Cooking For Engineers

[NGT826]

Introducing Rachael Ray Recipes on the Run- a new wireless application allowing AT&T subscribers to download “Yum-O” recipes from “sammies” to “stoup” directly to their wireless phone!
To find out more about this exclusive offer, check out http://www.att.com/recipesontherun

[Guest]

I can't figure out if this message is a public servic announcement from a reader of Cooking for Engineers that is porly worded so it sounds like advertising copy (aka spammy) or if it is real spam... It seem relevant, but sounds so much like spam

[Thor]

If it looks like a duck. . . . .

Of course, a little pan fried spam with some mustard, tator tots, and baked beans would be quite yum-o.

They've updated their website:

http://spam.com

[Ishbel]

Well, I vaguely know what Spam is (thanks, Monty Python!) - but tator tots?

[LAN3]

Tater Tots... how to explain them...

Well, Tater is shorthand for Potato, especially in the south. Tater Tots are these bite-sized cylinders of shredded potato. They're tricky to make without machinery, I once discovered, so unless otherwise indicated, they're a manufactured product. Figure a cylinder that's oh, 2.5cm tall, 2 cm in diameter (perhaps less). It is fried on the surface (yeah probably deep-fried) until golden-brown, and then baked to cook through, so it'll have a crispy outside and an inside like baked potato. When hot, they're good enough with salt and pepper, but are also good with virtually anything that French Fries are good with, especially spice-wize.

There are also such things as tater-tot casseroles, which use tots as the bulk starch. But in general they're a side dish, sometimes reserved for kids. (But that's wrong, because they're good!) They make excellent bar food.

[Thor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tater_Tots

[Ishbel]

Ahhhhh.... I remember an American friend explaining them to me... I obviously managed to wipe the description from my memory banks!
Thank you both.