In biology today, I learned that a lot of the foods that we eat are only a tiny percent of the ones that are edible out there, and that the ones we eat are usually eaten by most of the world as well.
A restaurant with the food made out with some of the more little-known edible foodstuffs would raise awareness of these weird, wonderful, and delicious delicacies.-- froglet, May 27 2005 A different take on the stuff we already eat http://www.timesonl...1147-995433,00.html [coprocephalous, May 27 2005] Here ya go, [froglet] http://www.greatbri....co.uk/rc_lancs.htmSome of the stuff us hard Northerners eat. [AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 27 2005] Wild foods Festival, NZ http://www.wildfood...wildfoods/foodfest/Grilled cow's udder, anyone? [Adze, May 28 2005] St John's Restaurant http://www.stjohnrestaurant.co.ukjust near the old meat market [pertinax, Sep 26 2006] What's the difference between Dim Sum and Yum Cha? Yum_20Cha_2fDim_20Sum_20PharmaceuticalA link on this idea answers that question. Thanks, [PotatoStew], I didn't know that until a few min's ago. [Zimmy, Sep 26 2006] A Nutritious Breakfast of Human Brains! http://www.delocorp...reakfast/Brains.htm [ldischler, Nov 09 2006] weird food http://www.weird-food.com/ [shinobi, Nov 11 2006] Quite a fine notion, and one that need not be outlandish. I suspect that less than 20% of us have eaten even such once-common foods as venison, rabbit, pilchard and samphire.-- angel, May 27 2005 . . . and rat.-- contracts, May 27 2005 [angel] Pilchards are just big sardines. I can easily buy all the others in local shops (a local butcher makes "Bambi Burgers"), and am quite partial to all of them. Eyeballs I'm not that keen on though, nor tripe, elder or brains.-- coprocephalous, May 27 2005 [SH]I believe [angel] was just pointing out that in general people don't even stray from their regular diet for such widely available foodstuffs as mentioned-- scubadooper, May 27 2005 Yes, I know what pilchards are. When did you last eat one (not from a can)? Bambi-burgers are the easy way out, and I suspect that most of the flavouor and texture is lost; try roasting a haunch, or grilling a steak.Tripe I have no desire to try; brains is dog-food.-- angel, May 27 2005 Consider slow foods instead of fast foods.-- mensmaximus, May 27 2005 Tripe is disgusting. Bring on the brains.-- daseva, May 27 2005 Brains for me, too -- rare. With porridge.I read an interesting analysis of how the colonies in America came to be ethnically distinct based on differences in means of preparing and serving the same half dozen common foods.-- reensure, May 27 2005 //how the colonies in America came to be ethnically distinct// Nah, just watch Scarface.-- daseva, May 27 2005 //brains is dog-food.// Then why are there so many movies where there are zombies hell-bent on eating our brains, when all they're used for is dog food?
No, in the 'little known food restaurant' thing, I was meaning foods that were similar to the ones we eat, but are more *exotic*, or not well known like potatoes, for example, there is the chinese gooseberry, whose juice contains about 15 times more vitamin c than an orange. (source - my Standard Grade biology book).-- froglet, May 27 2005 Any thoughts on coffee (the new pepper) are welcome by me.-- reensure, May 27 2005 //The Chinese Gooseberry is also known as a kiwifruit. //By whom? Chinese gooseberry is the fruit of Physalis (chinese lantern) and is a marble-sized orange thing, and delicious. Kiwi fruit are the size of a big egg, green and fuzzy-skinned, and less delicious. Or is there some transatlantic difference here?-- Basepair, May 27 2005 [Basepair] UnaBubba is essentially correct. Kiwi fruit were developed from the Chinese gooseberry. Take it from a Kiwi.-- Adze, May 28 2005 //Kiwi fruit were developed from the Chinese gooseberry.// I did some Googling, and you're half right. We all agree on what is a kiwifruit (egg-sized, fuzzy thin skin, green flesh, black pips etc). But your 'chinese gooseberry' is not the same as ours (UK). In the UK, a chinese gooseberry (AKA cape gooseberry - some geographical confusion here!) is the fruit of Physalis (chinese lantern), and is a totally different thing. So, you learn something every day.-- Basepair, May 28 2005 Tried the small, chinese lantern gooseberry. Tasted... odd. Sour. I might like it if I'd been brought up eating them; I think the main problem I had was that the taste was unexpected.-- david_scothern, Jun 01 2005 Slightly related story, from Richard Lewis (I think): Rodentologist wandering around in Africa, planning to trap mice for some scientific reason, finds boys selling salted mice, changes plan to buying mice, labels them by villages, sends them back to lab, gets back to lab, staff tells him thanks for all the yummy mice.
//beef shinbones are roasted in an open fire and cracked open for the marrow. Most of us shudder in horror// Me, I think that sounds very good.
