Garbage to delicacy

I'm 65 years old. On your list:

ElizabethB said:
Your thoughts please.
What changes our perception of food? What turns garbage into a delicacy?
Just a few examples

crawfish
frog legs
Alligator
snails
raw fish
insects and grubs
weeds
strange sea creatures

The list goes on.

There are so many foods that are prized today as delicacies. In my lifetime some of those same foods were scorned or thrown away as garbage.

What changes our perception?
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The way I grew up, AND it was in the 50s, 60s and 70s... only the Insects and Grubs was on the "garbage" list. So with regards to the others, my perceptions haven't changed. Awesome food!

Insects and grubs: I want to try mealworms and crickets. I did try silkworm moth cocoons my uncle sourced in DC before coming up to visit us in CT. They'd been smoked. Unfortunately I think they'd been smoked in some cesspool overseas without any health supervision whatsoever. They were terrible - but I'm willing to admit it was the source and procedure, not the silkworm moth cocoons themselves.
 
We have wild foods fest in hokitika every year. I've eaten huhu sp, hoohoo grubs. Tastes like peanut butter, I liked it.

Russ
 
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/14355/huhu-grub

p-14355-doc.jpg

Russ
 
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medtran49 said:
Lobster and crab used to be a poor man's food. They were a byproduct of a fisherman's catch and their families ate a lot of lobster and crab.
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I read that one of the reasons for the transformation of these crustaceans into luxury items related to how there was such an abundance of lobster that they had to start canning it to preserve it, otherwise they'd have to start throwing it out. This led to fresh lobster becoming a premium item. At some point, someone saw a business opportunity, and the rest is history.

morning glory said:
Shows how ignorant I am - we weren't really taught American history at school.
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Ha...we aren't taught much American history, either! :laugh: Seriously, there's always a bit of a debate about how much children are taught in school. There always seem to be areas that are glossed over or simply skipped. Most of the education about that time period relates to the formation of the country. I imagine it's even worse when it comes to European history for European kids (we only have ~250 years of history, whereas you have....a lot more years).
 
TastyReuben said:
Well, one thing can be a growth in popularity. Buffalo wings/hot wings/wings used to be dirt cheap, and before that, they were just thrown away as useless or used in stock.

Somebody deep fried them, tossed them in a little hot sauce and butter, and they catch on, and before you know it, they're expensive. Nothing much changed with the wing itself, but bar and restaurant owners realized that someone paying a little for stuff that was previously thrown out would probably pay a little more.

When the wife and I were dating, 30 years ago, hot wings were a whopping 10 cents each, at one of any number of bars in town. We didn't have much money, so we are a lot of wings.

Now, wings are like buying a gourmet burger, and ribs have followed a similar trajectory, I think. Ribs are really expensive now.
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I like Buffalo wings, also, but with the sauce cooked onto the wings in the oven. That is the only way that I eat them, & not too much of the sauce! To fry 9or bake them & then drown them in the sauce is just overkill! Too damn hot & it drowns out the taste of the wings themselves!! :mad::headshake::stop:
 
Shermie said:
Who would want to eat THAT?!!!! Gross. Eew!!! :eek:
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@rascal ate some! Its all a matter of what you are accustomed to. If you start really thinking about it in depth, eating the flesh of any dead animal could be described as gross. A grub isn't much different from a prawn (shrimp) and plenty of folk eat those without a qualm.

I would personally feel a but squeamish about grubs but I realise its a cultural thing. Just as I wouldn't eat dogs, yet I eat pigs who are just as intelligent. If I think about it a lot I want to turn vegetarian again!
 
Ok, the worst thing I ever saw anyone eat was on a documentary film we saw in school when I was a kid.

A fellow in the rain forest in South American used a stick to herd a live spider about the size of a rat into some kind of giant leaf, then he rolled it up and ate it. Live. The blasted legs were still wiggling!
 
A friend of ours had to attend a business dinner in China. He was presented with several live dishes and had to eat them so as not to offend. I don't remember the details, just that his description made me need to gag and had my skin crawling.
 
CraigC said:
Initially the motivation was survival. I once asked a group of vegetarians/vegans if they thought they could survive without eating meat/fish/fowl during times of exploration such as the Lewis and Clark expedition. To a person they all said they could have. I have my doubts about that. Don't believe there were enough cultivated crops at the time and you would be SOL if you ate the wrong wild plant.
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Your last line had me bursting out laughing. So true though!

Russ
 
TastyReuben said:
Ok, the worst thing I ever saw anyone eat was on a documentary film we saw in school when I was a kid.

A fellow in the rain forest in South American used a stick to herd a live spider about the size of a rat into some kind of giant leaf, then he rolled it up and ate it. Live. The blasted legs were still wiggling!
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There is documentary footage I posted elsewhere of Chef Gordon Ramsay doing just that.
 
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