Also, talking condiments and toppings reminds me of my new favorite! I put it on basically any savory food lately: Tabasco peppers in vinegar! It's like Tabasco sauce's less spicy, more flavorful cousin. It's wonderful! Spoiler: Big Yes I did specifically choose trappey's, it's the best brand
My favorite general purpose condiment is either mayo or fish sauce, personally. I also really love nam plah prik (the fish sauce soaked peppers at thai places), green sauce, crema, mustard, and just...a lot of things. Especially hot sauces. I have many. They all have their own uses. Like I do not put sriracha on my burritos and tacos. That stuff goes in my ramen and fried rices and such. Tapatio does not, however. My food, regardless of how it is seasoned, tends to be covered in at least one condiment.
Speaking of condiments, I learned a month ago that my 23 year old coworker has never eaten a pickle, either alone or as a topping. What sort of pickle is the best intro-level pickle? I'd say the classic dill pickle, but another coworker is arguing for gherkins.
Condiments are Very important except in dishes that are heavily sauced as is. Like. Give me a steak marinated for a day and a half and topped with the marinade? Bliss. Give me a steak with a dry rub and just grilled like that? Watch me reach Directly for ketchup or more recently Harissa ("Harissa is a North African hot chili pepper paste, the main ingredients of which are roasted red peppers, Baklouti pepper, serrano peppers, and other hot chili peppers, spices and herbs such as garlic paste, coriander seed, saffron, rose, or caraway or olive oil to carry the oil-soluble flavors." according to wiki for those who are unfamiliar).
Seconding gherkins, it's a safe way to start. I'm also thinking an entire pickle panel would be smart if you're really invested in this, it would kinda suck if they hate dill but might like sweet, spicy, or bread and butter pickles and never know.
For heavily sauced foods I need 'dry' condiments like fish flakes, peppers, or peanuts for. It breaks up the consistency and can little pinches of flavor or spice. And while you might say 'But Aon. Isn't curry spicy enough as is?' the answer is no. Also it is not yet the right kind of spicy. By adding in different sources of heat you are making a far more complex dish. It turns eating into this like...exciting, ever changing experience. This bite had only curry, so you taste only the sauce and feel the flavors as the gradually come in. This bite had a bit of the prik nam plah, so there is a distinct soft crunch there as the pepper's flavor and the curry hits. And then, a short while later, the intense, sharp burning of Thai peppers comes in. It is quick and sudden and begins from a small point till it fills the entire mouth. The curry's base heat meanwhile is more...a gradual, general heat baseline. It is ever present. It is warm and comforting. Overall the dish becomes horrendously decadent. It also becomes personalized to my exact wants in terms of consistency, taste, and texture. If you want just sharp burn with little taste from the fish sauce and lime mixture prik nam plah is soaked in then just get the fresh and raw Thai peppers. Those motherfuckers will just. Burn. To high heaven. More so than prik nam plah. They also give you a lovely cronch. One that signifies the coming heat. They also barely have a taste on their own. Chili flakes give this...less intense sort of heat. I'd call it very 'dry'. It also gives light flakey textures that can help break up the evenness of sauces. The flakes also aren't as flavorful as prik nam plah so it's a good go to if you don't want to fuck with the flavor much but also don't want to have to deal with AND SUDDENLY HELL EXISTS IN MY MOUTH RIGHT NOW.
This is actually quite refreshing. If you're used to that spice level. If I'm like. Actively eating that way constantly then I reach a point where I need something even more extreme to give me that OH GOD I AM DYING feel again. Which is why I'm so addicted to just tossing in more and more kinds of spicy things or finding even spicier ones. I'd eat ghost peppers not out of a need to boost my ego but out of a need to give myself that feel again. Spicy food reveals the fourth crucial quality of food for me beyond taste, consistency and texture. PAIN.
I I love mayo but that is a bit too far even for me. you win. you are the mayo god. i am simply a peasant before you.
i respect that but this and pickle+peanut butter both sound like textural nightmares like the time i got a pulled pork(or maybe pulled chicken, i forget) sandwich they put guacamole on. Acceptable textures separately but Not together
I actually feel that, guac and meat shreds are No Bueno as a matchup Bananas and mayo as well as peanut butter and pickles hit a very specific tastebud for me that's Tangy and yet Soft. Only semi-related: fluffernutter (aka peanut butter and marshmallow fluff) is Not Good. Too Sweet Hell
Guac and meat shreds I can do since its one of the various things we have around when the family is fuck yeah let's get some carnitas from the market and just go all out for dinner. Granted carnitas and like pulled pork do have different textures going on. At least the pulled pork I'm used to, which is like barbecue saucified shit. Carnitas is just carnitas. You add sauces to it. Fluffernutters are. They are one of my great joys in life. One I absolutely should not have given my blood sugar issues. But like. Fuck me I love fluffernutters so damned much. It's got the perfect texture mix, the perfect flavor mix, and just. It's decadent. It's horrible. It's a reason to get white bread. We're all going to die some day so we might as well delight in this sinful, sinful sandwich that is comprised of nothing but sugar and the vague hint of peanut. Funnily I hate a lot of milk chocolate because it's too sweet and that's my issue with certain other desserts. So I'm thinking it's less 'too sweet' that I have issues with with many desserts (because gods know that knafeh is at least half of why diabetes is a problem in syria) but like. Kinds of sweets and what that sweet is part of and what flavors and after tastes accompany it. I hate Hersheys chocolate because it's weirdly sweet and has this horrible sour after taste. I'd rather just have my rather bitter Russian chocolates.
Also more people need to know that spicy chocolate is a good thing and that there's reasons that the original hot chocolate was a spicy drink. We knew what the fuck we were doing. Peppers belong in chocolate. It's just science. (chocolate is the secret behind several spicy sauces like mole too)
Carnitas with guac are vastly different than a pulled pork barbecue sandwich with guac, this is incredibly true. I also think the starch substrate makes a difference - I would eat a barbecue pork taco in a tortilla with guac on top (provided it wasn't ketchup based barbecue) but the hamburger bun bread with guac and any other filling is horrifying
