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I admit I'm a chocoholic but as to the above post, I love strudels - apple, cherry, raspberry, ...
Fresh out of the oven with a slight bit of cooling so I don't burn the roof of my mouth.
Melted vanilla ice cream makes a great sauce for your strudel. Sprinkle a bit of turbo ado sugar on top for the final minutes of baking.
Having perused scores of restaurant menus across North America and the world, and looking at the kind of recipes my friends share on social media, I notice that desserts in NA are primarily different permutations of the same ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, eggs, chocolate, peanut butter, oreos, nutella, and in the best case, vanilla, cinnamon or lemon/lime. Creme brulee is the highest of the high end dessert, whereas that stuff is considered pretty mundane in Europe. Fruity flavors, or anything with rose, violet or other floral tastes, are rare or nonexistent.
On the other hand, desserts across Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia all share one thing in common: a love of floral and fruity flavors.
I guess climate could be one explanation but it's a weak one. The Southern US grows far more varieties of fruits than the UK, but the UK is the one with the more elegant desserts (but still considered stodgy by continental European standards).
I'm fed up of looking at "Tasty" abominations with the same old boring ingredients! Shove the chocolate oreo cream pie and give me one with rose and mango instead.
I think you will find that is not necessarily true. While I LOVE chocolate and fruit is not my favorite by itself I do enjoy key lime pie, lemon meringue pie, carrot cake (does that count?), strudels, baklava, rice pudding, flan, etc. We have a bakery here that has the most amazing cake filled with bananas and strawberries. You get the idea. I don't however like rose or floral in my desserts.
I don't mind rose-water or orange-water flavors, but lavender reminds me of eating perfume. Not a fan.
To incorporate these flavors in desserts, you have to have easy access to the ingredients. They are not found on every supermarket shelf, and you'd have to make an effort to locate them. Most people don't come across desserts made with these ingredients, so would have no desire to recreate something they never tasted.
I used to make a violet cough syrup from wild violets that was really delicious, effective, and a gorgeous lilac color.
As far as fruits go, not sure where OP is coming from when he/she states Americans don't use them. Pies, cobblers, tarts, turnovers, cakes, etc. all contain fruit.
First of all, dessert menues from restaurants do not accurately depict what Americans eat. There are all sorts of fruit containing desserts that are popular, plus fruit ice creams, sherbets, yogurts. Apples, pears, cherries, pineapple, bananas, citrus are frequently used, and not just in desserts. They can also be cooked into main dishes and are used in salads.
Rose water has to be something that you grow up with. To me, it tastes like commercial bathroom air freshener smells. Or like someone has sprinkled really cheap nasty perfume onto the food.
I dislike those rose flavored jellies (Turkish delight?) But I love the apple and apricot flavored jellies, so it's not like I don't like fruit flavors. I just don't like eating cheap toilet water.
Liking rose doesn't make one more refined or sophisticated.
I totally agree with you about that. But I think you have taken my comment out of context and read something else into it that was not said. I never said that liking rose oranything else makes anyone more refined or sophisticated. A palate is not a person.
First of all, dessert menues from restaurants do not accurately depict what Americans eat. There are all sorts of fruit containing desserts that are popular, plus fruit ice creams, sherbets, yogurts. Apples, pears, cherries, pineapple, bananas, citrus are frequently used, and not just in desserts. They can also be cooked into main dishes and are used in salads.
Rose water has to be something that you grow up with. To me, it tastes like commercial bathroom air freshener smells. Or like someone has sprinkled really cheap nasty perfume onto the food.
I dislike those rose flavored jellies (Turkish delight?) But I love the apple and apricot flavored jellies, so it's not like I don't like fruit flavors. I just don't like eating cheap toilet water.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aquietpath
I don't mind rose-water or orange-water flavors, but lavender reminds me of eating perfume. Not a fan.
To incorporate these flavors in desserts, you have to have easy access to the ingredients. They are not found on every supermarket shelf, and you'd have to make an effort to locate them. Most people don't come across desserts made with these ingredients, so would have no desire to recreate something they never tasted.
I used to make a violet cough syrup from wild violets that was really delicious, effective, and a gorgeous lilac color.
As far as fruits go, not sure where OP is coming from when he/she states Americans don't use them. Pies, cobblers, tarts, turnovers, cakes, etc. all contain fruit.
I agree wholeheartedly with the bolded. Eating flowers is hardly the peak of sophistication. I find most things flowery to be cloying. Rose especially makes me gag.
Fruits, on the other hand, are lovely. Cooked, raw, mixed in various combinations. All good.
They reminded me that I had a lavender dessert a couple years ago, I love the flavor, and even eat the sugared flowers. Gave DH a bite and OMG......... kinda the equivalent of a grown man throwing up a hairball. He still has not forgiven me.
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Do you go to Europe and sneer at people who don't like root beer or other popular NA foods?
Here in the great melting pot of America, where people from all countries have come and contributed their traditions and fashions and foods, floral flavors have never become popular.
I think that says that florals just aren't as appealing as other flavors. If you grow up with them, they have meaning to you, and a familiar connection. If you try them as an adult, you assess them on their own qualities; apparently, they come up short for most people.
And if you're counting things like raisins and candied citron as fruit, well, count me out. Nasty, sticky, sugary lumps of goo. I had a bite of mincemeat pie over the holidays. UGH! Give me cherries or apricots, or even apples if there's nothing better.
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