Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Juevos

It's no secret I have some odd eating habits, but odder still are the people who "discover" some new food item. Perhaps these people were simply hungry and willing to try anything.

Take eggs for example. I can't imagine what was going through the dudes head that ate the first one, but I bet the conversation went something like this.

"Hey Frank! See that thing that just fell out of your chicken's arse. What do you think the goo inside that would taste like?"
"Beats the hell outta me Joe."
"Well, I think I'll break one of them open and find out."

And while I know enough about animals to understand the benefits a rancher gains by castrating his cattle I will never understand the working behind the cowboy who first thought ... Man that bucket full of severed balls sure looks tasty.

Oysters? Come on no one in their sober mind would say that snot-like gel inside that shell has to be good to eat. After all they they filter fish crap from the bottom of the sea. How could they not be scrum-dili-umptious?

Speaking of sober, think about the dude who discovered booze. He had to be thirsty when he said, "Look those grapes have rotted and turned into mush. Let's slurp some up." Of course after he did it's no wonder he decided to start letting corn, hops and barley ferment as well.

Nope, this post doesn't have a real point. Carry on with your day, but before you go drop me a comment and point out some food item that makes you scratch your head.

For the record, I'm fine with eating deep fried calf testicles and washing them down with a beer or other adult beverage but you can keep the ocean filters and chicken droppings for yourself.

44 comments:

jjdebenedictis said...

Milk.

I mean, think about it. Eurgh.

jjdebenedictis said...

And cheese is even worse.

Laura K. Curtis said...

Asian fish sauce. I mean, seriously..."let's let this fish rot, then press it out so all the solids are gone and we'll use the rotten liquid to cook with."

Or various things that have to be cooked or else they might be poisonous.

Debra Lynn Shelton said...

Sorry I didn't get back to you about the agent story. I was waiting to see how it played out. Please check out my blog so you'll know.

BTW: This post makes me glad I'm a vegetarian who doesn't drink. ;-)

Debbie Barr said...

Or smoking? "Let's take this plant, roll it up into a tube, and LIGHT IT ON FIRE AND STICK IT IN OUR MOUTHS."

Sounds pretty stupid to me.

G. B. Miller said...

Ewww....(the fried testicles that is).

Sushi.

I mean think about it.

As for milk, while I may not like the taste of it, if you don't think about the fact that it's made out of green grass and what not, it really isn't all that bad.

PurestGreen said...

I once watched my grandmother eat stir fried moose brains. Yummy. Now I live in Scotland, home of haggis. Which actually is quite yummy - you just have to steel yourself against the IDEA of haggis.

erica m. chapman said...

Funny. I've never really thought about it that way, but yeah, it is pretty gross! LOL

Lana Gramlich said...

We made yogurt in biology class in high school. I haven't eaten yogurt since.

Dancing With Fey said...

And here I was, enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate, and then I read this post! lol

Haggis is pretty weird. I only came across it after becoming vegetarian, though, so I haven't tried it.

What I really love are the t-shirts saying "Haggis Hurling Champ".

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Ha, I never thought about eggs that way. I know most things are eaten out of necessity and availability, but tripe is something I just cannot understand. WHY would you eat the gunk from inside an animal's intestines? Why?

Dancing With Fey said...

Oh yes -- sausage.

Wait, is that the same thing as tripe...?

J.C. Montgomery said...

I lived where they grew brussel sprouts and artichokes.

Now brussel sprouts I can kind of understand. They look like little cabbages and well, taste worse. But to each his own. I really can't throw stones, I love cole slaw.

But for the life of me, I cannot figure out how someone thought a thistle plant on steroids would make good eats.

Which it does. Especially with a garlic aioli.

As for all the other stuff, I must be part goat because the only items I've ever turned down are: brains, eyes, and sea urchin.

As for everything else, even insects (locust are quite tasty really), is fine with me.

You know that guy on the food channel that travels the world eating God knows what? I love him. He makes me feel almost normal.

Being Beth said...

WEll, bugs of any kind -- I'd have to be starving before I'd put one in my mouth. The one thing I can't stand to eat is catfish. It lives at the bottom of lakes, eating the sludge on the bottom, eats blood bate off hooks...you are what you eat, ya know? Yuck!!!

Lyn said...

Everything everyone has listed, plus one more:
honey.
Ewww.

And one more, more: Okra.

Honey is disgusting: bee poop?
Okra is just yucky, yucky, yucky.

GG said...

I often wondered how monkeys know how to peel a banana. If I were a wild animal, I'd just eat the whole thing with the peel.

David Cranmer said...

