# You Ate WHAT? Contest.: Gold Medal Winner



## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

I know the topic of gross food has been kicked around before but I found this and had to share:

A Wall St. Journal dispatch from Nuoro, Sardinia, described the locals' love for casu marzu ("rotten cheese"): brown lumps made from sheep's milk crawling with wriggling maggots (the larvae of flies), whose enzymes cause the original pecorino cheese to decompose. Though the delicacy is banned by the government, the black market has pushed the price to more than $7 a pound, double that for worm-free pecorino. Local gourmands disdainfully dismiss any portions that are so stale that the maggots in them have died.

An excerpt: "Enzymes produced by the maggots cause the cheese to ferment and its fats to decompose. The result is a viscous, pungent goo that burns the tongue and can affect other parts of the body. One neophyte experienced a strange crawling sensation on his skin that lasted for days. And some of the wiggling worms jump straight toward the eyes with ballistic precision. To protect the eyes, some Sardinians recommend holding a hand over the sandwich."

I'll eat all the lamb eyeballs you want, just keep the hopping maggots off my plate and out of my eyes.

[This message has been edited by Live_to_cook (edited 12-23-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Live_to_cook (edited 12-23-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Live_to_cook (edited 12-23-2000).]


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Yep that was the article I read and quoted not as elaborately as you did, really gross huh?!!! I think that is tops. We had a thread before you joined us on Gross food that ran close to 100 entries...got lost when Nicko was gone into a computer black hole, boy there were some really good ones....gross ones.


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

umm, i have eaten witchity grubs, not bad, in omelettes. Not cheap, but tasty.


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

I was thinking so too, but hang on a sec. Nick.Shu: Just what are witchity grubs? Are they in fact insect larvae, included deliberately in an omlette? What kind of baby insect are you forking down?

And "not cheap"? How much did you pay for the privilege?

[This message has been edited by Live_to_cook (edited 12-25-2000).]


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

witchetty grubs are small grubs liberated from the bush by the aboriginal locals. They are a little nutty, with quite a soft texture.

i have a link to the supplier (bush foods are quite expensive, due to the cultivation techniques.
http://www.bushtucker.com.au

Worth a look.


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

ps, i have heard of a french cheese that will not ripen without the effects of a particular species of mites.

Very spectacular.


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

Jolly good try Nick.Shu, but unless the larvae actually fling themselves into your mouth, I think you're going to have to settle for silver on this one.


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

to get those critters live, you have to go into the outback with aboriginal guides, they dont actually dance into your mouth vis a vis some small childs curious and creative mind, but they do wriggle.

This post actually reminds me of the beast that was in "restaurant at the end of the universe" which was actually presented at the table live and made recommendations as to the best cut of meat off it.

heheh, new dish - witchetties a la congo.


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

Wait, Nick.Shu -- don't leave off the genius part of Douglas Adams' scene -- that the cow was bred to be 

1. determined to kill itself for your dining pleasure, relieving the sensitive diner of the guilt of contributing to the death of an animal...

2. able to say so out loud...


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

welllll geeee after Kobe's party hardy and drink tons of beer, get massages daily if not more often I think they feel an obligation to slit their coartid (sp) artory for our enjoyment.....it's the Japanese cow version of obiligatory sacrafices. (oh man where's my spell check when I really ned it)


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

i believe the magic of the creature was its complete lack of disregard for its fate and also, it would be very hard to send back overcooked meat that has been personally recommended by the animal itself.


Hehheh.


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

kobe beef, indeed, without the beer and massage, but with the self awareness,,, muahahah


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Welcome chefgup!! I didn't know Turkeys had testicals anymore...commercial ones are all artifically inseminated....you don't use it you lose it.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Amazing.....Mofo you are something else...I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.
Oh man buried calf head...kinda like kimchee the longer buried the better....


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## mudbug (Dec 30, 1999)

Live_to_cook,

How did I miss this thread? There are certain cultures you simply have to be raised in to appreciate certain traditions eh? Have I mentioned the live baby octopus?


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

Not completely the same but there is an Eskimo delicacy that involves burying seal and or whale blubber and innards until they ferment and rot. This to them is a delicacy.
It brings to mind the book "Alive" about the soccer players who crashed in the Andes mountains and had to live off their fallen comrades. Sad and gross as it is, it is an interesting read as to what they did with their "meat". Skulls for dishes, craving the fetid flavor for the salt from their nutritionless diet. As an interesting side note, due to the advent of modern convenience devices there was an epidemic many years ago of Eskimos dying from Botulism poisoning due to the practice mentioned above, but this time instead of burying it in tne tradiional blubber "sack" they used Tupperware thereby creating an airtight seal in which the bacteria thrived.

Hey look at me, I must be healing! I'm getting long winded again!!!


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

cchiu,

So what's the attraction for live baby octopus? Is it the freshness? Is there a sauce? The fact that it squirms and you eat it? Do you chew?

I'm serious, maybe you could explain.


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## katherine (Aug 12, 2000)

I understand that baby octopus canned in chili oil makes a wonderful garnish in your saketini. (6 parts topnotch vodka, 1 part sake)


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Speaking of nasty things.... anyone catch Iron Chef last night? It was the conger eel competition. I'd heard that eels are vivisected (cut up while alive) and wasn't sure it was true, but they showed it on the show. I won't be eating eel again (yes, I've eaten it smoked in Denmark). I thought I was so lucky to get to watch the show while visiting relatives, but turned it off.


