Food For Thought - The Devil's Picnic

March 15th, 2006: This week on Food For Thought I featured an interview with Taras Grescoe, author of 'The Devil's Picnic - Around the World in Pursuit of Forbidden Fruit'. Follow the link to purchase this book at amazon.ca and save 34% off the cover price.  Click Here to listen to this week's program. However, you can win one of 3 copies of the book courtesy of Harper Collins Canada. Scroll down to the comments box and tell me about the strangest food you've ever eaten.  For me it was live, tiny fish doused in soy sauce that were purchased at the seafood market in Tokyo.  For Taras Grescoe, one of the strangest foods he managed to choke down when doing research for his book was deep-fried lamb intestines. They get wrapped around a grape vine before they are deep-fried and are served with a wedge of lemon.  Taras was also seeking to sample a serving of criadillas, or bull testicles.  He had a tough time finding them in a restaurant, although did spot them at a market stall.

Hats off to Taras for being bold!

Now, if you are determined to know everything there is about strange foods and forbidden foods, I have two other books to recommend as well as the Devil's Picnic.  One has a similar name:  In The Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food.   Follow the link to order the book from Amazon.ca and save 24% off the cover price.  Another book that I've had in my collection for quite some time is Jerry Hopkins' Strange Foods:  Bush Meat, Bats, and Butterflies, an epicurean adventure around the world.

This one was published in 1999, so you might have a hard time tracking it down in a bookstore.  That's right, click on the link above to find it at Amazon.ca.

Looking forward to reading your entries to the contest, which closes on Friday, March 31st.

Photo credits:  Lamb intestines and Criadillas, Taras Grescoe.

Photo of Taras Grescoe: Rene De Carufel

Comments

[Roberta Miller]

One of he stangest thing I have ever eaten was 'dancing shrimp'in Japan. The chef would take a live shrimp and chop off its head and gut it so fast the thing was still 'dancing' when it got to your plate. You are supposed to down them fast and let them tickle your throat. Both my mother and I opted for the dance to be over before eating ours!

[ML Storey]

I was in Athens,Greece in the early 70's and because of the olive oil, the street chip shops produced a fanastic french fry. At one of these small shops my friends and I, along with the chips, ordered a roasted chicken from the rotissary in the corner. It wasn't until it was on the plate and an eye was noticed was it realized that we had ordered a roasted lamb's head. After the shock, I have no memory if anything was eaten.

[Laura-Lee Walker]

Forbidden Fruit... now you are speaking my language Don ;---) I've tried a wide range of weird and wonderful cuisine... sometimes willingly and other times unexpectedly.

While in Cambodia I sampled some 'partially incubated Duck Embryo'. The duck egg is left to incubate long enough for it to develop into a recognizable little bird. It was served steamed with pepper (as in the spice) and vinegar sauce. The top of the egg was chopped off and I ate the little morsel with a spoon. The verdict... it tastes very similar to a regular hen egg but with added texture (some soft cartilage and slightly furry bits). I recently discovered several Asian grocery stores in Vancouver that carry this delicacy proported to make men 'stronger'.

Happy Eating!

Laura-Lee

[Donimo]

In Oaxaca City in Mexico while you're dining in the open air zocolo, women with large shallow baskets walk around to the restaurants and offer you three sizes of chapulinas - crickets caught in the alfalfa fields which are then boiled, deep fried and rolled in lime and chili powder. They come through this process completely intact. The little ones are about 1.5 cm and the grandes are at least 5 cm's. I found it easier to eat the small ones, but did eat several of the big ones, great, big red chili eyes and danglng legs and all. They are kind of crispy when small, but the big ones seem to retain some of the oil in their thoraxes. Crunch, squish.

[Rob Ronconi]

Strangest food contest:
While in Peru I convinced my girlfriend to go for a nice dinner of guinea pig. She reluctantly agreed. Though guinea pig isn't a strange food in some South American countries, in fact it's a delicacy in Peru, it was a strange food for two previous childhood owners of guinea pigs. The guinea pig was served on a platter splayed out with all limbs and head in tact. She/he was even decorated with vegetables: a baby tomato in the mouth and a little top-hat constructed of carrot and cucumber. The most memorable part of the meal was captured on photos just before digging in: myself with a devilish grin and Sarah about to break into tears.

Though tasty, we somewhat agreed to never have it again, but your comment to always try something twice has made me curious for a second taste.

Thanks, Rob

[Max Thaysen]

I was at a survival skills retreat a couple of years ago just North of Duncan, on the Island. There was one workshop called human original nutrition and the instructor had basically addopted the diet of a Neanderthal.
After having found and skinned and gutted a freshly road-killed deer -- he prepared our buffet. Raw heart, raw eyeball, raw tongue, raw cheek, raw liver, and raw deer brain straight from the sawn-open skull. Sraight out of the skull after everything else has been hacked and the remnants of his tongue are hanging out of his lipless mouth!
Apparently the brain is very good for you -- super omega 3s among other stuff. It felt like cold slightly lumpy butter in your mouth. The flavour wasn't strong, perhaps something close to unsalted butter. I got it down, but I wouldn't be excitied to try it again.
Thanks Don, interesting show.

