"World's Scariest Foods"

[BryonMorrigan]

If this article doesn't make you want to be a vegetarian, then I don't know what will (Warning! Very Gross!):

http://www.concierge.com/ideas/foodwine/tours/501163?mbid=con_ob_cpc_a

[Odion]

I've heard of quite a few of these before... very strange.
There are some unusual (by Western standards) foods out there. Snails, crocodile, dog..

Only weird thing I've eaten, really, was at an end-of-class party. It's not as weird as those, though (only one I've eaten is jello, although I was never a fan of the stuff, really). Anyway, there was a buffet on, so I picked something up, chewed, and spat it out. I asked what that was.. turned out I'd just bitten into reindeer!

I did feel bad, because every winter my family and I travel about 45 minutes by car to feed the reindeer, and I'd done that just a week before!

[Ramakrishna]

Namaste,

To me, the weirdest thing on that list was the baked guinea pig. I had no idea people eat those cute little animals!

But I guess people will eat anything...

Jai Sri Krishna

[Ao]

Vegetarian-friendly, most certainly an acquired taste, but undeniably weird is natto--Japan's (in)famous fermented soybeans. Just the smell alone is enough to turn most off!

[Alise]

Namaste,

I have tasted that Black pudding (blood sausage is in latvian way). I hated taste of it & texture. My mom still sometimes buys it & enjoys it with cranberry juice. It makes me cringe just to look at it...

Most of these foods are way better to shows like Fear Factor (That USA show is very famous & beloved in Latvia, re-runs in 2 different channels). Eating guinea pigs? I'm so sorry for everyone who has that animal as a pet, it's scary to think that animals in pet stores are eaten somewhere.

Have a nice day,
~Alice

[Odion]

Vegetarian-friendly, most certainly an acquired taste, but undeniably weird is natto--Japan's (in)famous fermented soybeans. Just the smell alone is enough to turn most off!

Heh, natto. Haven't eaten it for some time.

First time I ever ate it, my friend and I bought one each (in the foamy packet thing). I hesitated and tried a bean at a time, but my friend said, "Oh, I can eat this, no problem!" - mixed in the soya sauce and the mustard, and scooped up about two thirds of it, put it in his mouth and started chewing.

I laughed at his reaction for about ten minutes.

Gotta give it to him though, he did eat it all.

[Believer]

Many years ago, while on a business trip in Colorado, a co-worker of mine once ordered Rocky Mountain Oysters for his appetizer. I was to find out later on, that these so called oysters were actually deep fried, battered bull's testicles. The things people would eat!!!

[sunyata07]

Namaste,

Whenever I read articles like that, or hear about what some celebrity had to eat on Fear Factor-esque shows, I thank God I have no desire to ever put a shread of meat (living or dead) into my mouth again. The things some people are willing to put inside their bodies (in all seriousness, though, guinea pigs?!) Actually, I have found that while Westerners tend to be quite big on meat-eating, they don't hold a candle to the Chinese, or even East Asian cuisine in general. There's a saying they have over where my mother comes from on what you can and can't eat, taboo-wise: "If its back faces up towards the sky, you can eat it." Sounds horrible, doesn't it?

I've noticed that some people tend to see meats as things that were always slaughtered to begin with, ready for packaging and to be cooked and served, and not as things that once a life, breathed air, had memories and might even have felt pain and pleasure like themselves. A very drastic demonstration, would be to take any ordinary person and visit an abbatoir together. I can almost guarantee you most people would never touch beef again if they could see what goes on inside those places first-hand. It also helps if they have a pet that resembles the animal in question. If you haven't heard of micro pigs yet, they're a breed of miniature pig that have suddenly become very popular as pets in the west - especially with celebrities, because of their pygmy sizes and cute piglet appearances. It's not hard to see why so many people want them to love and cherish; they are devilishly cute little fellows. But how many of these owners do you think would realise they could never touch pork or bacon again while they owned these animals as beloved family pets, or eat any pig-meat ever?

Om namah Shivaya

[Arjuni]

Namast�,

Discussions about odd/bizarre/scary foods always remind me of that "educational video" they show on The Simpsons, in the episode where Lisa decides to become vegetarian. (Just 1:34 to 1:49 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IMFcJBAQ6I) "You see, your crazy friend never heard of 'the food chain'!"

Sunyata, I agree with you that a visit to an abattoir would be eye-opening for a lot of people, but in the end, likely futile. Fear, disgust, and sadness are powerful motivators, but often only temporary because they're bad feelings that people want to escape. It's like trying to lose weight because you hate your appearance; eventually, you get tired of longing for forbidden foods, lonely and sick of disliking yourself, so you give up because the entire experience feels miserable. Likewise, the shock and horror of slaughter fade, because it's so enormous and horrible that few can stand to live under that weight. Much more powerful are reasons of love and happiness; when something feels good and strengthening, you want to keep doing it.

It's really weird how people compartmentalize things, isn't it? This pet is cute, so we take care of it; that animal does nothing for us aesthetically, so we can kill it. This animal symbolizes peace; that animal means nothing in particular, so we can hunt it. "Animals" as a group tend to be lumped into this "lesser" category that people look down upon. It's just how some people discriminate against other groups of people, isn't it? By hating all except the familiar. "Oh, I can't stand people from _____ country - well, except for that one guy I work with, he's okay."

We're blessed that so many tales in Sanatana Dharma involve animals; they serve as a beautiful motivator for a vegetarian lifestyle, since any animal food you're tempted to eat is probably a devotee, a vahana, or related to the Devas somehow. ("You're a vegetarian now? Oh, but you still eat fish, right?" :thinks of Matsya Avatar: "No. No I don't.")

Anyway, I'm way off topic, so time to stop rambling!

Indraneela
===
"I wait the power of one like thee, O Indra, gifts of a Helper such as thou art, Hero.
Strong, Mighty God, dwell with me now and ever."
Oṃ Indrāya Namaḥ.
Oṃ Namaḥ Śivāya.

[namahsivaya]

I've noticed that some people tend to see meats as things that were always slaughtered to begin with, ready for packaging and to be cooked and served, and not as things that once a life, breathed air, had memories and might even have felt pain and pleasure like themselves. A very drastic demonstration, would be to take any ordinary person and visit an abbatoir together. I can almost guarantee you most people would never touch beef again if they could see what goes on inside those places first-hand. It also helps if they have a pet that resembles the animal in question. If you haven't heard of micro pigs yet, they're a breed of miniature pig that have suddenly become very popular as pets in the west - especially with celebrities, because of their pygmy sizes and cute piglet appearances. It's not hard to see why so many people want them to love and cherish; they are devilishly cute little fellows. But how many of these owners do you think would realise they could never touch pork or bacon again while they owned these animals as beloved family pets, or eat any pig-meat ever?

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian."
Sir Paul McCartney

Om Namah Sivaya