The Incredibly Edible Open Thread

By Edward

NOTE: Sincere apologies for the previous version of this post with Moe's signature. I was in the system earlier clearing out spambots and only noticed after I posted that I was logged in as Moe. Then, to make matters worse, I only noticed folks had commented when I tried to quickly delete it. This is by Edward_, the Inept.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Ex of mine and I had this 9-year debate over what was the more versatile food: potatoes or eggs?

He, being an Irish bricklayer originally from a farm in County Clare, thought it was potatoes. I, having not obviously been kicked repeatedly in the head while milking cows, argued eggs. But you need a bit of background to appreciate the true intensity of this debate:

The first time I made dinner for him when we moved in together in London, I set a spread of tossed salad, garlic bread, spaghetti Bolognese, and a nice red wine. The first words out of his mouth upon sitting at the table were, I kid you not, "Where're the spuds?" He had never, to that day, had a meal in his life that had not included potatoes. A few years later, sharing New Year's Day dinner with his aunt's family in the Bronx, I saw where this spud-obsession came from. With only eight of us for dinner, his Aunt brought out two massive mounds of potatoes, at least 60 total, and reassured those whose eyebrows were raising, "Go on, now, dig in. There's plenty more in the kitchen."

To say his belief in potatoes was nearly religious was not overstating the case.

So we argued. He would cite baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, chips (what I called french fries), crisps (what I call chips), boiled potatoes, potato pancakes, bubble and squeak (don't ask, it's vile), shepherd's pie topping ("Which is really just mashed potatoes thrown over stew" I'd argue, ..."Ohhhh, no," he'd insist. "It's different." [as if that solved it]), and so on and so on.

I would cited fried eggs, poached eggs, boiled eggs, omlettes, meringue,  deviled eggs ("Which is really just boiled eggs, cut open with mustard added," he'd argue)...you get the picture.

We never settled the issue. He passed away a few years back from cancer. But he was an Irishman through and through, and so I'm sure he's up there arguing with God himself if the answer's not what he said it was.

So I turn to you. Which is it?

Consider this an open thread.

Comments

[Slartibartfast]

Edward, I had no idea...scratch that.

[Slartibartfast]

Edward, I had no idea you were Moe.

Ummm...best potato dish ever: potato-leek soup, Moosewood version.

[LizardBreath]

My great-aunt, born in Ireland, served five distinct varieties of potatoes for a standard formal family meal. Mashed, boiled whole, baked, roasted in the meat juices, and usually some sort of scalloped/au gratin cheesy baked thing.

On the other hand, this is clearly an insane way to behave.

[Edward_]

Edward, I had no idea you were Moe.

Actually, we're all Moe, when there are spambots attacking. His is the only account you can use to delete them.

[Gromit]

The whole thing was made all the more weird seeing as Moe just popped up over at RedState.

[wilfred]

I'm full Irish but i vote for eggs, hands down.

And too bad Moe missed the last year + here, would love to have seen him try and defend the total absurdity that is Bushco.

[ral]

No no, we're all Fafnir. Look closer. There! You were Fafnir all along.

[Bernard Yomtov]

I don't know about Ireland, but in France, an egg is enough.

[ral]

Speaking of potatoes...

[Slartibartfast]

On the flipside, there's eggs benedict, eggs florentine, egg sandwich (which is more than just a fried egg on bread), huevos rancheros...

[Slartibartfast]

Moe's had his own (NOT OW) blog for quite a while, and has been popping up in other places as well. I feel kind of schizoid saying that, I've got to say.

[judson]

you can make a stamp out of a potatoe
you can remove a broken lightbulb socket with a potatoe
Mr Potatoe Head..nuff said

[double-plus-ungood]

Potatoes? Ick, nasty rootses. Eggs, mmm, delishiuous yummy bird embryos, we likes them we do.

[Slartibartfast]

You can make a battery from a potato.

[Slartibartfast]

You can shoot a potato from a PVC cannon.

