You Ate WHAT? Contest.: Gold Medal Winner

Out here in Ill. on the wednesday before Thanksgiving there is a small town that has
a great outdoor party with a tastey main event. The Turkey Testicle Festival!!!

[shroomgirl]

Welcome chefgup!! I didn't know Turkeys had testicals anymore...commercial ones are all artifically inseminated....you don't use it you lose it.

Testicle festival. Testicle festival. Testy festy. Tell me, do they throw a formal "ball"? "OOOH WEEE, Cletus, I had me a ball at the testicle festival."
p.s. Sorry chefgup, I'm not making fun of you. I just have a stupid and sophomoric sense of humor.

I've eaten rotten fish goop that was set in a vat and allowed to ferment. They call it Puhlaa in Thai and is something of a standard in the Northeast. I've eaten Monkey in Venezuela and Anteater too. My husband ate a grub in Thailand. We also ate these things that look like lizards in the Southwest part of Thailand, near Kanchanaburi where the Southern Pwo Karen live. They put it in the curry. Didn't like the crunchiness of the bones. I think what tops it all is that in the Faroe Islands, they take a young calf head and put it underground, allowing it to ferment for years. Then, they dig it up and call it "down home" cooking! Also, in Thailand they eat insects and rats. I have pictures if there are any doubters. I'm not one of those people who have to one-up ya. Just the facts mam!

BlueRibbon:

I think you take the cake with your last post. Don't believe anybody can top that!

[shroomgirl]

Amazing.....Mofo you are something else...I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.
Oh man buried calf head...kinda like kimchee the longer buried the better....

Crudeau,
Now that's what I'm talkin about. Why does it not surprize me that "testyfesty" is a website. By golly, that's plain nuts.

Mofo:

Check this out:
http://www.testyfesty.com/Lodge.htm

I chose the lodge site because it didn't show anything naughty. If you browse through the site you will see some naughty stuff. So be warned that this is not for kids. You can buy t-shirts and stuff which is kinda cool. This testicle festival is one of the biggest and baddest around.

Heh, heh.

[mudbug]

Live_to_cook,

How did I miss this thread? There are certain cultures you simply have to be raised in to appreciate certain traditions eh? Have I mentioned the live baby octopus?

[chrose]

Not completely the same but there is an Eskimo delicacy that involves burying seal and or whale blubber and innards until they ferment and rot. This to them is a delicacy.
It brings to mind the book "Alive" about the soccer players who crashed in the Andes mountains and had to live off their fallen comrades. Sad and gross as it is, it is an interesting read as to what they did with their "meat". Skulls for dishes, craving the fetid flavor for the salt from their nutritionless diet. As an interesting side note, due to the advent of modern convenience devices there was an epidemic many years ago of Eskimos dying from Botulism poisoning due to the practice mentioned above, but this time instead of burying it in tne tradiional blubber "sack" they used Tupperware thereby creating an airtight seal in which the bacteria thrived.

Hey look at me, I must be healing! I'm getting long winded again!!!

[Live_to_cook]

cchiu,

So what's the attraction for live baby octopus? Is it the freshness? Is there a sauce? The fact that it squirms and you eat it? Do you chew?

I'm serious, maybe you could explain.

[Katherine]

I understand that baby octopus canned in chili oil makes a wonderful garnish in your saketini. (6 parts topnotch vodka, 1 part sake)

When I was in Singapore a few years back, I was served a salad that had a little whole pickled octopus. That little sucker was Hunter Orange in color. I ate it anyway.

I'm not sure what the attraction of a baby octopus it, but I guess it's no worse than eating an oyster or a clam.

[Mezzaluna]

Speaking of nasty things.... anyone catch Iron Chef last night? It was the conger eel competition. I'd heard that eels are vivisected (cut up while alive) and wasn't sure it was true, but they showed it on the show. I won't be eating eel again (yes, I've eaten it smoked in Denmark). I thought I was so lucky to get to watch the show while visiting relatives, but turned it off.