September 15, 2025 • 24 mins
We've been in the food business for over twenty-five years . . . and we're involved with food long before we started to writing about it. We've eaten a lot of weird things. So here are some of the strangest things we've dared to eat. (Beware: The list includes a lot of innards.)
We've also got a one-minute cooking tip about packaged poultry from the supermarket. And we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week!
If you'd like to see our latest cookbook, COLD CANNING, check it out at this link here.
Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:
[00:42] Our one-minute cooking tip: Watch for added salt in packaged poultry from the supermarket.
[02:31] What's the weirdest things we’ve eaten? We've been writing about food and cooking for over twenty-five years . . . and have been involved with food long before it became our career. So here are some of the strangest things we've eaten over the years!
[22:57] What’s making us happy in food this week? Chicken and root vegetable stew as well as Italian prune plums.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
mark (00:01):
Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein and this is the Podcast
Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
And I'm Mark Scarborough, andtogether with Bruce, my husband,
we have written 37 cookbooks.
Bruce has written a couple knitting books.
I've written a memoir, I don't know,we're just publishing all the time.
But this is our podcast aboutour biggest passion food.
Mm-hmm.
And cooking the thing that drives our.
Forward as always, we've gota one minute cooking tip.
(00:22):
We're gonna talk about the weirdestthings we've ever eaten, and we
wanna know what is the weirdestthing you've ever eaten in your life.
And not to be gross out, butjust what is the weirdest thing
you dared to try in your life?
And we'll tell you what's makingus happy in food this week.
So let's get started.
bruce (00:42):
Our one minute cooking tip.
Watch out for salt instore-bought raw poultry.
Yeah.
I, some of
it is already brine.
Brine, meaning it's beenan assault solution.
Yep, yep.
I think a lot of people don't know this.
Yep.
And you know, when you buy kosher meat,it's always gonna be a little salty.
Like kosher birds are always brine.
It's part of the kosher ringprocess, but not a little.
(01:03):
Yeah.
It's heavily salty.
It's salty.
But if you go to the supermarketand you see a chicken that's.
Packed there.
It's a roaster or it's a fryer, oryou see packages of chicken breasts.
Yep.
You might see a little lineon that package that says May
contain up to 10% of a solution.
Yeah.
That means they have injected that chicken with a salt and other electrolytes
(01:27):
solution to keep it juicier when it'scooked and also to increase its weight.
So you're paying for that solution.
You are paying for the water.
mark (01:34):
For the chicken, if you're buying mostly organic chicken, you're not
gonna have this injection problem.
But just standard, uh, chicken,even the chicken you might buy in
big packs at the big box stores.
Yeah.
Um, a lot of it has beeninjected and it is already salty.
Just be careful about over saltingthat food once you cook it up.
Okay.
Before we get.
On to the weirdest thing we've evereaten or each of us has ever eaten,
(01:57):
and all the discussions of that.
Let me say that it would be great ifyou could subscribe to this podcast
and even better if you could give it arating on whatever platform you're on.
Can we ask for five stars?
And if you write a review that is.
Absolutely spectacular.
Like nice podcast.
Thanks for doing that because weare unsupported and that is the way
that, in fact, you can support us.
(02:19):
Alright, we're gonna move on to theweirdest question we've ever asked
on this podcast, which is, what'sthe weirdest thing you ever ate?
Hmm.
bruce (02:31):
Okay.
The weirdest thing I ever ate.
There are so many weird thingsI need, I know we've got
a list already, so just so youknow, there's a list to go down.
Okay.
When I was.
In high school, I worked at a kosherdeli on the Upper East side of New York.
Mm-hmm.
It's one block north of Bloomingdale's.
All right.
On third Avenue between60th and 61st Street.
And I had to do a lot of things there thatI had never done, like taste things like.
(02:55):
Pja.
mark (02:56):
Okay.
Now let me say that I know who Cha ispja, but most people listening to this
podcast, unless they are from a ettlin Belarus, will not know what Pja is.
bruce (03:10):
Jollied Cal's feet.
There you go.
Now, here's the thing about it.
It wasn't so weirdbecause I had eaten jelly.
Pig's feet in Chinatown,in Chinese restaurants.
Oh, wow.
So, wow.
So it was just changing animals.
Right.
It's the same
mark (03:24):
thing.
There's something though that'sso overwhelming about pcha.
There's something about it.
I, I have never ever worked upthe courage to touch it and,
and I eat a lot of things.
As you'll hear.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
But I have never in fact, uh,worked up the courage to touch
it because it's so monumental.
bruce (03:40):
Well, you just cook the feet until they literally just turn to jelly.
Mm-hmm.
And they're very strong.
You know, I think it's theland animal version of Lu Fisk.
mark (03:50):
Oh.
Well, no.
Okay.
No, you're not soaking thecabs feed in lie and all that.
I ha By the way, I havehad lus in my life.
Now, explain what that is.
Oh, well, LUS is a Scandinavian delicacyin which you take fish filets and you
soak them in lie to preserve them,and you dry them and soak them in
lie, and this preserves them forever.
(04:10):
And then you lie, we'll kill you.
And so you've gotta get the lie out of it.
And so you do a multiple.
Bath, rinsing, soaking problem toget it out and then you cook it.
And I have been to Lud Fisk Suppersat Scandinavian churches in the
upper Midwest when I was gettingmy PhD at Madison, Wisconsin.
And basically you get a plate ofwhat can only be called warm fish.
(04:33):
Jello.
Yeah.
bruce (04:34):
Tell Jelly it gets
mark (04:36):
a gelatin quality to it with mashed potatoes and mashed rutabagas and white
bread and butter poured all over it.
It is the, how can you haveeaten that and not eat pecha?
It is the ultimate white people food.
It is just total white people.
I mean, salt burns and so youwouldn't dare eat salt with
it because it's too flavorful.
bruce (04:53):
Well, peon needs a lot of salt, I suppose.
So that was, that was probablythe weirdest thing I ate.
And it's funny 'cause my grandmother.
Made Pja, but I wouldn't eat it whenshe made it and she made tongue and
I wouldn't eat it when she made it.
Oh God, I love tongue and she made brainsand I wouldn't eat it when she made it.
So it was really weird that I choseto eat the pja when I worked at MITs.
(05:13):
So yes, that was the name.
It was MITs Deli.
Okay.
mark (05:17):
Uh, well, I guess, um, since we brought up brains, I'll talk
about my experience with brains.
I've had several experiences in my life,but one time, oh, you have a big brain.
No, not really.
But, uh, one time thesewere, uh, gustatory brains.
So one time we went up to a place in.
Rural, rural, rural Quebec.
I mean, this is not Quebec City.
