This first turned up on raincoaster's blog and then on hummingbird604's and I decided to give it a shot. Not exactly what I expected but it sort of describes me:

You Are Mexican Food

Spicy yet dependable. You pull punches, but people still love you.

What Kind of Food Are You?

Eataly black and white truffles. Photo care of Bella Baita B&B View on Flickr.
I'm not a big connoisseur of "fine cooking" or even "fine dining". I like to cook, and I love to eat but we do a lot of it at home but we rarely at anything out of cook books mostly because hubby is not particularly adventurous with food.

I'm not completely sure how it came up today but on the drive to the train, hubby wondered aloud about truffles and how he didn't know what a truffle was. Thinking about it, I'd heard the term before and I know it's an expensive item but I don't know what it is either so I figured I'd try to get to the bottom of the eternal question: what is a truffle?

According to Cooking.com, a truffle is:

are a highly aromatic, yet subtly flavored variety of wild fungus that adds distinction to a wide range of savory dishes. The Périgord region of France is the source of what are considered the finest black truffles. Fresh truffles are available in late autumn and winter; they are also sold in jars and cans, whole or in pieces. Select firm, plump fresh mushrooms that are not slimy or bruised. Store unwashed and lightly wrapped in paper towels or in a paper bag, never in plastic, in the refrigerator. Peel black truffles before using.

According to an article in the now defunct Restaurants USA magazine, there are summer and winter truffles with the winter truffles being the most difficult and rare and therefore more expensive of the two. According to the article, which was published in 2001, white truffles can cost between $1,000 and $2,200 a pound and black truffles usually run from $300 to $600 a pound with a one-inch truffle weighing about an ounce. That is a mighty expensive mushroom.

It's not surprising these things are hard to find. According to various websites, including this one, truffles are found underground and essentially have to be "dug for".

Truffles are found in the ground, no deeper than 2-15 inches, in small groups often near the base of large trees. In order to find them, truffle harvesters use truffle hogs or more recently, dogs to sniff them out. Grounded truffles give off an odor that mimics a male pig sex hormone and thus, female pigs were traditionally used to sniff them out. However, hogs have a tendency to eat the finds before harvesters can gather them and as a result, more dogs are being used to uncover truffles. Once discovered, truffles can be collected in subsequent years at the same location. Truffle-fields or cultivated truffles are now being grown with some success in areas in Spain, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Oregon, North Carolina, Tennessee and the United Kingdom.

Risotto and White Truffles with browned butter. Photo care of oddgirl on Flickr.
It looks like truffles are used in both savory and sweet dishes and I must admit that now, I'm even more interested in trying it at least once. For those willing to shell out the big bucks for this delicacy, be sure to also take a look at the Gourmet Food Store's how to on cooking with truffles.

I'm not sure what it is: his rugged "older guy" good looks, his potty mouth of his apparent ability to create genius meals (I've never tried them so I'll take someone else's word for it).

What ever it is, the final package is a guy I couldn't stand for the first then minutes I ever saw him and then started to grow on me.

Here's a clip from his new show "Kitchen Nightmares":

You can get a whack more videos here.

With the wrap up of one of my favourite shows, Hell's Kitchen, and yes I realize I was watching reruns but I'd never seen it before, I now have an extra hour of TV watching time on Tuesday nights after school. Seriously, D and I were addicted. He'd come running to pick me up right after school on Tuesday's, we'd go home get changed and cuddle in front of the TV watching the chef raise holy hell. He comes across as a total prick but something about him is oddly appealing and I'm going to miss him. Thankfully, he won't be gone for long - the new season is slated to start June 25th. Woohooo!

If you've never seen the show and have NO CLUE what I'm talking about, you're seriously missing out. I found the video below of some of the highlights of season two (the season I just finished watching). I'm not sure about anywhere else but in Canada, the show aired on the Food Network in it's entirety, including all of the swearing but this version is bleeped so it's alright for watching at work.

The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing.

baseball great Dizzy Dean explaining how he felt after being hit on the head by a ball in the 1934 World Series