We all got to eat! Since the beginning of time we have been ingesting a wide variety of edibles for survival. Food that pushes the edges or social taboo for one culture is another’s daily bread. Traditional reasons for consuming weird food are often rooted in scarcity and have since graduated to tradition. And you just know our culture has evolved when we start eating weird food for art. A quick trip through the weird food world is fascinating but beware! Your buttons will be pushed, your beliefs will be challenged and you will be hit with “ick” more than once.
Human breast milk cheese
Not stumbled upon for survival nor cultivated for nutritional bias or aphrodisiac legend, this newest topic is doing as it was meant to...generate conversation. Miriam Simun, opened an art installation in New York called The Lady Cheese shop to make a point. She found three women who were willing to donate their milk, screened it for disease and turned it into three flavours with catchy names: West Side Funk, Midtown Smoke, and Wisconson Chew. It is taboo food served up as art. Its intention is clear; it doesn’t hope to stave off hunger, cultivate tradition or uphold skill. It is the symbol of a culture who can spend time thinking about ideas instead of searching for food.
Hakari
Nordic cultures realized that the shark they caught was full of a toxin called urea which could sicken or kill them. Some Viking somewhere must have figured out that if you let that meat rot, the ammonia is emitted and the danger is removed (smelling a lot like the boys’ bathroom). Hanging the rotted flesh to dry was one simple step away from creating a delicacy. This food remains as a tradition or a cultural glue of sorts that is eaten at festivals. Not so different from our current treatment of beef, really but somehow we have successfully replaced the term “rotting” with “dry aging”. That, and the fact that, eating the shark before it was rotted could kill you, the beef would just be tough and bland.
Balut
Think back a few hundred or thousand years. If you were hungry and your chicken wasn’t laying any unfertilized eggs but you could find a fertilized one, would you have eaten it? Embryo, yolk and all? Of course you would have! But would you now? This Philippine street food pushes the limits of our North American species acceptance. We can stomach the idea of eating the egg but once it has another purpose...not so much. The Balut eggs are fertilized and kept warm to encourage growth to a specific stage that is different for ducks and chickens. They are then cooked and eaten warm right out of the shell, pan fried or served in soup. The visual and the texture would never fly here as a mainstream food but back in the Philippines, they swear by it.
Casa Marzu cheese
In the category of “well, we still have to eat it!” comes a Sardinian cheese specialty. Pecorino is delicious as it is but it apparently gets more so when this delicacy is cultivated with a maggot-like larvae to improve it. The larvae partially consume the cheese to render it sweeter. Not that bizarre of a concept given that it is microscopic microbial enzymes that make cheese in the first place. However, this delicacy with a “traditional designation” protecting it trumps safety concerns goes much further. It is the visibility of the movement that excites some and disgusts many. There are those who remove the larvae before consuming and those who do not. Which would you be?
Kopi Luwak coffee
Who on this green earth discovered that coffee tastes better when defecated by a civet cat? It’s fun to imagine the rascally cat getting into the last of the coffee and some desperate Indonesian coffee addict thinking “well, better drink it, it’s all we have got!” The miraculous discovery that the civet’s stomach acid would partially digest the coffee beans, which would smoothen and round out the coffee’s flavour must have been a surprise. This happy accident turns to gold when the “process” is so sweet as to turn waste into the most expensive coffee on earth. Rest assured; no danger lurks here since the beans are well washed and then roasted which would kill any offending traces. Sort of.
Sannakji
Speaking of movement, this one takes the title for “extreme eating”. In Korea, you can test your gag reflex with live, squirming octopus that has been harvested live, chopped, seasoned with sesame oil and served. You will be cautioned that the suction cups are still active and present a choking hazard, thus making it one of the world's most dangerous foods as well. Also be forewarned that all of the rules concerning eating raw fish still apply.
Tarantula
Relatively new to the scene and suspected to be the result of food shortages in the 1970s in Cambodia, this is the ultimate arachnophobes’ revenge: tarantula eating. Call it a conspiracy theory, but they are said to improve the shine and thickness of one’s hair as well as being delicious! It is advised that you remove the tooth before eating the gooey and nutty body whole. A couple of legs at a time is all that this texture will allow but much of the flavour actually depends upon the seasoning. Most are served whole and fried with species dismemberment usually left up to the customer.
Fugu
A refined and cultivated art of learning how to properly carve this blowfish is a two year apprenticeship program in Japan. One wrong slip of the knife to sever the liver and the ovaries and death to diners is the result. There are strict regulations around who can grow, fish, cut and even enjoy this delicacy. Discarded toxic pieces are kept under lock and key. It is the revered and yet forbidden fruit for the emperor, its deliciousness must not pass his lips lest he die. Others however may eat it raw or quickly immersed in hot broth. This is not peasant food or necessity; it is an elevated and privileged dish. Celebrity chef Bob Blumer survived to tell the tale of its taste, as did Anthony Bourdain.
Monkey Brains
At the utter extreme end of our human tolerance for cruelty is that of the refuted habit attributed to the Chinese of consuming monkey brains. The “cute factor” makes monkeys feel so close to humans that we cannot imagine consuming any part of them, let alone their brains. Certainly challenged is the story of brains being consumed live, although it is possible that they are pan fried and served for lunch as the erroneous legend prevails that they cure impotence. To clarify a myth, our own delicacy of sweetbreads does not come from brains. They are merely glands that look like brains. Way less gross, right?
Grasshopper
It may seem tame after monkey brains but is still enough to make some think twice before indulging in them. In Mexico and China grasshoppers are prized for their protein. There appears to be no cultural significance to the catching and crunching of this widely available source of survival. It’s easy to catch, abundant and free (and apparently tasty). Eating them raw carries a risk of tapeworm so most are place in water for 24 hours and then boiled, sun-dried, spiced and fried or used in soup. Think soft shelled crab and take a deep breath.