(05:37):
This is Montreal.
This is the middle of nowhere Quebec.
And it was a very, very lovely,luxurious hotel just on a lake.
And seriously the middle of nowhere.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And they had a lovely restaurant.
And we would go up there and I'll tellyou, we would go in the winter 'cause
it's the only time we could have.
Afford to go to this hotel becauseit was so expensive in the summer.
(05:57):
But of course they were open all winterlong anyway, and we'd go up and get a
room and have a couple really nice meals.
So one night we went in the diningroom and, uh, what was his name?
Stef Stefan.
Stefan was the Marere d And Stefaninformed us that the special
of the night was several Dono.
Lamb brain, he was very
bruce (06:15):
proud of it.
'cause they don't get them often right?
And he thought we would reallylove to have he right as
mark (06:20):
gourmet as we are.
He knew that one of us would
bruce (06:22):
really
mark (06:22):
love to have him.
Okay?
So I was like, you know what?
I'm in for penny in for pound.
I'm gonna do this because this isthe special and he's proud of it
and I'm here and you know, this is adelicacy in many parts of the world.
So here I go.
Explain what came at you.
I order it.
And what comes out is, I mean,this is a very nice restaurant, but
essentially I'm making this moredownscale than it actually was.
(06:43):
But what comes out is a plate withlettuce on it and three cold brains.
And they were exactly inthe shape of a lamb's brain.
I mean, these were not, they're
bruce (06:55):
not big
mark (06:56):
braised, they were not sliced, they were not diced.
Nothing could happen to them.
They were, well, they've been poachedand poached, poached whole, right.
And then they were cold with mayonnaise.
bruce (07:06):
All those little squiggles that brains had, there was a ventricles.
Were there a pot
mark (07:11):
of mayonnaise in the middle of the plate with three brains around it?
I'll give you credit.
You got through a whole brain.
I did.
I got you a brain.
And a little bit of a second beforeI was like, I can't, I just can't.
I can't do this anymore.
I did it.
I drank all the wine.
I got this down as much as I can get itdown, and then I got to leave it alone.
(07:31):
I, I actually grew up, uh, Brucesays his grandmother made brains.
I grew up in a German immigrantfamily where brains were common,
and I had them as a kid, but Ihadn't had them again as an adult.
And if you've never had brains,they have an extraordinarily
unique and identifying flavor.
Mm-hmm.
It is not like liver.
(07:52):
It's not like organ meat.
It has a very.
Basically, there's absolutely not onesweet note to it, and it has of course,
as you know, a very disturbing texture.
bruce (08:04):
It's funny, the texture is what turns me off, but yet
I also like sweet breads, youknow, which is, it's different.
The thymus gland, it's
mark (08:11):
different.
Sweet breads are softer than brains.
Brains are a little.
bruce (08:14):
Firm.
I know it's the texture of sweet breadsand sweetbreads are a little sweet also.
They're different.
Oh, they're delicious.
And so I, I guess they could beon the list of weird things, but
I don't see sweet breads as weird.
We, we had sweet breads inMadrid when we were there.
We, two years ago, we went to thisIsraeli restaurant, um, in Madrid.
They, this.
This family owned anArgentinian, uh, ranch.
(08:36):
Right.
And uh, what do you call that?
And
mark (08:38):
Estan.
Yeah, estan.
Yeah.
Estancia
bruce (08:41):
eia.
And they brought all the meatup from South America to Spain
and they grilled wood, woodgrill, smoked those sweet breads.
Oh, that was one of, I thoughtyou were gonna tell another
Madrid story.
Oh, okay.
This is a Madrid dish, which,uh, didn't seem weird to me,
but seems weird to everybody.
I show the pictures too.
So we went to a restaurant thatspecialized in innards, in ville,
(09:05):
in oval, and we had a tasting menu.
And so of course, one course was a plateof a bunch of little duck hearts and
they were in a sauce and that was lovely.
Lots of tripe.
And then there was a little tripething, but there was a side dish.
Side dish.
The buffet that you can, not a side dish.
Well, it was on the sides.
Menu, right?
Yeah.
You can order it extra.
You can order it extra on the side,
right?
And it was called Pig Head, and what you got was a very small baby pig
(09:30):
head that had been confid, meaning slowcooked in oil to the meat is falling
off, but it's not totally falling off.
Then it was coated incrumbs and deep fried.
That's true.
Had had a deep fried fake head,deep fried comb, feeded pig head,
and it was baby piglet head.
It was one of the most unusual thingsever served to me in a restaurant, but.
Boy, was it good.
(09:51):
So
mark (09:51):
I I, so in all this talking about innards, I'll tell you a
story about me and innards, andit's not childhood, it's adult.
So we have a friend who livesup here in New England near
us, and they keep chickens.
And of course they've got bru, roosters,and they need to always dispatch
the roosters because you can't have.
A ton of roosters.
They'll fight and kill each other andall that stuff, so you do kill them.
Chickens are nasty.
(10:12):
They, well roosters are particularlydisturbing birds at times.
Nasty birds.
And anyway, um, he had dispatchedto roosters and, uh, you may know
that I have another side of my life,which is literary teaching, and I had
been teaching an eight week courseon the short stories of Flannery
O'Connor in the library in their town.
So on the way home one dayfrom one of those courses.
He said, stop by me, my house.
(10:34):
I dispatched a couple roostersand we can sit around the table in
his kitchen and eat the innards.
So I did.
Yeah, you're not getting the lovelymeat, you're just getting the innards.
At about four o'clock Istopped at their house.
Um, his wife did not take partin any of this, but he and
I sat at the kitchen table.
We drank a really nice bottleof red wine over the course of
(10:55):
like two hours while he fried up.
Yes, the testicles, the lungs, thespleens, the livers, the brains.
The Cox Combs.
Cox Combs.
Good.
I like that.
But that's not an ind, that's anoutward, all the kidneys, that's an
bruce (11:11):
ind.
mark (11:11):
We fried it all up one by one and we would try each piece and then drink
more wine and talk and they, so I supposethat is one of those hallmark moments.
I'm not opposed to in cells.
So here's my, uh, thing about gross out.
Um, innards actually don't gross me out.
Mm-hmm.
Ful doesn't gross me out, as you can tell.
What really, really grosses me outis fermented Roddy vegetable matter.
(11:36):
And while I love kimchi, if youlisten to this podcast, you know
how much I love kimchi on burgers.
And while I love sauerkrautGerman immigrant family, after
all, I love all that stuff.
Sometimes Bruce uses preserved andfermented Chinese vegetables in stir
fries, and it passes a line for me.
bruce (11:56):
You have that reaction when I put too many different
kinds of fermented things in.
