What's your "peas in guacamole"?
7
In case you missed it, the New York Times suggested people add peas to guacamole and everyone (rightfully so, imo) flipped out.
Look, I really like peas but I don't want them in my guacamole. I've even had peas in guacamole at a restaurant and it was fine but still something about it feels so wrong.
So what odd/non-traditional/out of the ordinary ingredients do you weirdos add to well-established recipes?
I'm sure you'll swear by how well it works but be prepared to defend your wacky ideas against scrutiny and disbelief.
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When we make/eat potato soup, my family cuts up dill pickles and put them in with the soup (in the bowls when it's served not during the cooking process). This goes back to at least my great-grandparents. Additionally, we sometimes butter bread, tear it up, and put it in our bowls of potato soup. It's delicious.
@msklzannie This reminds me somewhat of żurek, a sour soup originating in Poland/Belarus. It's awesome. (http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishsoups/r/zurek.htm)
I like normal black pepper on pizza. Most people find that odd.
@Starblind I am all about this. Delish.
I put chopped-up kidney beans in lasagna to make it more healthy. Tastes good, too.
My son used to hate, however, when I put carrots in chili.
@KDemo Try a little nutmeg in your lasagna. You wont regret it!
@one_two3456 - Really? I'll have to try that. I put a little ground cloves and allspice in chili. Yum.
@KDemo beans do not go with noodles under any circumstances. That's vile. And kidney beans are the worst. My Dad used to put kidney beans in egg noodles/spaghetti/ramen. He probably still does, too, but I don't have to eat it any more.
@Dweezle Well, kiss your dinner invitation goodbye. Maybe I'll invite your dad instead :-)
@one_two3456
@Dweezle http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/chili-spaghetti/50b28ca0-3d47-4feb-a041-4806c7e1321c
@connorbush Gagging right now, IRL
@connorbush Okay, maybe one ragret...
my great grandma made the best sour cream cookies in the land
Ketchup on scrambled eggs, and a layer of fries on a McDonald's cheeseburger.
@Pamtha I've had someone audibly gasp when they watched me put ketchup on scrambled eggs. Is it really that weird?
@metageist @Pamtha Not weird at all, but not nearly as good as Cholula.
@2many2no @metageist True. Ketchup is just unspicy salsa, so why is it uncool? In my part of the US, it is Texas Pete, and that goes on WaWa eggs. Yummmm!
@2many2no Ah yes, but I was always more of a Tapatio fan myself. Or sriracha
@metageist @Pamtha It's all good! As far as hot goes, each person has his own familiar taste of poison.
@2many2no Brought a bottle of Cholula (classic, not chipotle) to the extended family get-together yesterday. We were eating Mexican food. I just poured Cholula on some tortillas for a snack before-hand. That got me one odd look. But it's so tasty!
@Pamtha Both of these are yummy.
Potato chips on a PB&J sandwich
Drizzle honey on pizza
Peanut butter in ice cream
None of these are too uncommon.
@medz pizza honey? I find this odd. also, intriguing.
@connorbush So good. Used to be a local joint that would give you little cups of warm honey with your pizza. Great for dunking the crust in. Also, Pizza Hut has a Honey Sriracha drizzle option that is awesome. Seems especially good on pineapple and ham pizza. We've taken to making our own honey drizzle at home.
@medz I can rationalize this. I like honey on corn bread with chili. Chili has tomato in it. Pizza has tomato sauce. Corn bread is bread. Pizza crust is bread. Honey will be good on pizza.
Grilled cheese and guacamole sandwiches (no peas allowed)
@Trillian Yum. Cucumber slices between two slices of bread spread with bean dip.
We put Atomic Extra Hot horseradish on our baked potatoes.
And our two little avocado trees are going great this year. First year we got four avocados off of one. Second year we got five avocados off of that same one. Well, we would have gotten five, except hubby noticed one of the branches (these trees are not very tall) was hanging on the ground and he cut it off. Along with one of the avocados. Nothing on the other tree until this year. We had blossoms, we had baby fruit, but it never matured, just fell off the tree.
No peas in our guac. A little lemon juice, onion powder and a kiss of cayenne....
