Conference turris::cooks

re: .0, Angus

>    'That' cheese shown by Antonio (sp) on Tuesday's Food and Drink
>    program, is it for real? He wasn't pulling our leg, was he? The vision
>    is of half of ones hors d'oeuvre or dessert making a break for it when
>    one is distracted in conversation.
    
Dare a colonial ask that you expand on this for those of who don't get the
BBC? Or would this not be an appropriate place?

-Jack

    Jack,
    sure
    
    As a precursor to a series of program to come on the gastronomic
    delights of Italy, the Food and Drink program had Antonio Carlucio (a
    famous chef and wild mushroom freak; whose name I can't spell) visit
    his home region in Italy and 'whet' our appetites by showing us some of 
    its specialities.
    
    One of these specialities was 'That' cheese. He took it out of a large
    box (in which were at least three other cheese) and unwrapped it from
    its paper covering. The camera did a super close up to show lots of
    long thin maggots crawling in and out of the cheese. I was so stunned I
    missed the name of the cheese (if, indeed, he supplied it) and only
    just recovered to hear him say
    
    "... the locals mop them up with relish." He then took a sniff of the
    cheese and said 'A strong smelling cheese.'
    
    He then went on to help cook the local version of Calazone.
    
    Angus 

Sounds lovely, Angus. Thanks for the graphic detail.
:^)
-Jack

    It must be a joke; it must.  Tell me it is...
    
    D!

    On the topic of "one man's meat...", I must say I grew up eating and
    loving liver ('specially my Jewish grandma's chopped chicken liver and,
    on the other side of the spectrum, the classic beef liver with bacon
    and onions)...and was stunned to discover that most people won't touch
    the stuff. 
    
    [I have no repulsion at other internal organs, they just tend to be
    tougher and not to my taste.]
    
    I am continually surprised to find that many New Englanders consider
    beans to be something only health-nuts eat (unless they are baked in
    brown sugar and even then, don't emphasize the *bean* part), or
    something boring andto be avoided...whereas they are a staple where I
    grew up (New Mexico.)
    
    And just what is it about anchovies that so many people quail at?
    I love all sorts of salty canned fish...anchovies, sardines, smoked
    clams and oysters, kippered herring, etc.  And speaking of herring, why
    do so many people stare at me like I'm from mars when I get a craving
    for pickled herring in cream sauce?
    
    D!, not a picky eater (I hate two foods: green pepper and squid)

    Angus, as a pregnant woman with a weak stomach, I
    must admit it was tough to enter this conference today
    after reading your note.
    
    What this perhaps a KLINGON Italian cooking show??????
    
    Monica

>And speaking of herring, why
>    do so many people stare at me like I'm from mars when I get a craving
>    for pickled herring in cream sauce?

 Mebbe some of 'em have cut up a few hundred pounds of herring for tuna bait
on a warm august day like me. ;-)

>    I am continually surprised to find that many New Englanders consider
>    beans to be something only health-nuts eat (unless they are baked in
>    brown sugar and even then, don't emphasize the *bean* part), or
>    something boring andto be avoided...whereas they are a staple where I
>    grew up (New Mexico.)

That's probably 'cuz New Englanders are encouraged (forced) to go out of doors
after eating bean dishes, thus giving the impression of it being a food for
health nuts (who else would be outside in a New England winter?).

    
>         And speaking of herring, why
>    do so many people stare at me like I'm from mars when I get a craving
>    for pickled herring in cream sauce?

Well, because it's in cream sauce, of course!  Pickles and milk?!?  Now if you
were eating proper herring in wine sauce no one would bat an eye.
    
>    D!, not a picky eater (I hate two foods: green pepper and squid)

Hmmm...  Interesting.  My hates are escarole, dandelion, and chicory (salad or
coffee).

	-JP

    
    I grossed out quite a few friends by eating sardines in sild oil
    on saltine crackers as a kid in MA.
    
