Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

[tonyb]

I was introduced to shrimp in San Francisco in 1965. This is what you get for lunch every day in Heaven, I thought.

I hadn't felt that way about shrimp in decades, until just recently, when I came across some unusually flavorful ones. Must be that most shrimp these days are deficient in flavor for whatever reason -- farm raised, frozen, etc.

And don't get me started on tomatoes.

 

[tonyb]

And ...

Some folks I know in Seattle won't eat farmed fish. Part of their avoidance might be attributed to their connection with the commercial fishing industry, but most insist that it either lacks flavor or that it carries the flavor of the conditions under which the fish was raised -- the "dirty" (laden with fish excrement) water. So they say, anyway.

My lovely missus won't eat tilapia. She says it tastes like dirt.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Around here it's a big deal to make sure you get fresh, wild-caught shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, not farm raised in Vietnam and previously frozen. The taste difference is pronounced.

And I won't eat tilapia either. First of all, I know how they live and where they come from. Secondly, there is so much other good fresh seafood here it's a shame to eat that stuff.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here we only eat shrimp bought off a guy with a truck at the side of the road, covered in crude hand painted signs: SHRIMPS LOBSTERS CLAMS FOOD STAMPS EXCEPTED.

 

[BlueTrain]

I usually won't eat fish because that's what it tastes like: fish.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Here we only eat shrimp bought off a guy with a truck at the side of the road, covered in crude hand painted signs: SHRIMPS LOBSTERS CLAMS FOOD STAMPS EXCEPTED.

Here, we can go down to the dock and buy them straight off the boat. Reputable fish mongers have them too that they went down and bought off the boat that morning. I realize that's not possible if you live in South Dakota, however.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here, you can get lobster right off the boat for about the price of hamburger. Of course, this time of year they're shedders and are full of water, so you don't get as much meat as you think you're getting. But on the other hand, you can peel the shells off without tools.

Maine shrimp have been pretty scarce the last couple of years due to environmental/overfishing issues, and anyone who knows what real Maine shrimp taste like knows better than to ever buy those awful frozen ones from Thailand.

 

[NattyLud]

What a great thread...

Fairly mundane, but it seems that the spring-loaded clothespin should never go away as it has so many simple and helpful applications besides actually hanging clothes.

Also on my wishlist, though at least some of these are already endangered:

- Anything vintage in car design--hand-crank windows, metal interior components, bench seats, etc.
- Amato's italian sandwiches
- Dirt roads
- Sole Proprietorship

 

[ChiTownScion]

While at a Civil War reenactment at Shiloh a few years back that got rained out (creating a washed- out mess still referred to in the Hobby as "the Gulf of Tennessee") I met up with some lady friends and we took a short drive to Corinth Mississippi. Enjoyed the local delicacy, breaded catfish. I've heard a lot of stories of how awful a catfish dinner can turn out... but that one was one of the tastiest fish meals I have ever had.

And if you've never experienced a Door County (Wisconsin) fish boil (whitefish, potatoes, onions served with spectacular pyrotechnics), I highly recommend it.

 

[Zombie_61]

If something has been manufactured by the same company for a hundred years, does it ever stop being an original? It would be rare to find something that has been manufactured that long without some changes being made. If anything was changed, does it stop being an original?

These days "original" is nearly as false as the advertising phrase "New and Improved". If something is "new" there was no previous version to improve upon so it can't be "improved", and if it's been "improved" there was a previous version to be improved upon so it can't be "new".

I usually won't eat fish because that's what it tastes like: fish.

Neither my wife nor I like fish that has a strong "fish" taste--salmon, for example--but swordfish, catfish, and shark are quite tasty if they're prepared properly. And, of course, there's always the ubiquitous tuna.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Tuna fish eaten straight out of the can with a fork is one of life's purest, simplest pleasures.

I would also walk a mile for a plate of good finnan haddie -- a big slab of smoked haddock poached in evaporated milk.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

As far as I know, the Hudson's Bay blanket has been unchanged for centuries. Many Native American ( First Nations, in Canada) people still use it as a unit of currency. It's neither a replica nor a reproduction, it's the original product.

 

[Zombie_61]

Tuna fish eaten straight out of the can with a fork is one of life's purest, simplest pleasures.