But this year....this year....we have a plethora of avocados! Our two little trees....
I like to dip grilled cheese sandwiches in ketchup. Try it sometime, it's good.
@jsh139 or dip them in tomato soup.
@2many2no I have a friend who does that. I'm not a fan of cooked tomato soup but grilled cheese and gazpacho wasn't bad.
@jsh139 I like to dip them in ranch dressing
@katylava ew!!! I don't go for white and creamy foods, myself. Mayo, ranch, sour cream, blue cheese, etc.
@jsh139 i know a lot of people like that, and i think you all have your taste priorities seriously mixed up. barbarians.
@jsh139 @2many2no So I was raised to eat grilled cheese with tomato soup. When I married my first wife, she introduced me to grilled cheese with apple sauce, which seemed a little weird at first, but I quickly realized is delicious and it now seems so obvious and natural. Google autocompleted "tomato soup" to my "grilled cheese and." So that would seem to be the more popular--which could be good or bad.
@jsh139 You remind me of this classic Bloom County: http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=79049
@joelmw HAHAHA
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/i-made-the-pea-guac/397565/
@dashcloud you got your round and square brackets mixed up
Lapsang souchong (yes, the tea) ice cream
@MrGlass I can't really imagine this, but I think I'd like to try it.
@brhfl THeres lots of recipes out there for green tea ice cream. Follow those, but substitute lapsang souchong. Smooth, smokey, ice cream.
@MrGlass Oh, that sounds wonderful!
@MrGlass I had a green tea ice cream at a Chinese buffet a few weeks back. It was one of the best ice creams I have ever had.
@MrGlass I've made strawberry/black pepper ice cream. Instead of a sauce or whipped cream I put out a really nice balsamic vinegar. It turned out hugely popular among a very non-hipstery crowd (suburban parents and grandparents).
I like maple syrup on my scrambled eggs.
@metaphore I thought everyone did.
@joelmw I get odd looks from people that have never tried it. But it could be the salt, pepper, and syrup combo that makes it weird?
@metaphore I was going to make French Toast one day, only to discover the bread was moldy after I'd already mixed up the egg, milk, and cinnamon, so I added another egg and turned it into cinnamon scrambled eggs. Pretty good, actually. Then I decided to add maple syrup on the eggs and it was also good. That's the only time I've intentionally added maple syrup to eggs, though.
@metaphore I don't usually put syrup on scrambled eggs, but I love it with basted eggs chopped up in hash browns and pancakes.
@Dweezle @jqubed @metaphore In the earliest days I'm conscious of, I was a strict segregationist eater. I would meticulously finish each individual item before moving on to the next. It bothered me somehow to even eat things alternately. Breakfast taught me otherwise. First my mom showed me how well egg yolk and bacon went together, then I quickly realized that nearly everything on the plate tasted better (or at least not repulsively different) with egg yolk, and especially with bacon. Breakfast was the first thing I learned how to cook and it was sort of a training ground in a lot of other ways too. Indeed, breakfast was the birthplace of my strict desegregationist policies--about food and otherwise.
BTW, I've had the french toast scramble before. Somehow, though I like maple syrup (and cinnamon) in or on everything, I didn't really like it. Needed more savory.
@joelmw
When I was young, I always looked forward to the company picnics of the company my father worked for. There were games, and there was a bouncy house, but there were also potato chips. This was the one time a year that I got to eat potato chips. None of the other food at the picnic really appealed to me, but there were potato chips, and there were rolls. Rolls meant butter. One year I realized that the best part of the rolls was the butter, and the best part of the potato chip was, well, the potato chip. I started dipping potato chips in pats of butter, and I never looked back. Well, not until I grew up and realized OH GOD WHY. But while ignorance was bliss, it was bliss.
I can't think of anything, but I've been called out on stuff before. My wife just asked, "What do we even eat that's normal?" The main thing that we do is substitute vegetables for pasta and other grains, but that doesn't seem that odd. And most of the stuff here I've either tried and liked or I just don't find that unusual. As I look back on my eating habits, I'm always interested in one food violating another's space.
I'd like to comment on the principle. The unexpected mashup is a classic creative maneuver.