    However, since I'm such a fussy eater, what other people eat while
    in my presence doesn't usually bother me much, except such things
    as blood pudding, fin n haddie, and live/raw food, such as sushi....
    The live/raw business is mostly cuz I know what lives in the flesh
    of the critters...
    
     

    I thought I'd let this ride for a couple of days just in case one of
    our contintental Europe colleagues could substantiate or refute the
    existance of this cheese and its inhabitants. I don't think the cheese
    was a joke, but you can never tell; there was that famous Sir Hew
    Welden April-fools program showing the cultivation and harvesting of
    Spaghetti from the famed spaghetti trees of Italy. I shall have to get
    to the bottom of this, though from a distance. Sorry to have caused any
    queasy stomaches to have done back flips, however I saw the wrigglers
    much magnified on the old TV. At least they didn't show anybody eating
    the stuff!!!
    
    
    Back to the subject of food: One of my friends spent a year living in
    France as part of her degree course. At one dinner, as the honoured
    guest she was honoured by being given a prized part of the chicken
    dish. It was the fried head of the chicken. She gracefully declined.
    As there were no other guests, the head was passed on to the next most 
    important member of the family, in this case the grandfather. She said
    'He popped the head into his mouth and munched happily away, pausing
    briefly to spit out the beak.'
    
    Angus
    PS. I think it was Sir Hew Welden who made the Spaghetti spoof
    'documentary'.

    re: .10...
    Yes, in France and other European countries they cook chicken and at
    times including its head too.  I remember seeing my Dad spliting up a fowl
    head (with a nut cracker) to get to the brain that is the only eatable 
    part of the head... everything else is bone! I, myself was never able
    to try that or lamb's (also a delicacy in many parts of the M. East)  
    The audience should know that brains is a delicacy in many
    parts of the world, it is often served to children because its high
    contents of minerals, vitamins, etc, and is also very easy to digest.
    
                                                                        

    >>was a joke, but you can never tell; there was that famous Sir Hew
    >>Welden April-fools program showing the cultivation and harvesting of
    >>Spaghetti from the famed spaghetti trees of Italy. I shall have to get
    
    That's still one of my all-time favourite "science spots". I've
    seen it a few times.
    
    As for things that are not palatable to certain cultures - I will
    certainly agree that there are LOTS of things we are squimish about
    that others consider a delicacy. However, There are things that 
    other cultures now, or in the past, didn't think was food that 
    North Americans ate.
    
    My german parents were in shock the first time (years ago, in the 
    50's) they were invited to a north american BBQ featuring 
    corn-on-the-cob! We feed that to pigs! They said. Now, 
    after some time, they've adjusted to things like salted butter,
    and orange marmalade (they HATED that!) 
    
    Hardly like the previous organ meats stories (or Angus' run-away
    cheese for that matter), but I did want to prove a point on a 
    milder subject. 
    
    God, why am I READING this topic!
    
    Monica (12 weeks down, 28 to go.......)
    
    
    

    Re .0 and the "lively" cheese: I don't know how common it is these
    days, but apparently it was a fairly common situation in times past to
    have cheeses which hosted, as a matter of course, higher forms of life
    than molds... 
    
    [Squeamish alert for those who'd really rather not hear this stuff:]
    
    One of the more memorable descriptions from one of Dorothy Sayers'
    books went something like: "...and a long pale face which seemed to
    have sprung from his top hat as maggots breed from Gorgonzola".
    
    -b

    There are people who are far braver than I in their gastronomic
    pursuit. After last week's program, several viewers wrote in to the
    Food and Drink program asking if this 'moving feast' would be allowed
    in the UK (i.e. meeting health and safety regs) and if so where they 
    could buy this cheese. The answer to the former was yes, provided it
    was properly wrapped, unfortunately I didn't catch the answer to the   
    latter question.
    
