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Chom-chom-crunch — oh, hi.
Sorry I’ve been scarce lately. Brad probably has a good excuse, but I’ve been poking around the foodblog circuit.
Anthony Georgeff’s in-progress cassoulet
Did this thing last night with okra pods in a pakora-wakame batter. 1 cup chickpea flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 3 tbsp powdered wakame (whizzed in a miniature kitchen whizzer like you grind coffee in), some quantity of water until the batter is good for dredging. Coat a pound of okra pods, fry in a light, high-temperature oil, strew with sea salt.
Yes, but you wouldn’t be all yawning if you had some, because it was really good.
Check out this thread at eGullet on The Wackiest Food [That People] Have Ever Eaten.
I’ll start the bidding with deep fried scorpions. (Served as a starter before duck in a restaurant in Beijing.)
Good place to start the bidding, yes?
Not to get into that confessional mode that I sometimes get into, but I’d actually wondered about scorpions, because in South America, there are tribes who cook tarantulas, and they’re supposed to taste a lot like crab. And of course scorpions are distributed worldwide, with some species definitely in the size-range where they’d be worth eating. But you wonder: the venom? It turns out that the venom is produced in the tip of the tail, in the bulge before the sting, leaving the rest of the scorpion totally edible.
Also, these guys are constantly one step ahead. P. Zizzy at Pharyngula has been squidding up the joint lately with a bunch of great posts on Architeuthis and Humboldt squid, etc.; and I’m saying right now that if I had my old blog up, I could link to some squiddy squidness that would overwhelmingly squid the frickin’ squid around here. We’re talking Vampyroteuthis infernalis and beyond, me hearties. That species totally illustrates the famous epigram, by somebody, of a cephalopod looking like ‘a bagpipe with the eyes of a bored Shakespearean actor.’
They’re all so fascinating and delicious-looking!
Add a pic of some kind of thing with skinheads with bad teeth in Saabs, and I become superfluous as a person.
[Am actually hella busy myself, real-lifewise. Bizy backson. ]
Yosef said,
September 28, 2005 at 22:05
What’s an okra pod? Is it the same thing as okra?
Gavin M. said,
September 28, 2005 at 22:19
Yeah, same-exact. I just updated and added a 3Bulls link, btw.
Yosef said,
September 28, 2005 at 22:26
Sweet!
Love the okra. Your dish sounds tasty!
D. Sidhe said,
September 28, 2005 at 22:35
I don’t think anybody actually eats vampire squid. They’re pretty rare. And I *know* nobody eats giant squid, because it tastes like ammonia. I was surprised recently to discover that there’s a newly huge market for hagfish–but it’s for their skins, not their meat. Apparently they make wallets and stuff out of them.
On the other hand, I’ll see your fried scorpion and raise you fried sea cucumber, and grilled geoduck. My partner ate whale once, in Japan. Believe me, I’d have been happier not knowing that, too. And I admit with shame that I’ve eaten octopus. But only once.
Yosef said,
September 28, 2005 at 22:43
Yeah, the octopus is nasty.
I’ll see your fried scorpion and raise you Cow Stomach. Yes, that age old delicacy that some people call “Tripe” is still around and as disgusting as ever.
Dan Someone said,
September 28, 2005 at 23:13
I’ll see all of those and raise you sea urchin creme brulee. I shit you not, it was a standard creme brulee custard, but instead of vanilla, or chocolate, or any other typical dessert flavoring, it was flavored with sea urchin. Talk about a cognitive dissonance — my mouth was saying “Hmm, this feels like a desserty custard thing,” but my taste buds were all “No way, dude! This thing is seafood! WTF?”
Actually, it wasn’t bad.
Dan Someone said,
September 28, 2005 at 23:14
(Side note for those of you in the Chicago area: the sea urchin creme brulee was part of a tasting menu at the kitchen table at Tru. Highly recommended, the next time you have $300 per person to drop on dinner. Ah, the good old days when I was overpaid…)
Gavin M. said,
September 28, 2005 at 23:29
Well, you can kind of see it in the planning stage: Sea urchin roe ought to taste sort of like chestnuts.
