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Weird Food I Have Known

One thing that shocked the natives the most (other than the fact that I could say a few words in Japanese) was the idea that I not only ate Japanese food on a regular basis, but liked it. There seems to be an unwritten law that gaijin, especially Americans, are not allowed to like Japanese food. Granted there are some Americans who aren't adventurous, and they're missing out on a lot.

Although I didn't necessarily like all of these mentioned below, here are a few things that the typical American is said to balk at:

In the Raw

Raw eggs: The general opinion seems to be that people don't get enough protein in the typical Japanese diet, so a lot of cafeterias provide raw eggs to go with your meal. Just crack the egg, mix it in rice with a little soy sauce, and there's your protein boost. Raw eggs are used in dipping sauce for sukiyaki and other nabe dishes. Though a little strange at first, the taste and texture tends to grow on you. In over eight years, I have yet to come down with salmonella poisoning. I love raw egg on top of a raw beef and vegetable dish referred to as bibimba at Japanese/Korean restaurants.

Really, really fresh sushi: My first encounter with this was at a little sushi restaurant a friend and I found while hiking in Hakone. As we recovered from the cold drizzle outside and feasted on top-rate sushi and beer, the couple next to us decided to splurge. The man pointed to a large fish swimming in the tank behind the counter. The chef netted the fish out of the tank, cracked it over the head with the handle of his knife to stun it, then took it back into the kitchen. When he reemerged, the fish had been neatly arranged on a plate with head and tail intact and the midsection turned into artfully arranged sashimi filets. The head and tail were still moving.
My friend and I drank more beer and watched in fascination as the couple beside us ate, and the fish's tail continued to flex gently like it was still thinking of swimming. I've heard that the chefs pour sake down the fish's throat to keep this reflex going long after the fish is dead.
After yet more beer, we decided to try some of this for ourselves, though we tried the economy size version. We pointed to a much smaller fish in the tank. The chef netted it out, put it on the cutting board, and zip! zip! zip! the next thing we knew, the fresh meat was on top of two lumps of rice on a plate in front of us. It was delicious, very sweet, though I had a hard time enjoying it when I saw the other fish staring accusingly at us from the tank. Probably thinking, "You ate Fred, you monsters!"

Pickled sea cucumber: This was served to me along with other delicacies at an expensive Roppongi sushi house by a prospective boss. Though a sea cucumber in its natural element looks like a giant grey booger, the pickled and sliced serving was delicious. When he got the bill, my boss learned not to issue food challenges anymore.

Horse sashimi: My coworkers ordered this to go with drinks at an izakaya once. This overloaded my squeamish factor, so I didn't try it. And no amount of sake was going to make me.

Things with Eyeballs

The whole fish: Fish markets sell fish gutted and split in half for easy broiling. Everything else, though--skin, eyes, gills and bones--is still intact. During my year in a Japanese homestay, I got really good at picking the meat off a broiled fish with a set of chopsticks. Other than that, I generally refused to eat things that still had their eyes attached unless I'd had a lot of beer first.

Sardine Surprise: My second day in Tokyo, some friends and I went on a whirlwind tour of several animation studios in the city. At last we stopped at a little coffee shop for food and a chance to unwind. I ordered a ham sandwich, which seemed harmless enough until I bit down on it and tasted something weird. Peeling back the bread, I found half a sardine remaining. Evidently, the others at the table found this hilarious and it broke the ice with our tour guide, who'd been a bit ovewhelmed at the idea of carting three gaijin women around.

Mmm, calcium: Okay, whose idea was it to mix in smelly little whole dried fish with rice crackers? If I want extra calcium, I'll drink milk.

Once eaten while in a deep blue funk: Whole baby octopi in fish egg sauce--it was an otsumami (beer snack) served to me at a local restaurant before I made my main order. I don't even think I cared, though the waiter did an amusing enough double take at my empty dish to cheer me up at least a little.

