7 replies to this topic

[chefrodrigo]

Hello Robb
I've been reading and enjoying your articles since the Austin Chronicle days. You had a real cult following with my friends and me in the Austin days.

I have a friend who will eat anything put in front of him. I'm a fairly adventurous eater myself but this guy puts me to shame. We were all glad to hear one day that a Malaysian friend had finally shut him down. She put a big plate of stir fried pig filopian (sp?) tubes in front of him. While she enjoyed her plate my friend just couldn't do it.

Have you ever been served anything that you just couldn't get past?

Rodney

ps - I carry your Texas Barbecue book around like the Bible.
pps - Don't forget to call Rodney/Merediths friend

[Robb Walsh]

Well thanks for the kind words.

Fallopian tubes don't sound real appetizing. But neither do pig's intestines (which are very popular in Bejing and are really pretty good) or cow stomach lining (aka menudo, the breakfast of champions). Sometimes all you really need to do is stop thinking about what it used to be and focus on what it has become.

But for the record, let's say I have some limits. I can't recall refusing to eat anything, but I want to reserve the right. I saw people eating live cinch bugs at Fonda Don Chon in Mexico City and while they were probably very tasty, they didn't appeal to me much.

[John Whiting]

Insects are an underrated source of protein. There's a book written in 1885 by Vincent M. Holt, called Why Not Eat Insects?. It explained, for the Victorian reader, that insects are the most efficient -- "green", one might say -- method of producing food energy.

An ironic footnote is that there have been a number of instances in America of serious illness and even death from malnourishment caused by a macrobiotic diet, but none in Asia. The reason is that in Asia, the rice is so infested with insects as to provide the necessary protein.

[Robb Walsh]

I prefer my bugs dead.

[russ parsons]

i've made it a point of pride that i try to taste everything with an open mind. i've eaten live sushi in korean places, oaxacan crickets and maguey grubs. i've even eaten "snail caviar" that someone was trying to get started several years ago (tiny, as you might expect, with a kind of herbal overtone). i do draw the line between things i'd order again for pleasure, as opposed to sheer research.

[bloviatrix]

Insects are an underrated source of protein. There's a book written in 1885 by Vincent M. Holt, called Why Not Eat Insects?. It explained, for the Victorian reader, that insects are the most efficient -- "green", one might say -- method of producing food energy.

Many years ago, while hiking in the Canadian Rockies, my guide began pointing out all the edible insects. His point was that if you ever got stranded in the woods, there were plenty of food sources that would allow you to avoid starvation.

The one I remember most clearly is the carpenter ant, which has a vaguely lemony flavor.

[ExtraMSG]

So, if the food network decided to make you their star and pay you to go around the world eating whatever's disgusting, would you do it? Fear Factor/Survivor no problem?

btw, just remember that the difference between a crab and a spider is only that the former is bigger and lives under water. If you've eaten crustaceans, you've eaten bugs.

[Robb Walsh]

No thanks.

Like I said in the introduction to Are You Really Going to Eat That?, eating weird food is not all that interesting except as a part of somebody's culture.