    
    There was a fascinating series of programs on recently about childhood
    in the UK at the turn of the century and on until about the 40's or
    50's. Some of it was quite distressing, but the one bit that stuck in
    my mind was food. Most food of the poorer (working) classes was pretty
    basic and quite bad. What little meat the city dwellers obtained was of 
    very poor quality and normally quite tough. An earlier note talked of
    brains as a delicacy and important source of nutrients. From this I
    remembered one program where a lady recountered a special dish they
    were delirious to get: A pig's head. This lady, now in her eighties,
    told how she would clean the pig's head, boil it for a few hours,
    remove the bones, chop up all the meat and brains, and put them
    together to form a kind of brawn. Her kids loved it.
    
    Angus

    I just picked up my pig from Blood's Farm (a local business that
    slaughters and butchers...appropriate name, eh?).  The head has been
    split and sits in the freezer awaiting my dad's arrival tomorrow.  He's
    taking it home and turning it into head cheese, a mix of spices, lips,
    snout,  cheeks, toungue, brain, etc. in medium chunk, all set in
    gelatin, then served cold sliced as a luncheon meat.  Comfort food from
    the Great Depression?

    Last weekend the Chineese (?) male cook.. don't remember his name..
    took us to the market to buy snakes... handled several and selected a
    cobra.  Held the live animal up and made an incision in its belly and
    pulled out its bladder sac.  then he put it in a white bowl and pricked
    it to let out the dark bile into the dish.  He then added a little
    white wine and drank it.  Straight up neat.
    
    Eat em up .. Yummmmmmmmm
    
Bob

    RE: .13
    
    That would certainly explain where the "gorgon" part of the name
    "Gorgonzola" comes from.
    
    --PSW

Snake bile is drunk to increase virility.  hmmmm..

:)

>   Snake bile is drunk to increase virility.  hmmmm..

   Not in these parts.

   :)

>  Not in these parts.


Ooohh I didn't want to get personal.

:)

    re:  .16
    
    Thanks.  NOT!
    

    As a Southamerican addition, the Argentinian national dish, asado,
    includes all sorts of grilled meats, among them:

    	kidneys
	"chinchulines de ternera": braids made of the cow's thin intestines
	"chinchulines de cordero": spirals of lamb intestines
	"mollejas": sweetbreads
	chorizo and morcilla (blood saussage)

    and as special additions,

	"criadillas" (the difference between a bull and an ox)
	"ubres" (where the milk comes from)

    In a different vein, regarding ethnic food:

    Since I live here in Israel, I've found that according to the
    Jewish Yemenite tradition, there are "kosher locusts, that you may 
    recognize since they have a sign like the hebrew letter KAF - for 
    kosher". Those locusts were prepared in a kind of cakes. (It seems
    locusts were a source of protein in the desert too).

    Regards,

    Juan-Carlos

    There was a fascinating BBC series called 'The Victorian kitchen'
    garden. An old head gardener was recruited to restore a Victorian
    walled garden, using the tools and techiniques of the Victorian era.
    This series was followed up by the Victorian Kitchen. An old
    head cook of some grand mansion recreated the recipes of that era. For
    the last few weeks there has been a follow up series about gardening
    and cooking through WWII. They used the same head gardener and cook.
    
    Last week, the cook made brawn from half a pig's head. I missed the
    very initial sequence, joining just as she slipped the cleaned pig's
    head into a saucepan of water and heard her commenting about the
    flavourings added to the water e.g. cloves, pepper corns, onions, etc.
    After a couple of hours, she removed teh pig's head, pulled off the
    skin, removed the bones (e.g. jaw), then set about creating the brawn.
    
    Interesting viewing.
    Angus

    the last note gave me visions of a Far Side cartoon of
    a head garden.
    
    :-)
    
    ed

    What's a brawn?

    Strong muscles/muscular strength. :-) But I guess you knew that.
    
    Pork trimmings, especially the meat from a pig's head, boiled, chopped,
    and pressed into a mould.
    
    Angus

    Re the inhabited cheese: this can be found in Sardinia and I reckon in
    Corsica too. 
    
    John

    >Re the inhabited cheese: this can be found in Sardinia and I reckon in
    >Corsica too. 
    
    What's it called?