[Gromit]

Yeah, but if you put 120V across a dill pickle it will glow.

[bob mcmanus]

I grew up in a family that had potatoes at most meals. Now my preferences are for rice and pasta. Tho after playing with Atkins for years, I commonly have meals of meat, fresh salad & fresh fruit. Not a healthy or classy house by any means, we have pop-tarts and Doritos and Cheez-Wiz, but there is not a potato or slice of bread in the house.

The lady will not eat eggs; I will once a week as an omelette. Points for potatos over eggs;fiber, vitamin C, less cholesterol

(unless you bury the baked in margarine covered with sour cream topped with shredded cheddar...ummm)

where was I? Oh yeah, potatoes have a longer shelf life. (Variant spellings used to irritate).

[toby]

tater tots

[Dantheman]

So many posts, and no one has cited Wierd Al Yankovic's "Addicted to Spuds" yet?

[jwo]

Eggs. My mother lived to age 94, subsisting primarily on boiled eggs and cigarettes for the last 15 years of her life! They must be healthy stuff (the eggs, I mean)!!!!

[Jackmormon]

Aw hell, since it's an open thread and since Bob brought up the shelf lives of eggs, I really can't resist this mindboggling passage from my Grandad's memoire of his childhood in the Yukon:

One building I remember was just for storing eggs. The final boat in the fall before freeze-up brought in the last eggs of the year, and these had to last all winter. This building was insulated and kept at the constast temperature best suited to keep the eggs. Men worked there constantly turning the eggs and candling them so that the bad ones could be discarded. We used to sneak in and watch them working in the darkened room. Children who grew up in the North, on their first trip outside, would not eat the fresh eggs as they had no taste.

Ew. Ew. Ew.

In the eggs vs. potatoes debate, I've got to go with the eggs. The white and the yolk behave differently under heat, and the various stages of cooking yield wildly different results. Also, egg whites can be used as hairgel.

[Catsy]

Both are highly versatile. It's a tough one, but in the end, I'd have to say potatoes. The true versatility of eggs only comes out when they are used as an ingredient, a catalyst as it were. For example, pastries or matzoh balls. They are not the primary focus of the dish, they are simply an enabler.

Potatoes, on the other hand, more frequently /are/ the dish. There are other ingredients, yes, and they are necessary--but they enable and support the potato dish, not the other way around.

[Wayne]

Well, eggs and potatoes are like, well, apples and oranges. Eggs are rich and have properties that recommend them for things potatoes couldn't be used for; potatoes on the other hand are a wonderful filler food, preparable in at least as many ways.

While I don't have potatoes with every meal, I'd guess half of my meals feature them. Eggs can go weeks without use. But then I'm only 50% Irish.

And sorry about your friend, Edward.

[Edward_]

Both are highly versatile. It's a tough one, but in the end, I'd have to say potatoes.

spent time milking cows too, did you? ;-)

just kidding...

OF COURSE IT'S EGGS. Look at how eggs mutate when you whip them or separate their components. They got three part: shell, white, and yoke. With spuds you got skin and you got, er, spud.

[Kyle Hasselbacher]

So many posts, and no one has cited Wierd Al Yankovic's "Addicted to Spuds" yet?

Your greasy hands.
Your salty lips.
Looks like...
you found the chips.

[Francis]

omelettes, frittatas, souffles (!) both sweet and savory, poached, fried, scrambled, baked.

from the whites, meringues and foam (whipped eggs whites are a key ingredient of my chocolate mousse).

from the yoke, hollandaise.

(I recently invented crab cakes benedict for an Atkins brunch. Crab cakes topped by poached eggs topped by a very lemony hollandaise and mimosas on the side. followed by food coma and football on tv.)

this isn't even close.

[Edward_]

this isn't even close.

Thank you!

[rilkefan]

Would it be annoying to note that there's nothing more versatile in the kitchen than water?

[ral]

Yes, you can even use it for washing up (if it still seems clean enough).