I read a thing by Allen Ginsberg in U.S. News once in which he was talking about the act of poetry. He described it (this may not be the exactly language, though I'm pretty sure the noun is) as a startling juxtaposition. He gave the example of "hydrogen jukebox," a phrase from Howl (and, I'm being reminded, also a musical collaboration with Philip Glass). Metaphor is, as Princeton Poetics points out--exactly this sort of collision. There's a conversation that occurs, identities emphasized, differences called out, comminglings catalyzed.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you want to make something good and/or different, you're gonna throw stuff together that hasn't been thrown together and isn't expected.
A classic @joelmw post, and one that makes me want to discuss Ginsberg & Glass (eh, maybe Reich) over a sorghum beer and some zucchini 'spaghetti'.
@joelmw Yes! But it is by that exact 'test' that peas in guac fails. Too similar. There's no "you complete me" dialog, and avocado should kick those peas to the curb and start dating a grapefruit.
@gregormehndel is that because green peas aren't dominant?
@brhfl Aww. This was a lovely comment to check in to on a Monday morning. Thanks. And I'd have that conversation, but I'd lean heavily to the Ginsberg side of the conversation--unless we decided to screen the piece, then I'd surely have something to say about the music. And I read your Reich as Rilke, who, again, I've more existing opinions of. :-)
@gregormehndel While I can appreciate and generally agree with your point, I wouldn't say that it's categorically true. Sometimes the same difference is the biggest difference of all. I notice this about people--that they may look a lot alike to the casual observer, but to each other (or to someone who knows them both well) the differences are immense.
Peas do not belong in guacamole. But I think mangoes do, especially a super juicy one.
@metageist Read that as 'marmots', thought you won/lost the thread.
@brhfl While I've never eaten a marmot, I would definitely try one with guacamole.
1 word. Guacamame.
Hot fries dipped in vanilla ice cream. :-)
@one_two3456 Mcdonald's fries and one of their dollar menu hot fudge sundaes. Yum.
@one_two3456 fries and frosties is even better... Something about the malt I guess
You will think this is crazy, but this grapefruit avocado guac is amazing! I added some salad shrimp, it was a big hit.
20 years ago I got funny looks for pepperoni & jalapeño pizza, but nobody bats an eye now.
Guinness float still not mainstream though. :(
@nadroj A nice coffee or chocolate stout makes for a great ice cream float!
@nadroj You'll fit right in if you're ever in Shepherdstown, WV. Assuming you don't mind a shot of espresso on top as well.
@nadroj Red Robin makes a Guinness milkshake that's really good.
@nadroj I love that combination, very difficult to find a pizzeria with fresh jalapenos. It's always pickled..
Baked Brie filled with minced mango and pistachio chips.
And a Faygo. B)
@droopus I'd eat that. I'd eat a lot of that.
@droopus Mmmmmmmm faygo
When I was a kid, we used to make peanut butter, Karo syrup, and butter sandwiches. How, how am I not a walking ad for the diabeetus?
But hot damn, they were good and even though it's been decades, I can still recall the exact taste. And it's glorious. Now, I just put mayo on baked potatoes.
@jaremelz when I was a kid (1950's), my mom would 'calm me down' by giving me a small dish with a mix of Brown Sugar and White sugar ... and also (separately) a dish of frozen peas (never cooked, yuck! as a kid). I'm with you on the diabeetus wondering.
@jaremelz Similar here. Mom mixed either honey or Karo with peanut butter, spread on Saltine crackers. No detrimental effects I know of! She didn't include butter on that treat, but she would butter slices of bread, sprinkle sugar and cinamon over the butter, then toast it in a pan (no toaster ovens back then) till the sugar and butter formed a crust. Mmmmm.
@gregormehndel I think the butter was to aid in the spreading, if I remember correctly. I've found myself curious to try it throughout the years, but I think I'd feel let down. I stick with the memories.
@JohnQ118 Now that's a combination! combination I was also a huge fan of powdered sugar. Mom would put peanut butter and powdered sugar on pancakes. Yum.