I'm living in a small town on Sumatra, pretty much straight from a small town in Missouri. I have available Swedish food or Acehnese food. "Weird, wonderful, and delicious" is right, Froglet. The Acehnese eat all kinds of stuff, and most of it is very good. The Swedes make delicious pancakes once a week.-- baconbrain, Jun 01 2005 I once ate a Reindeer kebab! No Christmas presents for me then.-- weedy, Jun 01 2005 It is strange and sad that, in an age where many of us have unprecedeted access to almost anything edible, our diets are becoming narrower and narrower in scope.-- Basepair, Jun 01 2005 Good call [froglet], let's talk about that.
That is, unless anyone has anything else to say about how worldly people are or are not.-- Texticle, Jun 02 2005 This makes me want to go try the Ethiopian restaurant we have here in Detroit. 'Feasts served in the traditional Ethiopian style.' Always makes me chuckle a bit, sadly.-- RayfordSteele, Jun 03 2005 Washington, DC, had the widest range of international restaurants I have ever seen. The Ethiopian stores along 18th NW had an amazing variety of foods. Yeah, it's a bit odd to me, as I first heard of Ethiopia in connection with famine. It looks like they take their food seriously and will cook anything. I know the spice jars took up half the store.
I just ate a Swedish version of chocolate cold cereal for breakfast--it was even worse than the American glop. My assistants brought in something wrapped in banana leaf--whatever it is smells good.-- baconbrain, Jun 03 2005 I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant once; I've been dining out on stories of how awful the food was ever since. (Well, actually, what I had was something like oxtail stew, but with the very low restaurant lighting, it was a royal pain trying to pick out the meat.)
I'm game for anything other than snails, squid and entrails. I've eaten venison, rabbit and pilchards, but what the heck is a samphire?-- DrCurry, Jun 03 2005 //Samphire// Frequently pickled in brine - yum! //Washington, DC, had the widest range of international restaurants I have ever seen. The Ethiopian stores along 18th NW // Slightly OT, I heard a sad fact (unchecked, I hasten to add) recently on Radio 4 - there are more Ethiopian doctors in DC than there are in Etiopia.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jun 03 2005 This is a great idea. It could work here in NYC. btw: I now know why UB is so smart (you are what you eat).-- crater, Jun 03 2005 There's an Ethiopian restaurant in Kentish Town (north London) called Salem. I always went for one of their dry curry-type dishes which were fantastic, served with a sort of unleavened bread which you scoop it up with (there's no cutlery). I can highly recommend it. I can also recommend brain, it tastes great but looks offputting so try not to look at it.-- wagster, Jun 03 2005 //btw: I now know why UB is so smart (you are what you eat).// So, [UB] is a zombie? Wow, you learn something new every day... Joking!-- froglet, Jun 03 2005 I was told that they have sold New Zealand venison as reindeer in Finland. Both are quite nice meats and reindeer steak goes well with Arctic lingonberry jam. Then vanilla ice cream with cloudberry jam is absolutely delicious. I bet many of you never heard of cloudberry or lingonberry?-- Pellepeloton, Sep 21 2006 I'm not liking the 'Fear Factor' direction most are leaning toward, but I do like the idea (having the exquisite taste I do).-- craigts, Sep 21 2006 Among the little-known Canadian foods you might find fiddleheads (maybe UB has tried them?), geoduck, caribou, saskatoon berries, and everyone's favourite - nanaimo bars.-- Canuck, Sep 23 2006 Consider St. John Restaurant near Smithfield meat market in central London; as well as offering, e.g., squirrel, they sell a book called 'nose-to-tail eating'. See link.-- pertinax, Sep 26 2006 Did you consider that what constitues as edible? Edible as defined means 'fit to be eaten by humans'. I'm afraid this also includes spiders, and other horrible things.
The reason that we only consume a tiny percent of what's edible is because throughout centuries and generations of sampling, trial, and error, each culture has come up with acceptable diets that slightly vary from one another. The staples are there; bread, milk, cheese, etc. The basics; meat, fish etc.
Then each culture have their distinctive foods, por exemplo, the Lebanese have a dish called Baid Ghanam. These are infact goats balls. Considered a delicacy, malasians eat deep-fried tarantulas, in Thailand they eat scewered rats, separated with locust. Check out the link for more disgusting shit.
These are all socially accepable in their respective cultures, but try feeding rats to the lebanese, or balls to the malaysian, and I'm afraid you'll get a WTF look from each of them.
These are of course extreme in the exotic foods section. There are more acceptable foods such as (all of which I have tried) Reindeer and Moose (Scandinavia), Springbok, aligator and Ostrich (South Africa), Piranha (South America).
Anyway to conclude this probably badly spelt thesis of mine, I suggest you flirt less with the extremely exotic, and focus more on the cross-socially acceptable foods. This ought to increase your footfall.-- shinobi, Nov 11 2006 random, halfbakery