Brad's Friday Focus on Food: appetizer edition

[Brad Chadwick]

In this week's Focus on Food, we journey beyond the world of jalapeno poppers, Reuben egg rolls, buffchix sliders, etc and expand our horizons with an old school Finnish classic: Vorschmack!

It's like a paté but not made by the French, and it's traditionally made out of ground up salted fish. And it's super yum.

From the vorschmacht wiki:

Vorschmack*or*forshmak*(from archaicGerman*Vorschmack, "foretaste"[1]*or "appetizer"[2]) is an originally*East Europeandish made of salty minced fish or meat. Different variants of this dish are especially common in*Ashkenazi Jewish*and*Finnishcuisine. Some varieties are also known inRussian*and*Polish*cuisine.

Has anyone @here ever had it? What were your initial thoughts? Tasty? Or nah.

Fwiw I think it's gr8.

Click to read more...

 

[John Price]

nice @Brad

 

[Jacques The Mayor]

Internet personas are a strange phenomenon

 

[Brad Chadwick]

In Finnish cuisine, vorschmack is usually prepared out of*ground meat,*anchovies*or herring and*onions. The dish is usually garnished with potatoes,*pickles*and*smetana(sour cream).*Snaps*is usually served in combination with eating vorschmack. Some recipes include*cognac.[11]

There are several stories regarding the origin of the dish, but it has become a traditional Finnish dish as it was one of the favourite appetizers of the Finnish statesman, war hero and gourmand Marshall*Gustaf Mannerheim. Some sources say Mannerheim brought the dish to Finland from Poland[12]*or Russia,[13]but there have not been any definite sources for these claims.

The restaurant Savoy at the top floor of one of the buildings around the*Esplanadi*in centralHelsinki*is famous for its vorschmack. The restaurant used to be frequented by Mannerheim and Mannerheim’s table at the Savoy was always reserved and, out of respect, no one would ever consider demanding to be seated there. Savoy still today keeps a similar style decor and menu as in the days of Mannerheim.

 

[John Price]

@SoupyFIN do you enjoy eating vorschmack while drinking Karhu beer

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Oh god TJ is back

 

[jw2]

It's Saturday

 

[Brad Chadwick]

It's Saturday

Not clear on how this is relevant to
Vorschmack, or cuisine in general but it is indeed Saturday!

 

[John Price]

Oh god TJ is back

It's not tj you doofus

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

It's not tj you doofus

How do we know that??

 

[John Price]

How do we know that??

Well if you actually discorded you'd know

 

[Brad Chadwick]

Well if you actually discorded you'd know

I hope u can clear this up Mike, this guy is giving me a rough ride 2day!

 

[PanthersPens62]

2 simple questions Brad:

1. Are you vegan?
2. Were you a big fan of "The OC"?

If the answers to the above are "no", then welcome aboard!

If the answers are "yes", then welcome back TJ!

 

[John Price]

If it was TJ this thread would be contradictory since the OP doesn't talk about vegan appetizers. Use your noggins folks.

 

[Brad Chadwick]

2 simple questions Brad:

1. Are you vegan?
2. Were you a big fan of "The OC"?

If the answers to the above are "no", then welcome aboard!

If the answers are "yes", then welcome back TJ!

1. No. I'd probably pass out after a day or two.
2. Not sure what that is.

Hope that settles it and we can get back on topic.

 

[Son Goku]

Fried mozzarella sticks

 

[Mantis]

Hello SAWFT

 

[FatherOfThree]

Hi Brad,

I am wondering what your thoughts on chicken wings and spinach dip as appetizers are. Quite frankly, I think a good basket of chicken wings is a meal. My wife seems to love spinach dip, but whenever we go to a restaurant our children never want any of it so it basically ends up being a meal for the two of us before our real meal lol.


Let me know,

Steve

 

[Brad Chadwick]

Hi Brad,

I am wondering what your thoughts on chicken wings and spinach dip as appetizers are. Quite frankly, I think a good basket of chicken wings is a meal. My wife seems to love spinach dip, but whenever we go to a restaurant our children never want any of it so it basically ends up being a meal for the two of us before our real meal lol.


Let me know,

Steve

I agree with u that these commonly consumed apps can serve u well as a main course and applaud you and your wife for not being constrained by the app designation, Steve.
What's great about the two particular items you've selected is that they also are fitting for the popular "paleo" or "grain brain" diets as long as u use the wings to consume the spinach dip and let the kiddos have the chips or pita breads. Hope this helps.

 

[FatherOfThree]

I agree with u that these commonly consumed apps can serve u well as a main course and applaud you and your wife for not being constrained by the app designation, Steve.
What's great about the two particular items you've selected is that they also are fitting for the popular "paleo" or "grain brain" diets as long as u use the wings to consume the spinach dip and let the kiddos have the chips or pita breads. Hope this helps.

Brad,

thank you for your opinion

Steve

 

[Finnish your Czech]

I agree with u that these commonly consumed apps can serve u well as a main course and applaud you and your wife for not being constrained by the app designation, Steve.
What's great about the two particular items you've selected is that they also are fitting for the popular "paleo" or "grain brain" diets as long as u use the wings to consume the spinach dip and let the kiddos have the chips or pita breads. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the content guys, but unfortunately I'm going to disagree with the bolded. I don't think menu item fluidity is a concept I subscribe to. I do enjoy the occasional app prior to a main course, but I think apps are only good in small portions, and they're not sustainable over the course of a full meal.

I'm not going to say that sitting at a bar with some chips, dip and a bevvy is not a good time, but it's not a "meal".

I will say that the closest to an exception this are chicken wings.

Again thanks for the posts, I really enjoyed them and this thread.