Yes, and it gets so confusing.
Last week my mom was visiting and Imade a siwan style braised brisket,
and so what made it Siwan style?
I used.
Dojang, the fermented broadbean chili paste in it.
I also used fermented urging tatauchilies in it, and that probably was
(12:19):
enough fermented things for Mark.
Um, but then I also put some otherfermented soy saucy paste into it.
Mm-hmm.
And then I opened up two packages.
Mm-hmm.
Pickled fermented mustard tubers.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And I dumped those in.
There's something
mark (12:35):
about, there's too many fermented vegetables that, again,
I love sauerkraut and sauerkraut,as my grandmother would say.
I love sauerkraut.
I love kimchi.
I think all of that is brilliant.
Our book called Canning has allkinds of small batch Kim cheese in
it, and Sauerkrauts, I love them.
There's this, uh, um, uh, celeryroot, uh, sauerkraut that's in
(12:56):
the book that I think is just.
Brilliant cabbage and cel, uh,celery root mixed together.
I love all of that stuff.
It's the question of when itstarts to, I'm gonna be gross.
I'm sorry.
This is a food podcast and I'm gross.
But it's when it starts to smell like yourgarbage can and I just can't handle it,
it starts to smell like a compost pile.
And
bruce (13:14):
I will admit when I made that brisket, I had opened.
The packages of the fermented mustard tubsand they were in a bowl next to everything
else and there was a smell coming offthe counter and I, the sulfur smell and
I kind of associated that with the onionsand I think it was the mustard tubers.
It was too far.
Ferment.
I should have left.
I couldn't eat it.
I should left it.
(13:34):
It just got.
mark (13:35):
Too Roddy, and so I, so you can hear, I have no problem
with eating like Leopold Bloomin U in James Joyce's Ulysses.
I eat with relish, the innerorgans of beasts and fouls,
but it's vegetable matter.
When it starts to go too far.
I love vegetables, I love freshvegetables, I love fermented vegetables,
(13:58):
but there's just this way it can cross aline with me and I start to back up from
bruce (14:03):
it.
And it's really interesting too,because one of your favorite
cheeses is a POS I love.
And you always say to me,a POS is like a cheese.
You leave until it's liquified, you getrid of it, and the liquid there is what's
left in the bottom of your garbage can.
mark (14:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It tastes like, like the
bruce (14:17):
cheese tastes like the liquid at the bottom of your garbage can.
Yeah,
mark (14:19):
it does.
My, my, my friend Allison refers tohow you eat a pos, you leave it on
the counter all day until it festersand then you eat it, but you like
that and it smells like garbage.
I love a pos, but it smells like garbage.
I think that that goes with, uh, red wine.
I think what pos goes beautifullywith a really inky, dark red wine.
My problem with the vegetablematter is that it is not only.
Fermented, but it alsoincludes this sour component.
(14:42):
And it's that, it's that crossbetween the fermented savory and the
sour rye start to back up from it.
Mm-hmm.
And I can't handle it anymore.
It, it, i, it crosses a boundary for
bruce (14:53):
me.
That makes sense.
I wanna go back to my grandmother'sShabbat kitchen for a second.
'cause there's something shewould make every now and then.
Which Shabbat?
mark (15:00):
Not everyone on this podcast.
Never.
Friday
bruce (15:02):
nights Sha Jewish Shabbat.
It's your Sabbath.
It's okay.
There you go.
And she would often make L and stew.
Oh, if it sounds like lungs it is.
It's just L and stew.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
Mm-hmm.
You couldn't have given me.
Anything to make me eat it as a child.
However, I love
lungs.
Once Mark and I went with an Asian friend of ours, a Chinese friend
(15:26):
to Chinatown in Flushing in Queens.
Yep.
And we went to one of thoseunderground food malls.
Yep.
And we found a stall selling.
Chinese lamb, lung in chili oil cold.
And it was cold.
Cold lamb lung in chili oil.
I tasted it and I lovedit, and it's the texture.
It was like eating what killed me.
It's like gummy candy.
So we
mark (15:44):
went with a friend, a Chinese friend to this mall, and the Chinese
friend would not touch mm-hmm.
The cold lung in chili oil and we ate it.
Mm-hmm.
So there you go.
bruce (15:52):
Yeah.
But she was unusual.
I couldn't serve her a whole lobster.
She wouldn't take it apart.
She was a little squeamish
mark (15:58):
maybe so.
But I think that this aspart of a cultural matrix.
Mm.
Um, that's made, uh, I guess a lot ofmy gross out foods, if when people hear
them are all about innards as I say.
And, uh, there's other thingsthat, um, I, I, I, it's not
that they're gross out for me.
I've learned to like them, for example.
(16:19):
Um, and I suppose there'sa lot of people this way.
I used to be completelycilantro averse mm-hmm.
And not be able to handle any cilantro.
Now I'm okay with it.
Mm-hmm.
And now.
I'm fine with it.
I eat it on guacamole.
I eat it in Mexican food.
I don't, I I eat it in Thai food.
I have no problem with cilantro anymore.
bruce (16:37):
Yeah.
But you never had that sensationthat it tasted like soap?
Yes, I did.
Oh, you
do?
Yes, I did.
I still do.
You have that genetic thingso it tastes like soap?
I do.
I thought you just didn't like it.
Oh, you think it tastes like soap?
Yeah, but it's becausethat's a genetic thing.
I might, but it's okay.
I'm okay with you.
You're okay to, to, for me tograte soap on top of your tacos?
Yeah.
mark (16:56):
Whatever.
I'm, I'm top.
Just don't put any preservedvegetable root on there, or
at least too many of them.
I think keep it, keep it morein the realm of vegetable, not.
Fermented sour vegetable.
Yeah.
bruce (17:10):
There is one thing still in a Chinese restaurant that I have not had.
We've seen it a number of times.
In fact, the first time we saw it was,uh, when we still lived in New York and
that place across the street from us,grand Sesh went international, started a.
Opening up those Chinese menus that usedto go only to the Chinese people and they
started giving them to white people too.
And one of the things they were veryfamous at this restaurant for was their
(17:32):
sea cucumber, which is not a vegetable.
So it's not a salad.
It's a little slug likeanimal that lives in not
a little.
It's a big
slug lie
animal, basically.
And then you buy them dried, so theylook like a bag of turds and you have
to soak 'em and they clean them out.
Now you can go to an Asian fishmarket and get them fresh, and
then they look like life turds.
(17:53):
But I've never had one.
And what I eat one at this point,sure, I'd probably eat one, but
they're just called sea cucumbers.
So look 'em up there.
mark (18:00):
Uh, yeah.