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## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

Once upon a time in my gentle and placid youth, I went to the circus. 'Twas my very first circus, and my last. Thereupon I spied an old, wrinkled, and perhaps lonely elephant standing stately while swaying back and forth on all fours. You know how elephants are. I walked over to him and gently stroked his trunk. To my surprise, he sneezed in my face - thru his trunk. I really ate it!


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## lorib (Jan 3, 2001)

CS, Yes, I have heard of those eggs. Amy Tan talks about them in one of her books,I can't remember which one, but not the most recent. I also have a friend who has eaten them, she said they wre really over-rated, she did not care for them....


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## mudbug (Dec 30, 1999)

I wouldn't say they were "overated" I don't believe many people rave about them. It's an aquired taste as are most foods with which we have not grown up with. I highly doubt many who have not grown up with them would like them.

Even though they are called "1000 Year Old Eggs" it only takes 100 days to cure them.

You should be able to find them at your local asian grocery store. They are usually duck eggs. They are extremly unique in appearance and smell. They look like black/grey jello with crystals (once you peel off the shell) and they have an extremely strong sulfuric aroma. (so don't be surprised by the smell)

This from an article 1000 Year Old Eggs by Chef Morak


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## papa (Oct 5, 2001)

While living in France, I was served by the local gas station attendant "pate du renard" for being a dedicated client. I was surprised to be offered such delicacy at a gas station but I was even more surprised to find out that the beautiful pate was that of the fox.


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## shahar (Dec 15, 1999)

Does eating live baby crabs(they walk in the mouth until you crunch) qualify for bronze?
I don't know who tends to eat this in the world, but I used to eat that as a 5am snack when I worked for a fish monger.
Taste like a combo of caviar, softshell crab and sea urchin. Just squigllier.


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## benrias (May 2, 2003)

This was gross but it wasnt me who ate it...as a starving college student, my friend ate all that was left in the apartment: Top Ramen and Creamed Corn...MIXED!!!!! He started dry heaving. I wanna hear about gross foods that AREN'T delicacies somewhere in the world. Can anyone top this?


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## redace1960 (Apr 1, 2005)

shahar- ive done that! cleaning horseclams...you scrape off the muscle from the shell, suck that off your knife, (delicious) then in goes the little crabby guy that lives in the horseclams shell with him (same flavor, plus a certain scrabbly quality until you bite him). the rest of the clam gets ground for fritters. 
about witchetty grubs...saw a travelogue where the host downed a live one and it was NOT small. this thing was the size of your common breakfast sausage, only animated. and translucent. what i want to know to is, whats it the grub of? a pterodactyl???????


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

I enjoy:

Tripe (Italian, Chinese and _Menudo_)
Chicken Feet (Chinese)
Brains (Arab)
Liver (American - with onions)
Kidneys (French)
Pig Feet (Italian)
Pig Ears (Italian)
Pig Skin (makes a nice _bracciola_)
Escargots (French, Italian and Chinese)

Perhaps the most rare delicacy I have sampled is:

Lamb Spinal Cord (Arab)

I used to eat beef esophagus and windpipe until they were outlawed. When I was a kid, my mother would still be able to get them from a butcher (contraband meat?) and she'd simmer them in tomato sauce.


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## toddlove8845 (Jul 29, 2005)

live octopus with salt sesame dipping sauce. Realy good and briney but kind of strange to feel it move in your mouth.

Fermented skate fish with a sweet chili dipping sauce. This is the worst it tastes like ammonia.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

why oh why did I start reading this thread while eating wonderful asian flavored baked chicken wings!!! My stomach is generally pretty strong but when I got to the clams/grubs and lines after ....it just put me off food...
ugh.


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

There are Greek places near here that serve octopus. Got DH hooked on it. I've had it before, it's part of every Christmas Eve Seafood Salad - but DH hadn't.


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## toddlove8845 (Jul 29, 2005)

the octupus(baby) I was talking about was Korean style served live.


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## marie (Oct 17, 2005)

The food was surprisingly good considering the menu.


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## praties (Dec 7, 2005)

Kiviak - an Eskimo delicacy in which small auks are packed whole (innards, feathers and all) into a sealskin and buried for several months to "age". Nummmm! Quite the thing in Greenland for Christmas. Hmmmm...the family wanted something different this year.................:bounce:

Praties


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## mikelm (Dec 23, 2000)

Many years ago, I spent a year in Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, where my father was a U.S. State Department official. To shorten a long story, he and I were guests of a Paramount Chief at a native village way into the interior of the country. We were invited to dinner, and served a stew.

I don't pretend to remember the taste (it was more then 50 years ago) but we both finished our servings. It wasn't bad, helped along by local spices.
My father asked the chief, politely, what the stew ingredients were. The Chief said, with kind of a wink, that it was "tree antelope." 

After we left the group, my father said to me that we'd just had a dinner of monkey-meat.

Does not seem to have done me any harm. Monkeys are still a staple of West African diet, where protein sources are desperately scarce.

It's just that there aren't many monkeys left.

Mike


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