@jaremelz I've come to the conclusion that just about anything sweet tastes great with peanut butter: Karo, honey, jelly, jam, maple syrup, craisins. It's the perfect counterpoint somehow. As kids, the thing in our family was PB and banana:
The first wife introduced me to the fluffer nutter. Again, seemed a little weird, but delicious.
@joelmw That is heaven, right there.
@joelmw How is this weird? Growing up in the northeast we grew up on these, not PB&J. This is my kids favorite sandwich!
http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/
@mfladd It's weird only in that it was weird to me when I first encountered it--which I'd argue is the primary criterion for judging any of these things weird: i.e., it wasn't what I was used to. Of course, you're from the NE, so . . . ;-) (BTW, my first wife was a Pennsylvania native, though, while retaining her bizarre speech patterns and dietary habits, she quickly disavowed her actual home state for the loveliness of Montana.) :-)
@joelmw I hope you still have jar/tub in the cabinet (and try the fudge recipe) :)
While peas in guac is an abomination, tossing in some corn nuts is God damn delicious.
I recall we used to mix mustard and mayo and put that on spaghetti (with nothing else) -I don't eat that today....
And I grew up eating rice with butter on it (nothing else) -I still like that today but I do add fresh ground pepper.
@JohnQ118 interesting, my mom used to make us rice with butter, sugar, and milk on it.
@JohnQ118 Rice with butter, grated garlic or garlic oil, and season salt...
@metageist that's a childhood breakfast favorite that I forgot about. Thanks for the reminder!
@JohnQ118 Did the rice with butter a lot as a kid. It's still not bad, I'm with you on the pepper. The mustard and mayo was a sauce for cauliflower. And we had macaroni noodles dressed with just butter and seasoned salt somewhat regularly.
@metageist I introduced the wife to rice with milk and cinnamon sugar with a dash of nutmeg. Growing up, Mom used to always make sure there was extra rice--whenever we had it--so that we could have this for dessert. My wife showed me that it's even better with a big dollop of butter.
This thread reminds me of one of favorite poems by Ogden Nash:
I eat my peas with honey;
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on the knife.
Substituting mashed cauliflower for potatoes & not warning the unsuspecting victim. I have had much better variations since but that was an unwelcome surprise one Thanksgiving.
@glindagw
@glindagw my dad likes to make mashed turnips...
Anyone else like peanut butter & balogna sandwiches? Or is that just my weirdo family
@glindagw A relative once sent us some kind of bean cakes, which weren't bad, however they looked EXACTLY like rich chocolate fudge brownies. The expectation vs reality was shocking in a way that raisin cookies passing as chocolate chip cookies could never truly aspire to.
@glindagw Air France did that to me once. Stupid frogs.
@glindagw We very much prefer mashed cauliflower to mashed potatoes.
@ciabelle Oatmeal with raisins and chocolate chips.
@joelmw is delish
@joelmw I have since had mashed roasted cauliflower that I liked. I really enjoy cauliflower & sweet potato mashed together. That incident was at the start of the Atkins diet craze and the mashed cauliflower was not prepared well (watery and flavorless). I just needed a bit of warning. It felt a bit like when I went to a summer program in the Deep South and everyone quietly watched me as I took my first bite of what I assumed was cooked spinach.
@glindagw We've experimented with carrots and turnips (but still in a base of cauliflower) and sweet potatoes are a staple for us. Two words: butter and garlic. Roasting helps too.
I like french fries and catchup with my pizza, and mashed potatoes and gravy with my spaghetti and meat balls. I also like to smash up chips ahoy cookies in a glass of milk and eat it with a spoon.
I can't stop them from putting peas in their guacamole but there will never be peas in our thyme!
@WTFhqwhgads You need to take your thyme and
@rockblossom those aren't whirled peas
@WTFhqwhgads As Ginny Brown-Waite said: " Let us face it, the U.N. has failed. It has failed in its mission to promote whirled peas."
@rockblossom that's sage advice
I don't get why people ruin good bread by putting raisins in raisin bread! My FIL makes me raisin bread without raisins!!
@mikibell soo, cinnamon bread? ;-) Sounds good!
