Fungus Pizza

[con's fly is open]

This turns into a big terminology problem: technically, any non-dessert pie contained within a border of crust could be call "pizza". This could include meat pies, quiche...

Someone should impose a naming system, families of pies. I'd do it, but I've just been washed over by a wave of apathy.

[Lotus Eater]

The correct terminology for a non-dessert pie where you cannot see the contents (i.e. meat pies, pasties etc) is mouse coffins. Easy.

[Raoul Duke]

Eggplant and aubergines are the same thing, which explains the similarity in taste. Never met an eggplant I didn't like. As I've often said before, how can you take seriously the culinary opinion of a person who considers Vegemite ("vegetable tar") edible?

I'm pickier about tofu. I can't stand it on its own or if you can still detect its original taste, but I love it cooked into really flavorful dishes like Ma Po Dou Fu or Jia Chang Dou Fu. Eating Chou Dou Fu (stinky tofu) is grounds for institutionalization in my book...even Vegemite is better than that.

I loved Mr. N's explanation of cheese. My favorite to explain is maple syrup, which unlike cheese is a total novelty to almost all Chinese. "Well, first you bore a hole in a tree..."

Perhaps the saddest thing about youse Commonwealth types is that you've probably never had fried okra...

[Lotus Eater]

I have had okra - it's slimy! Vegemite is way better and it can be used in many things - scrambled eggs and vegemite on toast, on toast with plenty of butter (both comfort foods), mixed in gravy to add extra zing, hangover cure (loads of Vitamin B).

My Chinese friends have enjoyed it when I make a western breakfast for them - to the extent of asking for a bottle. The westerners weren't quite sophisticated enough to catch the nuances of it's flavour - their palates still have some development to do.

[Ruth]

I lived in 'the South' for 6 years and never developed a taste for okra. Lotus is right - it is slimy. The fried version is lots better than the boiled, but still a 'pass, no thanks' in my book.

Cinnamon came up in a lesson tonight. I have both the powdered form (mailed from home) and the bark form from the local market. The student said, "Is it a tree?" Raoul's comment about maple syrup made me think of my student's reaction.

[Raoul Duke]

Boiled okra is slimy...done right, pan-fried okra is heavenly and doesn't have a trace of slime.

OK, let's go to my Mom's house and settle this thing right now!

[Lotus Eater]

You mean a vegemite versus okra battle at dawn? Sounds way more fun than any of those silly hockey, baseball, football things you boys want to keep reminding yourselves of.

[Mr Nobody]

Okra is yum, both in Cajun and Greek style. Greek okra isn't slimy, even though it is boiled.

I haven't tried it fried, yet, nor have i tried it pounded into a paste for thickening stews etc as is used in some Orleans food I have read about.

Willing to give it a go.

But, to sacrifice vegemite to do that,

[con's fly is open]

Okra: delicious, furry ... but oh, that Cajun cuisine, when they don't go all Sichuan on your ass.