Yeah, that was a very sad cowboy with that first thought.

debra said...

years ago, my brother-in-law had a job that required his traveling to factories around the country. He used to go to a factory in the south and became friendly with some of the guys there. One guy invited him to dinner, promising they would have them some rooster dainties. they are just what you think they are...

Cloudia said...

Come to Honolulu, Trav.
We got stuff in the Chinatown markets that I don't WANNA figure out, LOL!



Aloha, Friend!


Comfort Spiral

Jon said...

I often wonder about those gourds... who the hell thought such an ugly looking thing would taste so good with butter and pepper?

Patti said...

calf fries and cold beer. check and check. maybe it's a texas thang...

Debra She Who Seeks said...

And to the list I add . . . snails (escargot if you're feeling fancy) and frogs' legs. How hungry was the first French guy to try those?

Dancing With Fey said...

Oh yeah -- and what about fish eggs?

the walking man said...

Vegemite.

Charles Gramlich said...

I often find my mind wandering in these same directions. I can only guess that desparate hunger forced humans to many of these choices.

Melissa Amateis said...

Never thought about the egg thing before, but you're right. Who thought of it?

My ex used to drink pickle juice all the time. *gag* And come to think of it, who thought that putting cucumbers in brine was a good idea?

Angie said...

Cheese, definitely. "Hey, the milk spoiled." "Well, let's let it spoil more and then eat it!"

Acorns -- you have to soak them for like a month to get all the tannic acid out before they're even vaguely edible. Who tried that?

Lyn -- technically, honey is bee barf, not poop. Not that barf is that much better than poop, but, you know, just to be accurate. :D

Angie

Colleen said...

I think, if I remember correctly, that fermented beverages were served because our forebears shat where they drank and got sick so they had to create something to drink that wouldn't kill them.

Another thing to add to the list: kidneys... yucky urine filters. And if they aren't boiled before they are fried it smells just exactly like what you'd think they'd smell like. So gross.

Oh, and beef tongue. And blood pudding.

(Yes, I'm from a farm.)

Dancing With Fey said...

How about pig ears.

When I was young my mom bought some that were in a bag, and cooked up so that they were like chips. I thought it was weird then, and I still think so now.

Elizabeth Bradley said...

Sea urchin. Disgusting, my husband eats it raw. I'm gagging...

DrillerAA09 said...

I still have NO use for oysters...mountain or sea!!! Just sayin'

Anonymous said...

I live in the south of France where no frogs are safe from becoming amputees and snails keep their whereabouts discreet.

your other wife said...

How about Kiwi who decided something that looks like a hairy testicle should be cut open and eaten!!!!

mielikki said...

Snails. I want to know who in their RIGHT mind decided that those things would be something good.
Oh yeah.
The French.
never mind...

Mary Witzl said...

Shiokara. Which is salted, fermented fish guts. Tastes great, but you really have to wonder at the person who discovered it. A total hero in my book, but obviously crazy for risks.

I loooove oysters! They look like hell, but they are just so delicious.

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G. B. Miller said...

I just thought of another gross food product that I actually like.

Real pork skins.

Not the psuedo stuff you find in the supermarket, but the honest-to-goodness stuff straight from teh meat factory.

We got a place locally that makes the best natural meat products (including pork skins) around.

Unfortunately, it also makes scrapple.

Barrie said...

Liver. Kidney. Double yuck.

Bernita said...

Pigs feet.
I mean, I've seen stys.

JM said...

I am with you..I wonder how some food items got discovered. I still wonder why people think caviar is tasty.

colbymarshall said...

Personally, I like to think of myself as being on an all-pasta diet. I think I'd mainline the stuff if I could.

But yes, I wonder who first thought of the idea to eat caviar. Erm...no?

Danette Haworth said...

Calmari.

But look at this:
http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/Redneck_Calamari_Dinner.jpg

Shauna Roberts said...

Chicken feet in China.

Sausage in general and scrapple in particular.

Junosmom said...

My daughter says "octopus" which she had in Japan.

I will NOT eat any filter of any kind, but I can actually think of something worse - "chitlins" - or chitterlings. Made from the intestines of pigs, I assumed they were fried. My mom says anything, even shoe leather, would be good fried, though I've not tried it and it doesn't speak well for my mom's cooking. However, I recently saw an old woman who said she was going to cook up a pot of chitlins for her visiting relatives. Fried, I asked? No, borrled. (boiled). Imagine, a big pot of limp, boiled pig intestines. Yummy.

I suppose that yucky foods are a result of culture, what was available to that culture and a result of being either too poor or too rich (hummingbird tongues). And I also suppose that in this time, we are exposed to much less yucky foods than in times past.