RE: weird foods

Not just the Chinese, but I think most dishes in most cultures are born out
of desperation. Look at escargot. In fact a lot of French cuisine. And
oddly it always seems that the cream of society wants the bottom of the
barrel for so called delicacies. After all who would prefer fish eggs over
the fish.

Don P
  -----Original Message-----
  From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of Don Winterstein
  Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 03:12
  To: glennmorton@entouch.net; asa@calvin.edu
  Subject: Re: weird foods

  Glenn Morton wrote:

  "I guess some of these weird foods come about because of a sense of macho,
which says something about our daring-do as a species"

  You may be right, but with the Chinese I've assumed many items on the menu
originated out of desperation: If you're starving, you'll eat anything. As
you know, they eat almost anything and everything. Some of those anythings
with a little soy sauce or sesame oil tasted pretty good, so they stayed on
the menu even in good times. This is my hypothesis. One piece of possibly
supporting evidence: duck eggs buried and aged in soil. (Tried 'em yet?)

  Or are they just adventurous? With such a long history, this
characteristic could also have played an important role.

  Don

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: glennmorton@entouch.net
    To: asa@calvin.edu ; 'anamchara7@juno.com'
    Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 4:02 PM
    Subject: Re: weird foods

    For some reason Sunday morning I stopped receiving emails at home. Oh
well. you had over cooked octopi. Jellyfish is the same way, if you over
cook it, you can't even chew it.

    I guess some of these wierd foods come about because of a sense of
macho, which says something about our daring-do as a species

    On Sat Jul 23 21:05 , "anamchara7@juno.com" sent:

      OK - eeewwww!!

      I'm sorry I looked at the vile jug. I hate snakes. But I do also have
a question - how do you make yourself swallow octopus? I just couldn't make
myself. I chewed and chewed and chewed and it never broke down, I was
worried about choking on that rubbery mass. Doesn't taste bad, really
doesn't have much flavor at all. I just couldn't make myself swallow it.

      Kamilla
Received on Mon Jul 25 05:41:33 2005