It’s that time of year again, when eating is not merely a challenge or a sport, but a way to re-affirm our connection to a larger heritage of over-eating.
Since I live right next to the mall, I felt obligated to do some holiday shopping there, and do my part to prop up the economy. Yay consumerism! And no trip to the mall is complete without some foodcourt sushi:
And speaking of down-home holiday cooking, I was talking to KaosDevice a little while ago about eating chicken gizzards. He convinced me that I ought to give the vile little muscle-sacks a second chance. So I stopped by the Red Cap Chick (near S.Congress and Oltorf) because they advertise in their windows: "Gizzards and Livers."
Where I come from, they only sell chicken gizzards in the stores because they’re sometimes used in a particularly nasty (and therefore effective) recipe for catfish bait. I was pleased to find that it was actually possible to eat chicken gizzards.
But the way the gristly thews pop as you chew them is still totally disgusting.
And in a much more delicious category of down-home cooking, a shawarma from the Greek deli behind the Yarborough library.
Even wikipedia can’t define the difference between a shawarma and a gyro.
Here’s some down-home cooking from my own people, Danish pudding:
Nothing evokes nostalgia-soaked memories of holidays at home, quite like Danish pudding. It tastes like a sweet cloud, peppered with billows of Christmas. It’s unclear if it’s called Danish pudding because it’s a traditional dish from Denmark, or just because it’s totally white.
I would recommend making Danish pudding with an electric mixer. You take 2 envelopes of unflavored gelatin and dissolve them in 1c whole milk. Then bring a custard of 3c whole milk, 3 yolks, and 1c sugar to a boil, take off the heat and add the gelatin mixture.
Place the custard and gelatin in the fridge. Once it has cooled and set, beat in 1 pint of whipped cream, along with vanilla and almond extract to taste.
Then, to really be in the holiday spirit, eat it all while watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. It’s what our ancestors would want us to do.
