I just can't get terribly excited about salsa. It's tomatoes, onions,
peppers (some hot, some not), cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, etc., etc., ad
nauseum. Might be a nice garnish or added to some soups; okay with corn
tortilla chips (personally I prefer a cheese dip sans salsa). I just don't
understand what's to get all worked up about. I personally don't care if a
jar of salsa came from west of the Pecos or New York City. Don't get me
wrong, I love spicy foods. I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.

I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can convince
me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion, just the same.

Jill
--
I used to have a handle on life...but it broke off.

Most salsa are nothing to get worked up about. Some are far better than
others. I recently had a fresh green salsa that seemed to be primarily
chopped jalepenos and cilantro with a bit of lime. It was very good. I
also had a black bean and roasted corn salsa (Santa Barbara brand ?)
than was also very good. Most of the major brands are quite boring and
need something to liven them up a bit.

Personally, I prefer fresh type salsas, such as Pico de Gallo. Most of
the major brand salsa are a lot like catsup or canned tomatoes to me :
usefull, but not really exciting. I will be used in something, and
probably sooner rather than later. Or it will be served to guest who
appreciate it. Leftovers will be added to a can of refried beans with a
little chesse and cilantro to make a good bean dip.

I never add it to soup, so maybe I'm missing something.

Dean G.

Twas a woman who drove me to drink. I never had the courtesy to thank
her. --W.C. Fields

jmcquown wrote:
But I'd like to read the discussion, just the same.
>
> Jill

Doubtful, you have already made up your mind, so you will ignore what is
written opposing your views and seek support from those agreeing.

Self-fulfilling prophesy and all that.


jim

In article >, "jmcquown"
> wrote:

> I just can't get terribly excited about salsa.


There's lots of different kinds of salsa, with different ingredients and
different preparation methods. The stuff in bottles and cans is OK, but
nothing like the fresh ones. The name "salsa" is because salsa is the
Spanish word for "sauce".

The nice thing about table salsas is that each person can put on exactly
as much as they want.

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS

jmcquown wrote:
[snip]
> I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.
>
The big deal about salsa is simply that it's better than ketchup.

-aem

jmcquown wrote:

> I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can
convince
> me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion, just the
same.


Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something when
it won't change your mind?

This is one of the dumber posts I've seen.



Brian

> I never add it to soup, so maybe I'm missing something.
>
> Dean G.

I would add it to most soups without thinking twice. Or
guacamole. I really hate to sound like that semi homemade
person, but it's got a lot of stuff in it that would bring flavor.
I've even poured some over a bit of pasta for a quick lunch.

I prefer to make my own, but wouldn't it make quick
(shoot, what's it called, those garlic toasts with the tomato
salsa on top? Bruschetta?)

nancy

Think of salsa in the way wou'd think of
catsup, mustard or any other condiment..

Folks use it to enhance, or brighten the taste
of the item they're eating.

What you put it on, and whether you enjoy it
is a matter of personal taste....

( I enjoy salsa on hotdogs )


On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 13:09:35 -0600, "jmcquown" > wrote:

>I just can't get terribly excited about salsa. It's tomatoes, onions,
>peppers (some hot, some not), cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, etc., etc., ad
>nauseum. Might be a nice garnish or added to some soups; okay with corn
>tortilla chips (personally I prefer a cheese dip sans salsa). I just don't
>understand what's to get all worked up about. I personally don't care if a
>jar of salsa came from west of the Pecos or New York City. Don't get me
>wrong, I love spicy foods. I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.
>
>I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can convince
>me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion, just the same.
>
>Jill

<rj>

"aem" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> jmcquown wrote:
> [snip]
>> I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.
>>
> The big deal about salsa is simply that it's better than ketchup.
>
> -aem
>

That's a very small deal, actually.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

jmcquown wrote:

> I just can't get terribly excited about salsa. It's tomatoes, onions,
> peppers (some hot, some not), cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, etc., etc.,
ad
> nauseum. Might be a nice garnish or added to some soups; okay with corn
> tortilla chips (personally I prefer a cheese dip sans salsa). I just
don't
> understand what's to get all worked up about. I personally don't care if
a
> jar of salsa came from west of the Pecos or New York City. Don't get me
> wrong, I love spicy foods. I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.
>
> I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can
convince
> me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion, just the same.


i love salsa! it's nice, fresh and not to heavy. i've taken to getting a
decent jarred salsa and adding fresh minced garlic, chopped onion, jalapeno
and cilantro with maybe a fresh lime squeezed in. it's not as good as fresh
but will fool the average non foodie and it sparks up the taste quite
nicely.