    Thanks --                                                    
    
    De gustibus, and all that, but personally, this stuff sounds disGUSTing!

I've only just found this conference, but I saw Antonio Carluccio in the Food
and Drink program. The cheese he had  was called "punto". I think he was in
Puglia, so presumably it's the Puglian name. Acca is certainly a similar beast
(or assmebly of beasts). I'm not sure that it's any worse than the cheese mites
in Stilton really.

By the way, the English sunday papers were full last weekend (18-19 Dec) of
recipes for brawn/souse/Sulze like things for Christmas. I could cope with them
better if they weren't called head cheese in some parts of the US.

    RE: .-1
    
    Cheese mites in Stilton??  I know that Stilton carries its own active
    culture of a Penicillium mold, but this is the first I've heard of
    mites.  Are they relatives of the ubiquitous dust mite?
    
    --PSW

re last 2,

I've always understood that *all* cheese have cheese mites.. and yes, enlarged,
they do look disturbingly like dust mites.  But I don't let that put me off.

:)
Joyce

    RE: .33 by CCAD23::TAN 
    
    >I've always understood that *all* cheese have cheese mites.. and yes,
    >enlarged, they do look disturbingly like dust mites.  But I don't let
    >that put me off.

    The ones you can see are on stilts?
    

re .34  

>The ones you can see are on stilts?

ummmmm... stilts? as in stilton or as in pole-walkers?? :)

No cheese mites can't be seen by the naked eye.. I meant microscopically
enlarged.  These critters are hideously *ugly*!

Joyce

    re Cheese Mites: sounds like another food group slips into
    the "pass" category...

    RE: .36
    
    If you think cheese mites are ugly, you should see what the bacteria in
    milk look like under an electron microscope......
    
    I doubt there's any food product that is entirely free of microscopic
    life forms.
    
    --PSW

    Does our body just digest the cheese mites?
    
    Where do they come from?  What do they live on if there isn't
    cheese available?

>This is a very weird string!

It gets worse!  I always thought cheese mites were microscopic insects.  
Apparently not.. they're arachnids (SPIDERS!!)

>Where do they come from?  

Was that intended as a deep and philosophical question? :)

    Nope -- how do mites get into cheese -- are they ubiquitous?
    Are all cheeses mite infested?
    
    					andrew

However, let avoid the philosophical discussion about whether or not "cheese
food" is really cheese.  

Hmmm...   Maybe it has cheesefood mites?

    RE: .38
    
    Yes, the cheese mites die when we eat the cheese they're living in, and
    they are digested along with everything else.
    
    These microscopic arachnids are ubiquitous, and there are lots of
    species of them that live on all kinds of things.  There's one species
    that lives exclusively on human eyebrows and eyelashes, for example. 
    These things are everywhere.  No doubt the cheese mites live on the
    cheesemaking equipment and buildings and get into the cheese from there.
    
    --PSW

    
    Cheese isn't the only form of food that could "get up and walk away"
    either.  Sometimes little creatures are added to foods by US!  Did
    anyone know that Magots are a legal, USDA approved, filler in ground
    meats, ie: beef, lamb, turkey?  Yup, that's right folks.  I even had
    to do a report back in highschool about the magot content in ground
    beef at fast food restaurants.
    
    
    Terrie
    

>     ... Magots are a legal, USDA approved, filler in ground
>     meats, ie: beef, .....

	I believe Magots are almost pure protien with no fat .... in
	which case, the ground magots are better for you than the beef
	itself .......

    
    >>  I believe Magots are almost pure protien with no fat ....
    
    no bones either. ;-)

>Sometimes little creatures are added to foods by US!  Did
>    anyone know that Magots are a legal, USDA approved, filler in ground
>    meats, ie: beef, lamb, turkey?

 Wait a minute. They don't ADD maggots to meat any more than they add
insects to grain. They occur naturally. The government has an upper limit
on the amount of these insects in grain per unit volume. I imagine a similar
upper limit exists for maggots in meat. 