[Jackmormon]

Crab cakes benedict sounds sinfully good. Or would that be "sound"?

Rilkefan: yes.

[Ugh]

WTF are you guys talking about? Maybe I should read the post...

[rilkefan]

Crab cakes benedict sounds sinfully good. Or would that be "sound"?

You mean, while they're sizzling in the pan? (I assume the recipe doesn't call for live clams.)

[Jesurgislac]

Who'd want to do without either?

bubble and squeak is what you do with leftover cooked potatoes and greens: chop them up, mix them roughly together, and cook the mixture with hot fat. I'd use olive oil or ghee, but traditionally it's the grease from the Sunday roast. And if you had any meat leftover from the Sunday roast you'd chop that up and add it too. If I have some bits of cheese in the fridge I grate them and add them to the potato and greens. And if you have an egg or two, it becomes a frittata. (It's called "bubble and squeak" because that's supposed to be the noise it makes cooking, but I've never noticed that.)

[Katherine]

they're both great but not in the same way. Potatoes are versatile like rice and pasta and bread are versatile--it's a flavor and texture that complements other flavors, but it doesn't vary much itself. Eggs actually DO different things, as well as the standard scrambled/omelette form going well with a number of other flavors. (eggs and potatoes also go especially well together.)

I find eggs more impressive but may actually like potatoes better. Especially gnocchi.

But I could do without eggs or potatoes before I could do without onions. Garlic's surprisingly versatile too. They go in all sorts of food, and it's not by being neutral or bland favored in any way.

[CharleyCarp]

One of the signature dishes in my wife's home village is called 'married.' Boiled potato cubes with thumb sized egg/flour dumplings. Bacon/cream sauce.

Did anyone else notice that article about designer bacon in the most recent Atlantic? "Bacon is the new chocolate."

[Francis]

pork fat rulez!

rilkefan: i get my crabcakes frozen from the local high end grocery store. they're round, somewhat thicker than a piece of toast and a little larger than an english muffin. hence, an excellent substitute for the muffin level of eggs benedict.

[rilkefan]

English muffins are a great thing, especially with a bit of honeycomb.

[hilzoy]

Eggs, of course. But only potatoes inspired one of my favorite kids books ever:

"We will never be potpie
We will never be potluck
We will never be frittata
We will always be potatoes.

Potatoes to the finish
Potatoes to the end
We will always be courageous
We will always be potatoes!"

[John Thullen]

I love potatoes in all forms, though we don't eat that many potatoes any longer. Must get back into them. Scalloped of various recipes. I used to fluff up some mashed potatoes and then add buttermilk and fry up some pancetta (Italian bacon, a little sweeter) and put the crumbled pancetta with its nectar (my wife calls it grease; I call it the stuff which will kill me unless various Republican politicians get there first) and some fresh chive in.

Sometimes I saute up some potatoes on Sunday morning in a little olive oil and butter and put them on a plate. Then here come the eggs,
barely over easy fried or sometimes poached, with salt and lots of pepper.

I'm going to try the crab cake eggs benedict, and then go for a run (once the knee is cut) and see if I explode.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Crab cakes benedict sounds sinfully good. Or would that be "sound"?

You mean, while they're sizzling in the pan? (I assume the recipe doesn't call for live clams.)

Or dead ones either.

[liberal japonicus]

Oh fer Christ sake, what Jes and Kath say. Tortilla de patatas. I thought this was a bipartisan blog. ;^)

[rilkefan]

What, you put actual crab into crab cake? Huh. No wonder my crab cakes always come out tasting odd.

[cleek]

potatoes. eggs are too close to biology class for me.

but Boortz says we need to Save the Rich First, in case of natural disasters.

thanks Neal, for reminding me why "compassionate conservatism" is such a head-scratcher of a phrase.

[katherine]

another good bipartisan answer:

potatoes + onions + eggs + monterey jack + mole sauce or salsa verde or better yet both.

