Michael Pollan has written two books about food in our culture. In his second book he contends that humans don't eat some foods because of the "disgust factor." As in, we don't eat feces because of a uviversal disgust among human people toward eating feces. Evidently that disgust factor has not been picked up on by man's best friend. I can agree with him in only a small way about the disgust factor. J was telling me of a recent conversation with a good friend of ours whose daughter, Katie, is currently visiting in China during the winter break at the C of I. The Mom was telling J about the foods that Katie has encountered that really disgusts her. She is thankful for the abundance of rice on the table. She thought she might be safe with hard boiled eggs. After all, "What can you do to a hardboiled egg." Yeah, right. She bit into one and found an eye in its center. She was disgusted!
Basically, I think Michael Pollan is wrong about the disgust factor. We develop our disgust of certain foods culturally. Ever walk down the side walks of China Town in Vancouver, B.C. or San Francisco, CA? I was seeing a lot of stuff that I would hope never to see in my bowl of soup or on my plate some day. In the picture at the beginning of this page you will find dried eel cooked with port intestine and chicken. I believe with such delicacy being served to me that I would be back to my weight when first married.
Papa Coyote's grandson, MP, has never tasted peanut butter, but I think it is possible that he might find one of the staples of my diet to be disgusting. We had an exchange student from Finland living with us one year who certainly thought peanut butter was disgusting. Well, she might be a bad example--she thought most food was disgusting.
I am thinking about this because this week I will be assigning a reading about the food the Native Americans ate. If the students this year are anything like the students of last year, they will be gaggingly disgusted. I try to impress them that if one was truly hungry that they would eat anything they could get their hands on. They assure me that I don't know them.
If you with to read the article you can find it on the web at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.westonaprice.org/images/navajo.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/native_americans.html&h=400&w=262&sz=66&hl=en&start=8&tbnid=gHlQVoh4eicjcM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=81&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGrease%2Band%2BGuts%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4RNWN_enUS237US237
Sally Fallon and Mary Enig write the article as an attack on the so called Paleo diet that has become popular among modern dieters. Their premise is that what is being sold to us as a Paleo diet is not a Paleo diet. Paleo people ate a lot of really disgusting food and a lot of fat. In fact, as much fat as they could get their greasy hands on an render or dry for later use.
Reading the Lewis Clark Journals can be entertaining especially as they tried to find the little available food in Idaho. When one of the hunters shot a deer, two of the Indians disemboweled it, sat down, and with each taking an end of the small intestine began to suck and squeeze the contents into their mouth. The were very hungry as were L and C's men, but these two Indians were going after the most desirable part since they were there first. Why the contents of the small intestine? Well, the contents are digested (we humans don't digest grass and brush well) and it is chock full of vitamins. So, yeah, why not? Disgust? For our American culture, yes, but not for the Shoshone people of 1800.
L and C's men also found the Shoshones drying salmon roe in massive amounts. They then pounded the dried row into a powder and then stored the powder away in undergound caches. They learned from the Indians that the powdered roe would be used later in the winter. Some water would be mixed into the powder and the resulting soup would be a very nutritious meal. Yuck!
John Kirk Townsend was one of the first naturalists to travel though southern Idaho. He passed through about 1826. His journals are fascinating reading. http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/html/ The links to the journals is currently not working, hopefully this is a temporary problem. He observed Shoshone Indians along the Snake River in the Boise River Valley eating large amounts of salmon roe raw. They seemed to prefer this part of the fish when the fish was first caught. Yuck.
Our exchange student thought blood pancakes were pretty good. Her dad sold liters of blood in his store. This was a popular item among Finnish shoppers. My students can not believe anybody could even think of eating such food. They were gagging at the thought. And blood pudding. You can't be serious!!
Well, I am going to have fun this week grossing out my students who are mostly freshmen and sophomores. Freshmen and sophomores are really easy to gross out.
Yeeooooowww, Says the Papa Coyote
Here is hoping that you find no eyeballs in your next hardboiled egg.
3 comments:
So here I was, preparing next weeks menus, trying to come up with foods with universal appeal, and your blog update pops up. Yikes! Post a warning dude!
JK.
I just bought Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. A most excellent read. And cookbook. I've been checking out from the library and begging recipes off of others for long enough. Powels never had a used copy in, so I had to spring the full $25. But it's worth it. I just wish we could eat more of the recipes as is.
Let me know if you need a used book. Amazon usually has used books and I can get free shipping on most orders. I can have it mailed directly to your house. I thought the eight-week fermented fish complete with maggots was a particularly gourmet delight. Yuck and spew. The fermented contents of the small intestine seemed to be the biggest groaner so far. Oh, yea, the blood pancakes (ala Finland) came in a close second. My Mexican students have eaten a number of the foods listed in the article. One boy's family buys tongues by the box. My white students seem to be getting whiter as the class progresses. Oh, this is indeed a fun unit :):):)
My inlaws are currently living in China...this is the father in law that was scared of mongolian BBQ and top-of-the-line american-made sushi... Yeah, we've been havbing some good chuckles at the foods they've been fed!!
My hubby will try almost anything, I'm a little less brave, but I generally stick to mom's old guideline "Don't knock it till ya try it" and you know, octopus is pretty good. :-)
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