Official Comment Count: 1,035,582
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
As a methodology for research, science adopts as its cardinal postulate (proved fruitful by its enormous success since the time of Galileo, Newton and Descartes) the commitment to explain empirical phenomena by reference to invariant laws of nature and to avoid appeals to the miraculous, defined as a suspension of those laws for particular events. The notion of 'abrupt appearance,' the origin of complex somethings from previous nothings, resides in this domain of miracle and is not part of science.
Stephen Jay Gould
Two-legged goats and developmental variation
The Cambrian as an evolutionary exemplar
PZ Myers' Own Original, Cosmic, and Eccentric Analogy for How the Genome Works -OR- High Geekology
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
« Special searches for special people | Main | Scientists contributing to the moral decline of the universe, again »
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: February 9, 2007 4:07 PM, by PZ Myers
I presume everyone has already had their lunch here in the Americas, so it's safe to mention this: a delectable collection of 10 tasty snacks. Go ahead — you know you want to click on that link.
(TrackBack URL for this entry: )
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
Comments
What an unadventurous person who made that list - there is not one thing on the list that I wouldn't try.
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | February 9, 2007 4:14 PM
Not too sure why he listed Musk flavored Live savers or the Purple suasages. I like musk life savers, way better than that disgusting cinamon stuff. As for the sauasages: was it the color? Purple is good as in tandoori chicken so why is he freaked about it with beef/lamb sausages? Maybe it was the honey, but mutton/lamb is always better with a touch of honey and mint so this has to be his cultural bias showing.
Posted by: LJ | February 9, 2007 4:17 PM
It hardly compares with Steve, Don't Eat It!
Posted by: Blake Stacey | February 9, 2007 4:19 PM
*gag*
I was okay until the ant eggs and water bugs.
Posted by: possummomma | February 9, 2007 4:27 PM
sounds like this would be a great thread for:
What's the strangest thing you ever ate?
I'll start:
BBQ Sperm Whale steaks.
tasted like a really dense, rich, beef.
..and speaking of purple... the steaks fisish with a dark purple tinge to them.
Posted by: Ichthyic | February 9, 2007 4:29 PM
Sea cucumber - tasted absolutely horrible.
Jellyfish - taste much like you could expect; a little salty, with a rubbery texture.
Both tried in Malaysia.
I have also tried thousand-year eggs, and I am never going to go near that stuff again. Absolutele vile.
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | February 9, 2007 4:40 PM
Reminds me of grubs in the Kalahari...
And though I would like to thank you for the kind thoughts, no, I was not on safari, or on a world-saving mission, I saw the bushmen eating the grubs is an ethnography back in college. MMMMMMM, Grubs!
Posted by: J-Dog | February 9, 2007 4:48 PM
People who avoided these snacks also avoided ammonia salt candies from Finland.
Posted by: Matt M | February 9, 2007 4:51 PM
Don't remind me of them - they are not possible to buy in Denmark any more, due to too much ammonia. But they are so tasty....
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | February 9, 2007 4:52 PM
Capybara. It was delicious.
Posted by: Davis | February 9, 2007 4:59 PM
lung. it's called 'beuschl' in vienna and it's sour, rubbery, and revolting. it is also considered a true viennese delicacy.
Posted by: irmi | February 9, 2007 5:05 PM
Coot. I shot it, so I had to eat it. A bit muddy tasting, but an OK waterfowl otherwise. I much prefer grilled alligator.
Posted by: Hairy Doctor Professor | February 9, 2007 5:06 PM
WEASEL COFFEE?? That sounds like a SNL skit... does PETA know about this?
Posted by: matthew | February 9, 2007 5:26 PM
Had Peri-Peri chicken stomachs for breakfast once in South Africa. Sounds disgusting, but I was too hungry to care. It was on the menu, so must have been popular with the locals.
Posted by: Zwirko | February 9, 2007 5:29 PM
Gotta give a shout-out to fluffy mackerel pudding.
Posted by: ben | February 9, 2007 6:12 PM
I'll second Kristjan on the awfulness of thousand-year eggs, and add that natto (semi-rotten soybeans) is pretty darn unpleasant. While I was living in Japan, I came across vacuum-packed whole squid with "cheese" filling (made with 10% real cheese!). I brought some home for my brother, who sensibly declined to consume them.