[Blar]

The spud and the egg are both great foods, but neither is as versatile as shrimp, the fruit of the sea. You can have it barbecued, boiled, broiled, baked, or sauteed. There's shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, shrimp soup, shrimp salad, pineapple shrimp, coconut shrimp, ...

Sorry.

[John Thullen]

"No wonder my crab cakes always come out tasting odd."

Did you mean cod?

[rilkefan]

No, not cold: clammy.

[John Thullen]

Cleek, I have this potato and egg dish in which the main ingredient is whatever deadly poison I have around the house (child-proofed, of course). It also has a bomb in it.

The next time I make it, Neil Boortz is invited for dinner. He's going to eat a lot of it. My family and I will stick to the veal.

See, guys like Boortz shouldn't have their filthy visages up on the Internet. Someone might recognize them on the subway. Probably some poor slob who didn't get the heads up. Then Boortz could have his own personal catastrophe.

Thugs deserve thuggery in kind.

[John Thullen]

"No, not cold. Clammy"

That is odd.

[cleek]

The next time I make it, Neil Boortz is invited for dinner

i just hope he's the poorest guy at his lifeboat station sometime. sometime stormy.

[John Thullen]

This whole thing is going to kill Moe Lane's image over at Redstate. I mean eggs, potatoes and that Irish bricklayer. After what happened to David Drier... geez.

Maybe he'll come back here. We can hope.

[cleek]

oh, let me add: letting the poor die that the rich may live is the Fairest Tax of thm all.

ok. off to the bars.

[Chris]

I'm going to have to go with eggs on this one. A couple of reasons:
1) the number of folds in a chef's hat is purportedly equal to the number of things you (well, you if you're a master French chef) can do with an egg. That number is 101, by the way.

2) when you're being seriously tested for a job at many restaurants, they challenge you to cook an omelet. No one challenges you to mash some potatoes. (Not to disparage the mashed potato in any way...because, really, yum.)

[CaseyL]

As much as I adore potatoes, I have to go with eggs.

Eggs are versatile in their own right (boiled, fried, poached, scrambled, pickled (bleah)). Eggs are a terrific base for wrapping other foods in (as in omelets and frittatas).

But, above and beyond all that, eggs are also... transmutative? gestalten? Er... combined with other ingredients, they contribute to a whole greater than the sum of its parts. As in cake, bread, pasta and quiche.

A potato, no matter what you do to it or what you load onto it, remains always apart, always distinct, always...a potato. Therein lies the potato's glory as well as its limitation.

Um. Except for the fact that you can make booze out of potatoes; a trick no one's tried with eggs. And let's hope no one ever does.

[Edward]

Except for the fact that you can make booze out of potatoes

hmmmm...I might have to change my mind

which reminds me, not that it's got anything to do with this, but has anyone else had poteen?

I swear. I've drunk local brews around the world, including some Alabaman moonshine that would strip the paint right off your car, but nothing...NOTHING...has made my lungs want to burst through my rib cage like a shot of poteen...that stuff is from hell.

[John Thullen]

No poteen, but despite Casey's beautiful homage to the egg, I've eaten balut, which is fertilized duck egg, you know, with the crunchy little duckling foetus, vaguely feathered and beaked, right there, in your mouth.

Sounds gross, but nap a little raspberry or currant sauce on the adult duck and everyone thinks yummy.

[John Thullen]

So, speaking of eggs and potatoes and sealing wax and Irish bricklayers, Max of Maxspeak has a funny (you know, giving free air to the ignorant, facist point-of-view) post up linking to Media Matters that talks about this Neal Boortz type from the American Family Association who wants us to beware of pro-gay messages on .. Animal Planet.

Meanwhile, over on the Food Channel, I've detected a little too much preening over the prissy egg recipes and not enough pushing of the manly family of root vegetables.

Boortz and the AFA and the rest of these meat-eating dudes: when does this coalesce into some kind of Republican Party-sponsered, government-sponsered mass murder?

Just wondering.