    The difference between the aforementioned cheese and the 
    legal limits to little wigglies in the meat is; the wigglies
    are NOT wiggling any more. I think the Gross_Out factor here
    is in the fact that they are STILL ALIVE in the cheese.
    
    Monica

    
    Well, just to set the record straight, yes they are added to the meat.
    They are actually cultivated in magot farms specifically for the
    purpose of being added during the grinding process.
    
    
    Terrie
    

    Oh, please! Can we stop this now!  Glad I asked for a VEGETARIAN patty
    recipe yesterday.... And PLEASE don't tell me about all the
    creepy-crawlies residing in beans, rice, and assorted grains : )
    

    I worked for WS Atkins in Epsom. A collegue of mine virtually lived on
    Big Macs. When on assignment to the US he sampled the McDonald's near
    our offices and declared the Big Mac's there were better than the one's
    in Epsom. I think I'll drop him a line explaining why they might have
    seemed better; the huge variations in the quality of Big Macs not
    withstanding.
    
    The BBC are re-running some old episodes of Dr. Who. The one currently
    being shown is the one about the Welsh mine infested with the Giant 2
    foot long maggots with the lethal glowing green bite. Should provide   
    entertaining viewing this sunday.
    
    Angus 
    

    

    	Doesn't the addition of maggots violate the 100% ground beef
    advertisement for the burgers ? For that matter are the fast food and/or
    grocery stores allowed to add fillers when advertising the product as
    100% ground beef (of course they could add lips, eyes, etc) ?

    eeek! at this rate I could give up eating!
    
    
    well, almost!

RE: <<< Note 3867.48 by LEVERS::WOODFORD "I'veTradedInMyToyotaForABroom!" >>>

   >> Well, just to set the record straight, yes they are added to the meat.
   >> They are actually cultivated in magot farms specifically for the
   >> purpose of being added during the grinding process.
    
     From where did this information come?

                                    Greg

    
    The burger is 100% ground beef.  However, not necessarily from
    young, tender beef cattle!
    
    

    
    
    The information came from Newsweek Magazine the year prior to my 
    highschool graduation.  I shant tell the year, as that would give
    away my age, and a woman never tells her age! :*)
    
    Terrie
    

    RE: .46
    
    That's right.  The USDA and other government inspection agencies set
    limits for the content of maggots, rat hairs, rodent droppings, and
    other contaminants.  The limits are non-zero is recognition of the fact
    that total elimination of such things when there's volume food storage
    is impossible.
    
    --PSW

    RE: maggots in ground beef
    
    McDonald's advertises 100% ground beef in their hamburgers.  Legally,
    this means no maggots or any other sort of filler.  There is a
    persistent urban legend that fast food chains use ground-up earthworms
    or other such additives.  This is false (as one McDonald's executive
    said, earthworms cost much more per pound than ground beef, so why
    would we bother adding them?).
    
    I think Newsweek may have unwittingly picked up on the urban legend. 
    That sort of thing has happened before.
    
    --PSW

	Thats DISCUSTING@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!	

	I think I will stick with my Elk meat.



	Sherry

     Oh Gosh,
    
        Next we'll be hearing that it's okay to see 1 pubic hair, it's
    only bad if you see more than one. 
    
    

    I worked for a packing plant for a while,once upon a time, no
    such material was added to any ground beef in the plant.  Occasionally
    suet was added to bring the fat content up to spec.
    
    Beef was ground for: MacDonalds, Burger King, Burger Chef, Meatballs
    and Beans for C Rations, and several other enterprises.
    
    ed

Re: .49

Oh yes, that reminds me of the day, one summer in New Jersey, when I took the
lid off the container of rice and it flew away.

The other gross mobile food event is when you're knocking the barnacles off
mussels and there's a worm still in one of them....

    
    Re .59
    
    I won't tell you what is in game animal meat, then!  (8
    
    

>        Next we'll be hearing that it's okay to see 1 pubic hair, it's
>    only bad if you see more than one. 
    
Ah, the McClarenceThomas burger...Reminds me of the new Michael McJackson
burger of the month - a 35-year-old piece of meat between two 12-year-old buns.

