Chirac jokes about British food

You certainly sound like you know what you're doing and I'd be quite tempted to try what you're preparing tomorrow given the general principles you laid out.

I'm not sure I'd consider a squash blossom with a salmon mousse piped into it as being a simple food, though. I don't even know what a squash blossom is, but it doesn't sound like a manly thing to eat.

A chunk of salmon, a piece of BBQ moose, and an ear of corn. That's food I understand. Fine cooking is wasted on me. I realize that's my deficiency and others get real enjoyment from the subtleties of haute cuisine.

I always wanted to have a glass of Dom Perignon champagne, but at $120 a bottle I wasn't going to buy it for myself. A few years ago, I got the opportunity at a business dinner. It was excellent, but I couldn't taste a $100 difference from the more common offerings.

Everyone is different, but I'm almost certainly going to enjoy an $8 plate of east Texas BBQ than a $50 meal at a fine restaurant.

This qualifies as simple food because we are working with only a few simple flavors. The most complicated thing is the sauce Alfredo and there are some fine sauces in jars. You won't get my nose out of joint.

Squash blossoms are the flowers from zuchinni and summer squash(those yellow things). They have a nice orangish/greenish color and a delicate flavor. They are perfect for holding something with a subtle flavor like salmon mousse. Salmon mousse is made with chunks of salmon, some minced shallots, salt, black pepper and just enough cream to make it flow through the piping bag. (This is why God invented food processors) It is mostly raw salmon since that is the flavor you are after. Salmon mousse and squash blossoms cook at about the same speed in a steamer. (This is important. You want foods cooked together to finish together.)

Notice that I serve them on TOP of the rice and SURROUNDED by the sauce. This preserves the visual appeal of the blossoms and allows the diner to decide how much sauce to add.

I would be HAPPY to join you for an east Texas BBQ dinner if you would join me for an eastern NC BBQ dinner. (Pig instead of Beef and none of the disgusting mustard sauce they put on it in SC and GA. Side dishes of Cole Slaw, Brunswick Stew, hush puppies, and Sweet Tea. Banana pudding for desert.)

'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

I'll take you up on the BBQ exchange, and I'll go one further. Tomorrow night, on the way home from work, I'm going to stop by my very well stocked supermarket and look for squash blossoms.

It's hard to believe that I've overlooked them for decades while searching for the perfect Granny Smith apples or an unbruised head of Romaine lettuce, but I didn't notice that they were selling CACTUS until last week.

I haven't even heard of a recipe involving cactus, but now they're selling it. I'm not putting it in my chili recipe. I don't care what they say...

If you do not have a piping bag or are not comfortable with this, DON'T try it. You will probably need someone else to hold the squash blossoms.

'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

Akin to my finding us a McDonald's in Cambridge (UK; with my crew while TDY back in the early '80's); was wonderful.....

.....especially after eating at one of those gawdawful "Wimpy's" fast food joints. Talk about yer mystery meat.............ugh...........

"One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad"

One cannot trust people whose surrender is so fast.

Wow, Wimpy is everywhere! I frequented a Wimpy's in Okinawa for their Americanized yakisoba and fried taco-rice. Best late night food, hands down.

Egon Ronay, the food critic, said: "A man full of bile is not fit to pronounce on food."

Hmmmmmmmmm he must have known M'seur Chirac