Cause I'm tired of cheap talk.

[xanax]

Long ago, in a galaxy far away there was a low budget film called "The Groove Tube" that spoofed tv in all its glory (including advertising). As I recall, one of the bits featured a bunch of truly insane-looking institutionalized mental patients sitting around an activities room (on the floor, at flimsy card-tables etc.) in pjs all "drinking" beer (some were pouring it on their heads, others down their pants or on each other, etc...well you get the idea). After about 30 seconds of various close-up images of droolers and open-mouth breathers, a beer bottle came spining out of the middle of the screen stopping front and center revealing a lable that said "Spud Beer." Voice over: "Spud Beer. Brewed from potatoes. For people who can't tell the difference."

Hillarious.

"The Groove Tube" is available for rent and is worth the price and the time if for nothing more than "The Holiday Loaf," quite possibly the funniest parody of a cooking show ever made.

[CaseyL]

Balut, which is fertilized duck egg, you know, with the crunchy little duckling foetus, vaguely feathered and beaked, right there, in your mouth.

Ewwwwww. 'Crunchy'? At least tell me it's deep-fried or something. Almost anything's edible if it's deep fried. Or baked to a delicate crunch, like the French do to ortolans, which is also kind of horrifying.

Edward_, I've never had poteen. It sounds like just the thing to lay in for flu season, though :)

[Jesurgislac]

Root vegetables are manly? Who knew?

[Amos Newcombe]

"The Groove Tube" is available for rent

Kewl! Off to get that and "Putney Swope" for a double feature.

[Edward]

Edward_, I've never had poteen. It sounds like just the thing to lay in for flu season, though :)

Not sure it would make you feel better, but I guess if you have the flu, nothing can make you feel worse.

Favorite thing about poteen is all the variations on the urban legend about the Irish lad in London whose Mum sent him a turkey for the holidays, and without reading the note attached he shoves it in his oven, only to have the thing explode because she had hidden a bottle of the stuff inside. Every Irishman I know would swear to some version of that tale.

[Bernard Yomtov]

No, not cold: clammy.

Hot and clammy? Maybe you made chowder by mistake.

[xanax]

"Off to get that and "Putney Swope" for a double feature."

In the immortal words of Putney Swope: "There's gonna be a few changes around here."

Amos: If you rent Groove Tube, email me your reaction to The Holiday Loaf segment. I laughed so hard I wet myself.

[Tim]

Holiday loaf and Brown-25. I almost died.

[xanax]

Tim: Ah, yes. How could I forget? "The Uranus Corporation; manufacturer of Brown-25. Another good thing from Uranus!"

1) Rent The Groove Tube;
2) Smoke a joint (optional);
3) Giggle to death...

[CaseyL]

My memories of watching the Groove Tube in college are a little vague, because it was oh so long ago and I was almost definitely stoned when I saw it. I do remember nearly falling out my seat laughing, though.

Be kinda interesting to see it now, and see how funny it is when I'm not gassed on grass.

Gotta be careful, watching TV or movies when you're high on something. Back, way back, during my acid freak days, I saw back-to-back eppies of "I, Spy" and "The Avengers" while tripping. And spent a goodly hour or so discoursing afterwards on the socio-political implications of the differences therein. (Specifically, how female-spy Scotty in "I, Spy" had to be rescued alla damn time, whereas female-spy Emma Peel was the one who did the rescuing.)

Oh, and I was also convinced those were the Best Damn Shows Ever Created, and discoursed grandly on that, as well.

That might be why my friends hauled me outside to teach me how to do tequila shots :)

[xanax]

"Gotta be careful, watching TV or movies when you're high on something."

So true. You could fall off the couch and sprain your liver.

In addition to the Spud Beer ad referenced above, I seem also to recall another Groove Tube beer commercial spoof for a product called Butts Beer. Scene: an ordinary neighborhood tavern full of blue-collar types drinking beer. After a short time an argument breaks out, then a fight, which soon engulfs the entire bar. As beer bottles and bar stools go flying across the screen, a case of Butts Beer is superimposed front and center. Anncr: 'Butts Beer. Brewed light for when you feel like having more than ten!"

