I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I must say that I'm really enjoying the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods series, hosted by Andrew Zimmern, who travels the world exploring different cultures and sampling the local fare along the way.


"That ain't no shrimp, bub..."
Quoting Jennifer:

"Zimmern is a car wreck you just can’t look away from... a poultry of a different feather. The man has a cast iron stomach. He eats things — with a smile on his face — that would make a 300-pound linebacker whimper for his mama. But the best parts are when he eats something that he truly cannot swallow. You can almost see him turning green and trying desperately to not throw up on TV..."

Ah, but don't mistake Bizarre Foods for a high(er)-brow version of Fear Factor. Zimmern's mission isn't to make you gag or squirm ('tho you'll likely do both). He actually does a pretty decent job of presenting traditional, regional cuisine without dwelling too harshly on the (decidedly less-than-traditional) ingredients. In fact, the dishes themselves — once fully prepared — often look a whole lot more appetizing than they probably are.

In the last episode I saw, Zimmern was making his way across Taiwan, sampling delicacies such as pig blood pudding, goose tongue, pigeon eggs, cock's comb, hen ovaries, "dama mein" (raw pork fermented in salt) and black-boned rooster testicle soup. Among other culinary oddities that Zimmern has "discovered":

• Vietnamese sparrow, brushed with soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil, roasted and eaten whole (including head and bones).

• Ecuadorian guinea pig, marinated in orange juice, herbs & garlic, then roasted on a skewer over a wood fire.

• Alaskan jellied moose nose and "agutuk" (AKA "Eskimo ice cream," a concoction comprised of wild berries, lard and fish).

• Mexican "tlalludas" (crispy tortilla with beans, guacamole, worms and grasshoppers), pig skin tacos, beef-head consommé with chopped tongue, and fresh roasted armadillo.

• Trini-Tobagan curried iguana, chicken-feet souse, cow-skin soup, raw fish heart and conch penis.

• Filipino pork-stuffed frog, fried "uok" (giant coconut worms) and "dinuguan" (pork innards in pig's blood stew).

• Spanish crunchy pig ears, "rabo de toro" (bull's tails), blood sausage and bull's testicles.

• Welsh pig's liver with onions and seaweed bread; English "jugged" hare (stewed in its own blood); jellied eels; zungenwurst (beef tongue with head fat and blood); grilled rare ox heart with bone marrow; herring roe on toast, and pigeon.

Gut-twisting as it sounds, I recommend you tune in and watch sometime. Fun stuff.

Tags: cooking, food, recipes
From: http://tinyurl.com/2vgaq6
Mood: Full