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Strange Things As Food & Drink

How to prepare and cook bats, obviously not a dish trending at the moment for all obvious reasons ..

WARNING .. the bat doesn't look dead when the wings are being removed/animal cruelty

 
My Tale Of Gator Tail

Many years ago, me and Racer had a friend in Florida (we met online) who was a big believer in DIY carnivory--as in, he either raised or hunted much of the meat he consumed.

Our friend, whom we shall call "Red", stopped by for an overnight visit on his way to a music festival. Red immediately made Page 1 of my "good houseguests" list by bringing gifts: a couple pounds of venison, a half dozen pan-sized and pan-ready domestic rabbits, and a good-sized chunk of alligator meat. Tail and side meat, allegedly the finest part of an alligator you can eat. Red had raised and slaughtered the bunnies, and shot the deer and the alligator, himself.

Soon after he had moved on, we had the deer meat and the rabbits. They were quite tasty, and I told Red so in an e-mail. He asked if we'd tried the gator meat yet.

A week later, he e-mailed and asked if we'd had the nerve to try the gator yet. I was stung and resolved to cook it as soon as possible. I found what seemed like an appropriate recipe and got to work.

There was a whole lot of gator meat; I used half of it-- which left a whole lot.

Red had instructed us to pound the hell out of the saurian delicacy, and to cook it wet, and slowly. So we did (I did, anyway, being the chief kitchen engineer at our house back then). First, I took a steel meat tenderizer and pounded the mortal shit out of that meat. It was nearly all muscle with some lumps of rubbery pink fat, very dense, and very, very tough--after forty-five minutes of determined whacking with the meathammer, I was bushed and started stewing. The recipe (from The People's Guide To Camping In Mexico) was originally for Iguana stew, and plenty wet. The chunks of aligator had an unnerving way of clenching like fists when they started to cook. Nonetheless, I stewed that reptile all day long, with onions and carrots and chile peppers and what smelled like a very nice sauce.

At the end of seven or so hours of slow simmerage, , I dished up a couple of big bowls of my alligator stew for Racer and myself. It smelled okay, odd but okay...so we steeled ourselves and each took a bite.

Jeeez. It was still clenched defensively, and as tough as a mouthful of steel belted radial tire. The taste was bland, almost offensively so, with a faint, not-too-pleasant fishy undertaste (we both love fish and seafood, btw and ftr), and prolonged chewing didn't make it any less tough. The fat was pink and of a most peculiar texture, the feel of which made one's mouth unhappy. Racer and I loked at each other, stricken, managed to swallow our spoonfuls (spoonsfull?), and set those spoons down simultaneously. The rest of the pot of stew went out into the nearest alley for the raccoons and alley cats and we ordered a pizza for supper.

After that debacle, there remained at least that much again raw alligator still in our freezer. A week later I was at the home of our then-current pot dealer, a guy from the South who loved to cook. While we chatted after our transaction, I told him my sorry tale of attempted crocodile cookery. Our man, Albert, grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, man, I fuckin' love gator meat," he said. "Ain't had any for years."

"You want some? Like, I could go get it right now!" I said quickly. Albert's grin got even wider, We quickly reached favorable terms of exchange, I went home and got the rest of the alligator meat out of the freezer and brought it back to Albert's house. He traded me a half ounce of his best pot for it, and I went home certain I'd gotten the best end of that deal.

TL,DR: we tried it. We did not like it at all.
 
I ate fried alligator tail while at Bike Week in Florida and actually enjoyed it despite the strange texture. I don't know if it would agree with me nowadays...
 
Some lady I have on Facebook called Carla posted about the Wisconsin Bloody Mary, behold:
rs_634x1024-140808111238-634.Sobelmans-Chicken-Fried-Bloody-Mary.ms.080814.jpg
 
A large soft drink manufacturer now has a range called Plus, which contains fiber in the drink, for the digestion. It seems to be mostly sold in East Asia at the moment.
I also saw an energy drink at the supermarket which contains collagen.
 
In a magical land where decent hard working folk are un encumbered by the inconvenience of 'environmental health officers' and such tosh as any kind of basic 'food hygiene' at all .. yummy! :dinner:

 
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Swifty said:
In a magical land where decent hard working folk are un encumbered by the inconvenience of 'environmental health officers' and such tosh as any kind of basic 'food hygiene' at all .. yummy! :dinner:

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Is the video really Wuhan, as titled here, or is it Langowan, Indonesia, as it was, when posted by Vardoger, above? :confused:
 
Here's a more recognisable picture of how food (including live fish) is sold on the streets in China (Wuhan last September), all looks pretty good to me. I don't think much goes on in the street in China in terms of the ways animals are treated which doesn't go on behind closed (slaughterhouse) doors in the west. And we eat wild and semi-wild things (game) as well.
 
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Disgusting food eating, may also be put in the ASMR thread for those who gets their kicks from hearing people eat live animals.
:puke2:

 
I never thought of "tear gas" as a flavor before ...
Hong Kong shop offers ‘tear gas’ flavor ice cream

Tear gas is among the new flavors at a Hong Kong ice cream shop.

The main ingredient is black peppercorns, a reminder of the pungent, peppery rounds fired by police on the streets of the semi-autonomous Chinese city during months of demonstrations last year.

“It tastes like tear gas. It feels difficult to breathe at first, and it’s really pungent and irritating. It makes me want to drink a lot of water immediately,” said customer Anita Wong, who experienced tear gas at a protest. “I think it’s a flashback that reminds me of how painful I felt in the movement, and that I shouldn’t forget.” ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/48282fc79819feeb2c6e4d515548a6a1
 
EnolaGaia said:
I never thought of "tear gas" as a flavor before ...


FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/48282fc79819feeb2c6e4d515548a6a1
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Shame they don't name the shop. Last year tear gas was an omnipresent aroma in some more built-up areas of Hong Kong – the irritation to eyes and throat wasn't just felt by protestors but by everybody minding their business at home, as it drifted through the cracks in the windows. Several businesses in Hong Kong are very keen to signify their political allegiance publicly and many members of the public actively boycott businesses on the 'blue' (pro-government) side of things, with several lists of such to keep everyone up to date.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
My grandmother swore by the therapeutic powers of bead-and-milk, which she called "pobs!" She might put some syrup in it, if she was being reckless.

Bread turns up in a lot of thrifty Italian soup recipes, such as Pancotto. I see the site mentioned by uair01 has another page devoted to them. They seem to offer move flavour than the Eastern European versions! :rup:
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Ditto James, and as you've posted, we received it only when we were poorly.

Bread and milk with a dob of butter, rather than syrup...is there any welsh connections in your family?
 
Mungoman said:
any welsh connections in your family?
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Yes - but on the other side of it! Grannie-of-the-pobs was from Huddersfield. I know that Pob became a Welsh-language puppet on the tv.

Pob.jpg

That would put anyone off their food! That damned thing has even gathered political connotations, which we must not explore! :oops:
 
I was led to believe that Pobs (or something very similar), was welsh for 'Cook' - as in cooking something.
 
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