Endless yuks.

[rilkefan]

"She thought Libby had reason to be afraid of her testimony."

Can't get out of jail without breaking some eggs...

[rilkefan]

OT, but Mrs. r.'s patience re my lack of health insurance is getting thin, and I could use some guidance. The last time I looked there were a dizzying array of possibilities from many reputable insurers. Is there a calculator out somewhere into which I can put my age (37), health status (good), financial situation (ok while I'm employed), etc., and get out a reasonable suggestion as to what plan to get from whom?

[John Thullen]

Rilkefan:

I don't know. But please let us know what happens.

And, get some health insurance.

I can't abide you and Mrs. R not having it.

There is a recent diary over at Dkos lamenting the horrific cost.

Maybe we can turn this into a front-page post.

I've always believed poets should get medical attention first, since we live in a society that loves triage as some sort of Ayn Randian sadistic originalist principle, so if we're going to triage, may the poets be the last standing.

[CaseyL]

Rilkefan, forgive me if you already know all this:

There are some non-employer group plans available. I think it's a state-by-state thing, so you might try calling your state social services agency and see if they know about any. There might also be church/synogogue group coverage, or coverage through a professional association. Hell, I think AAA offers group coverage.

Also, some states might have group plans of their own (Washington does, e.g., but it's hellish hard to get enrolled). Even if the waiting list is long, you might as well sign up.

I've just gone googling, and found this:

http://www.insurenetusa.com/

...it offers a calculator, and links to carriers. I just tried it myself, and for a 50-year female smoker, the premiums range from $125/month with a $2500 deductible to $358 with a $500 deductible. Your rates are bound to be better (you're younger and, I assume, not a smoker) though if you'll be adding Mrs. R that'll likely double the premiums.

[rilkefan]

Mrs. r. is a grad student at Stanford and hence gets a reasonable rate; but to extend her coverage to me would a) be exorbitant and b) require waiting for an open period.

Part of my inability to pick a plan is no clear sense of what a reasonable premium/copay/deductible/whatever point is.

[hilzoy]

rilkefan: I take it moving to a country with a sane health care system is not an option?

Recently, there were some blogs making the point that while people who oppose single-payer plans always talk about The Waiting Lists, we have them here too, even for those of us who have insurance, and are therefore not consigned to infinitely long waiting periods.

Fwiw: I have health insurance. Excellent health insurance. And I'm on the faculty of the university with the best med school on earth, and interact with the doctors there a lot, so I am in a much better position to advocate for my own interests than most people. I need to have a repeat of my abdominal surgery from last summer, alas. I have been trying to get this scheduled since early July, so far without success. First I had to go to my regular doctor and get a referral. Then, a CT scan. Then, an appointment with the surgeon. (All of this to confirm that I had what I knew I had.) Then comes the sticking point: scheduling the appointment. For some reason, the administrative assistant of my surgeon can't just schedule something right then and there; she has to get back to me, or so she says, and she never, ever does.

So I wait here in Casablanca ... and wait ... and wait ...

[rilkefan]

Gee wilikers, good luck with that, hilzoy.

[CaseyL]

Part of my inability to pick a plan is no clear sense of what a reasonable premium/copay/deductible/whatever point is.

Start with the plans that are available to you. See what they charge, what coverage they offer. Think about what health services you're likely to need in the next 12 months.

You might prefer a high deductible if you think you might have surgery or other major medical care in the coming year, because that would take care of the deductible PDQ. (I was in the hospital a couple years ago for a broken arm. My bill, for less than 36 hours as an in-patient, was $8000. Insurance covered 80% of that.)

You might prefer a high co-pay if that means an 80-90% reimbursement rather than a lower co-pay and only 50-60% reimbursement. Also, PPO plans (which let you pick your doctor, and self-refer to specialists) generally have higher co-pays and premiums than HMOs (which make you use within-network doctors, and mandate a gatekeeper referral system.)

