MetaChat - Get it down your neck

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21 August 2007

Get it down your neck Weird Cuisine: Raw beef, Raw whale, Raw horse, Raw chicken, Live octopus, Crocodile kebabs, Eel liver soup, Fish head curry, Giant shrimp heads, Monkfish liver, Sea urchin gonads, Snow frog fallopian tubes, Blood soup, Chicken ovaries, Dog meat soup, Kangaroo steak, Pig intestines, Pork trotters, Sheep testicles, Steamed silkworms, Stinky tofu, Radium eggs, Golden Muscle Wine, Bat, Dog penis, Tripe goulash, Bear meatballs & Blood Pancackes.

Say it with me: Mmmmmmmmm, mmmmmmmmmmm, MMMMMMMM!→[More:]

It is my considered opinion that cuisine is the most subjective thing on the planet; even moreso than music... what so you, metachatters?

post by: chuckdarwin at: 19:26 | 22 comments

well, sure. The similarity is that the reactions to both, while they can be deepened by intellectual and aesthetic appreciation, are ultimately visceral. Someone can talk to me for days about say..Leonard Cohen's importance or talent, but it ultimately won't make me enjoy listening to his records. and similarly I was just watching Alton Brown talk about mushrooms, and while it was inetresting, I still don't like eating mushrooms. so there you go.

posted by jonmc 21 August | 19:33

But are mushrooms HARDER to get to grips with than Leonard Cohen?

posted by chuckdarwin 21 August | 19:36

I guess, since I can kind of appreciate Cohen as a songwriter (but not a singer), but the thought of eating mushrooms makes me gag.

posted by jonmc 21 August | 19:37

um. no. I just finished dinner....but yes, it's subjective/cultural.

posted by mightshould 21 August | 19:37

See my comment from earlier today. I still want to know who likes durian.

posted by iconomy 21 August | 19:41

but yes, it's subjective/cultural.

I sometimes wonder how cultural it is (beyond economic 'you'll eat anything if you're hungry enough' type of things). I've enjoyed stuff like plantains, frog, venison, duck, jicama, blood sausage,raw fish and others that are not typical american food, and stuff like cheetos, pretzels, raw onion, pickle relish and iceberg lettuce (which are typical american foods) revolt me.

posted by jonmc 21 August | 19:44

I still want to know who likes durian.

Not me. I never could stand Simon Le Bon.

posted by essexjan 21 August | 19:48

although, my Nonna used to make me what she called 'egg frosting, which was raw egg yolk mixed up with sugar in a bowl (apparently a rustic northern Italian treat), which I loved as a kid, but which has left non-Italian acquaintaces revolted

posted by jonmc 21 August | 19:49

Dog meat soup... illegal... Recommended.

I hope this idiot gets eaten. Preferably by a dog or a bear.

But to answer your question, I believe that some music is better than other music and that this is independent of my preferences. (There is good disco, for example, even though I don't like the genre). Food is probably the same: despite some subjective differences there are probably some objective criteria lurking at the bottom of it.

No music, so far as I know, requires death or suffering however, and that gives food preferences a moral aspect that music lacks.

posted by GeckoDundee 21 August | 19:49

The biggest divide i find in people willing to try different things is texture.
i like things for texture like mushrooms and seaweed and guts of different kinds.
Lots of people reject for the same reason.

i do get more squeamish and queasy as i get older but i'll still try things, just at the right time.
i'll try the legendary durian some day, just not on a queasy day.
And i love sea urchin, all mushrooms, guts and marrow, gristlely weirdness and raw whatever.

posted by ethylene 21 August | 19:50

Sure, you'll try eating anything when you're hungry enough, but If you're not exposed to food as "OK to eat" - like some of the things mentioned by chuckdarwin, then they are considered "out of bounds" unless there are extreme circumstances; and also, there are the different religious opinions on some foods.

But as far as it being a subjective thing, I'll agree with that. We all have foods that we eat out of the "norm" based on our own taste, like you described, jonmc. Hey, I grew up in a location that pickled pig's feet were considered OK food! (but not for me, thankyouverymuch)

posted by mightshould 21 August | 19:54

No music, so far as I know, requires death or suffering however, ...
Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, etc etc etc.

posted by dg 21 August | 19:56

although..tastes can change. When I was a kid, I got it into my head that I didn't like nuts (although I loved peanut butter), I think after eating a hershey's with almonds (I still don't like slivered almonds and avoided them for the next 3 decades. Then about 5 years ago pips hada can of honey roasted mixed nuts and offered me one. On a lark, I tried it. It was delicious, and I've been a ravenous peanut, cashew and pecan fan ever since. So maybe someday I'll try mushrooms, although the few times I've had them by accident they've revolted me.

posted by jonmc 21 August | 20:00

I never could stand Simon Le Bon.

What about Simon Le BonBons? Do you like those?

posted by iconomy 21 August | 21:11

Only if he buys her dinner first.

posted by dg 21 August | 21:14

Durian is apparently so popular in parts of Asia that it's been banned from hotels, trains, etc. because people complained about the hideous aroma. So SOMEONE likes it.

posted by chuckdarwin 22 August | 02:34

Don't a lot of people eat dogs? Are all the people in North Korea who enjoy eating dogmeat morally wrong?

Why is it morally wrong to eat a dog, but not morally wrong to eat a cow, a sheep, a chicken, a turkey or a pig?

I don't condone it (and I've never tried it): I'm playing devil's advocate.

posted by chuckdarwin 22 August | 02:39

I remember the trick played upon me by a key agent in Taipei, who took me along to the night market and insisted on getting me a vodka and freshly steaming snakeblood cocktail. They behead the snake straight into the glass, fresh mmmm lovely.
Of course everything you read about "Dealing with Key Asian clients 101" says suck it up, so I duly did.
He was dead impressed, told me only me and the Aussie didn't hesitate. I told him most Aussies were originally Irish anyway so that didn't surprise me ;-)
We survived a fucking famine people where snake blood would have been a delicacy I tell ya. Rah, Rah

Well, you can't hesitate in that situation now can you?

posted by Wilder 22 August | 02:53

Wilder is hardcore!

I just want to say that the phrase "get it down your neck" as a euphemism for eating is just about the grossest, most awesome expression I've ever heard. Thanks, chuckdarwin!

posted by Atom Eyes 22 August | 10:05

Thanks, chuckdarwin!

You're welcome. People round here say it a lot: I only say it as part of my immersion therapy, honest.

posted by chuckdarwin 22 August | 10:47

I suppose there's a lot of debate about the morality of eating various foods (though that is really my point: there isn't with music^*).

There seems to me a clear moral difference though between eating beef that comes from a regulated and theoretically humane industry (even though I think that's problematic itself) and eating illegal dog meat. How would those dogs have been treated? Did he not even think about it? Did he think about it and then make the significant effort to find it anyway? Either way, I think he's an arsehole.

^*dg's insightful observation notwithstanding.

posted by GeckoDundee 22 August | 20:17

theoretically humane industry

The beef industry isn't even theoretically humane, IMO.

Either way, I think he's an arsehole.

He's obviously a guy who likes to eat illegal food... it's the same reason that some people steal: it's a buzz.

At least he didn't list bushmeat.

posted by chuckdarwin 23 August | 10:34

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