    
    >                                                     Occasionally
    >    suet was added to bring the fat content up to spec.
    
    Can you tell the difference between a piece of suet and a sleeping
    magot ?
    
    :-)

    >Can you tell the difference between a piece of suet and a sleeping
    >magot ?
    
    ABSOLUTELY!

    .65  Touch it and see if it moves?

    I think things are getting a little out of hand here.
    
    We started out with weird and wonderful cuisines that 
    have desired additive lifeforms and degraded into a 
    smart-alec conversation about what distasteful beastie may
    lurk in our foods. And the foul attempt at humour was
    probably in the wrong place too. moderators?
    
    Monica

I find it all a bit amusing.  Personally, I don't see much difference between
eating snails and eating earthworms, the preparation would be the important
factor!

Laura

    
    Laura,  I agree.  I have this really great recipe I gave to Bob this
    morning for fried earthworms en' casserole.  If you ask him, I am 
    sure he'd share it with you. :*)
    
    
    Terrie
    

TOMATO JUICE....

The USDA tests for the number of insect parts in tomato juice by adding naptha
and seeing how many parts float to the top.

John

Mmm, sounds delish Terrie!!

Laura

If we could return from the windup....

This note is interesting because it raises the question of eating things that
are alive. This is a more specific issue (and perhaphs basically a different
one) from the question of killing things to eat or eating things that were once
alive. It's also a different issue from the question of whether there are some
things that you wouldn't eat because of their habits or appearance (the maggot
in hamburger question, though that may also be relevant to the original note).

Now, I like oysters. But I found I was disturbed by M.F.K Fisher writing about
the joy of watching a fresh oyster cringe when she squirted the lemon on it.
(I've read a similar statement by Julia Child.) I'm not sure that I like the
idea of something still sentient going down my gullet and into my stomach, even
though I like the taste of it. On the other hand, I have no qualms about cooking
mussels alive, and would cook a lobster if I could afford one.

Do you think that there is a real difference between eating something alive and
killing it first? Would the punto be less squeamy if the maggots were evicted,
cooked and served with it?

Helen

    Oysters hardly classify as sentient (i.e., thinking) beings.
    
    If you believe that eating still-living beings is wrong, then you'll
    have to avoid eating any fresh fruits and vegetables, since they're
    still alive until you chew them up and digest them.
    
    I don't think it's a matter of morals (right or wrong).  It's a matter
    of cultural aesthetic preference.  I personally find the idea of eating
    either live maggots OR raw (live) oysters disgusting.
    
    Every culture has its own biases towards what does and does not
    constitute food amongst the possible things that can be eaten, and what
    possible foodstuffs/preparation methods/etc are considered disgusting.
    For that reason, the general policy of the COOKS conference has been to
    avoid criticizing recipes or foodstuffs because they contain things
    or are prepared in a way that you personally dislike.
    
    --PSW, COOKS moderator

	Speaking of eating things alive, what is the name of
	the Asian dish where they would cook only the tail
	end of a fish and eat it while the rest of the fish
	is still alive?  I believe they only recently stopped
	this pratice due to protest?

    re:  .75
    
    Seafood de Sade?
    
    

    There are lots of diseases that can be gotten from eating raw or
    undercooked meats or foods.  I recall one that was common among
    cannibals and attributed to eating the brains of individuals who
    had the disease, some other disease are gotten from certain organ meats
    of animals.  Most of the diseases seem to have been gotten from
    raw seafood, although this could have been empshasized between sushi
    was becoming popular at the same time.
    
    I have seen a repot that eating raw oysters can be fatal for a
    very small segment of the population, something like .01% and the
    problem is genetic.
    