@one_two3456 yup.. it took me YEARS to convince him to do it.. and then my darn bil comes down and starts asking for it the same way and gets an immediate yes... sneaky bastard!! FIL makes 18 loaves yearly on every second to last Friday in Lent. yummmyyy
My Dad loves peas, so growing up we had peas as the dinner veggie several times a week. He also hated filling the fridge with containers of leftovers so the peas got poured into the entree... peas on the spaghetti and meatballs, peas in the seafood newburg, peas in the mashed potatoes, peas in the beef or chicken on noodles... peas everywhere. Took all the joy out of some of those favored leftovers...
@duodec I'm sorry for your nightmare childhood.
@JonT It wasn't so bad; I could pick the peas out of the newburg at least... and now I actually like them ;)
Tuna sandwiches with a nice crispy layer of potato chips, and sometimes bacon.
@sinless that sounds lovely. I like putting chips in soup, sandwiches,all kinds of things.
@sinless growing up one of our meals was a tuna casserole which included shoestring potatoes. One of my favorites.
@katylava that sounds amazing
@sinless found the recipe -- i remember it was originally from my mom's better homes and gardens cookbook: http://www.food.com/recipe/tuna-jackstraw-casserole-115631
@katylava that's getting bookmarked. Thanks!
@sinless tuna melt in this style is rockin'
There was one restaurant, now gone, with a really good ranch dressing our family liked dipping our French Fries in. Only at that restaurant, though. I've tried it elsewhere and it's just not the same. Rarely I've seen other people dip fries in ranch, but it usually elicits a strong negative reaction from our fellow diners. However, I have noticed that often places that serve "homemade" potato chips include a ranch dressing for dipping the chips in, so it may become more acceptable soon.
@jqubed doesn't seem that different from people who put mayo on fries to me. I believe ranch goes great with pizza, but actually I hate it on salad.
@jqubed Ranch with fries is normal, at least out here in socal. @daveinsocal can you speak on this? Is my so-cal area this is standard.
@connorbush @jqubed Confirmed. Ranch with fries is delicious.
@DaveInSoCal @connorbush @jqubed Ranch with fries is the standard back in my hometown (Missoula, MT). I've noticed places around Dallas serve it too. And, actually it's what Boomer Jacks and Company Cafe serve with their loaded fries.
@DaveInSoCal @connorbush @jqubed Honey mustard dressing is better still--or equally good, depending on other factors.
@joelmw hmm.. I must go find fries and honey mustard to test this theory during my lunch break.
@DaveInSoCal Thanks @DaveInSoCal we appreciate your expertise and service to our cause.
@connorbush i live but to serve
Rocky Road ice cream, topped with Chili Cheese Fritos. Yum!
Peanut butter on a hamburger, and french fries dipped in soft serve ice cream. I dunno if either is uncommon, but they're both delicious. Certainly not a sacrilege like peas in guacamole.
Oh, and I also put peas in leftover sausage gravy, and eat it later like creamed hamburger, but that doesn't seem weird at all to me.
@Dweezle I forgot about burgers and PB, thanks!
Whenever asked the hardest part of fatherhood it's no contest – having to put ketchup on a hot dog
@borisparsley This thread is bullshit.
Tomato and mayo sandwiches. That's it. Bread, mayo, sliced tomato, salt. It's awesome.
@Thumperchick - When it's homegrown tomato season, yum! I sprinkle on some Trader Joe's Flower Pepper,
@Thumperchick that is one of my mother's favorite sandwiches! If I didn't look exactly like her, I would consider that I might have been switched @ birth, since I don't like mayo (egg allergy early in life) or raw tomatoes..
@Thumperchick One of my favorite summer memories from childhood. My dad grew the best beefsteak tomatoes. One slice was enough to cover the bread. My parents worked, so I made myself that sandwich for lunch more often than not. I need to find some really good tomatoes now!
When I was younger, I'd finish off a good weekend with a Miller High Life with a side of frozen Entemann's chocolate chip cookies.
Now it's Maalox, straight up, with a water back.
Sigh.
Rice and ketchup. It is simply the best.
@DrunkCat mmm.
Seeing as meh is in Frito Lay country, I'm surprised that there's so much raving about potato chips and only scant reference to Fritos. Fritos totally reinvented the bologna sandwich for me when I was younger. But maybe everybody does that?