Think of the children starving somewhere: One of my neighbors was a culinary historian, and she took me and my landladies on a couple of tours that involved some really good food. On one of these tours we had a wonderful box lunch that included a tiny soft-shelled crab, tempura-fried whole. As I tried to figure out how to tackle peeling it, I watched the woman across from me pick hers up with her chopsticks and bite it in half. I looked at mine, curled up in its little bento compartment like a little spider, and it looked back at me. No thanks.
Unfortunately, this got noticed, and since I was the only woman at the table under the age of fifty, the others felt it was their sworn duty to nag me to "clean my plate." "That poor little crab will cry when they throw it away." I had a choice of eating it or getting nagged to death. It tasted a little like popcorn.

Only in America? They never did this for me in Japan, so I was a bit startled when the waitress at an upscale sushi shop took away the head and thorax portion of the raw shrimp I'd just dissected, then brought it back to me deep fried. I had to take the eyeballs off before I ate it. Maybe this is a Kansai thing? Or an American thing?

Smelly Things

The natto test: Many a foreigner has been rated according to whether he or she could eat natto. Natto is made from fermented soybeans and has a sticky, slimy texture that produces lots of fine strings between clumps and makes the whole mess hard to eat. Some people are grossed out by the texture, others by the smell. I've been told that about 50% of Japanese--especially those residing in the Kanto region--don't like it either. Again, this may be a regional thing.
I failed the natto test, quite unintentionally, at a conveyor belt sushi shop. I thought the seaweed roll had negitoro (tuna) in it, so I grabbed the plate off the conveyor belt and shoved one roll in my mouth. Surprise! I discovered natto tastes just like it smells... like something that has been decomposing underground for a while. I bet that amused the chef.

Underground adventure: The basements of most major Japanese department stores house the food section, and you can find a treasure trove of new and delicious things down there. I'd go down there to buy bento (box lunches) to take into the movie theaters. Usually these basement food markets are full of vendors loudly hawking their produce, made fresh daily. As a foreigner, I got a lot of attention: "Hey, gaijin-san! Try this! Japanese delicacy!" For the most part, I happily sampled everything offered except for what looked like tentacle spaghetti in a pink sauce. From the pungent fishy smell emanating from that stuff, I never got the nerve to try it.

Culturally Offensive Things

Japan and the rest of Asia is full of fascinating and extremely unusual foods. But you know what I found offended Americans the most? What caused Americans to grimace and stutter and backpedal and say this was an outrage? Something so simple and commonplace in Japan that I had forgotten all about this until Dave Barry brought it up: Corn on pizza.

All Japan stories (c) Wendy Dinsmore 2003.

Everybody has something they hate when it comes to food. Maybe you feel ill just thinking about having to eat cabbage. But these weird meals from around the world will make you glad for your next horrible school dinner!

(Want better choices? Check out what's on the Chef's menu!)

Guinea pig - You might think guinea pigs are just pets, but in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in South America, they're often roasted whole and eaten. If you order guinea pig in a restaurant you'll be asked if you want the head end or the tail end.

Monkey - In China, live monkey brains are eaten in expensive restaurants. The monkey is clamped under a table so it can't run away. Then the top of its head is cut off so its brain can be scooped out and eaten. Rats are also eaten in China.

Snake - Snakes, and wine with snakes floating in it, can be found in restuarants in Vietnam and South China. The snake is brought to your table and killed with a knife. You then drink its blood while its body is prepared for your meal.

Blubber - The Inuit people of Canada eat blubber, which is whale fat. It keeps them warm in the freezing temperatures they live in. And they smear it on their faces to protect their skin from the sun and snow.

Raw and poisonous fish Weird foods eaten in Japan include: fried bees and crickets, raw horse, raw fish (sushi), jellyfish and sea urchins. They even eat a poisonous fish called fugu (puffer fish) that if not prepared properly can paralyse and kill the person eating it.

Duck - Unborn ducks are served in their shell as a roadside snack in the Philippines.

Crocodiles, koalas, ostriches, kangaroos and grubs - In Australia, all kinds of strange animals are eaten. These include crocodiles, koalas, ostriches, kangaroos and witchety grubs (small plump insects).