In article >,
wrote:


> What you put it on, and whether you enjoy it
> is a matter of personal taste....
>
> ( I enjoy salsa on hotdogs )


I've never tried that, but it sounds good. We normally cut up a tomato
and some onion when we have hot dogs, so it isn't that different.

We went to a potluck some years ago. The hosts said that they'd cook up
hamburgers on their charcoal grill. They in fact did, and they were very
good. The hosts even provided buns, but that was about it. I had brought
a fresh, uncooked salsa with tortilla chips as my potluck contribution.
Several people put salsa on their hamburgers. After all, it was mostly
fresh tomatoes and onions.

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS

In article >, "A.C." > wrote:


> i love salsa! it's nice, fresh and not to heavy. i've taken to getting a
> decent jarred salsa and adding fresh minced garlic, chopped onion, jalapeno
> and cilantro with maybe a fresh lime squeezed in. it's not as good as fresh
> but will fool the average non foodie and it sparks up the taste quite
> nicely.


Reminds of an experience I had in college. My roommate and I didn't have
much money, and very little cooking experience. He bought an all-in-one
box to make spaghetti. It had the noodles, a can of sauce and a little
packet of cheese. He added all this other stuff to it to make it taste
better, just like his mom did. By the time he spent all that money and
time, he could have just made it from scratch and saved the cost of the
kit.

If you take what you have above, and substitute diced fresh tomatoes for
the jarred salsa, you'd have a wonderful made-from-scratch fresh salsa
with very little additional work. Or am I missing something?

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS

On 2005-03-02, aem > wrote:

> The big deal about salsa is simply that it's better than ketchup.

I heard a few years ago that salsa has replaced ketchup as the number
one condiment in USA.

nb

Dan Abel wrote:

>
> If you take what you have above, and substitute diced fresh tomatoes for
> the jarred salsa, you'd have a wonderful made-from-scratch fresh salsa
> with very little additional work. Or am I missing something?
>

nope, you're not missing anything. i do this when i have lots of the jarred
stuff already and i'm looking to stretch it and make it taste better. i make
fresh salsa quite a bit but sometimes i'm looking to make what i have taste
better with things i generally keep in my pantry

>Find I just can't get terribly excited about salsa. It's >tomatoes,
onions,
>peppers (some hot, some not), cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, >etc.,
etc., ad nauseum.

While your citation of cilantro is a good sign, it appears that you've
simply never had decent salsa.

Use tart tomatillos (never tomatoes, which are too sweet), scallions
(not onions), and for chrissake garlic, garlic, and more garlic.
Jalape=F1=AF=B3=A0can be used, but sneak in a ration of habaneros, too, to =
send
up the zing. And YES cilantro. Where I depart from orthodoxy is
preferring vinegar to lime/lemon juice. Don't leave it chunky--blend
it into homogeneity.

Don't waste it by dipping chips in it; use it as a condiment for roast
chicken or pork; beans and rice of course; and any stew that can't
quite make it on its own.

Neil

On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 13:09:35 -0600, "jmcquown" >
wrote:

>I just can't get terribly excited about salsa.

I like fresh salsa, and I prefer my own to premade stuff. I really love my
own guacamole, and that is basically fresh salsa with avocado smooshed into
it. It just tastes so gooood. I use it on a lot of different things, but
I really like my salsa or guacamole on nachos.

--
Siobhan Perricone
"I ain't afraid of your Yahweh
I ain't afraid of your Allah
I ain't afraid of your Jesus
I'm afraid of what ya do in the name of your god"
- Holly Near

>Do you just want the
>entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something when

>it won't change your mind?

You don't know Jill very well. *wink*

Dan Abel wrote:

> There's lots of different kinds of salsa, with different ingredients and
> different preparation methods. The stuff in bottles and cans is OK, but
> nothing like the fresh ones. The name "salsa" is because salsa is the
> Spanish word for "sauce".
>
> The nice thing about table salsas is that each person can put on exactly
> as much as they want.
>
I can take or leave most salsas at mexican
restaurants, but I love Pico de Gallo (beak of the
rooster).
Goomba

"Default User" >, if that's their real name, wrote:

>jmcquown wrote:
>
>> I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can
>> convince me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion, just the
>> same.
>
>Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
>entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something when
>it won't change your mind?

Heehee! Sometimes she's a troll, but she's OUR troll!

