Why is Pork and Pineapple Bad?

I was watching the Next Iron Chef on the tele and one of the judges (Simon Majumdar) keeps complaining about having pork marinaded or in association with pineapple. While I understand that pineapple contains bromelain and bromelain is a powerful meat tenderizer, bromelain can be denatured by heating it before marinading the meat with it.

I wonder if the chefs used papin (from papaya), ficain (from figs), or actinadain (kiwi), would the judges complain as loudly.  Conversely if they were marinading a tougher cut of meat instead of the prime grade cuts, would the judges react with such harsh words as "the meat was mushy."

I like mixing some sweet with my meats when I stir fry or make salads; grilled pineapple is very high on my favourite additions, and figs in the top five.  Granted, in grilled pineapple, the bromelain has been denatured, and I don't use "tender" cuts of meat for stir fries, but I'm not a world famous food critic, or chef.

I'll continue eating tacos al pastuer, sweet and sour pineapple pork, I like the flavour, and can accept what ever minor textural change there might be....

More Later....
G

Mail Order Bride - Come To My Side

I married Edith Wishart in Dauphin, Manitoba July 18, 1933 in the midst of the great depression. We farmed at Makinak, Manitoba. We had a happy marriage, and raised one son and two daughters. Just when our family was all married, my wife took sick and died in June 1971. I was left alone on the farm; I was 64 and alone so I had to make a new start. No one could help me, I had to help myself. I felt there was another good woman out there somewhere, who would like a good husband. It was up to me to find her! We had taken the Western Producer for many years so I put and advertisement in the personal column and soon had twenty single women corresponding with me from the four western provinces and Ontario. Some sent pictures of themselves. I sent each one a picture of myself and corresponded with every one for a few months until some quit and some wanted to marry me right away.

Sweat Rejoicing And Tears

My Wife's father, Gus Westergreen, immigrated to Canada from Sweden in the early 1880's when he secured employment at one dollar a day with William Van Horn's crew, who were in the process of constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway across Western Canada. It was a laborious, man-killing job as they laid the rails across the prairie of the Northwest Territories at a fast pace until they met up with a Chinese crew from the west coast, who had blasted a path for the railway through the Rockies over the Roger's Pass to Craiggallechie, British Columbia.

Gus stuck with the job until the last spike was driven by Donald Smith at Craiggallechie on November 7, 1885 completing the railway that linked the east with the west, and thereby fulfilling Prime Minister John A. MacDonald's national dream; a railway from coast to coast! Donald Smith was better known later as Lord Strathcona, Federal Member of Parliament for Selkirk, Manitoba. Then, Gus Westergreen was appointed section foreman on a branch line at Whitewater, Manitoba where he lived in a converted box car that also served as the first railway station at Whitewater.

My Girl Friend's Diet

When I was just a young man
I was fancy free
I never thought a could could make
a patsy out of me.

One day I met a pretty girl
though she was rather stout
She was looking for a date
that is why I took her out.

I though she would not cost me much
for she was on a diet
I took her to a resturant
to show I was not tight.

How was I supposed to know
that she was Klondike Kate?
She said she was not hungry
but this is what she ate.

Oyster stew and crackers too
a chicken and a roast.
Big coleslaw and lobster claws
and heaps of buttered toast.

Pudding -- duff and other stuff
I though she would never stop
I thought I would die when she ordered pie
with ice cream piled on top.

She said she would like a little drink
but she had an awful tank
She said she was not thirsty
but this is what she drank.

She said 'here is cheers' and downed six beers
and a bottle of Sherry wine.
I fell on the floor when she asked for more
and her eyes began to shine.

I was fit to kill when I got the bill
I jumped and hit the deck
It was no joke for I was broke
and I could not pay the check.

Tom Hoy

Lethbridge

More Later....
G

Poblano & Cheese Mashed Potatoes.

When I'm not doing brown butter mashed potatoes, I mix it up with doing a Roasted Poblano and Cheese mashed Potatoes

• 2 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes 
• 1 Roasted Poblano peeled seeded and chopped 
• 5 Cloves Roasted Garlic 
• 4 oz Sharp Cheddar Cheese Grated 
• 4 oz Monterrey Jack Cheese Grated 
• 4 oz Sour Cream
• Salt and Pepper to taste