Question of the Day, Friday, April 2

[Lari]

Am I the only one who likes ambrosia? Then again, we never made it with sour cream or cottage cheese, it was just jello, whipped cream, and canned fruit cocktail with the juice used instead of water for the jello.

That's not too bad. We often had jello mixed with whipped cream, which I like. Fruit salad without the maraschino cherries wouldn't be a bad addition. It's all the talk of and sour cream and cottage cheese that makes it sound gross.

 

[Mr. Meow]

Anything with coconut in it. Not having a sense of taste helps, but the texture is like a mouthful of toenails.

 

[Norachan]

Gyahhhh! Most of them. I'm not big on sweets.

Trifle is probably the top of the list. Soggy sponge cake with jelly, anyone?
Rice pudding, got to be one of the most disgusting things ever.
Jelly in any shape or form. Someone tried to interest me in vodka jellies once and I was initially tempted by the alcohol, but soon realised it was all wrong. You shouldn't do that to vodka.
Ice cream.
Anything with fresh cream or whipped cream.
Tapioca.
Blancmange.

I could go on and on. Basically anything that's sweet, cold, a dairy product or that icky wibbly wobbly pudding texture.

 

[DreamerRose]

I'm not sure, but I think it's called 'ambrosia'.

That's not ambrosia. Ambrosia is a salad made of orange slices or mandarin oranges, pineapple tidlbits, mini marshmallows and cocoanut. My mother used to serve it as a special treat at Christmas dinner. Ambrosia

There's no dessert I despise. If it's sweet and full of calories, I love it.

 

[Jcatbird]

The Deep South Ambrosia is very simple. It is just sweet oranges that are cleaned of all pith, grazed and cut up so the juice fills the dish and only a bit of fresh shredded (not sweetened packaged ) coconut is added. This is chilled overnight. If the oranges are not sweet but tart, a little powdered sugar might be added to taste. Adding marshamallow, sour cream, cottage cheese? Never here. Lol
I really don’t like rice pudding or cheese cake. I rarely eat a dessert. Fruit would be my first choice though. My father has always been big on having a small dish of ice cream. I never seem to have room for dessert anyway.

 

[Norachan]

The Deep South Ambrosia is very simple. It is just sweet oranges that are cleaned of all pith, grazed and cut up so the juice fills the dish and only a bit of fresh shredded (not sweetened packaged ) coconut is added. This is chilled overnight.

That doesn't sound so bad. Just oranges and coconut? I would eat that.

In the UK Ambrosia is creamed rice, which is just....horrific!

 

[DreamerRose]

The Deep South Ambrosia is very simple. It is just sweet oranges that are cleaned of all pith, grazed and cut up so the juice fills the dish and only a bit of fresh shredded (not sweetened packaged ) coconut is added. This is chilled overnight. If the oranges are not sweet but tart, a little powdered sugar might be added to taste. Adding marshamallow, sour cream, cottage cheese? Never here. Lol
I really don’t like rice pudding or cheese cake. I rarely eat a dessert. Fruit would be my first choice though. My father has always been big on having a small dish of ice cream. I never seem to have room for dessert anyway.

Actually, I don't put the marshmallows or cool whip in mine, either. But I do add the pineapple. The cool whip sounds like a good idea, though, and I may try that, especially if my sons are visiting. It really is a southern dish. BITD when we only had seasonal fruits and veggies, oranges and pineapple were a Christmas treat.

 

[Willowy]

The Deep South Ambrosia is very simple. It is just sweet oranges that are cleaned of all pith, grazed and cut up so the juice fills the dish and only a bit of fresh shredded (not sweetened packaged ) coconut is added.

That sounds pretty good. Of course, up here, the older church ladies have never met a "hotdish" or "salad" they didn't like, and the more stuff they can add, the better. So it does seem like there's a big difference between the deep South ambrosia and Midwestern ambrosia. Somehow it got from this:
Ambrosia Fruit Salad

to this: Ambrosia
(I refuse to believe Alton Brown had anything to do with this. I want to see him eat a spoonful of it, lol. At least it doesn't have cottage cheese though. Or jello for that matter.)

The younger church ladies are all keto or gluten free or on some other fad diet, which each brings its own culinary challenges, but at least none of them involve cottage cheese in jello and Cool Whip.