And sea squirts.
There's less sea squirts inKorean cooking and in coastal
Chinese cooking, I've never.
Scene, sea squirts on a menu?
Um, I probably would try it.
Uh, 'cause I don't, again, I'mnot averse to most living things.
I, uh, I eat with relish theinner organs of Beast and Fells.
So Mark
bruce (18:19):
and I once went out for Dim Sum in San Francisco.
And we ran across something wehad never run across on a menu.
So it's not evensomething we hadn't tried.
We had never seen this item listedon a menu and it was called shutters.
And we Yeah, like, like
the shutters on your house.
Mm-hmm.
So we asked the woman what it was, andshe didn't speak much English at all.
(18:42):
No.
And she just.
Put her fingers together tomake this somewhat overly shape
and put it at her midsection.
A little low bike below her belly button.
And she kept saying, shuther, shut her, shut her.
Well it turns out they didn't have anythat day, so we didn't get to eat them.
Um, and we ended up getting, uh,some, I don't remember tripe.
I think we ended up with tripe 'causeshe told us it was a similar texture.
(19:04):
And it turned out that, youknow, shutters are the cow's part
where the baby cow comes out.
mark (19:12):
I think we could say that word on this podcast.
It's cow
bruce (19:14):
vagina.
It is shutters are vaginas.
And I didn't know that was an old,it's a butcher turn, a culinary term.
I didn't
mark (19:19):
know that.
And so I looked at the menu and Iwas like, ah, what our shutters.
And she held it up to herlower abdomen in her hands.
Like, what is that?
I don't know what it isthat I'm supposed to be.
Your belly button.
So, uh, yeah, we didn't try that.
Uh, that was beyond us.
That would've been the
bruce (19:35):
strangest thing.
Uh,
mark (19:36):
yeah.
And I'm sure that stuff has gottabe braised for like 5,000 years.
Oh, I would think
bruce (19:40):
so.
You know, and this isn't astrange food, but you've overcome
your aversion to cilantro.
I am not getting over my aversion.
To root beer and to licorice that isnot, and they're related, strange.
And they know.
It's strange to me that anyonewould eat them because they
think they taste so terrible.
My God.
Love root
mark (19:57):
beer.
Oh, I love root beer and I love licorice.
I, oh my gosh.
And I love birch beer.
I love all of that stuff that sasper.
So in fact, one year I wentand made a root beer syrup.
So I bought all of the.
Parts, the ginseng and the, uh,sapar root and all the various
(20:19):
pieces that make upper root beer.
And I made a syrup and I, we gave thataway as a Christmas gift to people.
So you poured a little glassand added, uh, seltzer to it.
And by the way, that recipe'sin cold canning there, it's,
it made it into cold canning.
Mm-hmm.
'cause it is something you can makeand save back is root beer syrup.
It's
bruce (20:37):
one of the most.
Delicious and I'm gonna, I want to endwith my most delicious and unexpected
thing was served for me dessert in Kahan.
Back when Mark and I were writingfor Wine Spectator, we did an
article on what it's like to be inKahan without the film festival did.
So we were at LA PalmDoor having dinner and.
I had eaten so much in that dinner.
(20:58):
We had such crazy things to eat and I wasso full and I didn't want a heavy dessert.
May, may I just say this isback in the days when magazines
had generous expense accounts.
Mm.
Someone else paid for thatdinner at the front door.
Yes.
Generous expense accounts.
And
so, no.
The way they said, let me,let's, trust me, let me bring you
something that's very special.
It's only of the moment,and they brought over.
(21:19):
What can only be called a cauldronof the tiniest, when I say tiny,
these were f deis wild strawberries.
They were so tiny.
They were, uh, like a quarter inch.
They were at the, at the most, theywere very tiny, and he spooned, and
these are so precious and so expensive.
And he spooned out a spoonful ontomy bowl, and then he set the cauldron
(21:43):
down and told me to help myself.
And it was.
Outrageous.
It was the most unexpected, but yet oneof the most delicious things I'd ever
had.
Uh, at that same restaurant, um, I hadsomething that I found delicious and
mark (21:55):
that I never thought existed and that I had pheasant fo gras.
Mm-hmm.
So pheasants had been force fed mm-hmm.
Until their livers got giant and bloatedand sick and fatty and delicious.
All that stuff, and delicious.
And then they had taken the pheasantfo gra these livers and, um, chopped
(22:16):
them up and wrapped them in call fat.
Mm-hmm.
Which is the fat aroundthe kidneys of a pig.
And they put it in C fat and then theyserve that with the pheasant breast.
And it was, was in, that was aninsane, it was pretty good set
of organs going on that plate.
It was pretty good.
Yeah, it was really good.
Okay.
So those are some of theweirdest things we've ever eaten.
(22:36):
We would love to know.
Yeah.
The weirdest thingsthat you've ever eaten.
bruce (22:41):
Yeah, we do go to our Facebook group cooking with Bruce and Mark
and you could share pictures ifyou have it or just stories of some
of the weird things you've eaten.
'cause we wanna know what you're eating
mark (22:53):
here.
I'm cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Okay.
Up next, the last part of this podcast,as always, what's making us happy?
And food this week.
And I'm gonna start.
Okay, I get to go first.
Okay.
Uh, so it's that chicken stew.
Remember we talked about watchthe salt content of chicken?
Mm-hmm.
So I made a huge chicken stew.
Bruce's mother was here with usfor about two and a half weeks.
(23:14):
She's moved from the west coastback to the east coast and she was
staying with us for about two and ahalf weeks before she gets settled.
And one night I made agiant pot of chicken stew.
It was so good.
Butternut squash, yellow beets.
Mm-hmm.
And something, there wasa third root in there.
Mm-hmm.
Butternut squash, yellow beets, and.
(23:34):
I don't know what you put in there.
Did you put
bruce (23:36):
celery react?
I think you put celery react.
Yes.
Celery React.
Celery root.
Celery.
It was good.
And I had just picked thoseyellow beets at a friend's
garden and that was delicious.
And it was super, super comforting.
Fall food.
Yeah, something else fromthat friend's garden is what's
making me happy this week.
And that is Italian prune plumsbecause this friend has an orchard
in her garden and I was just therethis morning and I picked about 40.
(23:57):
Pounds of Italian P pruneplums and I've been eating them
and I am going to make jam.
You be so
mark (24:03):
regular, everything is gonna be so working like clock lot, my god.
Well anyway, yes indeed.
I love Italian Pune plums.
I think they're so great and it'shard to find them at the store
where they're not too hard and sour.
So it's great to see them on thetrees and actually get 'em that way.
Well, that's the podcast for this week.
