Thursday, January 28

Food & Fear


It's Food Week at TFC and I thought I'd try a new spin on it: Fear.

Some people think the #1 fear is death, but it's not. It's public speaking. So all you writers and other folks who get up to talk in front of groups of people - yea, you! - you're doing something many other people fear even more than dying. And what's the #3 fear? You may well ask. Why, it's spiders of course. And that #3 bugs me far more than the top two. Oh, I've come to peace with the littler specimens of eight-legged creatures. But the big ones? The hairy ones? Sure, I could probably see a therapist about it. But I figure having one raging fear humanizes me, so I'll hold onto it, thank you very much.

Now you're probably wondering how my arachnid antipathy relates to food. Well, I've eaten a few strange things in my life - peacock, snake - things that other people always say taste like chicken, and they do. But I cannot imagine that a hairy spider tastes anything like chicken, and I cannot imagine eating anything grosser than...

Rats. When I uploaded the image, instead of it going here, like I wanted it to, it ended up at the top of the page. (My #2 fear is modern technology - I stink at it.) Still...

Ack! Gross! Rob Blagojevich's wife ate a tarantula...for a TV show! Think of the crunch. Think of all that hair.

OK, maybe to save the life of another human being I might eat one. But for any other reason? No. Really. No.

So that's my TFC question to all of you today:

WHAT IS THE ABSOLUTE GROSSEST THING THAT YOU CAN THINK OF TO EAT THAT YOU WOULD NEVER, NEVER EAT???

Enjoy your lunch. And have a nice day.

6 comments:

A.S. King said...

My answer: Anything gross.
I used to think with my background, I'd be a great Survivor candidate. But the one episode of Survivor I will not even watch--is the one where they have to eat gross stuff.
Couldn't do it. None of it.

That said, I could eat anything as long as I burnt the heck out of it over a fire, if I had to--you know--in order to live.

In real life, I also can't eat red beets. As in--never.

(ps--my word verification is: ingest. Uncanny.)

Gerb said...

I don't think I could ever eat nattō. (That's soybeans fermented until they're sticky and smelly and gross.) Just seeing pictures of the stuff makes me cringe.
Some of my Japanese friends swear that nattō is quite good. It's high in protein and very healthy. They even have de-stinkified nattō you can buy now if the smell of rotten beans turns you off. That's all good and fine, but I want to know is... What do they do about the rotten-bean taste?? No thanks.

Wendy Toliver said...

My mind wanders over to creepy crawlies, but I think I'd have a harder time eating something I love, like a dog or cat or person. I wouldn't make a good Survivor contestant.

Alyson Noel said...

I've eaten some weird stuff too--but never anything of the rodent variety and never anything I might want to keep as a pet!

Melissa Walker said...

Ooh, Wendy, I love how you went to a deeper place with this--pets! people you love!--while I immediately thought of many insects, none of which I'd be able to swallow.

It's all mental, but the mind is STRONG.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted said...

Thanks for all the great comments!

Btw, if any of you are ever in a situation with me and I'm dead and you're in danger of starving, you have my permission to eat me. Honestly! I won't mind!