Eating the Scorpion, I will take cricket please

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Scorpion or cricket is that the choices??? I ate cricket the first time in Asia. You now the saying, “When in Rome…” and that is how I felt at the time. The best way to know a country, its people or culture is the food. I definitely can relate to this video. In fact, I am developing a huge lesson plan for next year. I am collaborating with the 6 grade teacher. 6th is Ancient China and 7th picks up after that, so when I showed the DVD to the teacher our thought was to construct a lesson plan that evolve around it. The 6 grade teacher and her husband have been to China and he owns a business that requires him to do visit regularly. I have been to Hong Kong and Macau and other parts of Asia.

The both of us found so much to relate to in this DVD that it will be easy to show parts of it and then add our own experiences. She says her husband will come and speak, because when he saw it he could relate to the teachers in the DVD.

The lesson plan will start off with both classes viewing the DVD. At certain intervals, we will lecture on how our experiences relate to those in the video. Show and tell, along with pictures from our trips will add to the presentation. This whole lesson will be the introduction to China for 6th and 7th.

My ideas are numerous, but I will speak on eating strange food for my first lecture. As I said before cricket in Thailand, and my friend photographed the whole experience, from the buying to the eating of the cricket. In Hong Kong I was told that first time visitors must eat the eye of the fish that was served. Each time I had fish with a new group of friends that story was told. I still don’t know if they were pulling my leg. The last memorable meal was the live, small (baby?) crustaceans with long wiggle antenna. I can say they were very crunchy.

The Great Wall segment was comparable to my visit to Angor Wat in Cambodia. The sheer vastness of the complex, the many tourist, and the heat and hummidity. I spent two days and about twenty hours there and I still have not seen everything. Picture help to descibe it, but words do no justice to it.

The visiting of the locals is something I always try in each country. I do take caution in who I meet. In Thailand I was able to visit a house of some of the hotel workers. I was cooked a meal and met the faimly. I was invited to an after work drinking session that last for several hours at a street restuant in some small village area. I was able to talk to their friends and a million questions were asked of me.

These are just some of the experinces I will discuss, others will be the shopping in the night makets, and other historical sites. The 6th grade teacher and her husband will add their insights, I hope more so on the locals and their lives. This DVD is a great tool to start off the lesson with China

[Anonymous]

Talk about eating strange food. I went through a phase when I was attracted to Lingua Burritoes. Lingua is the tongue of the cow. While the meat is delicious and soft (just like my tongue) it eventually got discusting and seemed like I was eating my own tongue. If you are hungry enough, you might even be willing to eat another human being. This has been documented to have happened in various dire situations or among cultures that are cannibalistic.. As they say, truth is often times stranger than fiction...

[Anonymous]

eeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwwwwwwww!

Grossest "never again" foods were
Japan: braised sparrows
US: soggy lima beans, catfish (taste like the mud they hover over and eat from).

I saw soy boiled crickets in Japanese stores, but never ate any. Nobody ever ate any in front of me either. I guess you eat them with rice, like any tsukemono.

Do scorpions taste like soft-shell crab? Can they if prepared right? Yum.

[Edit by="vortiz on May 13, 12:01:52 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I personally love Tacos de Lengua or even burritos de lengua. I grew up eating it (every so often) so it's a part of my culture and I don't get grossed out eating it, but if I had to cook it and peel it I know I am not able to eat it. Just like fish, I can fry a fish but I will NOT eat it.

I also grew up eating tripe, cabeza (lining of the cows' skull), pigs feet, & pig ears. Many people find it difficult to believe and make awkward faces when I mention it. In Latin America not much goes to waste and being raised here in the U.S. first generation immigrant families tend to stick to their customs.

There are so many things that I still haven't eaten like cricket, snake, grasshopper, escargot, caviar etc but i am willing to try some things for the first time. This is how I got to have an appreciation for Pate.

I look forward to trying new cuisine in my future travel.

[Anonymous]

As I was telling a collegue on Saturday, I also had a very disgusting experience with "foreign" food.

I was living abroad in Barcelona and randomly was friends with a group of Icelandic students (we were in the same exchange program). One evening they took me to an annual traditional icelandic meal for the 100 or so Icelanders that lived in Barcelona (I had to pretend I was icelandic to eat for free).

Well, because it was "traditional" the food served was what they basically ate hundreds of years ago when you were supposed to eat the WHOLE animal to not waste food. So... the menu consisted of:
1. sheep head sawed in half and roasted - you picked the meat off the cheeck, tongue, etc.
2. a patty formed with the mixture of intestines, guts, and whatever extra that was left hanging around
3. a 180 proof shot of vodka where you were supposed to chew a raw piece of shark beforehand to cut the bite
4. another patty (the consistancy of spam) of sheep testicles!!!

I was a good sport about the whole thing, thinking why not? You only live once right? The only thing I was hesitant about was the sheep balls - my friends had been talking about that for months and said I HAD to try them - it's an icelandic right of passage. So after much pressure I finally did, and they tasted exactly like what they were - it was terrible! And of course all my friends started laughing, because none of them had ever been stupid enough to come near the stuff - they just wanted to trick the stupid American. Lesson learned! But overall...it's all part of experiencing new cultures, even if you do have to throw up afterwards.

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