We really appreciate your makingus part of your podcast world.
(24:25):
Thanks for doing that, and thanksfor being on this journey with us
bruce (24:28):
and thanks for checking us out everywhere we live.
I already mentioned Facebook, but goto TikTok and check out our TikTok
channel Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
There are a ton of videos there.
You get to see us cooking in our kitchen,cooking for each other, just having a lot
of fun with food, which is what we loveto do here on cooking at Briton Market.
Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein and this is the Podcast
Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
And I'm Mark Scarborough, andtogether with Bruce, my husband,
we have written 37 cookbooks.
Bruce has written a couple knitting books.
I've written a memoir, I don't know,we're just publishing all the time.
But this is our podcast aboutour biggest passion food.
Mm-hmm.
And cooking the thing that drives our.
Forward as always, we've gota one minute cooking tip.
(00:22):
We're gonna talk about the weirdestthings we've ever eaten, and we
wanna know what is the weirdestthing you've ever eaten in your life.
And not to be gross out, butjust what is the weirdest thing
you dared to try in your life?
And we'll tell you what's makingus happy in food this week.
So let's get started.
bruce (00:42):
Our one minute cooking tip.
Watch out for salt instore-bought raw poultry.
Yeah.
I, some of
it is already brine.
Brine, meaning it's beenan assault solution.
Yep, yep.
I think a lot of people don't know this.
Yep.
And you know, when you buy kosher meat,it's always gonna be a little salty.
Like kosher birds are always brine.
It's part of the kosher ringprocess, but not a little.
(01:03):
Yeah.
It's heavily salty.
It's salty.
But if you go to the supermarketand you see a chicken that's.
Packed there.
It's a roaster or it's a fryer, oryou see packages of chicken breasts.
Yep.
You might see a little lineon that package that says May
contain up to 10% of a solution.
Yeah.
That means they have injected that chicken with a salt and other electrolytes
(01:27):
solution to keep it juicier when it'scooked and also to increase its weight.
So you're paying for that solution.
You are paying for the water.
mark (01:34):
For the chicken, if you're buying mostly organic chicken, you're not
gonna have this injection problem.
But just standard, uh, chicken,even the chicken you might buy in
big packs at the big box stores.
Yeah.
Um, a lot of it has beeninjected and it is already salty.
Just be careful about over saltingthat food once you cook it up.
Okay.
Before we get.
On to the weirdest thing we've evereaten or each of us has ever eaten,
(01:57):
and all the discussions of that.
Let me say that it would be great ifyou could subscribe to this podcast
and even better if you could give it arating on whatever platform you're on.
Can we ask for five stars?
And if you write a review that is.
Absolutely spectacular.
Like nice podcast.
Thanks for doing that because weare unsupported and that is the way
that, in fact, you can support us.
(02:19):
Alright, we're gonna move on to theweirdest question we've ever asked
on this podcast, which is, what'sthe weirdest thing you ever ate?
Hmm.
bruce (02:31):
Okay.
The weirdest thing I ever ate.
There are so many weird thingsI need, I know we've got
a list already, so just so youknow, there's a list to go down.
Okay.
When I was.
In high school, I worked at a kosherdeli on the Upper East side of New York.
Mm-hmm.
It's one block north of Bloomingdale's.
All right.
On third Avenue between60th and 61st Street.
And I had to do a lot of things there thatI had never done, like taste things like.
(02:55):
Pja.
mark (02:56):
Okay.
Now let me say that I know who Cha ispja, but most people listening to this
podcast, unless they are from a ettlin Belarus, will not know what Pja is.
bruce (03:10):
Jollied Cal's feet.
There you go.
Now, here's the thing about it.
It wasn't so weirdbecause I had eaten jelly.
Pig's feet in Chinatown,in Chinese restaurants.
Oh, wow.
So, wow.
So it was just changing animals.
Right.
It's the same
mark (03:24):
thing.
There's something though that'sso overwhelming about pcha.
There's something about it.
I, I have never ever worked upthe courage to touch it and,
and I eat a lot of things.
As you'll hear.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
But I have never in fact, uh,worked up the courage to touch
it because it's so monumental.
bruce (03:40):
Well, you just cook the feet until they literally just turn to jelly.
Mm-hmm.
And they're very strong.
You know, I think it's theland animal version of Lu Fisk.
mark (03:50):
Oh.
Well, no.
Okay.
No, you're not soaking thecabs feed in lie and all that.
I ha By the way, I havehad lus in my life.
Now, explain what that is.
Oh, well, LUS is a Scandinavian delicacyin which you take fish filets and you
soak them in lie to preserve them,and you dry them and soak them in
lie, and this preserves them forever.
(04:10):
And then you lie, we'll kill you.
And so you've gotta get the lie out of it.
And so you do a multiple.
Bath, rinsing, soaking problem toget it out and then you cook it.
And I have been to Lud Fisk Suppersat Scandinavian churches in the
upper Midwest when I was gettingmy PhD at Madison, Wisconsin.
And basically you get a plate ofwhat can only be called warm fish.
(04:33):
Jello.
Yeah.
bruce (04:34):
Tell Jelly it gets
mark (04:36):
a gelatin quality to it with mashed potatoes and mashed rutabagas and white
bread and butter poured all over it.
It is the, how can you haveeaten that and not eat pecha?
It is the ultimate white people food.
It is just total white people.
I mean, salt burns and so youwouldn't dare eat salt with
it because it's too flavorful.
bruce (04:53):
Well, peon needs a lot of salt, I suppose.
So that was, that was probablythe weirdest thing I ate.
And it's funny 'cause my grandmother.
Made Pja, but I wouldn't eat it whenshe made it and she made tongue and
I wouldn't eat it when she made it.
Oh God, I love tongue and she made brainsand I wouldn't eat it when she made it.
So it was really weird that I choseto eat the pja when I worked at MITs.
(05:13):
So yes, that was the name.
It was MITs Deli.
Okay.
mark (05:17):
Uh, well, I guess, um, since we brought up brains, I'll talk
about my experience with brains.
I've had several experiences in my life,but one time, oh, you have a big brain.
No, not really.
But, uh, one time thesewere, uh, gustatory brains.
So one time we went up to a place in.
Rural, rural, rural Quebec.
I mean, this is not Quebec City.
(05:37):
This is Montreal.
This is the middle of nowhere Quebec.
And it was a very, very lovely,luxurious hotel just on a lake.
And seriously the middle of nowhere.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And they had a lovely restaurant.
And we would go up there and I'll tellyou, we would go in the winter 'cause
it's the only time we could have.
Afford to go to this hotel becauseit was so expensive in the summer.