Human breast milk cheese
Not stumbled upon for survival nor cultivated for nutritional bias or aphrodisiac legend, this newest topic is doing as it was meant to...generate conversation. Miriam Simun, opened an art installation in New York called The Lady Cheese shop to make a point. She found three women who were willing to donate their milk, screened it for disease and turned it into three flavours with catchy names: West Side Funk, Midtown Smoke, and Wisconson Chew. It is taboo food served up as art. Its intention is clear; it doesn’t hope to stave off hunger, cultivate tradition or uphold skill. It is the symbol of a culture who can spend time thinking about ideas instead of searching for food.
Hakari
Nordic cultures realized that the shark they caught was full of a toxin called urea which could sicken or kill them. Some Viking somewhere must have figured out that if you let that meat rot, the ammonia is emitted and the danger is removed (smelling a lot like the boys’ bathroom). Hanging the rotted flesh to dry was one simple step away from creating a delicacy. This food remains as a tradition or a cultural glue of sorts that is eaten at festivals. Not so different from our current treatment of beef, really but somehow we have successfully replaced the term “rotting” with “dry aging”. That, and the fact that, eating the shark before it was rotted could kill you, the beef would just be tough and bland.
Balut
Think back a few hundred or thousand years. If you were hungry and your chicken wasn’t laying any unfertilized eggs but you could find a fertilized one, would you have eaten it? Embryo, yolk and all? Of course you would have! But would you now? This Philippine street food pushes the limits of our North American species acceptance. We can stomach the idea of eating the egg but once it has another purpose...not so much. The Balut eggs are fertilized and kept warm to encourage growth to a specific stage that is different for ducks and chickens. They are then cooked and eaten warm right out of the shell, pan fried or served in soup. The visual and the texture would never fly here as a mainstream food but back in the Philippines, they swear by it.
Casa Marzu cheese
In the category of “well, we still have to eat it!” comes a Sardinian cheese specialty. Pecorino is delicious as it is but it apparently gets more so when this delicacy is cultivated with a maggot-like larvae to improve it. The larvae partially consume the cheese to render it sweeter. Not that bizarre of a concept given that it is microscopic microbial enzymes that make cheese in the first place. However, this delicacy with a “traditional designation” protecting it trumps safety concerns goes much further. It is the visibility of the movement that excites some and disgusts many. There are those who remove the larvae before consuming and those who do not. Which would you be?
Kopi Luwak coffee
Who on this green earth discovered that coffee tastes better when defecated by a civet cat? It’s fun to imagine the rascally cat getting into the last of the coffee and some desperate Indonesian coffee addict thinking “well, better drink it, it’s all we have got!” The miraculous discovery that the civet’s stomach acid would partially digest the coffee beans, which would smoothen and round out the coffee’s flavour must have been a surprise. This happy accident turns to gold when the “process” is so sweet as to turn waste into the most expensive coffee on earth. Rest assured; no danger lurks here since the beans are well washed and then roasted which would kill any offending traces. Sort of.
Sannakji
Speaking of movement, this one takes the title for “extreme eating”. In Korea, you can test your gag reflex with live, squirming octopus that has been harvested live, chopped, seasoned with sesame oil and served. You will be cautioned that the suction cups are still active and present a choking hazard, thus making it one of the world's most dangerous foods as well. Also be forewarned that all of the rules concerning eating raw fish still apply.
Tarantula
Relatively new to the scene and suspected to be the result of food shortages in the 1970s in Cambodia, this is the ultimate arachnophobes’ revenge: tarantula eating. Call it a conspiracy theory, but they are said to improve the shine and thickness of one’s hair as well as being delicious! It is advised that you remove the tooth before eating the gooey and nutty body whole. A couple of legs at a time is all that this texture will allow but much of the flavour actually depends upon the seasoning. Most are served whole and fried with species dismemberment usually left up to the customer.
Fugu
A refined and cultivated art of learning how to properly carve this blowfish is a two year apprenticeship program in Japan. One wrong slip of the knife to sever the liver and the ovaries and death to diners is the result. There are strict regulations around who can grow, fish, cut and even enjoy this delicacy. Discarded toxic pieces are kept under lock and key. It is the revered and yet forbidden fruit for the emperor, its deliciousness must not pass his lips lest he die. Others however may eat it raw or quickly immersed in hot broth. This is not peasant food or necessity; it is an elevated and privileged dish. Celebrity chef Bob Blumer survived to tell the tale of its taste, as did Anthony Bourdain.
Monkey Brains
At the utter extreme end of our human tolerance for cruelty is that of the refuted habit attributed to the Chinese of consuming monkey brains. The “cute factor” makes monkeys feel so close to humans that we cannot imagine consuming any part of them, let alone their brains. Certainly challenged is the story of brains being consumed live, although it is possible that they are pan fried and served for lunch as the erroneous legend prevails that they cure impotence. To clarify a myth, our own delicacy of sweetbreads does not come from brains. They are merely glands that look like brains. Way less gross, right?
Grasshopper
It may seem tame after monkey brains but is still enough to make some think twice before indulging in them. In Mexico and China grasshoppers are prized for their protein. There appears to be no cultural significance to the catching and crunching of this widely available source of survival. It’s easy to catch, abundant and free (and apparently tasty). Eating them raw carries a risk of tapeworm so most are place in water for 24 hours and then boiled, sun-dried, spiced and fried or used in soup. Think soft shelled crab and take a deep breath.
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