    Just, food for thought.
    
    ed

    I understand that in Japan that one can order a "Flying Pizza"!  It
    consists of a regular pizza cooked and then just before being brought
    to the table is covered with slivers of raw fish that still flap,
    hence the name of flying pizza.  It apparently creates quite an appear-
    ance in the restaurant.

    justme....jacqui

    [Um, perhaps we could put "squeamish alerts" in front of these replies,
    for the benefit of the more sensitive among us. In fact, how about for
    the benefit of _me_, since, despite my rather wide range of interest in 
    unappetizing subjects, I do find some of the things mentioned here to
    be a wee bit quease-inducing in the context of a COOKS file... ;-)]
    
    That said, 
    <squeamish alert>:
    
    
    I have a book which contains a recipe for "cooking" a live goose. It's
    one of the most pitiful things I've ever read. Even though animals
    sometimes chow down on their prey before said prey has expired, they
    don't do it with the detached, practical, "let's see how long we can
    prolong this" attitude that humans are capable of...
    
    Insect-eating, on the other hand, is squeam-inducing (to me) not
    because the idea of eating live things is troublesome, but because I
    was raised in a culture that finds the idea of eating bugs in any form
    distasteful. [There's also the question of how intentional it is; I
    could better handle an attempt to eat a nicely roasted termite that was
    offered to me by a friendly bush-person than I could the discovery that
    the apple I had just bitten into was inhabited, and that only half of
    the inhabitant remained. (Come to think of it, intent and expectations
    have to do with my reactions to more innocuous foods as well; for
    example, I like bread, but if I encounter an unexpected chunk of it
    floating in my glass of milk I'm liable to lose my appetite...)]
    
    -b

    	In some of the better restaurants in Japan, they will bring a live
    fish to your table mounted on skewers and still fighting to get loose.
    The chef will proceed to take paper-thin slices of flesh from the live
    fish for your enjoyment.
    	Then there's the ancient Chinese tradition of eating monkey
    brains.. A special table is used with a hole in the center with screws
    around the edges. A live monkey is brought into the room, its head
    placed in the hole so only the top sticks above the table. The top of
    its skull is removed, and the happy diners dip stuff into the monkey's
    head to scoop out brains for their consumption...kind of like a
    soft-boiled egg...only we ARE talking sentient being this time.

	Chinese dish of Drunken Prawns, I believe, consists of placing
	live prawns in rice wine until they are just about drowned and
	then serving them direct to the table. Hell of a way to marinade...

>     	Then there's the ancient Chinese tradition of eating monkey
>     brains.. A special table is used with a hole in the center with screws
>     around the edges. A live monkey is brought into the room, its head
>     placed in the hole so only the top sticks above the table. The top of
>     its skull is removed, and the happy diners dip stuff into the monkey's
>     head to scoop out brains for their consumption...

	Are you sure about this one?  This sounds like one of the
	scenes in the 1st "Indiana Jones" movie ......

>>	scenes in the 1st "Indiana Jones" movie ......
    
    You mean the *2nd* "Indiana Jones" movie, "Indiana Jones and the Temple
    of Doom".
    
    Yuck!
    
    Cara

    RE: .77
    
    The disease that cannibals get from eating raw human brains is kuru,
    also known as laughing sickness.  Until the advent of
    genetically-engineered bacteria that could produce human growth
    hormone, the only source for HGH was human pituitary glands from cadavers,
    and so kuru was a hazard for those who had to take HGH.
    
    --PSW

The practise of eating live monkeys' brains is more South-East Asian
in origin rather than chinese.  I believe that although banned, it still
occurs in parts of Malaysia.

I have *never* heard of fish served partially cooked and still alive.

There are however, ample sick inducing chinese concoctions available.. the
drinking of snake gall bladder in wine... the snakes are left alive, whilst
the organ is removed.  And if that's not bad enough...

There's also a chinese practise of swallowing live, whole (ie. you don't chew)
baby mice and washing them down with rice wine.  This has something to do
with increasing virility... yeah right!

I have never been so glad to get to the end of a topic in my life ...


:(

    rep .85
    
    	Martin Yan, the host of 'Yan Can Cook' show, did just that this
    past weeekend, drank the bile from the gall bladder of a snake.  I was
    really amazed as the guy handling the snake in question made a cut in
    the snake, squeezed out the bladder, pinched the bladder to extract the
    liquid, and Martin drank it!  He seemed to like it too!

    re Drunken Prawns...
    