(05:57):
But of course they were open all winterlong anyway, and we'd go up and get a
room and have a couple really nice meals.
So one night we went in the diningroom and, uh, what was his name?
Stef Stefan.
Stefan was the Marere d And Stefaninformed us that the special
of the night was several Dono.
Lamb brain, he was very
bruce (06:15):
proud of it.
'cause they don't get them often right?
And he thought we would reallylove to have he right as
mark (06:20):
gourmet as we are.
He knew that one of us would
bruce (06:22):
really
mark (06:22):
love to have him.
Okay?
So I was like, you know what?
I'm in for penny in for pound.
I'm gonna do this because this isthe special and he's proud of it
and I'm here and you know, this is adelicacy in many parts of the world.
So here I go.
Explain what came at you.
I order it.
And what comes out is, I mean,this is a very nice restaurant, but
essentially I'm making this moredownscale than it actually was.
(06:43):
But what comes out is a plate withlettuce on it and three cold brains.
And they were exactly inthe shape of a lamb's brain.
I mean, these were not, they're
bruce (06:55):
not big
mark (06:56):
braised, they were not sliced, they were not diced.
Nothing could happen to them.
They were, well, they've been poachedand poached, poached whole, right.
And then they were cold with mayonnaise.
bruce (07:06):
All those little squiggles that brains had, there was a ventricles.
Were there a pot
mark (07:11):
of mayonnaise in the middle of the plate with three brains around it?
I'll give you credit.
You got through a whole brain.
I did.
I got you a brain.
And a little bit of a second beforeI was like, I can't, I just can't.
I can't do this anymore.
I did it.
I drank all the wine.
I got this down as much as I can get itdown, and then I got to leave it alone.
(07:31):
I, I actually grew up, uh, Brucesays his grandmother made brains.
I grew up in a German immigrantfamily where brains were common,
and I had them as a kid, but Ihadn't had them again as an adult.
And if you've never had brains,they have an extraordinarily
unique and identifying flavor.
Mm-hmm.
It is not like liver.
(07:52):
It's not like organ meat.
It has a very.
Basically, there's absolutely not onesweet note to it, and it has of course,
as you know, a very disturbing texture.
bruce (08:04):
It's funny, the texture is what turns me off, but yet
I also like sweet breads, youknow, which is, it's different.
The thymus gland, it's
mark (08:11):
different.
Sweet breads are softer than brains.
Brains are a little.
bruce (08:14):
Firm.
I know it's the texture of sweet breadsand sweetbreads are a little sweet also.
They're different.
Oh, they're delicious.
And so I, I guess they could beon the list of weird things, but
I don't see sweet breads as weird.
We, we had sweet breads inMadrid when we were there.
We, two years ago, we went to thisIsraeli restaurant, um, in Madrid.
They, this.
This family owned anArgentinian, uh, ranch.
(08:36):
Right.
And uh, what do you call that?
And
mark (08:38):
Estan.
Yeah, estan.
Yeah.
Estancia
bruce (08:41):
eia.
And they brought all the meatup from South America to Spain
and they grilled wood, woodgrill, smoked those sweet breads.
Oh, that was one of, I thoughtyou were gonna tell another
Madrid story.
Oh, okay.
This is a Madrid dish, which,uh, didn't seem weird to me,
but seems weird to everybody.
I show the pictures too.
So we went to a restaurant thatspecialized in innards, in ville,
(09:05):
in oval, and we had a tasting menu.
And so of course, one course was a plateof a bunch of little duck hearts and
they were in a sauce and that was lovely.
Lots of tripe.
And then there was a little tripething, but there was a side dish.
Side dish.
The buffet that you can, not a side dish.
Well, it was on the sides.
Menu, right?
Yeah.
You can order it extra.
You can order it extra on the side,
right?
And it was called Pig Head, and what you got was a very small baby pig
(09:30):
head that had been confid, meaning slowcooked in oil to the meat is falling
off, but it's not totally falling off.
Then it was coated incrumbs and deep fried.
That's true.
Had had a deep fried fake head,deep fried comb, feeded pig head,
and it was baby piglet head.
It was one of the most unusual thingsever served to me in a restaurant, but.
Boy, was it good.
(09:51):
So
mark (09:51):
I I, so in all this talking about innards, I'll tell you a
story about me and innards, andit's not childhood, it's adult.
So we have a friend who livesup here in New England near
us, and they keep chickens.
And of course they've got bru, roosters,and they need to always dispatch
the roosters because you can't have.
A ton of roosters.
They'll fight and kill each other andall that stuff, so you do kill them.
Chickens are nasty.
(10:12):
They, well roosters are particularlydisturbing birds at times.
Nasty birds.
And anyway, um, he had dispatchedto roosters and, uh, you may know
that I have another side of my life,which is literary teaching, and I had
been teaching an eight week courseon the short stories of Flannery
O'Connor in the library in their town.
So on the way home one dayfrom one of those courses.
He said, stop by me, my house.
(10:34):
I dispatched a couple roostersand we can sit around the table in
his kitchen and eat the innards.
So I did.
Yeah, you're not getting the lovelymeat, you're just getting the innards.
At about four o'clock Istopped at their house.
Um, his wife did not take partin any of this, but he and
I sat at the kitchen table.
We drank a really nice bottleof red wine over the course of
(10:55):
like two hours while he fried up.
Yes, the testicles, the lungs, thespleens, the livers, the brains.
The Cox Combs.
Cox Combs.
Good.
I like that.
But that's not an ind, that's anoutward, all the kidneys, that's an
bruce (11:11):
ind.
mark (11:11):
We fried it all up one by one and we would try each piece and then drink
more wine and talk and they, so I supposethat is one of those hallmark moments.
I'm not opposed to in cells.
So here's my, uh, thing about gross out.
Um, innards actually don't gross me out.
Mm-hmm.
Ful doesn't gross me out, as you can tell.
What really, really grosses me outis fermented Roddy vegetable matter.
(11:36):
And while I love kimchi, if youlisten to this podcast, you know
how much I love kimchi on burgers.
And while I love sauerkrautGerman immigrant family, after
all, I love all that stuff.
Sometimes Bruce uses preserved andfermented Chinese vegetables in stir
fries, and it passes a line for me.
bruce (11:56):
You have that reaction when I put too many different
kinds of fermented things in.
Yes, and it gets so confusing.
Last week my mom was visiting and Imade a siwan style braised brisket,
and so what made it Siwan style?
I used.
Dojang, the fermented broadbean chili paste in it.
I also used fermented urging tatauchilies in it, and that probably was
(12:19):
enough fermented things for Mark.
Um, but then I also put some otherfermented soy saucy paste into it.
Mm-hmm.
