Putting my hand up for mac's share of the oysters, too - and the bubbly!
One of the great eating experiences of my life (apart from surstromming - yeccchhhh!!), was a couple of years back. We spent the weekend on a boat on the Hawkesbury River, a bit north of Sydney. There are oyster farms near here, but in the national park section, the oysters grow naturally on the rocks. Some of the boys went ashore and collected buckets of oysters.
I recall sitting on the deck of the boat, under a shade, in my swimmers, with an oyster knife, and my own bucket of oysters, and a glass of bubbly! (or several). There's photos of me, with oyster grit down my face, as I tackled all the oysters I could eat. Those present say the noises were the worst part - all that slurping and grunting and sighs of satisfaction!
margo, You're a lady after my own heart... errr, stomach.
c.i.
Don't like the raw oysters as much as clams on the half shell. Yummy!
The strangest food I have ever eaten was in Japan but I cannot tell you what it was because I did not know what it was not did I care to ask. The second most strange food I tried to eat was a stew with whole fish heads in it made by friends from Togo in D.C. I can eat almost any thing but that stuff tasted rotten.
c.i. have eaten at one time or another dog, bat, snake, alligator, ostrich, rat, and some kind of entrails cooked in blood. Wouldn't do it again though. I have a limit on grossing me out just once.
Oh yeah, ate a number of grubs and insects too.
When i was about five, another kid said he'd give me a half-dollar if i ate a big, green caterpiggle . . . well, when Eisenhower was in office, 50 cents was big money, so i ate it. Then he tried to weasel out on me--my oldest brother just laughed, he always had a cruel streak. My other brother, however, was indignant enough about the constant injustices of adults--so in this case, he got really steamed, and made the guy give me the 50 cents. In them there days, 50 cents bought a lot of soda and candy bars to wash it down with . . .
Margo,
How did you get on opening the oysters?
I cut myself quite badly once when the knife slipped!
Oysters revenge I suppose.
Tell us JoanneD. How do you wind up eating something that you don't even want to identify? Reading that, I flashed on you being lost in the jungle or something. Starving. Can you share with us? The story, not the unidentified food. ha-ha
pueo, Setanta - When in the Nam I was in the rear once and saw this kid collecting beetles that looked like what we called June bugs under the street lamps. In my best pidgeon I ask him what he was doing - we use to tie a string on them and call them pets. When you could get them to fly, they were flying pets. Take them for a fly you know, thought maybe this was what he was doing.
Anyway, after digression, the kid tells me, "Numba 1 chop-chop!"; Throws one in his mouth and crunches away. Offered me one but I refused. I was already grossed out enough.
I lived in Southern Japan for two years in a traditional Japanese home with a really small refrigerator and thus had to shop each day as is the custom in Japan. Each day my daughter and I biked down to our local Japanese grocery store and picked out our food for the day. Since we could not read Japanese we just bought food by the look of it. We did not really know what we were really eating. Most of it was very good and we liked it, some was just OK, and some things tasted odd and we did not like it. But we never knew for sure what was in most of the food we were eating if it was not readily identifable by its look.
JD, You and your mother are just adventurous people! Trusting too. It's too bad you didn't know what you ate, because the preparation of food can vary from one area of Japan to the other. c.i.
c.i we traveled widley in Japan and ate the local food everywhere. Korea as well. As I said most of the food was pleasing to the pallette. The best food we ate was the food our mamasan made for our family each Friday. Now I do have the receipes for those dishes fried rice (only good with pearl rice) and I make my own Sushi. Speaking of rice I love, love, love the way the rice was prepred in Japan and often ate lots of it just plain, yum. A favorite treat were the obento boxes sold on the trains, always exciting and alway full of goodies.
The best thing I learned was how to buy fresh fish in the US. Go to the Asian Market and follow the ladies and buy what they buy after the look over everything. You can never go wrong with fresh fish that way.
JD, The secret of buying fresh fish is by touch and looking at the fish's eyes. If you poke the fish, it must spring back immediately. The eyes must be clear. Another way is to buy the fish still swimming in their tanks. Your system works too! c.i.
That is exactly correct I watch the Japanese ladies poking and such and pick what they pick.
Well, if we're going to get into toddler snacks...
My brother ate roly-poly bugs (aka pill bugs, sow bugs, doodlebugs) as a small child - lots of them.
Me an' a buddy used to go to an oyster bar down in Florida after we were done mowin' lawns and "landscaping" for the day . . . we always went to one right across from the dog track. That way, we would buy a dozen, and a schooner of beer, and wait for the winners from across the street. A little known tradition, from which we profited, was for a big winner at the track to come over to the oyster bar, and buy the house a dozen slimies and a schooner of beer. We'd often leave, thoroughly stuffed and drunk on our . . . assets. Them college boys who worked there for minimum wage and tips could open a dozen shells in no time flat . . . we took good care of them, and they returned the favor . . .
I went to this one wedding there with over 6,000 people attending, and at the far-end of their huge buffet they had about 50 cows hanging upside down! You'd just point at a bodypart that caught your fancy & one of the butchers would slice it off right onto your plate.
They were shocked, I tell ya.....it was funny as hell.
.
(and you have to be better dressed!) and you pay $3 a piece!
