Justine Larbalestier

Comments

1. lili Says:

   gross.

   that’s not a salad, it’s a… there are no words. but if there were, ‘salad’ would still not be one of them.

   and what’s “frozen whipped topping”?

   July 16th, 2007 at 8:49 AM

2. 2. Justine Says:

   I do not wish to become acquainted with “frozen whipped topping”. The horror is too great.

   The US of A is filled with many things called “salad” which are most decidely not.

   July 16th, 2007 at 8:59 AM

3. Craig Says:

   Watergate Salad is worse:

   http://www.kraftfoods.com/Recipes/SaladsSideDishes/FruitSalads/WatergateSalad.html

   Off topic: just read Magic or Madness this weekend. I love the heterosexual fashionista guy quite a bit!

   July 16th, 2007 at 9:19 AM

4. Nichole Says:

   frozen whipped topping = cool whip (yuck)

   sadly, I’ve had this before. It kinda leaves a nasty film in your mouth (because of the marshmallows?) and pieces of coconut get stuck in your throat.

   this also reminds me of a gross recipe that has cranberries and celery (yes, celery) in jello. i think it was meant for a thanksgiving side dish or something, but somehow kept popping up at other meals. yelch

   these both fall under the “nasty things i’ve put in my mouth” category.

   July 16th, 2007 at 9:24 AM

5. lisa Says:

   frozen whipped topping (Cool Whip) is a crime against humanity.

   It is lactose-free, which is important for some people but really, it’s just best to avoid it at all costs.

   July 16th, 2007 at 9:26 AM

6. Katherine Says:

   That looks really gross. My mother makes somethig she calls ambrosia but it’s pineapple, mandarin oranges, some sort of sweet cream, and a few mini marshmellows. It looks much less icky than that picture.
   The pink with little green things poking out is just…scary.

   July 16th, 2007 at 9:26 AM

7. Nichole Says:

   however, i have to admit that I’d rather eat ambrosia than something like, say… fish soup. I really do not like fish. Actually, one of the few things that i remember from my 2 years of french in college is “i hate fish.”

   also, this blog reminds me of the ambrosia in Looking for Alaska. Which form of ambrosia would you prefer?

   July 16th, 2007 at 9:28 AM

8. uneasyspirit Says:

   For what it’s worth, not all ambrosia salads are like that. My mother’s ambrosia salad was a basic citrus fruit mixture, usually including grapefruit, tossed with a little sugar to sweeten it and topped with grated coconut. (Some people add a bit of liquor, but my mother didn’t, so I don’t know what kind of liquor.) None of that frozen whipped topping crap.

   Frozen whipped topping is like a very thick whipped cream, almost sour cream thickness but with more air in it. (CoolWhip is a popular brand.) It comes in a plastic tub, like margarine, and people mostly use it like they’d use whipped cream, as a topping on pies or similar. All the ones I’ve tried have this nasty, plastic-y taste to them.

   July 16th, 2007 at 9:31 AM

9. veejane Says:

   For the record, “frozen whipped topping” is not whipped cream. It is like that stuff that they have to call “cheese food” because it is not actually cheese, or like “creme” or “kreme.”

   Cool Whip is abomination!! I don’t even know what’s in it or what it tastes like; milk products that go in the freezer must be ice cream or they must be nothing!!!

   You (or your Cuisinart) have to suffer to make whipped cream. Which is the most delicious thing in the world, lightly chilled with a bit of superfine sugar mixed in, and possibly with some fresh blueberries. (It also makes a fine frosting for cakes.)

   July 16th, 2007 at 10:14 AM

10. claire Says:

    that’s nuthin’. have you heard of waldorf salad?

    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Waldorf-Salad-II/Detail.aspx

    the main difference is that waldorf salad mixes fruit with mayonnaise. far more disgusting.

    but nobody really eats these things.

    July 16th, 2007 at 10:37 AM

11. Faith Says:

    Oh, that looks just nasty. But it also bears no resemblance to what I know as “ambrosia.” Mine is wedges of orange, tangerines, grapefruit, tossed with shredded coconut and a little orange or pineapple juice. And, if I want to kick it up a notch, I might just add some pineapple and stir some curry powder into the juice.

    July 16th, 2007 at 10:43 AM

12. Gabrielle Says:

    Oh. My. God.

    And I hate whipped cream.

