Mahanandi


1. Cilantro.  Cilantro had better be minced and drenched in soup or a base (which usually includes garlic, onion, tomato, etc.,) or something else.  Like pesto.  Or a drizzle.  Because alone, it is among the most potent, green, leafy villians of the herb deck.  It smells like Marigolds, and I can smell it from a mile away. 

Cilantro makes for a fine flavor enhancer, though.  So don't let me stop you from devouring a small fistful of it, today.



                                             Eat...  Me?


2. Veal.  In my late-teens, I'd been introduced to veal.  I didn't sit through an explanation of what it was.  I thought it was simply a special, more tender kind of beef.  My mother, my teacher, never cooked veal.  Ever.  


                            NY Daily News


Oh, but a restaurant in Little Italy, just a fifteen minute walk from our Bronx home, did.  And they served it, too.  Need I say that my meal was stellar?  Or that the tiny Cappuccino I sipped from afterward was almost criminal?

But the hours that followed marked the last time that I would ever eat veal.  I remember arriving at home and raving about dinner to my younger brother.  He, a Sagittarian without an ounce of shyness, explained to me what veal was. 

And that explanation, folks, was pretty much all it took for me to forget about the tender meat forever.



                           Eating, Etc.



3. Sweet Gherkins.  Ick.  Who the f*ck was bored enough to sweeten a cucumber and, worse, call it a 'gherkin'?

I'm not even talking about the two, thin slices that make up the garnish on plate.  I'm talking about what should be a Dill pickle... going horribly wrong.  



                                    Yeah, I Made It


A Dill pickle pairs off beautifully with this Turkey and Swiss sandwich better than a sweet little gherkin.   Just sayin'.



                                        World Community Cookbook



4. Celery.  Never liked it.  Celery might be about the same color as a cucumber minus the skin.  But it still leaves a strange aftertaste unlike cucumber.  So I'll only use it as an addition, not a main course.


                     dpchallenge


Like "Ants on a Log".  Yep.  Because that name makes celery so much more appealing.



                                             Baking Bites


Besides, I'm into Trader Joe's Sunflower Seed Butter.  Big time.  So is the really kind, funny and flirty pothead-cashier who always bags my items.  He can "eat the whole thing right out of the jar". 

Agreed.  If you haven't tried TJ's sunflower seed butter...  Try.  It.  You'll soon be waving bye-bye to Skippy.  Maybe even to peanut butter itself, unless you occasionally dive into the crunchy kind as I do.

                                                  Brad Fitzpatrick


5. Lobster.  Why?  Well, because there are two ways of killing one, neither of which I consider swift and painless or, for that matter, fun. 



                            Magnus Galfalk



The first method involves shitting on a lobster's trust, guiding the poor and alive shelled thing through a slow-enough and steady, boiling water death.  This, although extremely painful, ensures the freshness and exquisite taste of the red critter. 

Sniffle.



                                     Cooking Lobster



The second, and more "humane", method of doing away with the life of a lobster entails stabbing it with a trusty knife in the back of the head, right behind the eyes.  The quicker and harder, the better?  This makes for a brain-dead creature, I guess.  But still.

I'm all for eventually deeming myself a professional chef and baker.   However, I'm thinking of skipping on the Lobster dishes.  Yuh, even the bisque.


                                           Alice Scully


I don't need lobster for baking cookies and fresh breads, anyway.