exotic foods ?

[sam111]

Another thing I am curious about is exotic foods.
The grocery stores around me have tons of different foods but I am kind of curious about where you can get the exotic foods that you see professional top chiefs and the TV show chopped has.

Going to alot of different websites and looking at alot of online food catalogs
there doesn't seem like a one stop shop where one can see the list of all possible foods avaliable to restraunts and public.

Would be nice to know what is possible out there to cook with for commerical uses as well as just plan out there.

Partly I am curious how much more foods that the professionals have cooked with over the enthusastic home cook that shops at many different local grocery stores.

[buckytom]

most of what you are asking depends on where you live.

in an ethnically diverse area such as the ny metro area, you can get everything you can think of.

in the middle of nowhere, you get what you can.

[sam111]

Ok, I get where the melting pots are / places where the most diverse cultures come together. But what I don't get is what determines what parts of the total ny foods get distributed to other places in the world.

And what percentages of it are in the CT , MA , FL , WA areas ?


Also just throwing it out there is snake available to buy ?
And if so there is 1000 of different types probably which ones constitute being used for human consumption.

Same question but take for example fish there a 1000's of types of fish in the sea which ones are used for human consumption and how is this determined.
In terms of fisherman and distributors

and In terms of economically/enviromentally good to harvest for the general population... In theory as long as it doesn't harm the body and it is of nutritional value/or maybe taste good to people. Then what is stoping people from eating something totally different sometimes....

[buckytom]

i'm not sure what you're asking, but i think it's the other way around. foods from all over the world are brought to big cities, melting pot areas simply because there's a market for it. i bet i could find snake on a menu somewhere.

also, ypu might not realize how big the u.s. is. nyc isn't all that close to massachusetts, florida, or washington state. in fact, it's almost as far from you to me as is washington state from me.

southern connecticut is considered the nyc area, but not north and western conn..

in any case, it's about the market here. if some will pay for it, you can almost be sure you can get it. not so much the illegal things.

you have to talk to craig about that...

[sam111]

Ok so are you saying if somebody had the time to go thru and make the calls to NYC top distributors / food markets one would have 99% of all foods sold for human consumption?

And would have the same amount of selection as the guys on the show chopped?

[buckytom]

hmmm, probably closer to 75%. i mean, you can buy 90% of things if you're here and are familiar with the shop or owner for the really weird stuff. and even then it might take some effort. but it's here if you look in person. maybe not really cruel things like live monkey brains, but most everything else.

online and with international shipping is a totally different deal.

[sam111]

online and with international shipping is a totally different deal.

Are you saying you won't be able to get as much selection of foods online or international shipped to you over physically going to a NYC places and picking it up.

And is there like a website that has a list of all foods available sold in the world for human consumption. Obviously there can always be more added or you could go out and hunt some random thing yourself but I am more curious if there is a place to check to see what the currently available on the market world foods are.

Something like a site that shows the name , picture of , and price per quantity of the item

Thanks for the help with this one but I think I am going to be stuck wondering if there is any other food item I can cook with meats , veg , fruit ,...etc

[buckytom]

Originally Posted by sam111

Are you saying you won't be able to get as much selection of foods online or international shipped to you over physically going to a NYC places and picking it up.

yes.

good luck on your search, though.

please post if you have some good, bad, or interesting results.