    July 16th, 2007 at 10:58 AM

13. Nichole Says:

    fruit + mayonnaise???

    Who decided this was a good idea? Were they sitting around eating fruit salad and thought, “you know what this needs? a little mayo would make it perfect” double yuck

    July 16th, 2007 at 11:00 AM

14. veejane Says:

    I think actually that Waldorf salad is more a case of a bacon sandwich getting out of hand and annexing the apples. Because, at least bacon and mayonnaise are not totally alien to one another. Not that either of them matches with apples all that well.

    (Or anyway, if I were to eat bacon with apples, I’d wrap granny smith apple slices with bacon and bake them with some brown sugar, as if cooking hors d’oeuvres for the shellfish-avoidant.)

    July 16th, 2007 at 11:08 AM

15. sara z. Says:

    ambrosia salad comes in many many forms, like a shapeshifter in a horror movie. people haven’t really eaten it since 1968.

    but I will confess that i like a good Waldorf salad once every couple of years. it’s crunchy! nutty! sweet! creamy! all at once!

    July 16th, 2007 at 11:45 AM

16. Nichole Says:

    bacon wrapped around apples? hmmm…interesting. I would never have thought of that.

    I once knew someone who said that they’d eat pretty much anything if you wrapped bacon around it. like, if you wrapped bacon around a rock, they’d eat it.

    This is the same person who said that they’d eat a stick if you spread some nutella on it. I have to admit, that nutella is good stuff.

    July 16th, 2007 at 12:10 PM

17. janet Says:

    frozen whipped topping (Cool Whip) is a crime against humanity.

    It is lactose-free, which is important for some people but really, it’s just best to avoid it at all costs.

    Plus, real wihpped cream has next to no lactose anyway. Pass it on!

    July 16th, 2007 at 12:51 PM

18. Catherine Morris Says:

    Waaait a minute! People have eaten ambrosia more recently than 1968: Just come to one of my family’s Thanksgiving feasts in any year of the new century. (We always have it, and we just call it ambrosia. Not ambrosia salad.) So I gotta weigh in on the side of ambrosia: It’s deee-licious. Light and sweet and citrusy-fruity. Sorry. But it’s yummers.

    July 16th, 2007 at 1:03 PM

19. Dawn Says:

    We have something like that (minus the coconut and nuts) at every singe Thanksgiving dinner. It’s not sooo bad. I’m from a family who enjoys some weird stuff, though, so I can’t really say too much about it. Cool Whip is good stuff, especially with Jell-O. Sometimes stuff that is bad for you tastes good. i.e. McDonalds.

    July 16th, 2007 at 1:52 PM

20. jeff hotchkiss Says:

    Ambrosia salad is freaking great! I’ve never had it with colored marshmallows which may be why it looks alien in the picture, but it’s good shizz.

    July 16th, 2007 at 2:23 PM

21. El Says:

    I think of ambrosia as one of those really-easy-to-prepare-and-transport things that people bring to potlucks or wedding showers or whatever.

    I’ve only eaten it at such events, anyway. And I mostly like it. Haven’t had it in at least a decade….

    July 16th, 2007 at 2:25 PM

22. Dess Says:

    i refuse to eat wipped cream or anything of the like. its narsty. if anyone would be tempted to even think of eating that stuff after looking at that picture, theyre out of their mind!

    July 16th, 2007 at 2:42 PM

23. Addie Says:

    Oh gross!. Scar me for life why dont you

    July 16th, 2007 at 3:12 PM

24. Ally Says:

    I like that stuff. and i eat whipped cream plain on a spoon. its yummy

    July 16th, 2007 at 3:52 PM

25. Rachel Brown Says:

    didn’t your country invent marmite? or was it vegemite? just as repulsive as ambrosia with plastic cream!

    July 16th, 2007 at 5:22 PM

26. Elodie Says:

    “The US of A is filled with many things called “salad” which are most decidely not.”

    Agreed!
    My god that looked disgusting.

    July 16th, 2007 at 5:25 PM

27. janet Says:

    Define “salad.” It’s trickier than you think.

    July 16th, 2007 at 5:46 PM

28. shelly rae Says:

    Just so you know Justine, ambrosia salad is not so much a usaian thing as it is a midwestern thing. I never saw ambrosia salad on the west coast–but the abomination was foisted upon me at a potluck in Chicago. Along with many things made with jello and called salad, and things made with campbell’s soup and called casseroles.

