Weird foods

Last weekend at Guilin, China, I had an opportunity to drink something I had only heard rumors of.  It is snake wine.  To make this somewhat of a scientific issue, I am always curious how it is that various groups of people eat and drink what they do.  The Australian aborigines eat Cycad nuts after a long process which no one could have come up with easily.  Normally those things kill you. Here is a description:

 "Macrozamia is a species of cycad, a strange, palm or fern-
like plant whose history goes back 200 million years.  It
produces unique, pinapple-like reproductive structures coalld
'stroboli'.  these are large and brightly coloured, but are also
toxic to herds of livestock, causing what is described by
stockmen in the outback as 'the zamia staggers'.  Moreover, it
has been discovered that cycads contain one of the most powerful
cancer-causing substances in the world.  'There is no such thing
as  people who eat cycads and who are only just learning about
how to prepare them.'
 "Removing the poison from cycad kernels was a lenghty,
complicated procedure.  Slightly different methods were used in
different regions.  One technique was to cut open the kernels and
soak out the poison with water.  Later, when the kernels were
free of toxin, they were ground into a starchy, flour-like
substance and baked into 'cycad bread'.  Another approach was
fermentation, in which the dissected kernels were placed in large
containers or pits for several months.  The material is safe to
eat when the kernels have either frothed or grown mouldy." ~
Josephine Flood, "The Archeology of the Dreamtime, (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1989), p. 211

Well last week end, I ran into one of those foods which one wonders why go to the bother.  On the river trip through Guilin, I was offered a chance to drink snake wine. At first I demurred, but a young man sitting next to me restored my courage by pulling out his wallet and paying 20 rmb for the privilege. I then opened mine and got my glass full of the amber fluid (which looked more like embalming fluid).  I drank.  You can see the vile jug at http://home.entouch.net/dmd/auth.htm  at the bottom in the section on foods I have eaten

I also got my chance 2 weeks ago to finally eat dog.  It is a sweet meat and very good.  (I now have lost the last few friends I had).  One wonders why I enjoy pushing the limits of cuisine like this, but maybe that is what drives mankind to come up with such weird foods in the firstplace.