't want it to spoil, I went ahead and tried it today after lunch. Since I'm not skilled at slicing mangoes, I cut off wedges from each side and peeled them the best I could. I didn't want a trip to the ER to be on today's schedule.

After finally taking a bite, the flavor/texture reminded me of a juicy, ripe peach much more than mango. I don't know if my brain was tricked by the peach-like shape and size, but I had a hard time detecting many mango qualities. It was almost like a peach with mango skin. At any rate, it was really tasty, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes fresh peaches (or mangoes, I guess).

Not much else to say about this one. After 340 days in a row of new food, it's hard to expand on every single thing I eat unless it's really good (or really bad).

Day 339

Ethopian Vegetarian Platter: It's not too often that I experience a cuisine for the first time, but that's exactly what happened tonight. I'd been meaning to try Ethiopian food for awhile, but for some reason, I'd never made it a priority. However, the blog is close to winding down, and I wanted to make sure I tried it before the 365 days were up. With that in mind, me and the GF hit Desta on Briarcliff Road tonight. Several people had recommended it, so off we went.

The menu was actually much more extensive than I expected, with items ranging from breakfast specialties to full-on dinners. It was the first time in awhile that a menu's language had stumped me - it featured lots of words I'd never read, not to mention the food itself. Instead of trying to narrow down my choices to a couple dishes, I opted for the combination vegetarian platter, which featured a small portion of everything on the vegetarian section of the menu. I usually don't order vegetarian anywhere, but I'd heard that it was a great choice with Ethiopian cuisine.

Once the server brought my order, I was pretty amazed at what I saw. The colors on the plate were incredible, and the presentation almost made me not want to eat it. Almost. The meal was served with injera, the spongy flatbread that's apparently a staple during most Ethiopian meals. Keep in mind that I'd never had any of these dishes before, so I'm going to attempt to cover a few instead of all. This type of combo post is a first for the blog!

Since there were 9 different dishes on the plate (not counting the salad), I wasn't even sure where to begin. I tore off a small piece of injera (no utensils here, folks) and scooped up a small portion of the first thing that caught my eye, which was the shiro fit fit. According to the menu, this was a "mix of ground chickpeas in a rich Desta's sauce mixed with bites of injera." I was basically scooping up bread with bread, but the shiro fit fit was tasty, with an vinegar-like flavor that paired well with the ground chickpeas. Ok, off to a good start.

On to the next one, which unfortunately, I couldn't identify. Considering that this plate had 9 new dishes for me to try, I really needed a guide to follow since I had no idea what I was eating. However, the dark brown stuff (bottom row center of the pic) was probably my favorite. It almost reminded me of mole, but was much thicker and spicier. I'm not sure what it was made from, but it was awesome.

I should really talk about the injera bread itself, which until tonight, I'd never had. It had a sponge-like texture that fell somewhere between a crepe and half-cooked pancake, with a slightly sour flavor that paired well with the spicy food. Since it's used primarily for actually picking up the food, we went through a lot of it at the table. Not exactly a low-carb meal.

Except for the dishes containing beets (upper right corner of pic), potatoes (lower left corner), and collard greens (second from top left), I'm really not sure what the rest of this plate contained. I don't think I've ever tried this many new dishes at once, and it made me think back to what got me started with this blog in the first place: my love of trying new foods. It's been easy for me to forget that after almost a year of doing this, but this meal made me thankful that I started.

Day 338

Rambutan: Today's new food is another produce find from last weekend's trip to the Buford Highway Farmers Market. How many times have I typed that sentence during this blog? I don't even want to know, but that's ok - the BHFM has kept this blog running on days when no place else has been usable. Even though I'm sick of shopping there, it's value has been unmeasurable. I hate that I've grown tired of places/things I used to love, but I guess that was to be expected.

Anyway, while I was browsing the produce, I spotted these unusual looking things called rambutan. They were cherry-sized, dark red in color, with prickly hairlike pieces covering the surface. I'd read that they were similar to lychee, but I was curious to find out how similar, so I found a couple loose ones and threw them in my basket.

I didn't get around to trying these until today, and based on their thick outer skin, I figured they'd still be fresh. I made a small incision in the skin, then peeled it away, revealing a spherical fruit on the inside that looked like a peeled white grape. I figured these would have a pit, so I carefully chewed the fruit from around the outside. The flavor reminded me a lot of lychee, but a bit more grape-like. It was sweet and sour at the same time, but the only drawback was the amount of crunchy seed covering still left on the edible fruit. I tried to get rid of all of it with the second one, but it was almost impossible.

If you like lychees or longans, make sure to check out rambutan. If you don't want to do all the work with the fresh ones, a lot of markets sell them canned in syrup.

Day 337

Pirozhochki with Cheese: Anyone who has read this blog knows how much I love the Eastern European section at the Buford Highway Farmers Market, especially the fresh pastry and dessert counter. In addition to some awesome sweets, they also sell a small selection of savory pastries filled with meat, cheese, or vegetables. No offense to vegetables, but the meat/cheese varieties are definitely my favorite.

I've pretty much had all of the counter's savory pastries at this point, but I noticed one during my last visit called "pirozhochki" that I'd never seen before. Much like the pierogis, pirozhkis, and samsas I've had before, this one looked like a little pastry turnover, and was filled with farmer cheese. I love the saltiness of farmer cheese, so I knew I had to take one of these home to try it.