Was it really vile?
Pinko Punko said,
September 28, 2005 at 23:38
I JUST THREW UP A LITTLE BIT IN MY MOUTH.
res publica said,
September 28, 2005 at 23:52
The sea urchin custard sounds great, because I love the flavor of sea urchin, but find it to have the consistency and appearance of baby-poo, to which I am averse.
Gavin M. said,
September 29, 2005 at 0:09
Uni ice cream makes you throw up in your mouth, but:
http://3bulls.blogspot.com/2005/09/thank-you-bacon-jesus.html
The bacon strips…?
D. Sidhe said,
September 29, 2005 at 0:47
Well, if we want to get into it, there’s always haggis or cold jellyfish. You know how, sometimes, you’re at a fairly classy Chinese restaurant, and on the menu, they’re offering cold shredded jellyfish as an appetizer? Don’t order it. Because if you do, you’re going to have to eat at least some of it.
a cephalopod looking like ‘a bagpipe with the eyes of a bored Shakespearean actor.’
That reminds me of the old joke about the octopus who could play any instrument:
“Play her? Mister, if I can figure out how to get her pajamas off, I’m gonna fuck her!”
Pinko Punko said,
September 29, 2005 at 1:49
Funny story, Gavin, I was trying to explain that to Geenie Cola, and instead of getting the image of bacon band-aids, she thought they wre band-aids made out of bacon. Now that would be AWESOME!
tg said,
September 29, 2005 at 2:42
This haggis … is making me THIRSTY!
Boston down 7-1 (4), White Sox up 4-1 (6), NY tied 1-1 (6), Tribe 0-0 (7). Must wake up bats. I call on Jobu. If you no come now, I say fuck you, Jobu. I do it myself.
jexter said,
September 29, 2005 at 3:53
Gavin, you know I’m no alarmist, but cephalopods are not only extremely intelligent, but are also cunning and ruthless killers! It’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to live on dry land, and then life as we know it will be over. I beg you, delete this post NOW, and then get what will be our only defense here.
Save yourself!
jexter said,
September 29, 2005 at 4:01
Ummm, or maybe here?
anthony said,
September 29, 2005 at 4:16
As a long time lurker, I’m honoured. Dinner invitation extended.
Like the idea for the batter. Okra is also nice just steamed with some katsuboshi and soy.
Oh and sea urchin roe, apparently - middle aged Japanese man makes raises clenched forearm as if to resemble a penis.
Aquagirl said,
September 29, 2005 at 4:19
Oddly enough, the weirdest thing I ever ate WAS a squid eye. Completely by accident. I recommend sticking to the part that looks like the bagpipe.
teh l4m3 said,
September 29, 2005 at 4:36
I’ve eaten raw horse meat. Some evil guy tricked me into thinking it was some sort of remote mountain delicacy. I was 17? What did I know?
teh l4m3 said,
September 29, 2005 at 4:37
Oh, that was in Japan, btw. And strike the second to last question mark.
(Self-nailed? Sure!)
GregH said,
September 29, 2005 at 4:53
Anybody ever watch the old Lonely Planet TV show with Ian and Justine? Ian’s thing was to eat the strangest food that he could find willingly and with good humor.
The grossest thing I remember him ingesting was a street side cocktail of snake blood (the snake was bled into the tumbler) and everclear. That show was in Korea I believe.
GuinnessGuy said,
September 29, 2005 at 5:51
I see your disgusting dishes and raise you a lutefisk!
For those of you who are unititiated into that which is Norweigen cuisine, allow the quarter Norse me to explain precisely what it is: air dried cod fish soaked in lye until gray and a chemical residue therein not unlike rat poison (not joking- if it isn’t soaked for 4-6 days after the luteing process, it will kill you).
Garrison Keillor put it best:
“Every advent we entered the purgatory of lutefisk, a repulsive gelatinous fishlike dish that tasted of soap and gave off an odor that would gag a goat. We did this in honor of Norwegian ancestors, much as if survivors of a famine might celebrate their deliverance by feasting on elm bark. I always felt the cold creeps as advent approached, knowing that this dread delicacy would be put before me and I?d be told, “Just have a little.” Eating a little was like vomiting a little, just as bad as a lot.”
