Thread 8 - TalkLair: “Brewing Russell's teapot”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 7).

The new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey; we have truly settled here. Outside, the garden is blooming with spring flowers. Inside, the hearth is glowing, pictures are up on the walls, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Asparagus pee just smells of asparagus to me.

Anyone else get coffee pee?

Foodie cousin grew up in Hong Kong and I suspect his exposure to diverse flavours came at least as much from his Amah giving him stuff when they visited the market as from his mother's cooking (though she was a very good cook and would have been considered an adventurous eater in her day). Interesting that brassicas didn't get through that training.

I wish I didn't have an enthusiastic sweet tooth, those of you who don't get that addictive sugar rush are really blessed.

Amazing! DH finds it bizarre the way I physically react to (what I consider) excessively sweet things - my nose and the skin around my eyes genuinely starts sweating! Then I need to glug a load of water to clear my mouth out. Then I feel shaky and jittery. I can't decide if it's psychosomatic; for example I love marzipan and can eat more of it than I would be able to tolerate something else similarly sweet.

I think I like marzipan because I adore all things nutty. Which leads me to my weakness for savoury flavoured, roasted nuts. I don't keep cashews and pistachios in the house anymore because of DD's allergy <sadface>.

Coriander tastes like soap to me which is not how it tastes to people who like it. It's a genetic thang.

I've never had fennel because I'm not keen on aniseed. I can eat liquorice but I'd rather not. I love all brassicas, I like asparagus but I don't seek it out. I know nothing of asparagus pee. I love marzipan. I wish I didn't like sweet things. The end!

shaky and jittery

That sums it up well. I'm not entirely sure when it started, as I used to tolerate sweet things, but I went through a long phase of not having anything sweet and then, when I did have something sweet again, it was revolting. A lovely lady I worked for gave me some chocolate coated candied ginger as a Christmas present. I popped one in my mouth and chewed, then thought 'OMG, I'm going to die!'. It was awful and put me off sugar for good.

Oh, and candied peel is disgusting. That and phony marzipan ruins - RUINS, I say - Christmas cake. Who said that upthread?

Oh, coffee! I don't like it but I love the smell of fresh ground coffee. I can only drink green or jasmine tea because I'm allergic to tannin and get an itchy throat, rash on my neck, watery eyes etc if I go near it. I cannot, for the life of me, understand milk in tea. Very, very weird.

I like the taste of aniseed, but not in savoury stuff. The problem is that it gives me blinding headaches and nausea. I finally realised when I was about 13. I used to love aniseed balls and got some aniseed bullseyes on a holiday.

8 hours driving, probably more, as we kept stopping for me to throw up.

Can people who can’t smell asparagus pee smell asparagus itself? (Gosh that was hard to word intelligibly.)

That’s what asparagus pee smells like, asparagus. My Dad eats a lot of asparagus but lately hasn’t been able to smell it in his pee. He wonders if he had Covid unknowingly because his sense of smell isn’t great any more, or if the ability get lost with age (he’s 86)?

For me the pee smells much more strongly than the vegetable. Even a trace in a mixed dish - might not have noticed an ingredient, but an hour later POW! I ate some asparagus.

What amazes me is how immediately it affects my urine! Go for a pee right after the asparagus course and there’s the smell already!

I make Christmas cake without mixed peel or glacé cherries but it turns out my marzipan hating family and I all like it when it’s homemade and prefer Christmas cake with a layer of it. I do make it with more almonds than sugar and no extra almond essence and I add orange zest which is what makes the difference, I think.

And for the sake of dossiers: yes to some brassicas but not to all. In particular, I dislike sprouts (but love sprout tops); it’s not the bitterness it’s just that I’m not keen on the flavour.

I loved marzipan until my best friend and I went “carol-singing for St Peter’s church, honest”, and the canny woman we’d interrupted as she was making her Christmas cake gave us all her leftover marzipan instead of money, so we gobbled the lot there and then - singing and lying are hungry work. Haven’t been able to eat it since. Damn that canny woman!