Also while in Japan, I caught a Valentine's Day special on different kinds of chocolate, including a chocolate/fish broth hybrid.
Posted by: kurage | February 9, 2007 6:26 PM
"What's the strangest thing you ever ate?"
Stink Heads. Not so much "ate" as "tried to eat".
Walrus (or possibly bearded seal, I wasn't sure) blubber dipped in seal oil was about the strangest I actually was able to eat.
-David
Posted by: David | February 9, 2007 6:47 PM
See page 5 of this .PDF on botulism for a description of stink heads:
http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us/pubs/botulism/Botulism.pdf
Posted by: David | February 9, 2007 6:53 PM
What's wrong with roasted mealworm larvae? I've fed them to my classes a few times, and most of them try it. Admittedly, they go over better when encased in cookie.
Posted by: Carlie | February 9, 2007 6:57 PM
"Regurgitated by a Weasel Coffee Beans"?
I'm sorry, but why are people freaking out about beans REGURGITATED by weasels?
Posted by: Phoenician in a time of Romans | February 9, 2007 7:04 PM
Weasel-poo coffee ("regurgitate" is spin, the beans go all the way through the digestive track) does sound a bit weird, but I would be quite willing to try it it were a little more reasonably priced.
Posted by: Michael | February 9, 2007 7:20 PM
I'd try any of those things, and I bet I'd like half of them Several of those are normal foods in the Orient.
I fried up some termites I found once remodelling. They tasted fine, a bit like sardines or some other fish. They have about as clean a diet as you could imagine, unless you're susceptible to dry rot.
Posted by: John Emerson | February 9, 2007 7:23 PM
Icelanders have fermented foods of the "stink head" type.
According to the article, traditional methods of fermentation are less likely to cause botulism than modern methods.
Posted by: John Emerson | February 9, 2007 7:28 PM
I see I got beaten to the Kopi Luwak reference, as well as "Steve, don't eat it" (which is a lot funnier).
People look at me funny when I mention my fondness for blood pudding and beef tongue (and gator, and rattlesnake, yum), I may not be the person you want judging the edibility of odd snacks.
I'm not sure what the weirdest thing I ever ate was, but it was at a pho restaurant. Some things you don't ask about.
Posted by: Graculus | February 9, 2007 7:29 PM
Having lived in Korea for a couple of years I've run across some very weird (for Americans) foods. The weirdest was steamed silk worm larvae. After pulling all the silk off of their cocoons, the larvae inside are then steamed and eaten hot.
The smell - well, I once went into an abandoned house infested with cockroaches on the Texas Gulf Coast - the smell was similar to me.
Here in California I can find steamed silk worms in the can on the local Korean grocer shelves. The FDA used to refuse entry for this item for some reason, but fortunately the manufacturer was able to get around the restriction by labeling them as, "Bait".
I guess it's what you're used to. I love Rattlesnake Chili, but my Korean wife won't come near it. (Or me, after I eat it.)
Posted by: Calladus | February 9, 2007 7:34 PM
I'll stick to my octo-dogs, thank you very much.
Posted by: Saint Gasoline | February 9, 2007 7:49 PM
I suspect this man would have problems with the Great Chieftan of the Pudding Race too.
Tongue is very nice in sandwiches. Oxtail soup is nice, the meat makes a good stew too, and (if you can find it) should be pretty cheap.
Posted by: Dave Godfrey | February 9, 2007 7:51 PM
Weasel coffee? it's CIVET coffee, thankyou very much *shakes head sadly*
and those are ant pupae, not eggs. Misleading labels! Misleading Labels!
