Unusual Foodstuffs

Going through the pantry today brought to mind how wonderful unusual foodstuffs can be not only delicious, but healthy and fun. I've got a couple fo unusual foodstuffs at home, and I fondly remember a couple more that I've had difficulty obtaining...

Goat Cheese - not the bland, goat cheese from Greece, France, and Italy, but Scandinavian goat cheese. It's called Gjetost (pronounced "YAY-toast"), and any family that eats the food of their Swedish or Norweigan anscestors has danced a slow dance with this delicacy. The variety of goat cheese that is popular with the majority of American consumers is white in color, crumbly in texture, and has a flavor akin to a bitter cottage cheese. That variety of goat cheese is particularly popular on pizzas and other dishes served at Greek restaurants and foo-foo establishments. The white goat cheese is to Gjetost in the same way light beer is to a shot of everclear with a lime Kool-Aid chaser. In short - for the uninitiated - it's not what you'd expect. It's a dark brown color, tastes much heavier than the white variety, and is fairly oily. It doesn't make for a decent cooking cheese, but it is great on rykrisp, on dry toast, or by itself.

Marmite - most folks outside of the United Kingdom have never heard of Marmite, or its Kraft Foods-made counterpart, Vegemite. Marmite is a concentrated yeast extract commonly used as a flavoring for meat sauces. Many folks in the UK (particularly those in Australia and New Zealand) have come to appreciate Marmite as a sandwich spread (with lots and lots of butter). Marmite has a peanut butter-like consistency, and is the color of heavy-grade motor oil. It tastes and smells like heavilly-buttered toast that has been left out in the sun for about a month. Why one would want to make a sandwich with something that tastes like that, adding lots of butter, sounds weird, but (trust me) it works.

Eel Patte' - Again, a product that has not found widespread acceptance outside of the UK, particularly Austrailia and New Zealand. Eel Patte' is awesome! It's akin to devilled ham, and tastes like it, too. Great for sandwiches, or as a dip for crackers.

Goat - I tried goat for the first time while working in the Caribbean, and I'd jump at the chance to cook with it. Goat meat is hard to come by in the United States (most states do not count goat as a commercial meat commodity). While working for a cruise ship line about 15 years ago, I was treated to goat during a celebration of Jamaican Independence Day - the meal consisted of curried goat, smuggled onto the ship, with red beans and rice. Wow! What a great meal! Goat cuts have lots of bones (so there's not as much meat per pound of cut as, say, a t-bone steak), but it's got a rich taste, and is a great compliment to the red beans and rice I enjoyed.

Ostrich - In the mid-late 1990's, the Ag industry in Washington State had a concerted effort to introduce ostrich meat as a marketable commodity. The effort pretty much failed, but it did give many consumers, like myself, an opportunity to try it out, and I was very pleased. Ostrich tastes like beef, looks like beef, and cooks like beef. It makes great hamburgers. Unfortunately, the scarce availability of ostrich meat makes for high prices for it (the Red Robin restaurant in Ellensburg, for example, offered an ostrich burger for a short time - the only real difference between that burger and their standard cheeseburger was the price - $8+ for the ostrich burger). If you can get it cheaply, do so, and use it often. It's like beef, but healthier. The same goes for buffalo.