For the love of Produce...

I so want to try Meyer lemons. If anyone knows where to find them in the UK let me in on it, please.

In the meantime tried a new cultivar of persimmon labelled Perfecto. Somewhat odd. It sat in the fruit bowl with apples and bananas for over 3 weeks but was still rock hard. As the skin was getting a little wrinkly and dry I cut into it today anyway. As firm as a melon, very sweet, yet slightly astringent too.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

@o0Firekeeper0o , how do you like to eat/use the Meyer lemons? I mostly only see them in the bags, which is a little daunting as a trial size for a household of one. It seems like a thing I'd like, though, so I'm wondering what role they play for you.

Thanks!

You can use them almost like you'd use a lemon... or a lime for that matter. They are just a little sweeter and less acidic. In my experience, they often have more juice. They are really nice as a cocktail garnish. I bet they would be great candied or at least the rind if you use the juice for something else. I have been thinking about making some preserved lemons, and I bet Meyer lemons would be a good go-to. I definitely see them for sale by the each. They are almost sweet enough to eat on their own. I bet you could carefully cut out sections and use them in a salad in place of tomatoes; just enough acid to be delicious. Squeeze on fish? You bet. I buy them from time to time, but probably wouldn't if I had to by a four pound bag.

Sweet limes are also a nice change up every now and then.

Hubby came home with chicory aka Belgian endive. I had forgotten how good that stuff is when halved lengthwise, drizzled with olive oil and roasted for a half hour. We used to eat it a lot when we lived in the Netherlands, but hardly ever see it in the UK.

I have started some mung beans for sprouting, soaking then overnight. I have a foodie friend coming for dinner on Thurday and I ordered a Txuleton beef rib. We will probably have leftover steak so want to make pho with the beef stock we have in the freezer. Hopefully have not left it too late for sprouting mung beans for the weekend.

A Chinese girlfriend came over for Xmas Eve dinner and brought a hostess gift of a meal kit for Sichuan Sauerkraut with fish filets. Despite English directions on the back of the packet, I struggled because the packet contained 4 different sachtes of seasoning mixes and sauce pouches that needed to be added at different times during the cooking process. Being illiterate in Chinese, it was a struggle to figure out which sachet was which.

mtaratoot wrote: »

@acpgee

I find it somewhat interesting that it specifies DRINKING WATER. In case someone thought scooping out of the pond would be a reasonable option, or just some of the water that the fish came out of....

How did it turn out?

it was good but really spicy. I think you could make this with regular sauerkraut with some instant dashi powder to replace the fish stock, sauerkraut, and Szechuan pickled peppers. I think this recipe shows how to make it from scratch.
https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/szechuan-fish-suan-cai-yu/
I believe in China, tapwater is not considered safe for drinking. This was the case when I was vacationing in SE Asia and had to drink bottled water only. My grandmother never trusted tapwater, and would always boil it before drinking, even after she moved in with a son who was living in Texas.

mtaratoot wrote: »

That shows my bias for living in a place that has safe tap water. Ours is actually tasty too.

Back when travel still existed we used to visit Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia regularly. Sometimes my husband would forget that tapwater was not safe and brush his teeth with it, instead of brushing with bottled water. That usually resulted in a half day of diarrhea.

Besides Flint, Michigan, I seem to remember reading about one other town in the US where the tapwater was unsafe.

acpgee wrote: »

Actually, Americans might want to worry about their tapwater.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/americas-tap-water-samples-forever-chemicals

Yeah, there are issues. FWIW, Flint is now in better shape (per testing, but the citizens still don't trust the water of course), though not perfect. The publicized hot spot in Michigan is now Benton Harbor (lead in the water, primarily), but there are also some areas where test-wells for spreading PFOS, PFOA, and other PFAS are in place, alongside programs to extend "city water" to the most-threatened individual consumers' water wells. (Individual wells are very common outside cities here. I had one until recently.)

The regulatory climate around PFAS in particular, in the US, is not what it should be, IMO. Michigan, the state where I live, seems to be a little ahead of the curve on PFAS regulation, but that's not exactly high praise.

From my perspective as someone closer but not in Flint, the national/international publicity created more heat than light. The underlying condition (lead in supply lines) is pretty common in the US. In Flint, a serious error in water treatment (during a switch from one water source to another) created conditions where the water started leaching lead out of those pipes, and into the water supply.

I tried to convince friends in other places that they should not just be rallying to get justice for Flint, but also looking into whether their community also had extensive lead supply lines (perhaps uninventoried, as in Flint), that are a problem just waiting to happen if the water treatment regimen got out of whack. (Some cities in Michigan inventoried lead pipes years back, implemented systematic programs to replace them, and to test water quality more frequently downstream of them, until they could be replaced. Some places, such as Flint, didn't even know where they had them until people were poisoned.)

I won't get into the politics around this lead-line situation, but I guarantee it's more complicated than media reports from a distance may've suggested.

@acpgee, you make the most delicious sounding things, then you take wonderful photos of them that look sooooo tempting: Very inspirational. That chicory, and then the beautiful mushrooms peeking in from the side . . . ! 😋

As a more general-group comment, me, I've been hibernating and not eating very interesting things, mostly, lately - at least not interesting produce things.

I did find a manageably small bag of Meyer lemons, and ate one out of hand like an orange, because . . . well, I don't have a reason better than because that's the kind of thing I'd do out of curiosity. Interesting. This one didn't seem as flavorful as a normal lemon (though I don't eat whole normal lemons plain, I sometimes eat a section or slice), but it was less sour. Maybe a little more astringent. Is that normal?

I'm not going to try to make preserved lemons, because I tried that once in the past and it was such a full-bore CF disaster that there Will. Be. No. Repeats. Here. 🤣 That, even though I think preserved lemons are really good, from small samples elsewhere.

I think I'll use the other lemons to make something savory but lemony - maybe with tofu and sweet onions . . . elephant garlic? Mulling it over.