Heh, this thread on ginger reminds me of a little episode when I was a
teenager. My grandmother was always particularly fond of crystallized
ginger; I couldn't stand the stuff until only very recently (last 5
years or so), but I knew she liked it, so I always looked for it and
bought it for her when I found it.
This one time when I found some for her, I found A LOT, and I guess she
was looking for ways to use it all besides just as a nice occasional
treat. We were eating some kind of stir-fry (probably meat-based, as
she didn't think people could be well-fed until they'd had a serious
amount of the stuff in a meal), and I suddenly bit into something that
absolutely exploded in my mouth! I was halfway across the kitchen floor
before I realized I'd gotten up from the table. When I finally managed
to spit it out, I discovered that she had taken a handful of the
crystallized ginger and tossed it, whole, into the stirfry. I'd bitten
into a fair-sized chunk of the stuff!
When I asked her what in the world had possessed her to put chunks of
crystallized ginger into the stir-fry, she gave me a look that said I
must be a fool, and told me that ginger goes well in Chinese food. She
didn't quite appreciate that there was a sizeable difference between
plain grated ginger root and whole chunks of crystallized ginger... :)
I've since developed a taste for ginger, and even enjoy an occasional
chunk of crystallized ginger myself, in honor of my grandmother's
memory, but I still remember that first introduction to "ginger" in
cooked food... :)
Faith
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