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_

aem wrote:
> jmcquown wrote:
> [snip]
> > I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.
> >
> The big deal about salsa is simply that it's better than ketchup.
>
> -aem


No, it's not, especially if it has cilantro in it. Yuck! The only
thing I use salsa on is on things like burritos or tortilla chips.
Most everything else gets ketchup.

>she's a troll, but she's OUR troll

And she's never browned bonesless, skinless chicken thighs and then
smothered them and baked them with a bottle of Goya Salsa Pico De
Gallo. Poor pitiful bitch! ;-)

jmcquown wrote:
> I just can't get terribly excited about salsa.

That's too bad. For me, it's a staple. I eat about a jar a week. I
LOVE it with chips, chips and cheese, veggies - just about everything.
I cook a lot of Mexican dishes, though - so it may be that I'm just
more prone to salsa addiction than most.

-L.

Mi e' parso che Dan Abel abbia scritto:

> There's lots of different kinds of salsa, with different
> ingredients and different preparation methods. The stuff
> in bottles and cans is OK, but nothing like the fresh
> ones. The name "salsa" is because salsa is the Spanish
> word for "sauce".

Also in italian. But it me took less then a minute to understand
that this thread was about the mexican one.
--
Vilco
Think Pink , Drink Rose'

"Bea Esser" >, if that's their real name, wrote:

>>she's a troll, but she's OUR troll
>
>And she's never browned bonesless, skinless chicken thighs and then
>smothered them and baked them with a bottle of Goya Salsa Pico De
>Gallo. Poor pitiful bitch! ;-)

LOL! I rarely, rarely, rarely use salsa, but when I do, it's never, never,
never an ingredient. It's always a cold dipping sauce for tortillas. So
I'm a poor pitiful bitch too. We have a club.

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_

In article .com>,
"Default User" > wrote:

> jmcquown wrote:
>
> > I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can
>> convince me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion, just
>>the same.
>
>
> Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
> entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something when
> it won't change your mind?
>
> This is one of the dumber posts I've seen.
>
Didn't sound like she wanted to be convinced. Dumb or not I enjoyed
reading the responses. I've never used salsa (store bought or home made)
but now I have some idea what its about, a couple of ideas how to use it
and a couple of recipes.

Regards,
Dave

--
Living in the Ozarks
For email, edu will do.

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth
becomes a revolutionary act. - George Orwell, (1903-1950)

Dave W. wrote:
> In article .com>,
> "Default User" > wrote:
>
>> jmcquown wrote:
>>
>>> I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can
>>> convince me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion,
>>> just the same.
>>
>>
>> Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
>> entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something
>> when it won't change your mind?
>>
>> This is one of the dumber posts I've seen.
>>
> Didn't sound like she wanted to be convinced. Dumb or not I enjoyed
> reading the responses. I've never used salsa (store bought or home
> made) but now I have some idea what its about, a couple of ideas how
> to use it and a couple of recipes.
>
> Regards,
> Dave

Thanks, Dave. I wasn't trying to be convinced. I was hoping for exactly
what *some* posters have provided - inspiration, suggestions, recipes.
Something I might like better

Jill

djs0302 wrote:

> No, it's not, especially if it has cilantro in it. Yuck! The only
> thing I use salsa on is on things like burritos or tortilla chips.
> Most everything else gets ketchup.


i see you have a discerning pallet. :P

djs0302 wrote:
> aem wrote:
> > The big deal about salsa is simply that it's better than ketchup.
>
> No, it's not, especially if it has cilantro in it. Yuck! The only
> thing I use salsa on is on things like burritos or tortilla chips.
> Most everything else gets ketchup.

Here's a quote from the wonderful "Handbook of Practical Cookery for
Ladies and Professional Cooks. Containing the Whole Science and Art of
Preparing Human Food.
By Pierre Blot. Professor of Gastronomy, and Founder of the New York
Cooking Academy.
New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1868" from the great Feeding America
website someone posted recently:

"Beware of what is sold under the name of catsups and pickles; many
cases of dyspepsia, debility, and consumption come from using such
stuff."

lol, -aem

"jmcquown" > wrote:

>I just can't get terribly excited about salsa. It's tomatoes, onions,
>peppers (some hot, some not), cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, etc., etc., ad
>nauseum. Might be a nice garnish or added to some soups.
This is a good point to throw in a recent salsa experience. Long
story short, we have a food-trade deal going with some friends. She
makes great salsa. For this year's batch, she ran short of jalepeno
peppers and her neighbor gave her a bag of Habaneros. She gave it to
me without any caveats. After trying to decide whether I really
needed to go to the hospital or not, I found out she threw the whole
batch in, seeds and all, then quadrupled the batch with non-hot stuff
to temper it - without much success, I might add. It continues to
ferment and grow hotter, but my wife makes a GREAT chicken recipe with
it - I'll have to get it from her and post it.