In the days when I would accept a slice of Christmas cake, I always peeled off the layer of icing and marzipan, and I picked out the candied cherries too. Then realised that there wasn't much point in the faff so just stopped eating it and haven't missed the absence.

Sprouts are good sliced and fried with smoky bacon, it changes the flavour completely.

Aniseed, fennel & licorice - hard no (small amounts of saunf mithai and star anise are ok).

Brassica - yes (if properly cooked - no to mush).

Marzipan - yes please!

Coriander leaf - soapy socks. Yuk. Coriander seed is a good thing, though.

Asparagus pee - detectable. (I also pee pink after beetroot.)

Coffee - dislike both smell and taste. Ditto tea.

Marmite - ambivalent. OK in small amounts if I'm in the right mood.

Artifical strawberry flavour - dislike.

Artifical banana flavour - absolutely loathe. And can only eat bananas before they get even the tiniest hint of brown spots. Prefer them slightly green.

When I could still eat cheese I avoided blue ones.

Do like mushrooms.

Raw onions should be banned. Especially from salads. Life without cooked ones - and garlic - would be a poor shadow.

Super taster.

Can't smell sulphur.

I love all those flavours except liquorice., and worryingly the other day some coriander tasted a little soapy though I usually love it. To me, asparagus pee smells like some German wines, and I agree it's amazing how quickly it comes though.

This, IMHO is the best use of fennel:

byalastairlittle.co.uk/2019/06/21/recipe-orvieto-chicken/

Aniseed, fennel & licorice - can eat, not wild about.
Brassica - yes and they never taste bitter to me. This is weird, because all beers and lagers taste unbearably bitter to me, even ones others tell me are really sweet.
Marzipan - yes please! I love all nutty things, sweet or savoury.
Coriander leaf - not really, though seed is fine.
Asparagus pee - no
Coffee - I like, though I prefer tea. Both with milk, both unsweetened except iced tea, which I only like sweetened. I don't like iced coffee however it comes.
Marmite - OK in small amounts
Artificial strawberry flavour - dislike.
Artificial banana flavour - yuk. Also prefer bananas not fully ripe.
Cheese - all ok though I am not fond of bland ones like American cheese. I'm ok with all blue cheeses except Danish blue.
Do like mushrooms though not keen on them raw.
Love onions - slightly prefer cooked. Raw in small quantities is ok.

I like all of those things, apart from the synthetic flavours. And actually bananas are just horrible in general. As are sea urchins, in case anyone was in any doubt.

@artant I love your fox delivery!

Sorry to hear about all the tooth woes.

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · Today 13:54

(I also pee pink after beetroot.)

The first time I ate a large amount of fresh beetroot, I thought that my kidneys had collapsed. We only ever had it pickled, which I'm not a fan of and I rarely had more than a slice. My ex girlfriend's dad grew loads on his allotment and fed me some, well, loads...

I love pickled beetroot, it goes very well with chicken and with cheese too.

Relieved to say that tooth woes are improving. The antibiotics are working and I no longer feel like I'm dying, just very tired. Looking forward to getting rid of this damned tooth, it's been nagging for years.

Hello TalkExiles! I managed to lose track of this thread and have been trying to keep up but it has defeated me. Have I missed much?

I LOVE liquorice and coriander.

According to quizzes I am a super taster, but it’s textures that bother me more than anything. Bananas, stodgy bread, beans, rice pudding, certain cheeses, boiled carrots, over boiled veg, peas, bubble and squeak, lumpy mash, the British version of pickled beetroot… It’s a big mushy nope from me.

cyan! I'd been a bit worried about you. Hope Kaspar is still radiating feline superiority and cuteness.

I sense that I wouldn't have had to fight any of you for yesterday's pudding - over ripe bananas baked with lemon, sugar and whiskey and eaten with ice cream.

lush

Aw. I’m fine, just been so busy with revision and exams and now my dissertation.

And you are correct. What a loathsome pudding!