(strangest thing I've ever eaten? Green Tree Ants! tasty and refreshing lemon flavour. The coconut milk and bacteria gel is scarcely strange enough to mention, altho also very tasty. )
Posted by: Drhoz! | February 9, 2007 8:16 PM
You should check out the Onion's "Dollar Store delights" series. Don't do it in public, though, because it is laugh out loud funny. You won't be able to stop yourself once you start reading them. Here's the links, in chronological order:
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24500
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24599 (My favorite)
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24683
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24766
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/25381
Posted by: MikeQ | February 9, 2007 9:45 PM
In Japan I've learned not to ask a lot of the time (especially at fancy restaurants), but there are a couple of things that are hard to miss. Locusts weren't bad (crunchy with a sweet black sauce), but I will never eat funazushi again. I tried it once, and that was enough. My partner loves it, and his relatives occasionally send him some as a special treat. I wish they wouldn't. I have to leave the kitchen when he unwraps it. The pong!
Some friends have tried a couple of things I have been fortunate enough to avoid so far (that I know of): fugu balls, and fish semen. Their descriptions did not make me want to try.
Lamb brains, however ... I grew up having those for lunch at least once a week (they were cheap) and they're good. But I will never forget one particular lunchtime when I was about 13. Staring at my plate of brain fritters I had a revelation, and said to my mother,
"Mum, are these brains ... you know, actual ... BRAINS?"
"Yes, dear," she said. "That's why they're called brains."
I felt a bit stupid to have not noticed before. I mean, there they were, all grey and mushy and indisputably brain-like, and they were CALLED 'brains,' no fancy name or cover-up, and yet ... I don't know, until that moment, to me they were just 'lunch.' (I didn't stop eating them, though.)
Posted by: BadAunt | February 9, 2007 10:41 PM
I felt a bit stupid to have not noticed before. I mean, there they were, all grey and mushy and indisputably brain-like, and they were CALLED 'brains,' no fancy name or cover-up, and yet ... I don't know, until that moment, to me they were just 'lunch.'
Well, families can be odd that way. I grew up on Frogspawn Pudding (tapioca) and Fly Pie (current pastry). They do bear a remarkable resemblance to their namesakes.
Posted by: Graculus | February 9, 2007 10:52 PM
True. I feel a little less stupid now.
(Except ... IS there anything else that resembles brains?)
Posted by: BadAunt | February 9, 2007 11:38 PM
"Frogspawn Pudding"? We used to call tapioca Fisheye Pudding - although I think our Dad may have picked up that term during his service in the army back in the '50s.
Actually there is a brand of fried mealworms called "Larvettes". I picked up a few packages from a scientific surplus store in the Chicago area for my son as a joke Christmas present. We tried them out and the weren't all that bad. They are sold in Cheese, Barbeque and 'Original' flavors. Even the 'original' ones were good - crunchy, salty, with a slight bacony finish.
Posted by: N'mom | February 9, 2007 11:54 PM
It's called salmiakki. The sort of stuff that has to be tried once. I heard a story of a Finn who went to the doctor complaining that he was turning blue. After some discussion, the doctor concluded it was the n bags of salmiakki that was causing it.
The worst thing I've eaten is from across the Baltic: surströmming. So bad, the cans have to be opened under water in a at the other end of the building.
Bob
Posted by: Bob O'H | February 10, 2007 1:18 AM
I've been told that some Brits enjoy snacks like Crunchy Frog, Ram's Bladder Cup, Cockroach Cluster, Anthrax Ripple, and Spring Surprise (Covered in dark, velvety chocolate, when you pop it into your mouth, stainless steel bolts spring out and plunge straight through both cheeks)
Posted by: C.W. | February 10, 2007 6:20 AM
I am just curious about where you picked that from.
I had it a few days ago from here : http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2007/02/no_redeeming_so.html
Posted by: Kevembuangga | February 10, 2007 7:04 AM
Scandinavia too.
Fermented herring (or "surströmming", see Bob O'H) is actually the strangest funny food item for me. Very tasty and basis for a traditional party in some homes. Though you do have to open the self-pressurized cans under water. (Because the pong is lesser and it prevents pressurized smelly water from splashing onto your party clothes.)
Next is bear tongue. The taste was fine, but the texture reminded too much of having another tongue in your mouth.
I have seen but refused those italian cheeses with larvae in (formaggio marcio). But I have eaten parts of larvae in apples or raw fungus by accident. They don't make the taste different there, though.
