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Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

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Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#91

Post by ratelimitsteve »

rob74 wrote: post #16
comrade1234 wrote: post #6

There's a farmers market here in Zurich where some Italians drive up and sell Italian products like cheeses, sausages, etc. but one thing I buy from them I've never seen anywhere else - they are rotten salted anchovies packed with peppercorns. Stink super bad and are falling apart but when you're making a sauce you drop one in and the anchovy dissolves and delivers tons of umami - glutamates - and you no longer smell…

I mean, instead of investing so much effort to get glutamate into your food, why not use MSG directly? Sounds like much less hassle? Reminds me of the time when Big Food over here in Germany replaced MSG with "yeast extract" so they could claim that their foods contained no artificial flavor enhancers (although the yeast extract also contains a lot of glutamate).

>I mean, instead of investing so much effort to get glutamate into your food, why not use MSG directly?

Because the various uammi sources also add other flavors. I like being able to choose between soy sauce, fish sauce, worcestershire sauce, soy bean paste, mushroom powder, anchovies, chicken powder, yeast extract, and, yes, msg (with 2% i&g) because each of them affects the recipe i'm working with differently. Is your diet nothing but chicken breast, raw flour and shortening because they're the simplest sources of protein, carbs and fat?

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#92

Post by jstanley »

SECProto wrote: post #76
imajoredinecon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not that it’s unreasonable to think the word “patty” is ambiguous —it’s that it’s unreasonable to spend tax dollars on saving people from that ambiguity

> it’s unreasonable to spend tax dollars on saving people from that ambiguity I quite appreciate the taxpayer funded regulation of technical terms - I like being able to buy ice cream at the store and know if it's "ice cream" or "frozen dessert". Or "cream cheese" vs "cream cheese product". Or many other similar things. The Jamaican patty and fish sauce ones are problematic, but also happened 25-40 years ago.

Do you have an encyclopedic knowledge of which terms are regulated and which ones aren't?

Don't you think it would cause more confusion if people expecting to buy a Jamaican beef patty instead have to buy a "Jamaican beef-inside-pastry product" ?

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#94

Post by sinuhe69 »

It will be a very easy solution when one takes a less bureaucratic stance and be less hostile to foreign cultures: just mix the sauce with sea water and (really) slowly release it into the ocean. If Japan can release radioactive water into the ocean safely, I’m pretty sure you can do it with the fish+salt solution too. Yes, there is nothing in the fish sauce except these two ingredients.

Better though, take samples and test against food standards from countries where they actually produce and eat fish sauce. If the sauce is still good (could be due to the high salt content, not sure though), just let Ngo bottle it and sell the good stuff, internationally!

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#95

Post by UomoNeroNero »

comrade1234 wrote: post #6

There's a farmers market here in Zurich where some Italians drive up and sell Italian products like cheeses, sausages, etc. but one thing I buy from them I've never seen anywhere else - they are rotten salted anchovies packed with peppercorns. Stink super bad and are falling apart but when you're making a sauce you drop one in and the anchovy dissolves and delivers tons of umami - glutamates - and you no longer smell…

Salt-cured anchovies. They're not rotten at all—they're spectacular! They're perfect on pizza, with fresh tomatoes, and in countless other dishes, either rinsed straight from the jar or melted into a sauce while cooking.

Where I live (a small seaside town), everyone makes their own jars of salt-cured anchovies. They are traditionally sealed with a loose lid consisting of a slate disc with a stone or other weight on top. They need to mature while still being able to breathe, and they must always remain covered by the proper amount of salt.

(The way you describe yours—as extremely smelly and falling apart—doesn't really suggest they're high quality. Normally, a properly cured anchovy should remain almost completely intact, so you can remove the tail and backbone and end up with two whole fillets. The peppercorns are a bit unusual as well.)

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#96

Post by chedabob »

amiga386 wrote: post #29
rekoil wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's out there?