 

[CatladyJan]

Raisin pie - I’ve never tried it but it looks disgusting

 

[Silver Crazy]

Rice pudding, got to be one of the most disgusting things ever.

Yep...worst thing ever, like maggots in white sauce, most disgusting thing ever forced on mankind (and woman kind)

 

[Jcatbird]

Creamed rice? Ummmm. I come from a rice growing area but creamed? Nope. Couldn’t do that!

That doesn't sound so bad. Just oranges and coconut? I would eat that.

In the UK Ambrosia is creamed rice, which is just....horrific!

View attachment 375753

Lol

 

[Lari]

That sounds pretty good. Of course, up here, the older church ladies have never met a "hotdish" or "salad" they didn't like, and the more stuff they can add, the better. So it does seem like there's a big difference between the deep South ambrosia and Midwestern ambrosia. Somehow it got from this:
Ambrosia Fruit Salad

to this: Ambrosia
(I refuse to believe Alton Brown had anything to do with this. I want to see him eat a spoonful of it, lol. At least it doesn't have cottage cheese though. Or jello for that matter.)

The younger church ladies are all keto or gluten free or on some other fad diet, which each brings its own culinary challenges, but at least none of them involve cottage cheese in jello and Cool Whip.

Neither one sounds good to me due to the coconut, but I feel I've learned so much about this dish, and am sure I've seen ones like the Alton Brown link before. Maybe my grandma even made it, lol.

 

[Norachan]

The only good thing about creamed rice is that when Japanese people come to the UK to visit you can get your revenge on them for all the times they tried to make you eat fermented soy beans or dried squid by feeding them rice pudding. Then you offer them some licorice. And then some black pudding.

 

[mani]

I lived in Malaysia for a while and really didn't take to Malaysian deserts, especially anything that had green jelly like worms (cendol)...
Cendol with Durian would be my ultimate no-go dessert.

 

[rubysmama]

My mother made fruitcakes that were actually pretty good. When she got older, and especially after my father died, there was no money for the ingredients. Michele and I started buying the necessaries for her, as it gave her something to do, and something to look forward to each year. She passed in 2008, and I still miss those fruitcakes.

My Mom used to make a good fruitcake, as well. She passed in 2012, and like you, I miss her fruitcake, and know I'll never have one like it again.

 

[denice]

I have had good fruitcake but the vast majority of it doesn't fall into that category. For bought fruitcake there are a few monasteries here in the U.S. that sells them. They are soaked in some type of alcohol. There is one in Kentucky that uses bourbon of course for theirs and they are good. The ones sold in regular stores during the holidays are always really bad. Unfortunately the good ones are also very expensive. They aren't something that you get a big slice, a little goes a long way because they are very rich.

 

[Mr. Meow]

The only good thing about creamed rice is that when Japanese people come to the UK to visit you can get your revenge on them for all the times they tried to make you eat fermented soy beans or dried squid by feeding them rice pudding. Then you offer them some licorice. And then some black pudding.

The lady formerly known as Mrs. Meow was Asian and her mother had, what she called a "straight off the boat" accent. However, her mother would cook all kinds of authentic Japanese and Taiwanese meals. I 1000© agree with you on the fermented soybeans, but to be honest (and this was back when I still could taste) I actually really liked the dried squid. But I've seen some dishes being prepared where some ingredients should have never met in person.

 

[denice]

I have only heard about Durian and how bad it smells. It is supposed to taste good but I couldn't get past a really bad smell. I saw a show on Food Network that talked about it and one of the countries in Southeast Asia actually has signs up prohibiting it in places like public buses because of the smell.

 

[Willowy]

to be honest (and this was back when I still could taste) I actually really liked the dried squid.

I grew up in Japan and still buy bags of dried cuttlefish at the Asian store . It's surprisingly good. For Japanese desserts, I was never very fond of the red bean paste they put in pastries. Also, it looks like chocolate so if you can't read the label it's a very unpleasant surprise, lol. I learned the characters for "choco" very quickly!

I've had durian candy and the taste is ok but you just can't get the smell/aftertaste out of your mouth all day. Doesn't seem worth it.

Yeah, I've had the good fruitcake too, but most do not fall into that category .

 

[Mia6]

grew up in Japan and still buy bags of dried cuttlefish at the Asian store . It's surprisingly good.

I agree!!