I recently came across 'Strange Food From Around The World'. It lists all sorts of weird and wonderful dishes, including these examples.
BABY MICE WINE
Baby mice wine is a traditional Chinese and Korean "health tonic," which apparently tastes like raw gasoline.
Little mice, eyes still closed, are plucked from the embrace of their loving mothers and stuffed (while still alive) into a bottle of rice wine.
They are left to ferment while their parents wring their tiny mouse paws in despair, tears drooping sadly from the tips of their whiskers.
CIBREO
Cock's combs (the wattle-y stuff on a male chicken's head, not the plant): reputedly a classic Tuscan dish.
DROPPED FOWL (U.S. Kentucky)
Hang up a fowl by the neck to age until it's ripe enough that the weight of the carcass makes it fall off the head.
SHIOKARA (Japan)
Fresh raw fish (usually squid) served in a sauce made of fermented fish/squid guts. Truly awful. I'd sooner eat a quart of natto than down more than 1/2 cup of this stuff.
There's more at the link. Interesting reading . . . although hardly appetizing as far as I'm concerned!
Peter
Are you serious? Baby mice? It must be the culture. Oh, God!
ReplyDeleteFunny how many of those have or had a perfectly mainstream equivalent or context...
ReplyDeleteFish sauce is made just the same way as the sauce in shiokara, just used in much smaller quantities. Garum was the Roman version. There's a bottle of it in my fridge, used a few drops at a time it adds rich, non-fishy flavor to soups, stir-fries, and curries.
The "dropped fowl" is actually the traditional British way to handle autumn birds. It only works if you hang the bird in a cool, dry place. Then it dry-ages like beef or country ham rather than rotting.
Cock's combs = flavorful bit with connective tissue. We don't like eating those, but we sure like spare ribs and osso bucco (shanks) for the same reason.
...The baby mice wine, uh. I got nothin'.
Thank you so much, Peter! I started a diet today, and the Baby Mice Wine just made me totally lose my appetite.
ReplyDeleteYeah... Remind me again WHY I should "respect" other cultures?
ReplyDelete