Small Bites #2: Disgust, or How to Like New Foods + Frying a Perfect Egg + 'Pig'
Issue No. 79
We have a new schedule: Twice a month, Sunshine + Microbes sends out its regularly scheduled newsletter. During the weeks in between, we’ll share threads, interviews, kitchen tips, and a grab bag of our favorite things we like from the world of food and environment. Enjoy these Small Bites!
Send in your comments, mailbag questions, recipe mishaps, or cooking tips: sunshineandmicrobes@gmail.com. Also follow us on Instagram. Visit our website and cook yourself something nice.
Things We Like...
1️⃣ Jiayang Fan’s reflection on what makes certain foods ‘disgusting’
What makes a food cause “disgust”? How do you learn to like new foods?
At the start of this longform story, Fan takes readers on a tour of the Disgusting Food Museum. Sunshine + Microbes has highlighted the museum before for its unique culinary offerings from around the world, such as hakarl (fermented shark, the national dish of Iceland). Tickets come printed on barf bags — and they sometimes get used.
However the second half of the article flips the concept of disgust on its head by asking who gets to determine what’s disgusting. There can be something laudatory about introducing people to new foods and cultures, but the judgment with calling a place the Disgusting Food Museum can feel, well, icky. Fan noted 29 of the 85 foods in the museum are from Asia, including some of her childhood favorites like stinky tofu. And the museum can flatten the way people experience other cultures by not differentiating the regions or contexts behind certain foods. (Hákarl, by the way, started as an ingenious way for vikings to eat safely toxic sleeper sharks)*
In a basic sense, disgust can simply mean food that an individual finds unpleasant to taste. But for humans, disgust toward unusual foods can be more nurture than nature. Fan remembers grappling with Western foods as a young woman immigrating to the U.S.
Even so, disgust did not leave a lasting mark on my psyche until 1992, when, at the age of eight, on a flight to America with my mother, I was served the first non-Chinese meal of my life. In a tinfoil-covered tray was what looked like a pile of dumplings, except that they were square. I picked one up and took a bite, expecting it to be filled with meat, and discovered a gooey, creamy substance inside. Surely this was a dessert. Why else would the squares be swimming in a thick white sauce? I was grossed out, but ate the whole meal, because I had never been permitted to do otherwise. For weeks afterward, the taste festered in my thoughts, goading my gag reflex. Years later, I learned that those curious squares were called cheese ravioli.
In her new world, she learned that crumbly white blocks were not always tofu but something called feta. Spoiled vanilla ice cream on potatoes was known as sour cream. And she described a not uncommon experience for Asian immigrants of gagging when first trying pizza. One friend said when he ordered his first Margherita pizza, he thought the melted burrata cheese was fresh vomit.
Eventually, he got used to pizza. As one food scientist remarks in the story, “it takes ten tries for someone to like something new.”
Do your friends already subscribe to Sunshine + Microbes? If not, have them try something new!
Four More Things We Like This Week
2️⃣ The correct way to fry an egg 🍳
When I studied abroad in Madrid in college, my host mother taught me to make eggs the right way: Crispy bottom, tender whites, runny yolk.
Find a small pan and place it over medium-high heat for 30 seconds or a minute, until you feel the heat when you wave your hand over it. Then pour in enough canola oil (or whatever oil you like with a high smoke point...not olive oil) to liberally coat the bottom of the pan. I use about 1/4 cup for my 6-inch cast iron. Now let that oil heat for 30 seconds or a minute.
Once the oil is shimmering, crack an egg into it. It should immediately begin to sizzle. Cook for a minute or two, until the bottom of the egg is crispy and brown and the whites are just set. Sprinkle with salt and eat immediately. Let the oil cool down, strain it, and save it for tomorrow and the next day’s eggs.
3️⃣ The brutally honest menu at this Montreal restaurant
Aunt Dai’s, a beloved Chinese restaurant in Montreal, received far-reaching attention and adoration earlier this year for the owner’s blunt assessment of its own menu. Feigang Fei has his own notes under each menu item, and he doesn’t mince words. Of course he praises some options. Fei cherishes the lamb hot pot and also the General Tao’s Chicken despite admitting he’s not a fan of North American-style Chinese food. But of orange beef, he notes: “Comparing to our General Tao Chicken, this one is not THAT good.” For the sweet and spicy pork strips, he says: “I am not a huge fan for our version to be honest. But don't get me wrong, the plate at our restaurant is very tasty too, it's just different from those where I went to university.”
Fei jotted down the descriptions for his 60-plus menu items several years ago, telling the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, “"A lot of people want to be the best …and we are simply not the best. That's a fact. We just try to be a little bit better every day. And that's how I see it.” Here are a couple more charmingly sincere descriptions:
4️⃣ ‘Pig’ 🐖
While hiking Maine in May, I consumed an hour-long podcast on truffles, the expensive underground delicacy. I now feel prepared to see the movie of the summer: “Pig”. The movie seems to have a similar plot to the Liam Neeson “Taken” films except if Liam Neeson is replaced by Nic Cage and the kidnapped daughter is replaced by a truffle pig. The trailer has it all: a cute pig oinking over a soothing piano, a menacing executive chef, and Cage grumbling the line “Who has my pig?”
5️⃣ Lei Sato
I love artist Lei Saito’s wacky and wonderful food installations. Perhaps one day I’ll be fancy enough to attend the sorts of high-fashion Parisian soirees where Saito’s edible artworks often appear, but until then, I’m content to follow her on instagram for a taste of her Alice in Wonderland-like creations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunshine + Microbes team
Jackie Vitale is a cook and kitchen educator based in Stuart, Fla . She runs Otto’s Bread Club and is co-founder of the Florida Ferment Fest. Her newsletter explores the intersection of food, culture, environment and community.
Matt Levin is a communications strategist at the ACLU of Texas. He edits Sunshine + Microbes and contributes other scraps to each issue.