• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Strange Things As Food & Drink

I am old enough to remember the sixties, when Gorgonzola was sold complete with maggots in the UK. I think this was normal at the period, as I observed it in a specialist cheese-shop that had a good reputation! :roll:

I've never heard of this either!
 
Didn't Stilton used to have maggots in it? Before all those EU regulations, of course.

Or possibly just before people realised that was disgusting.
 
Didn't Stilton used to have maggots in it? Before all those EU regulations, of course.

Or possibly just before people realised that was disgusting.
I don't remember that at all.
 
I think it was Stilton I saw on TV. An old chap liked it maggoty. Apparently the grubs are rich and buttery being on an all stilton diet.

I was sat in a pub once and one of our number said "I could just eat some Stilton".

From a Barbour, special Stilton pocket another of us produced a slab of the cheese.

I know some odd people.

PS: Stilton = excellent stuff
 
I think it was Stilton I saw on TV. An old chap liked it maggoty. Apparently the grubs are rich and buttery being on an all stilton diet.

I've read somewhere - thought it was in Samuel Pepys' diary, but can't find a mention now - that cheese eaten by Royal Navy officers was so wormy that you'd need a special spoon to collect and eat them with.
 
I've read somewhere - thought it was in Samuel Pepys' diary, but can't find a mention now - that cheese eaten by Royal Navy officers was so wormy that you'd need a special spoon to collect and eat them with.
As for weevils...well. Always choose the lesser of two weevils.
 
Was it a wheel of Stilton that Pepys buried during the great fire of London?

I seem to recall Casanova writing that cheese was only worth eating when it was crawling.
 
Was it a wheel of Stilton that Pepys buried during the great fire of London?

Nope, it wasn't about that. It was a description of life onboard a Navy warship a couple of hundred years ago. The point was that wormy/infested food was not only served to both crew and officers, there was even a type of cheese that was seen as incomplete without the worms.
 
Well Denham, the maggots have done it. Oh, no, it wasn't the maggots. It was Cheese Factory Willie who made the holes.
cheesefactorywillie2-400k.gif
 
Last edited:
The upshot of all this was that I had to buy Stilton this morning, for supper tonight. Maggotless though.
 
Here are a few of the 'strange things as food and drink' I saw on my recent trip to China:

e27398d4-0868-4104-9bf4-2c94d2d9f020.jpeg
Raw pig skin. Part of Bai (an ethnic minority in Yunnan) cuisine.

c0136c92-badf-40a7-91c5-839e428727c9.jpeg


'Crazy alcoholic' brand spirits: ~80p a bottle and 52%ABV

06e6f4fa-5eee-414d-b94a-eafbd717223b.jpeg


Probably mistranslation more than anything but still

ee946fdd-334f-411a-9a65-69b611aa48e0.jpeg


Lichen for sale outside the restaurant...

1ee8b80d-18f6-4254-a95a-43e7c908fac7.jpeg


...And as it is served. Raw, in a cold salad. Tastes like stale sweat to me but my girlfriend enjoyed it. This is also part of local Bai cuisine.

Additional research reveals that in Siberia, partially digested lichen from inside a slain reindeer is eaten. I hope they eat the meat too.

2aeea7fb-e997-4869-ac7f-31e66a1463b3.jpeg


Mala (chilli and sichuan pepper) snickers bar. This is my perfect food, and it was delicious.

7049e7d9-941b-443b-a9f6-21fde472d8e1.jpeg


Sushi or sandwich? Can't choose?

cc341b73-3854-422a-b291-062ea2e86b95.jpeg


And which kind of coffee would you like to go with your sushisandwich?

dc9234c9-20e9-4085-94e7-37ba13540554.jpeg


Finally! That's what I call proper grub(s).
 
Regarding eating-half digested lichen, they do something similar in Greenland. It was just about the only vegetables they had a chance of eating.
 
Regarding eating-half digested lichen, they do something similar in Greenland. It was just about the only vegetables they had a chance of eating.
Oh, that's very interesting. I prefer my lichen unpredigested but anything's worth a try.
 
In terms of consuming the inedible the Scandinavians take a lot of beating:

Consider Kæstur hákarl. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hákarl What wikipedia has conveniently left out is that it is normal to actually have the whole family pee on the shark before they bury it. You know, because it shows respect for the shark and makes it taste better.

Then there is Lutefisk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk You take poor innocent whitebait and destroy it by soaking it in lye, then washing it for a couple of days under a running tap to render it safe for human consumption (by which I mean that it is safe to feed to tuberculosis bacteria).

They also eat whale blubber, which tastes like burnt fat but with all the calories of burnt fat, because it is basically burnt fat. On the other hand, give some of the other things on the menu, you can see why they haven't given up whaling.
 
In terms of consuming the inedible the Scandinavians take a lot of beating:

Consider Kæstur hákarl. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hákarl What wikipedia has conveniently left out is that it is normal to actually have the whole family pee on the shark before they bury it. You know, because it shows respect for the shark and makes it taste better.

Then there is Lutefisk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk You take poor innocent whitebait and destroy it by soaking it in lye, then washing it for a couple of days under a running tap to render it safe for human consumption (by which I mean that it is safe to feed to tuberculosis bacteria).

They also eat whale blubber, which tastes like burnt fat but with all the calories of burnt fat, because it is basically burnt fat. On the other hand, give some of the other things on the menu, you can see why they haven't given up whaling.
I had an office mate in London who got that hakarl as a gag gift one Christmas. On opening it he vomited and had to dispose of it in a public bin.
 
An interesting dish from Greenland involves taking a seal, filling it with puffins and then placing the whole thing under some rocks for many months. I was at a lecture recently where someone described in graphic detail what happens when you eat that. He suggested that the mild food poisoning might also have been seen as a way to achieve an altered state, since they lacked alcohol and drugs on Greenland.
 
Back
Top