    But then I probably wouldn’t eat witchetty grubs either.

    On the other hand I do love me some raw fishes! yum!
    Anon

    July 16th, 2007 at 5:51 PM

29. Maud Says:

    Funny, I think of ambrosia — which is even more disgusting in practice than in theory — as a Southern dish.

    My Mississippi grandmother was very fond of it, and of “frozen salad,” a little something stored in the freezer, and involving Jello, Cool Whip, nuts, and fruit.

    July 16th, 2007 at 5:58 PM

30. The Bibliophile Says:

    That’s fruit/dessert gone oh-so-wrong.

    July 16th, 2007 at 6:00 PM

31. Dawn Says:

    Shelly rae: I guess it would make sense if it’s a midwestern thing…I DO live in Kansas…

    July 16th, 2007 at 7:18 PM

32. Robert Legault Says:

    Hey, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.

    But seriously…As a number of people have noted above, 1) There are lots of variants of this, with a much more healthful version consisting mainly of citrus and coconut. 2) All this stuff with marshmallows, Cool Whip, Jell-O, etc. is more a Midwestern thing than a US thing.

    Waldorf salad, on the other hand, can be very yummy.

    July 16th, 2007 at 7:52 PM

33. Dess Says:

    oh believe me i have. i almost died. its nasty! (summer camp “try diffent foods!” day) i was scarred for life. ewwwwwwwwwwww

    July 16th, 2007 at 8:46 PM

34. jocelyn Says:

    i’ve seen it (and similar things like waldorf salad and whatnot) plenty of times here in the south. mostly in sort of pot-luck type events, though. i am not a fan.

    July 16th, 2007 at 8:57 PM

35. Rebecca Says:

    that looks like puke. eurgh. and cool whip. ugh. some people apparently like it. two of my friends got a free tub of it, and ate the whole thing plain. i dunno how they survived it, let alone why they liked it. then again, i have an aversion to creamy white food items, so i generally don’t even like regular salad.

    July 16th, 2007 at 9:23 PM

36. Maude Clare Says:

    Ambrosia salad! It’s just ambrosia and I do believe it’s a southern dish and certainly not this recipe. None of that whipped cream stuff. Yuk.

    It’s citrus fruits, coconut, and sugar.

    July 17th, 2007 at 6:48 AM

37. Donna Says:

    Not much will make me long to be back in Israel*, but that has me packing my bags already. I’m extremely thankful that, as of yet, I have never seen this particular dish in Seattle.

    *Part of a long story: I’m not particularly fond of compulsory military service. And I lived in Gaza.

    July 17th, 2007 at 7:07 PM

38. 38. Justine Says:

    Craig @ 3: Oh my Elvis! That watergate salad looks deeply horrific.

    Thanks for the kind words about Magic or Madness. Tom is a favourite of mine too.

    For those who are saying I can not scoff because I have not tried, you forget that I am married to a Texan. I have had several thanksgivings there and they always serve this thing with marshmallows and fruit that they call perfection salad or jello salad. It’s served along with all the savoury food—the turkey and the rest of it—and, well, words fail me.

    Donna: Are you saying you’d rather do military service than eat ambrosia? I think I’m on your side!

    July 17th, 2007 at 7:13 PM

39. Cameron Says:

    urrp – sorry, I just threw up in my mouth.

    July 17th, 2007 at 8:14 PM

40. Donna Says:

    No matter how against war I am, I’d definitely opt for the military service. That’s over in two years. It looks like ambrosia will stick with you (and your inevitably melted esophagus) for decades to come.

    July 17th, 2007 at 9:56 PM

41. kris Says:

    hey there justine – i hate to be the one to tell you, but ambrosia pops up in oz too… at uni in the 80s a fellow student (from dubbo) brought along a bowl of ambrosia to a party… i have never tasted anything quite so appalling!

    July 19th, 2007 at 1:14 AM

42. ina Says:

    i agree with jeff. ambrosia is really good, and it usually doesnt look like that. i think its an island thing (with the pineapples and coconut), and usually consists of pineapple, coconut, marshmallows, and whipped cream. also, whipped cream is the bomb!

    frozen whipped topping is whipped cream.. it doesnt have to be the coolwhip kind. its basically just heavy cream mixed quickly so air gets into it and makes it all fluffy (like shaving cream).

    July 19th, 2007 at 5:04 PM

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