[Roberta Miller]

I don't know if this counts because I didn't eat it, but my friends did. While we were in Jakarta they all went to a Chinese restaurant and had DEER'S PENIS! They said it was not at all pleasant - very rubbery and hard to chew, let alone swallow. Oddly enough they all came down with some strange throat ailment the next day. Naturally, we named it 'the deers' revenge'!

[Dave Scott]

Hello Don, Your story about bulls testicles put me in mind of something similar from the sheep farms in South Africa, but I'd not tried that delicacy. Then I remembered the white ants (termites).
While walking through coastal bush country with some forestry colleagues in South Africa, we came across an upturned termite colony. The termites were busily trying to put things to rights (moving eggs and closing up their home, etc.). One of our party, something of a bush man, remarked that some of the termites were of the sort or stage that were good for eating. So I asked for more information, & finally, contrary to my normally conservative eating habits, nabbed a few and nibbled on them. They were, as I'd been told, pretty good eating, having a pleasant nutty flavour.

You might want to censor this addendum. I've not seen this personally, but my university roommate in South Africa was from a sheep farm & swore this was the plain, unadornred truth. When it comes time to castrate the young rams, you can do it the modern "arms length" way, by putting a elastic band around the top of the scrotum to cut off the blood supply. But the method of choice of old farm hands (who have grown up on sheep farms and learnt the work from their fathers) is to make a quick incision in the scrotum with a special, sharp knife, scoop the testicles out with their teeth and then eat them (with great relish I'm told).
I understood that this was done because they enjoyed the taste, but I suppose it could have been something to do with bravado or supposed "strengthening" properties. Eating sheeps head stew (which I have had) and offal are also much cherished dishes on these farms.

[M. Dirk]

The most interesting dining experience I have had occurred on a four month sojourn to the Caribbean.

On the island of St. Lucia, a restaurant just outside of Castries advertised a meal the locals would eat.

Intrigued, I made reservations and showed up for the early sitting.

Very open to new taste experiences, but somewhat uncertain as to what would be served, I found the beverages, salad, and soup all palatable, no challenge to try.

However, the entree was a bit more difficult to sample. It was roast paca, (I think it was called) the local species of the guinea pig. I got either the fore- or the hind-leg, I am not certain. All I know was that it was replete with the paw and some fur. Between the former and the latter, I grasped it delicately and nibbled the meat off the bone. Yummy! Tasted like chicken, just like everyone says when they eat something exotic.

[Alice Jeffery]

When I was little, I was an extremely picky eater- taking me out to a restaurant was a true test of inguity and patience.

My parents, on the other hand, have always been adventurous eaters and they were pleased when a Chinese co-worker of my father offered to take our Scottish family to a very authentic Chinese food restaurant in Vancouver.

Of coures, nothing on the menu appealed to me...except the tempting offer of the traditional treat of a 100-year-old-egg. I remember the adults smirking as it was placed on my dish. I dug in, and loved it. All the way home in the car, I raved about the egg. I was so pleased and proud to have eaten something off the real menu (not just out of the bread basket).

It wasn't until years later that I learned how 100-year-old-eggs are made. I haven't had one since.

[Danea Avey]

Several years ago I was dating a Chinese-Canadian. We were always going out to eat a restaurants in Richmond and China town. We had been to a nightclub in downtown Vancouver and were hungry afterwards. As we were walking along we ran into some of his friends in a restaurant. They had already ordered and offered a seat to us to join them. As the only non-Chinese speaking person in the group, not to mention the only non Chinese person in the restaurant, I think they wanted to test my mettle. They wanted me to sample all of these items which I willingly did. I remember liking everything but that one dish was rather strange. I was told afterwards that is was fish stomach. Not sure I would want to try that one again, nor would I even know what to ask for if I did.

[Josee]

I have had a few interesting experiences in some Vancouver restaurants: sea urchins at a sushi bar, cactus "leaves" at a mexican restaurant, and alligator at the Louisiana Bistro... Not overtly strange yet, but it is a beginning!

[Herb Srolovitz]

It was during a cycling trip in Mongolia that, while on route, we visited a specialty restaurant in Shanghai. The courses consisted of chunky turtle soup, braised slabs of horse muscle and generous pieces of softened camel hoof. The hoof was like a chewy mass of pale opaque overripe Jello laced with fine grains of desert sand. While the smiling restaurant owner stood over us, we energized our jaw muscles and swallowed our hoof and our pride.