If you're young, healthy, with no family history of systemic disease, you might want to go for catastrophic coverage only. These are usually the least expensive, because they don't cover routine, preventative, maintenance care at all. You'll pay out of pocket for annual exams, ordinary prescriptions, and most routine lab tests. But accident, acute major injury and illness, and medical emergencies are covered - though I don't know what the percentages and deductibles are.

There's really no way of telling what "reasonable" copays, etc., are. Everything varies from state to state and plan to plan. You need to think about:

1. The kind of care you're likely to need: how much, how acute, how expensive
2. Whether you're better off paying more money per office visit in exchange for higher reimbursements; that's more money out of pocket now for less money out of pocket later
3. Whether its easier financially to manage a high deductible (paying only as you need the care) in exchange for lower monthly premiums; or paying more each month in exchange for not having a huge deductible to pay off before coverage kicks in. This is also a how-much-now versus how-much-later issue.

Sorry there aren't any quick and straightforward answers.

[hilzoy]

rilkefan: it's no big deal. No pain, no nothing like that, just something that needs taking care of. Aargh.

And I prefer it to no medical coverage. Best of luck with your search.

[rilkefan]

"You might prefer a high deductible if you think you might have surgery or other major medical care in the coming year, because that would take care of the deductible PDQ."

Mrs. r. wonders about the sign of the effect - maybe a low deductible? Or is your point that if I'm going to be seriosly sick the deductible isn't important compared tothe overall coverage. Anyway, I'm not planning on being sick.

Thanks for the advice, I'll remember to look at the co-pay issue.

[B Alexander]

Potato.

You've often seen them whipped, but they just can't be beat.

[liberal japonicus]

Anyway, I'm not planning on being sick.

Though there are some things you can (and should) think about. What kind of sports/exercise/activities are you doing and what are their injury risks? Are you pretty well coordinated or a bit clumsy? How much driving are you doing and what kind of coverage do you expect in your state if you are not at fault, but you get put in the hospital? (and how well, if you drive, would your car insurance cover hospitalization?) Are you in contact with a lot of people or do you have a smaller circle that you hang out with, so you have less chance of catching something? How strong are you when it comes to colds, flus, etc? I think all of those sorts of things should be taken into account (though this is not from personal experience). In fact, I am sure that one of the unstated reasons that I have chosen to live in Japan is that confronted with that level of choice would leave me a total wreck.

[Slartibartfast]

but nothing...NOTHING...has made my lungs want to burst through my rib cage like a shot of poteen...that stuff is from hell.

Spoken like a man who hasn't yet had the misfortune to sample slivovitz. If you're Googling it, every good thing that you read about it is wildly inaccurate, to be kind.

[Edward_]

all the google results make it sound like nectar, Slarti.

Interesting that they call it a "Rakija," which I first thought must be where "Raki" comes from in Turkish, but it's definitely different. "Raki" is one of the most deceptive alcoholic beverages out there. One moment you're sipping away, barely perceiving any effects at all, the next moment you're swinging from lamp posts declaring yourself the Sultan of the Ottoman empire and challenging anyone to dispute it. All in all, quite lovely.

[Slartibartfast]

I've had two different brands of slivovitz, Edward, and both of them tasted like they'd been previously rejected by the digestive tract of a wino. Could be there are better grades of it, just as there are better grades of sour mash. People tell me this, but better sour mash whiskeys just taste like the stomach contents of people with more money, to me.

Lampposts...I've actually swung from rafters, but never lampposts. Wonder if it's legal to import?

[hilzoy]

I can confirm Edward's report, which also holds for the Arab analog, Arak.

Yow.

[Edward_]

Raki? Yes, it's legal, but difficult to find for anywhere near the same price you get in Turkey, of course. Most decent Turkish restaurants will carry it.

It's lovely, just deceptive.