Sunday, November 18, 2007

Strange tastes

I was accidentally watching Survivor: China the other night (as you do), when the unfortunate contestants were doing a Fear Factor with the local food. Chicken hearts.

Many of those people looked as though they shouldn't be quite so unfamiliar with the idea of eating those li'l blood pumps, because they looked Asian and surely their own parents had tried to force such delicacies down their throats at some stage in their lives. And boy, do I know how that feels.

I've been forced to eat lambs brains in soup. I've been fed sheeps' tongues (voluntarily, I'll admit - at least until I saw the picture on the tin). I've even had to dine on pet pigeons (at least, my brother and I thought they were our pets). I've eaten fish eyes, chicken's necks and chicken's gizzards.

But I still can't bring myself to enjoy mouldy blue cheese.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

We had to eat kidneys for breakfast for a while for iron. Have you eaten chicken feet?

Kazzer said...

You boil anything for long enough, it becomes edible - anonymous English chef.

Jon said...

I love chicken feet, as well as Chinese intestine soup. And I'e eaten dog before, once....it was fine (not in the US, in the Philipines). But, I'm not much a cheese person. Sure, I eat brie every once in a while, but that's about it

Violet said...

emma: chicken's feet is for the birds. But I hate innards.

kazzer: nah, I'd have to disagree with you there :-)

jon: an ex-flatmate of mine (when she was living in China) ate her cat.

Anonymous said...

It's often about presentation isn't it. I mean - cow eyelids and ar*eholes don't sound too great, but minced beef? not so bad. Same stuff.

My first boyfriend was fed his pet guinea pig by his dad when he (the boyfriend, not the dad or the guinea pig) was about 9 years old. The dad was not intending to be abusive. The boyfriend still wasn't over it 10 years later.

Violet said...

Cathi: jeez, thanks for putting me off the mainstay of our dinners...

Why on earth eat a guinea pig? I tried it in Peru and there's not a heck of alot of meat on a guinea pig.

Angela said...

Sometimes it is funny what we will eat and what we won't