Nothing's out there! Well there must be something out there. There is nothing out there - all there is is sea and birds and fish. And? And 20,000 tons of crude oil. And what else? And fire. And anything else? And the part of the ship that the front fell off.

And 900k litres of fish sauce.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#97

Post by dataflow »

jjmarr wrote: post #81
gruez wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From cbc: >In 1985, the Canadian government tried to stop Jamaican bakeries and restaurants from using the term "beef patty." >At the time, Canada's Meat Inspection Act classified a beef patty as what goes in a hamburger. It could contain only meat and seasoning and it couldn't be encased in dough or a crust. Therefore, a Jamaican patty — widely known as a flaky pastry with a spiced beef filling — didn't meet the cri…

Having grown up in Toronto, unqualified "beef patty" means the Jamaican snack. It is extremely common junk food I would buy at a convenience store on my way home from school.

Not being from Toronto, never in a million years would I even think of that as a visitor.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#98

Post by amanaplanacanal »

gruez wrote: post #37
pluralmonad wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like labelling bacon nitrate free while also including celery seed something-or-another that is... Just nitrates.

They can't actually label it "nitrate free", only a superficially sounding term like "no nitrates added", with the hope that people (like you) think it's the same as "nitrate free".

I typically see it labeled "uncured."

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#99

Post by UomoNeroNero »

UomoNeroNero wrote: post #95
comrade1234 wrote: post #6

There's a farmers market here in Zurich where some Italians drive up and sell Italian products like cheeses, sausages, etc. but one thing I buy from them I've never seen anywhere else - they are rotten salted anchovies packed with peppercorns. Stink super bad and are falling apart but when you're making a sauce you drop one in and the anchovy dissolves and delivers tons of umami - glutamates - and you no longer smell…

Salt-cured anchovies. They're not rotten at all—they're spectacular! They're perfect on pizza, with fresh tomatoes, and in countless other dishes, either rinsed straight from the jar or melted into a sauce while cooking. Where I live (a small seaside town), everyone makes their own jars of salt-cured anchovies. They are traditionally sealed with a loose lid consisting of a slate disc with a stone or other weight on t…

"...a delicious traditional variation, typical for example of the town of Fuscaldo in Calabria, where small oily fish are layered with salt and whole black peppercorns, or prepared with black pepper and chili peppers..."

This is one of the most wonderful things about traditional Italian food: every town has its own version of almost everything. And, of course, everyone passionately defends the idea that theirs is the only truly authentic one, while all the others are inferior imitations. It's part of the fun.

Where I live, people actually go on "hunts" for great food. We make yearly trips just to buy a particular product because "only that place makes it perfectly." Then we bring it home, talk about it with family and friends, compare producers, debate which one is best... There's an entire culture built around the pursuit of exceptional food.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#100

Post by gruez »

jstanley wrote: post #92
SECProto wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s unreasonable to spend tax dollars on saving people from that ambiguity I quite appreciate the taxpayer funded regulation of technical terms - I like being able to buy ice cream at the store and know if it's "ice cream" or "frozen dessert". Or "cream cheese" vs "cream cheese product". Or many other similar things. The Jamaican patty and fish sauce ones are problematic, but also happened 25-40 years ago.

Do you have an encyclopedic knowledge of which terms are regulated and which ones aren't? Don't you think it would cause more confusion if people expecting to buy a Jamaican beef patty instead have to buy a "Jamaican beef-inside-pastry product" ?

>Do you have an encyclopedic knowledge of which terms are regulated and which ones aren't?

Do you have an encyclopedic knowledge of which professions are regulated and which aren't? If not, should we get rid of professional licensing?

>Don't you think it would cause more confusion if people expecting to buy a Jamaican beef patty instead have to buy a "Jamaican beef-inside-pastry product" ?

This feels like a strawman given that they settled on "Jamaican patty", which is reasonably brief and certainly less confusing than the original term of just "beef patty".

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