[Don Cavers]

Throughtout my life I have been fortunate enough to travel extensively. Sometimes communication can become quite a trial, especially in the written form of a new language. In lou of this shortcoming I developed a technique where I simply pointed at one of the dishes listed on the menu and gobbled up whatever was placed before me.
Usually this was quite an effective technique, however at times the dishes brought were somewhat.... questionable.
The most prominent dish in my mind was not in the least bit questionable, in fact it was one of the most distinguishable things I've ever eaten, or tried to eat.
One evening as I pointed to my dinner the waiter signalled to me as if to say, 'You're sure?'. I nodded and away he went only to return with a steamed goats head on a platter of rice whose still intact eyes stared into my own.
The person at the table next to me was more than happy to finish what I had started, starting with the eyes.
My point-at-the menu policy has also gotten me fried pigs ears with extra hair, but the goats head is still number one on the list of strange dinners placed before me.
Now I wonder how strange our food would seem to others.

[Charles Pepin]

Hi, heard your program this morning on Morning North with Marcus Schwabi.

Upon preparation for my first ever Moose hunt (just outside of Wawa Ontario) I was doing research on various hunting relateed topics. Upon reading about post-harvest carcass preperation I found reference to a specialty called "animeles". These were said to be a favorite of all moose hunters and best served fresh with fried onions. Well I found this reference in three different books but still could not figure out what they were. Being trained in anatomy this had me intrigued but was quickly forgotten in the miriad of preparations for the trip.

When we finally got out and had a succesful hunt I remembered to ask my experienced freind. He smiled and said he would be more than happy to serve them up to me.

Well if you haven't guessed yet, let me tell you......Animeles are of course moose testicles.

they were an interesting delicacy and I am not sure if I will ever partake in these again.

Charles

[Shirley Choo]

The Strangest Thing I Ever Ate

In 1985, my husband and I stayed in a very nice hotel in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. We arrived just before lunch and when they showed us the buffet, I was determined to have a little taste of everything. As I tasted this and that, I turned to my husband and said "These little meatballs sure are crunchy." He looked at me with a little smile and said "Those are not meatballs, they are baby birds. Take a look." Sure enough, on closer inspection, they were teeny, deep fried baby birds. This is a story I like to tell when people turn their noses up a food they don't like the looks of.

[louisa Stanford]

In the late 50s while visiting some old friends of my husband's we were served snacks in the form of fried baby bees and chocolate coated ants. The bees were actually "invented " by the agriculture department in Alberta to make use of the bees which were destroyed every year because it was too expensive to over-winter them. They were trying to make better use of them and augment the bee-keepers income. They actually tasted very good. The Department tried various recipes out on volunteer staff. I don't know where the ants came from. That was a memorable year sa we were in a train wreck on the way home to Vancouver.

[dcclarke]

This happened over 10 yrs.ago while visiting with an extended Tibetan family, residing in Nepal.
The morning was spent watching the lady of one family as she folded and unfolded amazing carpets in front of us.
She then disappeared to return with salty, buttery tea and something called MOMOs. They are tiny meatballs, presumably goat and they were slimy and a horrible texture. I can eat almost anything but these really were the worst thing I have ever eaten.
The salvation was the wonderful tea and I hope in retrospect that my face did not reflect my response to the gracious gesture.

[S.Stephen]

My father raised his daughters to always try a little bit of everything. He took your philosophy of trying things twice even further, we were to keep trying foods until we no longer found them distasteful.
So I was well prepared when I went to Thailand as a exchange student to give the new cuisine a fair try. The strangest thing I can recall eating was pig's brains. They had been prepared as a very heavily spiced fritter type dish. I can't say that I enjoyed it, but I also feel like I didn't really dislike pigs brains, as much as I just didn't care for the spiciness of the meal. Prepared a different way I probably wouldn't recognize that I was eating the same food.

[John Legault]

When we worked in the Arctic, there were many opportunities at which we were feted to some of the local traditional foods like raw caribou and fish (no big deal there), fresh ptarmigan intestine still with labrador tea berries newly mulched, and of course muktuk - whale blubber. But the strangest (well one of the strangest) was when we were treated to fresh clam siphons straight from a walrus stomach...mmmmmm A group of hunters, straight from a hunt, brought this stomach to our camp. The stomach which was the size of a large black garbage sack, was packed fulled with the flesh of clam siphons and some bodies dug out of the bottom of the ocean.

They were actually sweet and slightly pre-digested - quite good actually and no shells. Make sure you wash off the green slime. Do not garnish with anything. They were much better this way than when when we later cooked them in a clam chowder. They were also actually better than raw oysters. Aaahhh ... memories.

[CAROL ANN WESTBROOK]

The strangest food I ever ate was Kangaroo Tail Soup...and there were actually tail bones in the can!

[Lori Byrd]

I've never eaten anything strange, but it's interesting reading all the things people have actually eaten.

[Janice Cournoyer]

I tried cricket dip once...YUK

[Loleeta Turner]

pigs feet

[Mary Hietkamp]

I ate wild rabbit that was cooked over an open fire.