Once I got it reheated for a snack today, I hoped it had held up well since buying. The flaky exterior was light and buttery, with a scattering of sesame seeds. Once I cut into it, I noticed that the cheese filling looked a lot like cream cheese, but a bit more textured. Luckily, it tasted as good as it looked. The pastry tasted great, even after hanging out in the fridge for a couple days, and the farmer cheese brought the creaminess and saltiness that I expected. It was just as good as any of the meat filled Eastern Euro pastries I'd had before, and at only $0.75, it was a great little snack.

After doing some research, I'm not exactly sure how these are different from piroshkis. They seem to be extremely similar, but this pirozhochki definitely tasted different - it was much more buttery, and probably better suited for breakfast. It looked like a cross between a piroshki and a samsa, but either way, it was really good.

Day 336

Pan Dulce: After doing some errands in the Buford Highway area yesterday, I managed to make a couple food stops along the way since my stockpile at home was completely depleted. I'd been to the Fiesta Farmers Market (located next to the Plaza Fiesta) once before and had decent luck, so I went in again in hopes of finding something. In addition to a couple of new fruits, I also found a few interesting products in the store's bakery. I love discovering new sweets, and the bakery had a whole array of traditional Mexican pastries for sale. They all looked good, but some of them were just standard cookies and cakes.

As usual, I opted for something I couldn't identify. I spotted a rather large roll-type pastry with some sort of pink frosting on top. The bakery referred to all their pastries as "pan dulce" (sweet bread), so I'm not sure if this particular one even had its own name. I knew it would probably be good for breakfast, so I bought one to take home.

Since fresh pastries don't tend to stay that way very long, I went ahead and gave it a try this afternoon. It was definitely tasty, but I don't have too much to report. Like the name promised, it tasted like sweet white bread. It wasn't quite as moist as I hoped it would be, but for a light breakfast option, it was pretty good. The pink frosting on top wasn't as sweet as I expected, and I'm still not entirely sure what it was made from. It wasn't as rich as cake frosting, and it crumbled easily. 

I definitely want to go back and try some of the market's other pastries now. I saw several others that looked good, and at only $0.89 apiece, how could I go wrong?

Day 335

Albondingas (Wild Boar Meatballs): Me and the GF headed down to the Iberian Pig (www.theiberianpigatl.com) in downtown Decatur for dinner tonight, and while I was looking forward to the meal, I wasn't sure if I'd find anything new for the blog. I hadn't been before, but the GF had, and she loved their selection of Spanish-style tapas. In addition to some other great dishes, I was also lucky enough to find something I'd never experienced: wild boar. I don't have much experience with wild game, but I'm always eager to try any type I can find.

The Iberian Pig's version was called albondingas - wild boar sausage meatballs stuffed with piquillo peppers, Macedonian dates, and roasted tomatoes. The dish was finished with a pimenton creme and oyster mushrooms, and based on the ingredients, it sounded like it was going to be tasty. I suspected them to be much different from standard pork or ground beef meatballs, and I was right.

Once our server brought the dish, I was looking forward to digging in. I wanted to try some of the meatball without the pimenton creme, so I cut off a piece and tasted. It wasn't like ground beef, and was much less oily and moist than either beef or pork, but it was definitely more similar in flavor to pork than beef. The piquillo peppers added some heat, and I really liked the pimenton creme - think melted pimento cheese, but not at all greasy or goopy. Based on this dish, I'd definitely be up for trying wild boar again. Good stuff.

I know the whole tapas trend is played out, but everything I had at the Iberian Pig was delicious. It's good to discover another great restaurant so close to home.

Day 334

Soup Vi Ca (Shark's Fin Soup): Ok, I'll be honest. I really wasn't looking forward to trying today's new food. I discovered it during my last trip to the Great Wall Supermarket in Duluth, and I bought it solely based on its shock factor alone. I usually prefer to try dishes like this in a restaurant that's good at such things, but for now, this canned version had to suffice. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to try the dish itself, but the picture on the can, featuring a odd looking bisected shark fin, wasn't exactly winning me over.

Since this was the last food I had stockpiled, I had no choice but to try it today. The ingredients listed shark fin, oyster mushroom, artificial chicken flavor, oyster sauce, and some spices. Once I opened the can, I poured the contents into a plastic bowl for microwaving, and to say it looked unappetizing was an understatement. I've had the misfortune lately of eating a lot of new foods that look like vomit, and this was no exception. However, I try to not judge anything based on its appearance, so I heated it up and gave it a shot.

Once I got it hot, the vomit vibe was lessened a bit, but I noticed a lot of strange stuff going on aside from that. The shark fin looked like small pieces of white fish, but the truly disturbing thing was the hair-like tendrils floating in the broth that came off the fin. They looked like little eyelashes. In addition, there were a couple large chunks of oyster mushroom (the black pieces in the pic) that were probably the least disturbing things in the mix.

Oh, right - the taste. The broth was sort of like a fishier-tasting chicken stock, and the pieces of shark fin were actually pretty tender. They tasted a lot like any mild white fish, but the odd hair-like connective pieces (bottom pic) had a gelatinous texture that I just couldn't appreciate. I'll pass on the rest of those, thanks. The oyster mushrooms were the best thing about it, and they actually retained a firmness that I wasn't expecting from a canned soup.

This wasn't as scary as I was expecting, but not exactly tasty, either. I'd be willing to give it a shot in a restaurant, but I doubt I'll finish the rest of this.