I watched my grandpa eat two in one sitting. I about threw up from the smell.
It was worse than watching my mother’s entire family eat corned beef and cabbage (which is no prize on the smell chart either).
Glad you’re back, Gavin- we’ve been fighting Marie several comment threads below… it’s no fun when you guys don’t make the occational comment.
D. Sidhe said,
September 29, 2005 at 6:10
Believe it or not, you can acquire a taste for lutefisk. Crazy people say the same thing about geoduck, though.
And, I have that shirt. I also have “The Future Is Wild” on DVD, which posits both gigantic forest-dwelling land squid and tiny air-breathing sentient aboreal squid some 200 million years into our future. It was all kind of ceph-centered, but I didn’t mind, ’cause so am I. I mentioned the little silver octopus necklace my partner got me for my birthday, right?
(You people ought to know by now that it’s not safe to discuss cephalopods around me. I’ll hijack any such thread.)
D. Sidhe said,
September 29, 2005 at 6:13
Oh! And let us not forget durian, which smells, to put it politely, like a slovenly photographer’s darkroom. And tastes sort of like onion ice cream. Though to find that out, you have to get past the smell, and I don’t advise trying very hard.
GuinnessGuy said,
September 29, 2005 at 7:17
“Believe it or not, you can acquire a taste for lutefisk. Crazy people say the same thing about geoduck, though.”
I know… Like I said, my grandpa loves the stuff :shudder:
GuinnessGuy said,
September 29, 2005 at 7:18
Don’t I know it- My grandpa loves the stuff (like I mentioned earlier.
GuinnessGuy said,
September 29, 2005 at 7:19
Dammit- Self nailed once more.
Goddamn not showing up after switching comment threads back and forth!
Rowan Berkeley said,
September 29, 2005 at 7:27
um, what is wrong with that photo? (hint: the ears)
Ted said,
September 29, 2005 at 7:47
As usual Yosef is a big weenie…Stomach, what not even rocky mountain oysters? Anyway here we go:
Sea cucumber in brown sauce (gelatanous, fishy, and oddly impervious to chewing. You can only swallow and chase with a lot of beer)
A 7 1/2 pound cobra served boiled with a glass of cobra blood and the gall bladder in a glass of booze. (it does not taste like chicken)
Jellied ocean worm.
A sea snail the size of your fist served on a plate of burning salt. (which was kind of good)
Pig tail and peppers (really tasty. I’d get that again)
sweet eel sushi (not that exotic, but nasty)
olives pickled in shredded ginger
And the absolute worst tasting - onion flavored sugar cookies.
Marq said,
September 29, 2005 at 8:18
This isn’t anything I’ve actually eaten (no snide comments, Brad), but something I saw in an old National Geographic documentary that kinda gave me the willies. It was set in Africa, where many people eat various types of invertebrates. Anyway, members of this one tribe were fond of these enormous caterpillars-about seven inches long. They’d skewer them like kabobs and roast them over some charcoal. Then they’d pop an end off and ssssllluuuuuurrrrpppp. It was incredibly vile.
Marq said,
September 29, 2005 at 8:32
Well, since D. Sidhe is falling down on her cephelophile duties, Rowan, a few facts about the “cute” vampire squid. Those “ears” are certainly not ears, but odd, fleshy protuberances that undulate unsettlingly. On the inside of its tentacles, rather than having normal suckers, the vampire squid has nasty, thorn-like hooks, which, presumably it uses to snare fish and other things it is hunting–they’d work great on slippery, soft-bodied creatures like… other squid! When threatened, vampyroteuthis infernalis folds its tentacles back over the rest of its body so that all those thorny bits point outwards, making it look lik a nasty red cactus. I’ve seen video-it’s creepy.
Marq said,
September 29, 2005 at 11:06
Yes, more than one cephelo-fan here, though I’m nowhere near as obsessive as our dear Ms. Sidhe–for that, elasmobranchs. Sharks. Just be glad I didn’t really get started on them. I nearly did tonight–I had roughly 400 words of a rant written before I came to my senses. So fair warning-I will hijack any shark-related thread without mercy.