And then I opened up two packages.
Mm-hmm.
Pickled fermented mustard tubers.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And I dumped those in.
There's something
mark (12:35):
about, there's too many fermented vegetables that, again,
I love sauerkraut and sauerkraut,as my grandmother would say.
I love sauerkraut.
I love kimchi.
I think all of that is brilliant.
Our book called Canning has allkinds of small batch Kim cheese in
it, and Sauerkrauts, I love them.
There's this, uh, um, uh, celeryroot, uh, sauerkraut that's in
(12:56):
the book that I think is just.
Brilliant cabbage and cel, uh,celery root mixed together.
I love all of that stuff.
It's the question of when itstarts to, I'm gonna be gross.
I'm sorry.
This is a food podcast and I'm gross.
But it's when it starts to smell like yourgarbage can and I just can't handle it,
it starts to smell like a compost pile.
And
bruce (13:14):
I will admit when I made that brisket, I had opened.
The packages of the fermented mustard tubsand they were in a bowl next to everything
else and there was a smell coming offthe counter and I, the sulfur smell and
I kind of associated that with the onionsand I think it was the mustard tubers.
It was too far.
Ferment.
I should have left.
I couldn't eat it.
I should left it.
(13:34):
It just got.
mark (13:35):
Too Roddy, and so I, so you can hear, I have no problem
with eating like Leopold Bloomin U in James Joyce's Ulysses.
I eat with relish, the innerorgans of beasts and fouls,
but it's vegetable matter.
When it starts to go too far.
I love vegetables, I love freshvegetables, I love fermented vegetables,
(13:58):
but there's just this way it can cross aline with me and I start to back up from
bruce (14:03):
it.
And it's really interesting too,because one of your favorite
cheeses is a POS I love.
And you always say to me,a POS is like a cheese.
You leave until it's liquified, you getrid of it, and the liquid there is what's
left in the bottom of your garbage can.
mark (14:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It tastes like, like the
bruce (14:17):
cheese tastes like the liquid at the bottom of your garbage can.
Yeah,
mark (14:19):
it does.
My, my, my friend Allison refers tohow you eat a pos, you leave it on
the counter all day until it festersand then you eat it, but you like
that and it smells like garbage.
I love a pos, but it smells like garbage.
I think that that goes with, uh, red wine.
I think what pos goes beautifullywith a really inky, dark red wine.
My problem with the vegetablematter is that it is not only.
Fermented, but it alsoincludes this sour component.
(14:42):
And it's that, it's that crossbetween the fermented savory and the
sour rye start to back up from it.
Mm-hmm.
And I can't handle it anymore.
It, it, i, it crosses a boundary for
bruce (14:53):
me.
That makes sense.
I wanna go back to my grandmother'sShabbat kitchen for a second.
'cause there's something shewould make every now and then.
Which Shabbat?
mark (15:00):
Not everyone on this podcast.
Never.
Friday
bruce (15:02):
nights Sha Jewish Shabbat.
It's your Sabbath.
It's okay.
There you go.
And she would often make L and stew.
Oh, if it sounds like lungs it is.
It's just L and stew.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
Mm-hmm.
You couldn't have given me.
Anything to make me eat it as a child.
However, I love
lungs.
Once Mark and I went with an Asian friend of ours, a Chinese friend
(15:26):
to Chinatown in Flushing in Queens.
Yep.
And we went to one of thoseunderground food malls.
Yep.
And we found a stall selling.
Chinese lamb, lung in chili oil cold.
And it was cold.
Cold lamb lung in chili oil.
I tasted it and I lovedit, and it's the texture.
It was like eating what killed me.
It's like gummy candy.
So we
mark (15:44):
went with a friend, a Chinese friend to this mall, and the Chinese
friend would not touch mm-hmm.
The cold lung in chili oil and we ate it.
Mm-hmm.
So there you go.
bruce (15:52):
Yeah.
But she was unusual.
I couldn't serve her a whole lobster.
She wouldn't take it apart.
She was a little squeamish
mark (15:58):
maybe so.
But I think that this aspart of a cultural matrix.
Mm.
Um, that's made, uh, I guess a lot ofmy gross out foods, if when people hear
them are all about innards as I say.
And, uh, there's other thingsthat, um, I, I, I, it's not
that they're gross out for me.
I've learned to like them, for example.
(16:19):
Um, and I suppose there'sa lot of people this way.
I used to be completelycilantro averse mm-hmm.
And not be able to handle any cilantro.
Now I'm okay with it.
Mm-hmm.
And now.
I'm fine with it.
I eat it on guacamole.
I eat it in Mexican food.
I don't, I I eat it in Thai food.
I have no problem with cilantro anymore.
bruce (16:37):
Yeah.
But you never had that sensationthat it tasted like soap?
Yes, I did.
Oh, you
do?
Yes, I did.
I still do.
You have that genetic thingso it tastes like soap?
I do.
I thought you just didn't like it.
Oh, you think it tastes like soap?
Yeah, but it's becausethat's a genetic thing.
I might, but it's okay.
I'm okay with you.
You're okay to, to, for me tograte soap on top of your tacos?
Yeah.
mark (16:56):
Whatever.
I'm, I'm top.
Just don't put any preservedvegetable root on there, or
at least too many of them.
I think keep it, keep it morein the realm of vegetable, not.
Fermented sour vegetable.
Yeah.
bruce (17:10):
There is one thing still in a Chinese restaurant that I have not had.
We've seen it a number of times.
In fact, the first time we saw it was,uh, when we still lived in New York and
that place across the street from us,grand Sesh went international, started a.
Opening up those Chinese menus that usedto go only to the Chinese people and they
started giving them to white people too.
And one of the things they were veryfamous at this restaurant for was their
(17:32):
sea cucumber, which is not a vegetable.
So it's not a salad.
It's a little slug likeanimal that lives in not
a little.
It's a big
slug lie
animal, basically.
And then you buy them dried, so theylook like a bag of turds and you have
to soak 'em and they clean them out.
Now you can go to an Asian fishmarket and get them fresh, and
then they look like life turds.
(17:53):
But I've never had one.
And what I eat one at this point,sure, I'd probably eat one, but
they're just called sea cucumbers.
So look 'em up there.
mark (18:00):
Uh, yeah.
And sea squirts.
There's less sea squirts inKorean cooking and in coastal
Chinese cooking, I've never.
Scene, sea squirts on a menu?
Um, I probably would try it.
Uh, 'cause I don't, again, I'mnot averse to most living things.
I, uh, I eat with relish theinner organs of Beast and Fells.
So Mark
bruce (18:19):
and I once went out for Dim Sum in San Francisco.
And we ran across something wehad never run across on a menu.
