American guys discovering european food

[kaedorg]

Bon appétit 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQQgKj7fktk

[PabloMack]

Since the can was under so much pressure (it really sprayed when the top was punctured) I would think that something is growing in there. Sorry for the vulgarity. Not all Texans have such bad language (but a lot of them do).

[Bjur]

I visited a friend of mine years ago on Iceland, where he was working for CCP (Eve-Online) in Reykjavik.

It's not the same rotten fish but same league like the Swedish "Surströmming" these Texan guys tried in the video (even they called it Finnish).
Icelander have their rotten Greenland shark called "Hákarl" - I did try once!

God thx I'm a pacifist..

Few little pieces of that rotten fish are able to literally DESTROY all breathable air of a hugh multipurpose sports hall.

Guess what: "Hmmmmmnnnnnnn, NOT tasty!" 

[TheBadger]

You know I have to ask, where the heck do all these strange food traditions come from?

I always imagined it comes from historical famine. Take Caviar for example...

So someone from history gets up one day goes about their business, and then at lunch time says to himself, "you know, I just really have a hankering to eat some salted fish eggs."
I imagine somewhere in history there was a severe food shortage, and people just ate whatever they could. And along the way discovered a way to enjoy Caviar. Then to remember the survivalism made it part of their culture by making it a "delicacy".

With the ugly fish in the image above, perhaps norse peoples ate it to prove they had hair on their balls, the way some peoples would slap a bear or a tiger in the face to prove manhood. lol Personaly I would rather slap a lion than eat shit, but then again I do eat at McDonalds once in a while

I have also seen images of people eating giant cockroaches and spiders from south america, and I dont even want to think about the images I have seen of Chinese supermarkets 

Anyway, if anyone has a good story to explain some food stuff I would love to read it.

[Bjur]

Senseless behaviours, traditions, religions and food are beloved or hated, but respected at least by given locals and it's habits and influences, thus were part of their socialisation by growing up at their given places.

In case of such a awful rotten stink-fish on Iceland (I like Kaviar, and it's godlike against): Just had interest to taste their known strange speciality - my try entertained some locals at least.. ^^

Insects are another story. Living ones, no way..
But insects and their proteins (at least refined ones) become a main part of ppls food in the future, just sayin..

In all, we just talk about "mankind" thingies = Apes 3.0 which can drive cars in my view (incl. me)! 

[Dune]

It's probably sometimes habit + fear of the unknown. Why do I like shrimps and snails, but have a dislike for locusts and sea cucumbers and why do I like a raw salted herring with raw onion... I remember I had to learn to eat olives when I was very young, now I can't leave them alone.

[Bjur]

Hah, me too!

As kid, i hated them. Nowadays I could have a bath in olives sometimes.

But eating here named skandinavian "rottenstinkfish" specialitys, oh my, It's close to torture.. 

[TheBadger]

Ok, not sure if this is all real. But really, why doubt it? http://www.mandatory.com/2013/07/09/the-15-most-creepy-disgusting-foods-you-will-ever-see/1

[PabloMack]

The most comical thing about the video is that the one guy so easily gets nauseated. It is like he vomits on cue. The guy certainly has a talent and should look for jobs in indie films that call for lots of vomiting on cue (I don't know how many people would actually be interested in watched such a movie but a lot of people seam to find this video entertaining).

I liked black olives best as a teen but now I much prefer green olives. I think as we get older we develop more resistance and preference for more spicy (and mildly toxic?) foods. It is interesting to think about the roles compounds such as capsaicin have played in mitigating internal parasites as well as possible benefits as natural chemotherapies against such things as cancers of the intestinal lining.

To put my evolution spin on it, olfaction is a very interesting and primitive part of the mammalian brain. Comparatively, vision is a far more simple process in terms of the kinds of data the sensors need to detect. Humans only have Red, Green, Blue and Monochrome sensors. The complex part of vision is to make sense of the 2 and 3D patterns in an image. Smell, though, requires potentially hundreds or thousands of sensors (I don't know). Smell has been very important in evolution of the mammalian brain and becomes even more important in complete darkness. Our mammalian ancestors had to grope around in the dark because those that decided to become diurnal either had to be arboreal or, more often than not, end up as dinosaur food. Conscious thought happens in the telencephalon in the mammalian (and human) brain. This grew out of the olfactory lobe (fore-brain) of the vertebrate brain. In birds and other dinosaurs, their brain expansion came from the vertebrate mid-brain which is the part of the brain that processes vision. So if you ever wondered why birds can react to visual information so much faster than mammals, that may account for why. Visual information used by the human brain has a more tortuous route to go before the individual consciously "thinks" about what is happening. It must be passed from the mid-brain to the fore-brain before any intelligent thought goes on. But conscious thinking in dinosaurs happens in the same part of the brain where the vision is collected and processed.

What is appealing and not appealing to eat is very closely tied in with our primitive instincts. It is our main mechanism for avoiding poisonous or foods that are of very little benefit. It was not long ago that I discovered that grapes are poisonous to dogs. When I was young we had chihuahuas as pets and we used to feed them grapes. One died a horrible death and I think now that we unknowingly killed it. Typical foods can contain many thousands of compounds in varying amounts. Many plants manufacture or concentrate poisons to discourage animals from chowing down on their body parts. Some animals develop special resistance to certain poisons and this chemical warfare has been going on since the beginning of time for living things. It is really only recently that this artificial world of prepared and tested food has come about in modern times. Just think about what your ancestors had to deal with in deciding what was safe to eat and what was not in the primeval world.

[Dune]

Nice lecture again, Pablo. I mean it, interesting read. Keep this up, now and again.

[inkydigit]

great stuff folks!