Rowan Berkeley said,
September 29, 2005 at 11:19
“odd, fleshy protuberances that undulate unsettlingly” — uhhh….
Gavin M. said,
September 29, 2005 at 11:30
Hey Marq…
Mitsukurina owstoni (Goblin shark).
Marq said,
September 29, 2005 at 12:34
Ah, you picked the true beauty queen of all sharks. Those fuckers are so freakish, they make hammerheads and mega-mouths look normal. Isn’t that a face you could love?
Realist said,
September 29, 2005 at 15:47
The strangest things people have ever eaten?
No contest.
Dan Someone said,
September 29, 2005 at 16:04
I may not have mentioned it, but the sea urchin creme brulee was actually pretty good. Sure beats the hell out of cobra in cobra blood with a side of cobra. Or so I imagine, because FSM-dammit, there is no way I will ever find out.
Yosef said,
September 29, 2005 at 16:14
37 comments on food. It proves my point: Foodblogging is the new Cat Blogging.
D. Sidhe said,
September 29, 2005 at 16:29
Sorry, Marq. Even the most insomniac of us gotta sleep sometimes.
How are you on prehistoric sharks, btw? And isn’t chimera just adorable? I totally have to agree with Ray Troll on that one. (His “Sharkabet” is nice–I got it at the local Aquarium last year when it was hosting his Sharkabet exhibit.)
The vampire squid has two huge blue eyes, webbed arms, and two extremely thin tentacles that tuck into pockets near its eyes. Also, it has photophores. Any cephalopod that glows is okay by me, though it’s admittedly not a jewel squid.
I have a big rubber vampire squid squirt toy I got at the Monterey Bay Aquarium when we went down to see their Mysteries Of The Deep exhibit.
You want to see “ears”, though, google “dumbo octopus”.
Yosef said,
September 29, 2005 at 16:49
Does eating Vampire Calamari cause one to turn into a Vampire?
Rowan Berkeley said,
September 29, 2005 at 16:52
quicktime dumbo
, beautiful.
Yosef said,
September 29, 2005 at 16:55
BTW, speaking of okra, I make an excellent gumbo.
nolo said,
September 29, 2005 at 16:57
First I came for the snark. Now I come for the food. This is sooooooo cooooooool.
Jan said,
September 29, 2005 at 20:11
My personal collection:
Duck tongues, chicken stomach, seasnake, ray, donkey, sea urchin,…
(duck tongues are kinda pain in the ass to eat and ray tastes somewhat…unusual, but otherwise that stuff is really delicious)
Timmah420 said,
September 29, 2005 at 20:32
“Special mushrooms” Straight off the field, still glistening with cow shit.
chimera said,
September 29, 2005 at 23:55
Bwayh, what’s with this “okra pods in a pakora-wakame batter” and fryin’ in some kind of light oil? ‘Round these parts, fried okra is fried okra. Yew just dips it in yer milk-n-egg, dredge it in yer flour-n-cornmeal, and fries it in yer melted Crisco. Sheesh. Yew lib’rul elites takin’ good ol’ plain eatin’ and makin’ it all hoity-toity-like, prob’ly drunk some kinda elitist chardonnay with it, ’stead of a can of Pabst or Miller.
Frederick said,
September 30, 2005 at 1:23
I was shocked to hear that you would voluntarily eat okra — and like it! — but I suppose deep-fried scorpions might be even more disgusting.
Frederick said,
September 30, 2005 at 1:30
This might be the most disgusting thread ever. Probably the most disgusting thing I ever ate was vegemite, which I realize can’t compete with many of the entries above.
D. Sidhe said,
September 30, 2005 at 7:00
I have to say I don’t actually remember the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten. But remember that in my home Spam Stroganoff and Corn Dog Lasagna and Chicken Nugget & Tater Tot Stir Fry are just a normal evening, hardly worthy even of mention, and perhaps it’s worth recalibrating “disgusting” a bit.