NO it's not. Ketchup especially heinz is far superior to any salsa. Salsa
is just a trendy food of the times until something else replaces it. Trendy
doesn't mean good, it just means eveyone is trying to be like eveyone else.

"aem" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> jmcquown wrote:
> [snip]
> > I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.
> >
> The big deal about salsa is simply that it's better than ketchup.
>
> -aem
>

It may be dumb but just look at the number of comments. So, I'd say it was
a successful post and did exactly as the poster wanted. how dumb is that!
----------------------------------------------
"Default User" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> jmcquown wrote:
>
> > I realize from a previous thread about pate and cavier, no one can
> convince
> > me to love salsa. But I'd like to read the discussion, just the
> same.
>
>
> Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
> entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something when
> it won't change your mind?
>
> This is one of the dumber posts I've seen.
>
>
>
> Brian
>

"Default User" > wrote:
>Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
>entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something when
>it won't change your mind?
>
>This is one of the dumber posts I've seen.
Wait a minute Brian. Isn't this newsgroup all about sheer
entertainment to begin with? I think so.

TheAlligator wrote:
> "Default User" > wrote:
>> Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
>> entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something
>> when it won't change your mind?
>>
>> This is one of the dumber posts I've seen.
> Wait a minute Brian. Isn't this newsgroup all about sheer
> entertainment to begin with? I think so.

Isn't Brian the one who was gonna do a "cooking show" that somehow never got
off the ground?

My question was sincere. I wasn't trying to be convinced of anything, just
curious about the brew-ha-ha over salsa. Got some nice recipes out of the
thread, some of which I may try out I still prefer a good cheese dip,
particularly a white cheese with spinach dip (recipe for which I'm still
searching) until otherwise convinced.

Jill

jmcquown wrote:
> TheAlligator wrote:
>> "Default User" > wrote:
>>> Why? If you don't like it, you don't like it. Do you just want the
>>> entertainment value of people trying to convince you of something
>>> when it won't change your mind?
>>>
>>> This is one of the dumber posts I've seen.
>> Wait a minute Brian. Isn't this newsgroup all about sheer
>> entertainment to begin with? I think so.
>
> Isn't Brian the one who was gonna do a "cooking show" that somehow
> never got off the ground?
>
> My question was sincere. I wasn't trying to be convinced of
> anything, just curious about the brew-ha-ha over salsa. Got some
> nice recipes out of the thread, some of which I may try out I
> still prefer a good cheese dip, particularly a white cheese with
> spinach dip (recipe for which I'm still searching) until otherwise
> convinced.
>
> Jill

Spinach, artichoke and crab! (in a cheese sauce, of course, because what's
a sauce without cheese?!?!?)

kili

"jmcquown" > wrote:
>My question was sincere. I wasn't trying to be convinced of anything, just
>curious about the brew-ha-ha over salsa. Got some nice recipes out of the
>thread, some of which I may try out I still prefer a good cheese dip,
>particularly a white cheese with spinach dip (recipe for which I'm still
>searching) until otherwise convinced.
>
>Jill
BTW, Jill, if you read my post above - if anyone offers you a
"habanero salsa" run as fast as you can - seriously.

No One wrote:
> NO it's not. Ketchup especially heinz is far superior to any salsa. Salsa
> is just a trendy food of the times until something else replaces it. Trendy
> doesn't mean good, it just means eveyone is trying to be like eveyone else.
>
> "aem" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>
>>jmcquown wrote:
>>[snip]
>>
>>> I just don't 'get' the big deal about salsa.
>>>
>>
>>The big deal about salsa is simply that it's better than ketchup.
>>
>>-aem
>>
>
>
>

As far as trendy, you are so totally wrong. It was over five years ago
when the sales of prepared salsas exceeded ketchup off the shelf. Add to
that the huge number of Latino households that make their own and the
number becomes staggering. I think, because of that last bit, that use
of salsa has been greater than ketchup in the US for a decade or more.

Trendy? Nah. Here to stay? You betcha! Better than ketchup? Yea mon!
Ketchup is so boring that with the sales of salsa being so high, Heinz
and the est are playing "me too; me too" by adding jalapenos and so on
to their insipid sauce to vary the flavor and they haven't come near to
what any decent salsa maker can do.


jim