lorax

He means meatballs made with carne de puma.

Patty in Wisc

Sorry, but what is carne de puma?

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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

lorax

Mountain lion meat. (Sorry, lapsed into Spanish there.) We have a traditional dish based on it, which is basically ground Puma sauteed with onions on flat bread. Can't say I like the taste much.

Bob

That's exactly it. They weren't the best game meat but I always try all the new stuff I can at these dinners. People who hunt all over the place bring back and donate food to a huge Game dinner that takes place at the Jersey shore once a year. I've probably tried about everything legal in North America.

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Tog Tan

Why the controversial Shark's Fin Soup taste so good

I am going to let the cat out of the bag about this dish which has made such a ruckus worldwide by the conservationists.

The shark's fin is basically a cartilage or the way I look at it, an edible plastic thread. It hardly has any taste on its own. So what is the big deal about it?

The soup! Actually the soup stock. The chefs were using the python meat as the soup base. The meat is thrown away after it is made. Up till today this has not been revealed.

I came to know about this when I was visiting the python skinners looking for the odd colored snake. The meat was a useless thing in the past after they remove the skin. However, some smart aleck came up with the idea of using it for soup stock and in the trade it is known as Superior Soup never as python! They fillet the meat in strips of 10in x 4 in x 1/2in and export it as scrap meat to Hong Kong for this purpose. Locally, they also turn the python meat into meat floss but marketed as Pork meat floss! If you don't know what it is, it's very good tasting.

I use to buy python meat for feeding my big monitor lizards and it is an extremely tough meat and has a high uric acid base. It looks like chicken but is much sweeter and has to be stewed for a long time to be softened and you need lots of herbs to knock off the smell.

Python meat on its own is extremely tough and the main way to cook it is by shredding it into strips and made with a starchy soup like the shark's fin soup. In Chinese, it is known as Sae Karng. Supposedly great for health. I once had the soup of the python in a hill resort which was like 60F and I felt I had a fever after drinking 2 bowls of it.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Patty in Wisc

I just heard heard about sharkfin soup. Sad part is the fishermen catch the shark, cut the fins off & throw shark back in to sink to bottom & die. Shark steaks here sell for $12.00- 16.00 per lb. but all they want is the fin.
I wouldn't even try sharkfin soup just for that reason.

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Chironex

As a long time student of marine biology, I have to say that it saddened me to see the "Reef Rapers" come to collect live coral, sea shells (with the animals still alive inside), sand dollars, shark jaw collectors, conch, you name it. Most of the time it was to make money from selling these things to tourists. Every morning I would find several carcasses lying on the beach with jaws cut out. It has died down since the movie Jaws - and its sequels, but still prevalent. Black and Red coral necklaces, sea shells and sand dollars are still being sold. Please don't buy these things, it only supports the purveyors. Pass the word.

Shark cartilage is desirable for its purported anti-cancer qualities. NCI Cancer Bulletin for July 26, 2005 (HTML) - National Cancer Institute
Sharks have one of the lowest incidences of cancer of any living creature. They have evolved over millions of years and are a necessary part of the food chain.

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Scot

Tog Tan

Scot, it not only happens on your side. Many foreigners come to the M'sian waters and take what they like, especially the Tiger Cowries which are very beautiful. They take suitcases back with them. I have seen this happen on our east coast beaches.

About the shark's fin soup, it has been around for centuries(much more) as a traditional festivity dish for the Chinese and there was no threat to the sharks then as it was taken off sharks that were to be eaten. However, with the CITES and conservations' alert about 20 yrs ago, it created a curiosity among the people in general. This has caused the price to go up thus making it a must taste and a niche food. Many people in the illegal trade are actually happy when it comes to a ban on any species. It just makes the price go higher. This is what they tell me.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Bob

There are several canned shark fin soups at my local Asian markets. Do you think they are from python stock? I'll look when I go again for Superior soup as a clue but, a lot of these things have no English on them. I had it once at a restaurant special because I had to try something new, didn't care much for it though.

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Tog Tan

I don't think the canned ones are made with the python stock or even the ones in the restaurants out of China, M'sia and S'pore. The Thai makes them lousy there. Anyway, this dish has gone to the dogs due to commercialization.
Whatever the world may say, it's still a must for every wedding dinner and any official function(including those hosted by the govt). It's culture.

One thing I must add, this is part of a man made evolution for the sharks. In the past, they only take the fish with the biggest fins. Then when that ran out, they took fish with big fins. Do you realize that the fish with the small fins are not touched? When times comes for the fish with the big fins are gone, only a genetic pool of small finned sharks with interbreed and will result in many or only small finned sharks. If the collection persists, there many be sharks with a stub due to inbreeding. This is what happened to a rattle snake on an island and the only food there are the birds. Those with rattles will alert the birds and never got food. They died off. In time (long, long time) they became rattle-less rattle snakes as inbreeding set in.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Caloosamusa

Good afternoon Tog Tan, I don't think it's a weird food but do you eat green mangos (soft seed)?

I just picked some today first of the season. When eaten with a hot pepper, salt, hing mix they are really good.

How do you view these?

Tog Tan

Good morning Ken (4.40am here!) Pls call me Tog! Too many Tans around.

Hey, we eat unripe mango here with a sauce made of thick sticky prawn paste, sticky black bean sauce, sugar and cut chili. Real nice.

The Thai like it with a spicy sugar. They have a special variety of mango which is meant to be eaten unripe. Very crunchy and nice.
They also have a fantastic chili paste dip made with very thin strips of ripe mango. It's call Nam Prik Mua Muang. With this as a dip comes an array of salad indigenous to Thailand. Extremely spicy and a fantastic appetizer to the main meal.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

lorax

Green mango and chili powder forever! The roasted seed kernel is also very tasty.

Caloosamusa

Awesome Tog and Lorax!

Tog, how do I get those recipes? They sound really good!! I think I can figure out the black beans with sugar and hot peppers, but how do you prepare the prawn paste?

Thank you!!!

Chironex

Use Bob's method, same as for making biochar. Throw a bunch of shrimp into a burlap bag and run over it with the truck a few times.
Voila! Prawn paste!

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Scot

Caloosamusa

Chironex,

There would probably be too much silicate added to the mix, and I notice you did not enlighten me about the secret ingredient, spices!

Chironex

Ok, throw in some limes, cilantro, white pepper and red pepper. Run over it a couple more times to toss well.

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Scot

Caloosamusa

Chironex your revised recipe sounds more like a caribbean mix than a SE Asian mix. :-)

Chironex

I like cilantro on everything! Ok, also add some of those tiny Asian red peppers, that oughta set you free!

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Scot

Caloosamusa

I use cilanthro mucho! as well as many different hot peppers, curry, and Indian spices as well. Sometimes I get lazy and just buy prepared items from different ethnic stores.

Praise God for diversity!