I do prefer mine with at least a little mayonnaise mixed in, but that and a sleeve of saltine crackers is some good eatin' to me.

 

[scottyrocks]

Tuna fish eaten straight out of the can with a fork is one of life's purest, simplest pleasures.

Try a small raw slab of it, seasoned with powdered ginger and/or tumeric, chili powder and olive oil, and then seared in a fry pan on each side for a few seconds.

 

[tonyb]

I've never had a lobster I wouldn't have happily traded for a decent tuna fish sandwich.

I don't discount the possibility that I've yet to have a better quality lobster. But I have had lobster pulled live from the tank in an exceptionally good Chinese restaurant, a place I have dined on scores of occasions and where the fare is consistently a cut above, and I was left unimpressed by the pricy crustacean.

Dungeness crab, on the other hand ...

 

[LizzieMaine]

I grew up with lobster as a routine thing -- it was cheap, it was something you had in the summer with corn on the cob, and I honestly never understood what the big deal was about it. The taste wasn't anything particularly special, and the effort you had to go to actually get the meat out of the thing didn't seem to be a particularly efficient way to spend suppertime. I enjoyed sucking the juice out of the legs more than anything else, and as for the rest of it, I could take it or leave it. I ate it when it was what we were having that night, but I never yearned for it any other time. And I really don't understand all the tourists who come up here to swoon about how great it is to pay $17 a plate for it.

I can't remember how long it's been since I sat down and had a lobster, but it was in the Eating Tent at the Lobster Festival, and I was trying not to laugh at the coiffed and manicured Lady From Away fussing about getting lobster juice on her Lord & Taylor sweater set while trying to cut the thing open with a plastic knife and a spork.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Like working on the car in the dry-clean-only duds.

I make a point of never having spaghetti in a red sauce while wearing a white shirt.

 

[sheeplady]

I like using siracha in place of mayonnaise in my tuna fish salad. Siracha also makes a good replacement for spaghetti sauce, just mix some in with plain pasta (maybe a bit of grated cheese) till it looks like spaghetti sauce.

When I was pregnant with my son I craved spicy, and would go to the local Chinese buffet and mix wasabi and siracha together and then top everything with more of that sauce than the item. I'm no longer pregnant, but I still have not lost the spice cravings. Everyone thinks I'm weird and I buy the institutional sized siracha from the Indian grocery.

 

[tonyb]

I like using siracha in place of mayonnaise in my tuna fish salad. Siracha also makes a good replacement for spaghetti sauce, just mix some in with plain pasta (maybe a bit of grated cheese) till it looks like spaghetti sauce.

When I was pregnant with my son I craved spicy, and would go to the local Chinese buffet and mix wasabi and siracha together and then top everything with more of that sauce than the item. I'm no longer pregnant, but I still have not lost the spice cravings. Everyone thinks I'm weird and I buy the institutional sized siracha from the Indian grocery.

I swear they put something addictive in Sriracha. Pho begs for it. Lots of it.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I grew up with lobster as a routine thing -- it was cheap, it was something you had in the summer with corn on the cob, and I honestly never understood what the big deal was about it. The taste wasn't anything particularly special, and the effort you had to go to actually get the meat out of the thing didn't seem to be a particularly efficient way to spend suppertime. I enjoyed sucking the juice out of the legs more than anything else, and as for the rest of it, I could take it or leave it. I ate it when it was what we were having that night, but I never yearned for it any other time. And I really don't understand all the tourists who come up here to swoon about how great it is to pay $17 a plate for it.

I can't remember how long it's been since I sat down and had a lobster, but it was in the Eating Tent at the Lobster Festival, and I was trying not to laugh at the coiffed and manicured Lady From Away fussing about getting lobster juice on her Lord & Taylor sweater set while trying to cut the thing open with a plastic knife and a spork.

I think, the "Hummer" became this luxury thing, just, because it was imported and special, here in Europe. But I guess, in reality nearly no one is interested in, here. Gastronomy just "talked it up", nothing more. If the lobster wouldn´t be on a buffet, no one would ask "Where´s the Hummer?". And I think, the decorative plastic-lobsters were a usual thing, at all times.
The main thing, that it looks decadent.