Ms. Hindenberg's eaten some rather strange stuff in her life

[franksolich]

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/115752287

Oh my.

I've been away from Skins's island lately, preoccupied with writing a book, and besides, until Skippy's back to 100%--I don't want to be accused of picking on a poor sick old man--there hasn't been a whole lot of reason to; no treasonous comments and seditious sentiments to look for.

Anyway.

The husband-hating elleng primitive's quoting from a newspaper article; this isn't her personal experience.

elleng (54,916 posts)   Thu Apr 23, 2015, 02:34 PM

Eat Up. You’ll Be Happier.
 
My father-in-law, an anthropologist, likes to talk about the time he ate dog penis. He was visiting a remote town in South Korea, and the mayor invited him to lunch. Once they’d finished the dog soup (not a big deal), a waitress carried out the boiled penis on a silver plate. The mayor cut it lengthwise with scissors, then served half to each of them.

“It tasted exactly like tripe — intestine,” my father-in-law recalls. “You’re always supposed to say, ‘like chicken,’ but it didn’t taste at all like chicken.”

Anthropologists are at the extreme end of what used to be a universal rule of hospitality: When a host offers you food, you eat it. It’s a show of trust, and a sign of belonging. Refuse his meal and you’re effectively rejecting him.

But as anyone who has recently tried to host a birthday party or a dinner in the English-speaking world knows, this rule no longer matters. Forget about dog penis; try offering visitors lasagna (it’s not vegan, not gluten-free, and it couldn’t have been cooked by a caveman).

Our increasingly choosy food habits are the subject of a French collection of academic essays, “Selective Eating: The Rise, Meaning and Sense of Personal Dietary Requirements,” which will be published in English next week. The editor, Claude Fischler, a social anthropologist, chose the topic after discovering that even anthropologists aren’t exempt: An Australian colleague said she had asked her Aboriginal subjects to accommodate her gluten-free diet, followed by choice, not by medical necessity.

Having lived in America and France, I’ve been on both sides of the picky-eating divide. I know it’s tiresome to hear about the paradoxically fabulous French eating habits. But it’s no accident that Unesco made the French gastronomic meal part of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” It’s worth looking at how they cope with picky eaters. . .

It turns out that the best part of going with the food flow isn’t the health benefits or the cuisine, it’s the conversation. You can finally talk about something else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/opinion/eat-up-youll-be-happier.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region

NYC_SKP (66,808 posts)    Thu Apr 23, 2015, 02:40 PM

1. Cap'n Crunch makes me happy!
 
I don't know if it's the childhood memory, the golden deliciousness, or the crunch, but when I want to indulge in a guilty food pleasure, the Cap'n is my go to happy food!

And, BTW, that's good advice re: dog penis.

I go with lasagna every time!

<<<favorite breakfast cereal is shredded wheat with sour cream slathered all over it; no milk, no sugar, just sour cream.

It's a damned sight healthier than sugary cereals; no teeth-decaying matter in it.

elleng (54,916 posts)    Thu Apr 23, 2015, 02:46 PM

3. Glad yours is still available, SKP.
 
Guess I'll have to look for my favorite. (Have to remember the name first. WAY before your Cap'n Crunch!)

DEFINITELY lasagna over dog penis! (But I do enjoy watching Bizarre Foods, wherein Andrew Zimmern tries lots of bizarre foods!)

Kali (40,828 posts)    Thu Apr 23, 2015, 02:47 PM

4. good article
 
I will never forget traveling and staying in a poor village in Mexico with a group that included several picky "lifestyle" fad eaters. I was mortified by their behavior. Unless you have a life-threatening allergy, you eat what your hosts provide. PERIOD. I say that being on the picky side myself.

elleng (54,916 posts)   Thu Apr 23, 2015, 02:56 PM

6. I agree, Kali, the host decides.
 
Funny, my sister in law + niece are visiting, they (and my brother) are vegetarian, but flexible, and they visited sister in law's brother's family yesterday and they are STRICTLY Kosher (orthodox Jewish.) Seems to be something unique on that side of the family! I FLEX!

<<<makes it a point to buy kosher food, if it happens to be available around here, which it sometimes is; it's healthier.

Warpy (82,284 posts)    Thu Apr 23, 2015, 03:28 PM

7. Oh, same here and I've eaten some pretty weird things over the years
 
I do have food allergies but I'm lucky that none of them require an epi pen. If I can eat around them without offending anyone, I do. If not, I just suffer the consequences rather than offend a generous host who has honored me with food.

jtuck004 (10,980 posts)    Thu Apr 23, 2015, 04:51 PM

8. It's how people choose political parties too.
 
And when I read this...

"We Anglophones have reasons for adopting strange diets. Increasingly, we live alone. We have an unprecedented choice of foods, and we’re not sure what’s in them, or whether they’re good for us. And we expect to customize practically everything: parenting, news, medicines, even our own faces.