I *will* say that adding mustard to boxed generic Macaroni and Cheese to even out the yellow color was not as bad an idea as it probably sounds.
Rowan Berkeley said,
September 30, 2005 at 7:06
That sounds like real trailer park cuisine, D
D. Sidhe said,
September 30, 2005 at 10:48
I prefer to think of it as a logical outgrowth of Stir Fried Random.
After all, if all the elements are edible separately, they must be edible together.
Honestly, over the years, I suspect some of my housemates do this sort of thing in hopes that they’ll be banned from cooking duties. Fat chance. The one who’s come closest may get it for a tendency to dump half a bottle of Prego sauce over a huge bag of spaghetti, or to marinate chicken wings and thighs in a bottle of soy sauce for fifteen minutes before baking them.
Even I have my limits.
However, the Refuser’s Duty rule is invoked about once every two months, believe it or not only rarely on account of something like Spam & Velveeta Quiche–”The first one to refuse to eat the prepared meal pays for the pizza”.
It’s a lot more likely to happen around payday, I’ll say that much.
Marq said,
October 1, 2005 at 0:51
D. Sidhe, you’re just trying to get out of inviting the entire S,N! commentary community over for dinner, and don’t think it’s not working! ;-)
Seriously, though, that’s why I prefer preparing my own food individually. The only downside of that is that there are many recipes that aren’t easy to scale to single servings.
D. Sidhe said,
October 1, 2005 at 6:17
I have a longtime friend who invites himself over on a regular basis for Spam dishes. He’s a freak, though, we all accept that.
He’s also, incidentally, gay, and shortly after my newest housemate (newest–it’s been eleven months, *sigh*) moved in, he came over one day to conspire with me about various things while I cooked at him. She stuck her hand out at him, and introduced herself, I am not kidding, as a fag hag. First thing out of her mouth.
He panicked and dragged me out of the house. We went out to dinner. He continues to avoid her, for fear she will try to tag him or put him on the shelf with her Beanie Babies or something.
This isn’t relevant, really, but is something you and the rest of the Sadly, No! community might keep in mind if you decide to come for dinner.
My housemates are tragically somewhat inclined to try to sniff my guests’ crotches and hump their legs, metaphorically speaking.
I apologize for that image. I blame the Bush economy for the fact that these two live with us, frankly.
Rowan Berkeley said,
October 1, 2005 at 15:12
the Munsters of omnisexuality…
Marq said,
October 2, 2005 at 6:45
Ha! Sidhe, that’s comedy! Having a strange girl walk up and introduce herself as a “fag hag” really wouldn’t phase me much at this point in my life, inspite of the implication that I must be the “fag.” I’d probably say something stupid, like, “Oh-I’ve been looking to get me one of those!” Then everything would be fine.
Unless, that is, I later found your housemate lurking in my garage or behind my DVD shelf. That’d just be creepy!
Marq said,
October 2, 2005 at 6:46
I was trying really hard not to say “closet” in that last post, FWIW.
Marq said,
October 4, 2005 at 2:35
I know I’m about the last boi standing in this thread, so just for that I’m steering the discussion back to squid sex! This article has the single funniest sentence in it that I have read this year, Anybody care to guess which one it is?
D. Sidhe said,
October 4, 2005 at 6:34
Honest to God, Marq, this is like the fifth time I’ve read that article, because it is damned funny, and I still couldn’t pinpoint the funniest sentence. There are a lot of winners in there.
The cool thing is, squid penises are actually at the end of one arm. So pretty much anything they do would be seriously frowned upon by Dr Dobson.
Marq said,
October 12, 2005 at 0:48
Aah, shit–the Independent has archived the article I linked to above. Now I can’t cut & paste the excerpt that made me smirk. Damn their eyes! So don’t bother clicking my link 2 posts above.
Shoua Lee said,
November 15, 2005 at 23:16
Dang!thats thing looks so gross but i mean it could come out so good but ewww i would hate to eat it. to me it looks so much like a pig.OMG!
lee calthorpe said,
September 23, 2006 at 21:49
could anyone explaine to me what they eat in norwat as i am going to live there for a year