Mommy, I'm Not Eating That!!!!

I wasn’t sure about the Amazing Eccentrics series on Current TV.  But with the hard drive wiped on the DVR, beggars cant be choosers.  So, tonight I watched the episode about food delicacies from around the world.  I was expecting disturbing.  Some of it exceeded my expectations. 

The first clip was about a restaurant in China that only served animal penis.  Apparently eating the penis of another animal improves virility.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be with a guy that eats dead cooked penis. The penises mentioned in the clip were goat, horse, yak, ox, donkey, and deer.  The correspondent went on to describe the texture and taste of each. I’ll spare you the gory details.

Next, Las 7 Regiones de Oaxaca Restaurant in Los Angeles was profiled. Here, they serve chapulinas. Do you really want to ask what this is?  Grasshoppers soaked in lime and water roasted in oil.  Not so shocking.  As an anthropology major in college, I saw plenty of films featuring people eating insects.  Grasshoppers are seemingly nutritious and delicious.  Where 100g of McDonalds hamburger has 12g of protein and 9g of fat, the chapulinas have 20.6g of protein and 6.1g of fat. 

They traveled to Vietnam next, one of 2 dozen countries that eats dog meat.  Dog meat is said to also increase virility because it warms the body.  I wonder about the dog penis.  That must be very special.  The dog part wasn’t so disturbing, though I’m a dog lover.  I know people eat it.  When he was served the still beating heart from a snake, that was sincerely disgusting.  No further comment.

Hidalgo, Mexico was the next stop.  They went to a food festival of local food delights.  On the menu were rattlesnake soup, worm tacos, BBQ iguana with rice, armadillo stew, and skinned rodent.  The only spectacular part of that was the heads of the dead ‘rodents’.  The teeth. I don’t know how to express how much that disturbed me.

Last, curiles were eaten in Honduras.  You’re going to ask aren’t you? Live clams is the answer. Not surprisingly, they are an aphrodisiac and are known as natural Viagra.  The live clams are served on a plate and don’t look very much alive until you squirt lemon juice on them. Acid kills them, so they squrm around quite a bit. Then you eat them. Nasty. 

When you travel, you should definitely try the local cuisine.  I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food. I just started eating Mexican maybe 5 years ago.  By Mexican, I do not mean grasshoppers or skinned rodent.  More like fajitas and flautas. More power to the people out there who can go to a foreign country and eat things that are completely out of their cultural norms. I am not one of you.