    Some  friends of mine run a Cattle "Ranch" here in Australia. Being
    remote they slaughter their own cattle for their own local consumption.
    
    They found that feeding the cow in questions a couple of beers, and
    maybe some cheap wine, made it totally oblivious to the fact it was
    about to be slaughtered. (Cattle seem to since this and get skittish
    and tense). They claim the meat is far more tender, as the beast is
    relaxed at the moment of slaughter...
    
    q
    

 I believe it. Adrenaline adversely affects the flavor of meat.

Re Monkey brains...

****** EXTRA SQUEAMISH ALERT  ***********


****** EXTRA EXTRA SQUEAMISH ALERT  ***********

>
>>       Then there's the ancient Chinese tradition of eating monkey
>>     brains.. A special table is used with a hole in the center with screws
>>     around the edges. A live monkey is brought into the room, its head
>>     placed in the hole so only the top sticks above the table. The top of
>>     its skull is removed, and the happy diners dip stuff into the monkey's
>>     head to scoop out brains for their consumption...
>

Traditionally a drum is placed under the unfortunate creature's feet so that
the diners can appreciate the tattoo that is generated as the removal of the
brain stimulates the leg muscles... 

	On the subject of maggots again, I thought this newspaper
	article in Sunday's paper was interesting ....

CHINESE DEVELOP FOOD FROM MAGGOTS

Beijing (AP) - The Chinese diet, already full of foods that startle squeamish
Westerners, may soon include maggots.
  Chinese scientists have developed nutrition-rich extracts from maggots of the
common fly, and are negotiating with food and pharmaceutical firms to
mass-produce the products, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
  It quoted one scientist as saying the maggot extracts are "surprisingly
appealing" but did not describe how they taste.
  Scientist have discovered that maggots are rich in nutrients.  Five hundred
grams of pure protein and 200 grams of low-fat oil and amino acids can be
extracted from 1,000 grams of maggots.
  The amino acides can be used as a nutritional supplement for children's food,
and the low-fat oil is effective in preventing heart disease, the report said.
  It said the maggots are kept in large bottles and fed distillers's grain,
wheat bran and other farm waste.  One fly can produce billions of maggots every
week, making it suitable for mass production.

       Re .90, monkey brains

   I think some people have been reading too many books :-)

   - Jim

	The drunken prawn idea can be used on any other animal, 
	drunken chicken is another fav-o dish, there's also Peacock.
	Whilst I was in Hangzhou (P.R.C.) I nearly walked/tripped over
	a number of cages out the front of an expensive restaurant which
	had lot's and lot's of snakes squirming about, yes you must use
	all parts of the animal not just drink it's insides.. racoon type
	creatures and something else like a small guinea pig, as for the
	rat embryo's it's called the three squeaks, the first squeak is
	when you pour the soy sauce over them, the second squeak is when
	you pick it up with your chopsticks, and the third squeak when
	you bite it, THIS IS ALL TRUE.... What else can I remember?????
	I've forgotten most things since I'm vegetarian and ate lot's
	of Tofu and Gluten, if you do get the Beijing there is an expensive
	vegetarian restaruant just down from Tiannen Square which does
	magic things with tofu and Gluten, it all looks so pretty you
	can't bring yourself to eat any of it.....If anyone wants the
	name of the place I can probably look it up... Also the best
	known beijing duck restaurant had been pulled down and we couldn't
	work out the forwarding address!!!!

	Scott, Esq.

>              <<< Note 3867.92 by 3D::ROTH "Geometry is the real life!" >>>
>
>           Re .90, monkey brains
>
>       I think some people have been reading too many books :-)
>
>       - Jim
    
    It's true I saw the process on the movie Faces of Death. It truly
    is an awful thing to watch. I don't see how anyone could eat after
    murdering the poor little monkey with a tiny little hammer.....