Anyway, we’re not trying to have a shared experience of food. Mr. Fischler says that in his focus groups, Americans often described eating as part of an individual journey of self-discovery, in which each person tries to “find out over time and experience what my true nutritional self is, and satisfy it.”

It seemed emblematic of how way too damned many think and learn, and are taught to think and learn this way.

And why we are becoming more conservative - this can't lead to a healthy diet for the mind, either. 

fizzgig (22,621 posts)    Fri Apr 24, 2015, 12:34 AM

9. there are foods i don't care for, but i'll eat a lot of things
 
i love pate, but other offal kinda freaks me out but i would at least try it if offered by my host. i remember an old episode of no reservations (somewhere in the bush) and his dinner was basically boar rectum cooked in the ashes of the fire and he ate it like a champ. i don't know that i could go that far. cat would be problematic for me, too.

i try to eat a variety of foods, but sometimes have a hard time with that moderation thing*

*especially when it comes to gut bombs, beer, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and dope.

japple (5,164 posts)    Fri Apr 24, 2015, 07:33 AM

10. Boar rectum, yum, yum. I'll have two, please. I nearly spewed when I read that, fizzgig,
 
and I could never eat dog or cat.

I have a few food allergies, peanut being the worst, but I always try to be a good sport and eat whatever is being served. Would hate to vomit on a head of state (like GHWB), but might have to excuse myself from the table if something that made me really queasy was being served.

<<<wishes cousin nadin had showed up, to talk about how she avoids eating crow.

[GOBUCKS]

Pro tip for authors (nadin, coach, Pitt, DUmmy mythsaje, etc.): You can't go wrong with an opening sentence like this:

My father-in-law, an anthropologist, likes to talk about the time he ate dog penis.

[Skul]

Pro tip for authors (nadin, coach, Pitt, DUmmy mythsaje, etc.): You can't go wrong with an opening sentence like this:

I'm quite certain it got phDD's     undivided attention.

[Carl]

Anyway, we’re not trying to have a shared experience of food. Mr. Fischler says that in his focus groups, Americans often described eating as part of an individual journey of self-discovery, in which each person tries to “find out over time and experience what my true nutritional self is, and satisfy it.”

It seemed emblematic of how way too damned many think and learn, and are taught to think and learn this way.

And why we are becoming more conservative - this can't lead to a healthy diet for the mind, either.

I will eat what I damn well like so take your psycho babble collectivist bull shit and shove it back up your ass.

[diesel driver]

Kali (40,828 posts)    Thu Apr 23, 2015, 02:47 PM

4. good article
 
I will never forget traveling and staying in a poor village in Mexico with a group that included several picky "lifestyle" fad eaters. I was mortified by their behavior. Unless you have a life-threatening allergy, you eat what your hosts provide. PERIOD. I say that being on the picky side myself.

And yet, you dare BITCH about the working people of this country that provide for YOUR sorry ass!   FOAD, DUmmie!   

[SVPete]

I will eat what I damn well like so take your psycho babble collectivist bull shit and shove it back up your ass.

(S)He can't. Some DU member ate that! Remember the post about eating Bore Rectum?

[SVPete]

In some cultures/regions sources of protein are scarce/expensive, so they eat things many of us here in the West wouldn't consider eating. Some parts of East Asia enjoy canine cuisine. I remember hearing in coverage pf the Beijing Olympics that the training regime for the Chinese women's volleyball team included eating bull penis soup. I know, it sounds like a very off-color joke; have their been reports on the Coast to Coast radio program of minotaurs roaming around China? Large insect larvae are also eaten in China, and pig brains are eaten in Fiji (and probably elsewhere).

OTOH, calf brains used to be available in a local supermarket where I grew up in Central California. And "sweetbreads" have nothing to do with yeast or the flour of any grain!

[Big Dog]

(S)He can't. Some DU member ate that! Remember the post about eating Bore Rectum?

Fizzy, who describes herself as feeling "like a bag of smashed assholes".

I sense a theme.

[SVPete]

Fizzy, who describes herself as feeling "like a bag of smashed assholes".

I sense a theme.

That's a simile whose meaning I don't even want to ponder. Unless it means she's super-nasty when drunk.

[landofconfusion80]

That's a simile whose meaning I don't even want to ponder. Unless it means she's super-nasty when drunk.

Not just when she's drunk...

[Karin]

I will eat what I damn well like so take your psycho babble collectivist bull shit and shove it back up your ass.

   Preach it brotha!

Didn't we have a thread on here somewhere sometime about the weirdest thing you ever ate?  Some of you guys  have been quite adventurous.  Made me very queasy.

[obumazombie]

  Preach it brotha!

Didn't we have a thread on here somewhere sometime about the weirdest thing you ever ate?  Some of you guys  have been quite adventurous.  Made me very queasy.

Go tell it on the mountain !
The mountain named elleng !

[Big Dog]

  Preach it brotha!

Didn't we have a thread on here somewhere sometime about the weirdest thing you ever ate?  Some of you guys  have been quite adventurous.  Made me very queasy.

The weirdest thing I ever ate- wasn't bacon.