@joelmw Fritos on ham sandwiches. Another harkening back to my childhood.
Some general observations:
And, again, life is better when you mix things up. ;-p
@joelmw Oooh, and pineapple goes with everything.
Egg-Mayo pasta. Make plain top ramen (no spice packet), mix in hard boiled egg, mayo, stir. Eat.
Peas in salmon patties is good. http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/30099/brown+rice+and+salmon+patties
Equal parts ketchup and mustard, with a little Tabasco to spice it up. That's my go-to for french fry dipping.
Y'all are a bunch of weirdos and I'm glad this topic took off while I was away with family for the weekend. Great answers all around, I look forward to not trying any of them because they're crazy.
@JonT Snacking Terribly With Meh
Folks have already mentioned a few variations of what's basically "fancy sauce":
At Five Guys, I make mine with barbecue sauce, a little ketchup, some mustard and a good bit of mayo. In N Out doesn't have the bbq, but they do have their special sauce (which is basically already ketchup, mayo and relish, roughly speaking), which I mix with a little ketchup.
Mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup on white bread with Bologna. The sammich of my childhood.
The Rugrats had an episode about chocolate cheese seems legit "If you like chocolate with gum underneath If you like caramel sticking to your teeth If you like the dentist drilling cavities, Then you'll love Choco--Chocolate Cheese!"
@connorbush
@KDemo well ill be...
@connorbush - Heh. As I recently learned, every thing is a thing. https://meh.com/forum/topics/what-do-you-do-if-you-get-extra-items-you-didnt-order-from-a-company#5595804da19d4ed005731bd1
@KDemo seems so...seems so.
Another takeaway for me is that ketchup generally needs help. So does mayonnaise. Funny how often the two end up bailing each other out.
I feel like I'm kinda going crazy here, and I promise I'll stop. Eventually. For at least a little while.
Anyhow, who else felt like a childhood discovery--that corn goes great with potatoes and gravy and, well, basically, that potatoes and gravy is a suitable medium for a variety of cubed things--had been stolen, corrupted and horribly commercialized when they came out with their bowls a few years back? Okay, well, I did. Screw you guys if you didn't.
@joelmw
@joelmw I remember those bowls. They were like a heart attack in a cup. Told my wife they looked bad and I wouldn't eat one .. but secretly I wanted one. So badly!
@Sarahsda Make your own! I've had some home-made ones, and they were quite tasty.
@Sarahsda What @dashcloud said. Indeed, that's the point: they stole this idea in the first place.
Ok, I shared my more normal one. Here's my weird one. My favorite weird snack is Peanut Butter m&m's with Cool Ranch Doritos. Same bite.
Stop looking at me like that.
@Thumperchick Like this?
After reading all of these, I thought deeply about what weird things I've had, and came up with a couple that always got crazy/horrified stares.
Due to medical reasons, I was unable to chew food for some period of time, and so my family came up with ingenious solutions for me.
The two I remember the most were the pizza-in-a-cup and peanut-butter-jelly-crackers-in-a-cup.
Very simple to prepare- take the item in question, stick it in a blender/food processor, add a little water, and then blend until a smooth consistency is reached.
Great change-up from things like apple sauce, tuna fish, and baby food.
@dashcloud I hope this isn't in horribly poor taste:
Pre-Chew Charlie's
@joelmw Nope- it was kind of funny.
@dashcloud My 98yo grandmother was on a liquefied diet for a while, and it's not like anything special was prepared for those folks… it was just whatever the night's dinner was anyway, blended. Cheeseburger: blended, fries: blended, strawberry shortcake: blended… Did not go over well!
@brhfl I'd eat the cheeseburger & strawberry shortcake, but I have to draw the line at french fries.
@dashcloud The various cakes were probably fine, but the moisture level just wasn't quite right, never really seemed to blend up into what I would dream a puréed cake would be. The burgers, tuna sandwiches, etc… all looked horrifying, and as much as my grandmother liked those things in sandwich form, was not feeling them in paste form. Fries were probably the best of the lot — basically just mashed potatoes. Didn't turn any weird color, consistency seemed manageable…