So it's not evensomething we hadn't tried.
We had never seen this item listedon a menu and it was called shutters.
And we Yeah, like, like
the shutters on your house.
Mm-hmm.
So we asked the woman what it was, andshe didn't speak much English at all.
(18:42):
No.
And she just.
Put her fingers together tomake this somewhat overly shape
and put it at her midsection.
A little low bike below her belly button.
And she kept saying, shuther, shut her, shut her.
Well it turns out they didn't have anythat day, so we didn't get to eat them.
Um, and we ended up getting, uh,some, I don't remember tripe.
I think we ended up with tripe 'causeshe told us it was a similar texture.
(19:04):
And it turned out that, youknow, shutters are the cow's part
where the baby cow comes out.
mark (19:12):
I think we could say that word on this podcast.
It's cow
bruce (19:14):
vagina.
It is shutters are vaginas.
And I didn't know that was an old,it's a butcher turn, a culinary term.
I didn't
mark (19:19):
know that.
And so I looked at the menu and Iwas like, ah, what our shutters.
And she held it up to herlower abdomen in her hands.
Like, what is that?
I don't know what it isthat I'm supposed to be.
Your belly button.
So, uh, yeah, we didn't try that.
Uh, that was beyond us.
That would've been the
bruce (19:35):
strangest thing.
Uh,
mark (19:36):
yeah.
And I'm sure that stuff has gottabe braised for like 5,000 years.
Oh, I would think
bruce (19:40):
so.
You know, and this isn't astrange food, but you've overcome
your aversion to cilantro.
I am not getting over my aversion.
To root beer and to licorice that isnot, and they're related, strange.
And they know.
It's strange to me that anyonewould eat them because they
think they taste so terrible.
My God.
Love root
mark (19:57):
beer.
Oh, I love root beer and I love licorice.
I, oh my gosh.
And I love birch beer.
I love all of that stuff that sasper.
So in fact, one year I wentand made a root beer syrup.
So I bought all of the.
Parts, the ginseng and the, uh,sapar root and all the various
(20:19):
pieces that make upper root beer.
And I made a syrup and I, we gave thataway as a Christmas gift to people.
So you poured a little glassand added, uh, seltzer to it.
And by the way, that recipe'sin cold canning there, it's,
it made it into cold canning.
Mm-hmm.
'cause it is something you can makeand save back is root beer syrup.
It's
bruce (20:37):
one of the most.
Delicious and I'm gonna, I want to endwith my most delicious and unexpected
thing was served for me dessert in Kahan.
Back when Mark and I were writingfor Wine Spectator, we did an
article on what it's like to be inKahan without the film festival did.
So we were at LA PalmDoor having dinner and.
I had eaten so much in that dinner.
(20:58):
We had such crazy things to eat and I wasso full and I didn't want a heavy dessert.
May, may I just say this isback in the days when magazines
had generous expense accounts.
Mm.
Someone else paid for thatdinner at the front door.
Yes.
Generous expense accounts.
And
so, no.
The way they said, let me,let's, trust me, let me bring you
something that's very special.
It's only of the moment,and they brought over.
(21:19):
What can only be called a cauldronof the tiniest, when I say tiny,
these were f deis wild strawberries.
They were so tiny.
They were, uh, like a quarter inch.
They were at the, at the most, theywere very tiny, and he spooned, and
these are so precious and so expensive.
And he spooned out a spoonful ontomy bowl, and then he set the cauldron
(21:43):
down and told me to help myself.
And it was.
Outrageous.
It was the most unexpected, but yet oneof the most delicious things I'd ever
had.
Uh, at that same restaurant, um, I hadsomething that I found delicious and
mark (21:55):
that I never thought existed and that I had pheasant fo gras.
Mm-hmm.
So pheasants had been force fed mm-hmm.
Until their livers got giant and bloatedand sick and fatty and delicious.
All that stuff, and delicious.
And then they had taken the pheasantfo gra these livers and, um, chopped
(22:16):
them up and wrapped them in call fat.
Mm-hmm.
Which is the fat aroundthe kidneys of a pig.
And they put it in C fat and then theyserve that with the pheasant breast.
And it was, was in, that was aninsane, it was pretty good set
of organs going on that plate.
It was pretty good.
Yeah, it was really good.
Okay.
So those are some of theweirdest things we've ever eaten.
(22:36):
We would love to know.
Yeah.
The weirdest thingsthat you've ever eaten.
bruce (22:41):
Yeah, we do go to our Facebook group cooking with Bruce and Mark
and you could share pictures ifyou have it or just stories of some
of the weird things you've eaten.
'cause we wanna know what you're eating
mark (22:53):
here.
I'm cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Okay.
Up next, the last part of this podcast,as always, what's making us happy?
And food this week.
And I'm gonna start.
Okay, I get to go first.
Okay.
Uh, so it's that chicken stew.
Remember we talked about watchthe salt content of chicken?
Mm-hmm.
So I made a huge chicken stew.
Bruce's mother was here with usfor about two and a half weeks.
(23:14):
She's moved from the west coastback to the east coast and she was
staying with us for about two and ahalf weeks before she gets settled.
And one night I made agiant pot of chicken stew.
It was so good.
Butternut squash, yellow beets.
Mm-hmm.
And something, there wasa third root in there.
Mm-hmm.
Butternut squash, yellow beets, and.
(23:34):
I don't know what you put in there.
Did you put
bruce (23:36):
celery react?
I think you put celery react.
Yes.
Celery React.
Celery root.
Celery.
It was good.
And I had just picked thoseyellow beets at a friend's
garden and that was delicious.
And it was super, super comforting.
Fall food.
Yeah, something else fromthat friend's garden is what's
making me happy this week.
And that is Italian prune plumsbecause this friend has an orchard
in her garden and I was just therethis morning and I picked about 40.
(23:57):
Pounds of Italian P pruneplums and I've been eating them
and I am going to make jam.
You be so
mark (24:03):
regular, everything is gonna be so working like clock lot, my god.
Well anyway, yes indeed.
I love Italian Pune plums.
I think they're so great and it'shard to find them at the store
where they're not too hard and sour.
So it's great to see them on thetrees and actually get 'em that way.
Well, that's the podcast for this week.
We really appreciate your makingus part of your podcast world.
(24:25):
Thanks for doing that, and thanksfor being on this journey with us
bruce (24:28):
and thanks for checking us out everywhere we live.
I already mentioned Facebook, but goto TikTok and check out our TikTok
channel Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
There are a ton of videos there.
You get to see us cooking in our kitchen,cooking for each other, just having a lot
of fun with food, which is what we loveto do here on cooking at Briton Market.
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