Dog - Dogs are made into stew in some Asian countries like China, Korea and Laos. Woof w

Jam and butter tea - Jam is added to tea instead of milk in several regions in and around Russia, like Kyrgyzstan. In Tibet, people add butter.

Frogs and Snails - Frogs' legs and snails are two foods that can be found in restaurants and family homes in France.

Concha fina - In Spain there's a popular delicacy called concha fina. It's a shellfish that looks a bit like an oyster. It has to be eaten alive! When lemon is squeezed over the shellfish it jumps and wriggles, and that's when you pour it down your throat in one go.

Pigs' trotters - It wouldn't be unusual in the West Indian countryside to be offered pig trotters to munch on.

Blood - The Masai people who live in Kenya mix cow's blood with milk. They shoot an arrow into the cow's neck and collect the blood from the wound. The blood is then mixed with fresh milk for a refreshing drink. Gives another meaning to the word milkshake!

Ants - Ants are eaten in some countries. In Columbia, they're fried or roasted and eaten as a snack at the cinema. Better than popcorn any day! And in Australia, a type of ant called the honey ant is thought of as a delicious treat.

Octopus - In South Korea, people catch a baby octopus, dip it in oil and swallow it whole while it's still alive. But the octopus tries to stay alive by gripping on with its tentacles to the throat of the person eating it as they're swallowing.

Bat - In Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, bats are smoked and then sold as food.

Black Pudding and Haggis - Closer to home, people in the north of England and Scotland eat a type of sausage called black pudding, made out of blood, fat and the insides of a cow. They also eat haggis, which is a sheep's stomach stuffed with oatmeal and other parts of the sheep and then steamed. Yum!

Source: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~rc313/weirdfood.html

Chef makes 1,800 miles of noodles with 1kg of dough!

A Chinese chef has broken his own world record by hand-making nearly 1,800 miles of noodles with just 1kg of dough.

Li Tao made the 2,097,152 noodles in a hotel in Handan city in northern Hebei province.

The Xinhua news agency says 18 of the noodles were so small they could pass through the eye of a needle simultaneously.

This is Li Tao's third Guinness-recognised record. He's been practising for five years.

The 24-year-old, from eastern China's coastal Jiangsu province, set the previous record in 2000.

Reports do not say how long the record-breaking feat took to complete or what will happen to the noodles.

His father Li Sihai also set three Guinness noodle-making records during his career.

Xinhua says Chinese people often eat long noodles at birthday parties because they represent longevity.

Story filed: 12:10 Friday 10th May 2002

Source: http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_585133.html

Blue Garlic Bread?!

A few times in the past couple of months when I made Garlic Bread, the garlic actually turned a greenish-blue when heated. Although it looked a little scary (kind of moldy-looking), it tasted fine and everyone survived. :-)

After doing some research on this phenomenon, I finally found the following explanation, although I'm still not sure...

Garlic contains sulfur compounds which can react with copper to form copper sulfate, a blue or blue-green compound. The amount of copper needed for this reaction is very small and is frequently found in normal water supplies. Raw garlic contains an enzyme that if not inactivated by heating reacts with sulfur (in the garlic) and copper (from water or utensils) to form blue copper sulfate. The garlic is still safe to eat.

If it is picked before it is fully mature and hasn't been properly dried it can turn and iridescent blue or green color when in the presence of acid.

A reaction between garlic's natural sulfur content and any copper in the water or in the iron, tin or aluminum cooking utensils can sometimes change the color of garlic.

Garlic will also turn green (develop chlorophyll) if exposed to an temperature change or is exposed to sunlight. Some people say it can be stored for 32 days at or above 70 - 80° F to prevent greening (but I'm not yet sure that is true).

Other reasons to cause garlic to turn blue or green:

Are you using table salt instead of canning salt? That can cause the garlic to turn blue or green. Table salt contains iodine, which discolors whatever you're pickling. Use kosher or pickling salt.

Different varieties or growing conditions can actually produce garlic with an excess natural bluish/green pigmentation made more visible after pickling

Don't worry, greenish-blue color changes aren't harmful and your garlic is still safe to eat. (unless you see other signs of spoilage).

Source: www.whatscookingamerica.net

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