Guild Steak of the Onion Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bird's nest soup

If you have been served bird's nest soup, chances are it was the version made with noodles sculpted into the shape of a bird's nest. However, if your soup was as authentic as uglybird just served you, then the bird's nest was collected from a Southeast Asian cave, soaked overnight in water, after which such extraneous components as feathers were removed.

A tasty soup is then concocted from chicken broth, ham, chicken, egg whites, and the nest.

Answer: Slices of meat rolled around hard-boiled egg yolk

To Elizabethan diners, "olives" were not the salty little fruit we buy in jars today. Olives were slices of meat, rolled around a stuffing consisting of hard-boiled egg yolks, herbs, and spices. The most popular "olive" was veal, which was often baked with its stuffing inside a pie shell and served over a bed of fresh greens. Thank you goes to gretas for cooking it just the way we ordered!

Answer: Priest stranglers

Strozzapreti are shaped like pieces of rolled, twisted cloth or towel, which is presumably what Italians use to strangle priests (a new twist on the term "men of the cloth"?). I'm not sure how this particular name came about, but there is a strong anti-clerical streak in Italy despite the fact (or, perhaps, because of the fact?) that it is the seat of the Catholic Church.

I should mention that the Italian-born chef Lidia Bastianich (who has a cooking show on American television and owns several restaurants in the U.S.) once made a type of ricotta-based gnoccho (or large dumpling) which was also named "strozzapreti". Her explanation for the name was that the dumplings were so rich that priests used to choke on them. Why they had this effect principally on members of the clergy was not explained; perhaps it was that priests (being deprived of other avenues of pleasure) tended to eat them more ravenously than members of the laity?

Strozzapreti, in jouen58's restaurant, are especially good with a sauce of chopped, sautéed pancetta (Italian bacon) and onion, tossed with a bit of butter and grated Parmigiano cheese. If strozzapreti are not available (and I haven't come across any in my local grocers), gemelli may be substituted.

Answer: Beans

Pruno is a homemade fermented alcoholic beverage that is most often made in prisons. As alcohol is not allowed in U.S. prisons, pruno is illegal to process and is often confiscated by prison guards. This foul concoction is made by speeding up the fermenting process of a fruit (most likely oranges or prunes). Fruit cocktail is often added.

After heating and letting it sit for a day, sugar and ketchup are added to help with the fermentation as well as give it a better flavor. A few more days of heating and letting it sit, and you have a disgusting mixture of molding, fermented juice. Just strain the mixture, and you have pruno. Let's just hope trident87 gets out soon...

Answer: It's a fish

Bombay Duck is a fish which is fairly common in the Ganges delta. It is usually split and dried in the sun, though it can be cured in brine first, then dried. Indian food in general is usually very spicy, especially if it is of the Eastern Indian variety. Of course, ertrum serves your dish with a complimentary lassi, so you sit down to have a fine meal.

Answer: Rooster's beak

"Pico de Gallo" in English means "Rooster's Beak". This stems from the coloration of the garnish and how it was originally concocted. It was originally made with chilies that were "red and beak-like" and the similarity was drawn towards a rooster's beak. Believe me, we had no idea that Lemmyrules serves such spicy food. Better drink a lot with that meal!

Answer: Dried mice on skewers

The mice are caught in the fields, then dried and skewered on sticks. Typically one eats the sausage bones, skin, and all. There is such a thing as the Malawi sausage tree, but that's a Malawi sausage-tree, not a Malawi-sausage tree. Apparently the fruit looks like "normal" sausages. But about the innocuous Malawi sausage, there's a story about a paleontologist who bought up a bunch of Malawi sausages so he could study the anatomy of the different mice. Alas, when he was to ship them back to the US, one of the customs officers thought he'd kindly brought her a little snack.

Hiding your initial distaste, you decide to take a bite anyway, and discover that it's not half-bad. Satisfied, you leave pu2-ke-qi-ri a generous tip.

Answer: L'anguille aux pruneaux

L'anguille is an eel, and though Bruyere looked at this recipe closely, I don't think she'll be trying to serve eels with prunes anytime soon. Of course, her only experience with eels is the scene from the film "The Tin Drummer" from Gunter Grass's novel.

A fricassee is already cut up something but when you cut up frogs' legs, it is getting rather hard to eat. However I think this dish relies on the principle that people kind of enjoy hunting for their food still, as getting something to eat off of frogs' legs is an adventure.

This is the same for écrivisses which are of course crayfish or crawdads. Bruyere used to go fishing for them with a tin coffee can in the creeks in Oregon, nowadays, she has a sous-chef to do that for her. "A la nage" indicates they are swimming in a broth. "Les aiguillettes de canard" are of course little 'needles' of duck meat on rice or other types of dishes. You can purchase this type of cut in the supermarket now.

Answer: Shawarma

Shawarma comes from the Turkish word 'çevirme' which literally means: 'to be rotated'. The meat, either beef, chicken, turkey, or lamb, is skewered and is cooked vertically while rotating. On the top of the skewer a few slabs of fat and vegetables (mainly tomatoes and onions) are placed. This way, when it is cooked vertically, the juices from the top flow down and make the meat more savoury.

Labaneh (sometimes spelled Labneh) is a yoghurt-like cheese, most commonly made from sheep milk. It is served on flat plates, often with olive oil, and is scooped up using pita bread. Hummus (or houmous) is a chickpea spread that is extremely common throughout the Middle-east, as common as peanut butter is to North-Americans. This is also served on flat plates and is scooped up using pita bread. Tahina (sometimes also Tahini) is a paste made from sesame seeds and then seasoned. It is an ingredient in the making of Hummus, but can also be eaten on its own, scooped up with pita bread as well. There's a lot of that scooping up going on...

After thanking LeoDaVinci for his fine finger-foods, you continue to your final destination.

Answer: Let the Jell-O cool to room temperature before whisking in yogurt

Adding a cold dairy product to a hot liquid is not usually the path to smooth creaminess. If the Jell-O is cooled first, however, this makes for a nice, though unusual, texture. You must choose your colours and flavours carefully, though. Once, agony mixed peach yogurt with grape Jell-O, and got the oddest colour - sort of a three-day-old corpse effect. Not too appetizing. Luckily you are satisfied with the combination you ordered.

Heaving a delighted sigh of satisfaction (and not to mention a little burp - don't worry, you're excused), you decide to head home.