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson | February 10, 2007 7:19 AM
"the texture reminded too much of having another tongue in your mouth" - the texture reminded too much of having a dead tongue in your mouth".
I don't mind tongues as such. :-)
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson | February 10, 2007 7:22 AM
I've tried the silkworm larvae too: they were one of the most repulsive things I've ever tasted.
In Ecuador, I tried guinea pig, which had a very distinct rodent-like odor, reminiscent of rodent cages. I also tried guanta (paca), which was very good except for picking the lead shot out of the meat.
Posted by: Mike Huben | February 10, 2007 8:20 AM
Just for the record, I have tried Kopi Luwak coffee, and it's damn good. I'd drink it any time.
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | February 10, 2007 9:35 AM
I am allergic to shrimp, crab and lobster (something in the shells), so therefore I also avoid eating insects. See? Ignorance about evolution can kill you!
Posted by: frank schmidt | February 10, 2007 9:57 AM
I've tried Chapulin, a mexican delicacy of sauteed early instar grasshoppers; tasted like wood. Also, I've eaten second-pass rabbit pellets, basically the remnants of indigestible lignins, to gross out my students, tasted like sawdust. Finally, I've eaten weevil larvae from acorns. The challenge from my advisor was which would you rather eat: the weevil larva in an acorn or the acorn? I'd rather eat the larva because it didn't taste like anything really and the head capsule provided a nice crunch. The bitter tannins in the acorn left an awful taste that stayed with me for hours. Anyone interested in the subject of strange diets throughout the world should check out the book "Man Eating Bugs". The worst sounding thing in the book was deep fried Belostomatid (giant water bug).
Posted by: Kurt | February 10, 2007 10:02 AM
According to a fellow of mine who tripped face first in a cow enclosure, dung doesn't taste much.
There is an (unconfirmed) anecdote in circulation about an arachnid researcher who had learned to eat insects somewhere, and made a habit of it. While taking a London bus, he noted a spider dropping down a thread, a species he knew tasted good. He didn't think too much about it, but when he started to chew on his bonus snack a passenger who had observed him fainted.
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson | February 10, 2007 11:36 PM
Bad Candy hasn't been updated in a while, but it's still worth reading.
Posted by: arensb | February 11, 2007 7:13 PM
All these comments and nobody mentions Crunchy Frog?? What's the matter with you people?
I want to know where the lark's vomit is!
Posted by: ArtK | February 12, 2007 7:00 PM
Haggis, lutefisk, blood sausage, horse sashimi, tongue, brain curry (homemade), brains and eggs (a delicious combination - the brains are a bit like mushrooms in flavor, but richer and more tender), chitterlings (aka chitlins), pig ear sandwiches, squirrel fricasse, squirrel-based Brunswick stew, etc. etc. These are all just ordinary foods in other parts of the world (including Minnesota and Georgia). A couple of times, during cookouts for my (and others') summer research students and their advisors and associated persons, I've cooked a haggis, complete with a haggis-bearer (one of the students), my recitation of Burns's "Ode to a Haggis" and an acting out of the poem, including:
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!
This applies to the haggis, not the bearer, even though the surprise to the bearer can be rather strong.
Sort of a reverse Burns Day, since it occurs in summer rather than January...
I'm very much in need of some surstromming, which appears to be intermittently available over the Internet. I might have to make my own funa zushi...
Haggis can be purchased from Lamb's in Oregon - enter "Lamb's Haggis" as a search term. Unfortunately, it does not contain the traditional lungs, which are banned from use in the U.S. One of the more colorful recipes that I've found for haggis is one where the various meats, including lungs, are placed in a pot and simmered, with the windpipe dangling over the edge of the pot to allow expulsion of the foamy inner contents.
Thanks to all for the very interesting links. I can already buy salmiakki (it's very good) here in St. Peter, but did not realize that it was flavored with ammonium chloride (that has true chemistry nerd potential). I have since searched out a recipe for Swedish Ammonia Cookies (really).
Posted by: beccarii | February 12, 2007 9:03 PM
I've always wondered what weird cheeses taste like. Say, whale cheese. I guess it would be really fatty, but ...
Posted by: Keith Douglas | February 12, 2007 10:10 PM