We lived in Japan for ten and a half years. I used to go to a farmer's market for the very best of local produce, purchased right from the back of the Japanese version of a pick-up truck. One morning, I was offered a taste of something out of a bag: candied locusts. Think Cracker Jacks, only, bristlier (is that a word?). Perhaps one of the crunchiest things I have ever crunched, but not bad, although it had a tendency to catch all the way down my throat, no matter how much it was chewed. John (the Baptist, that is) would have kept a pack tucked into the belt of his camel hair robe.






We were in Bejing, and visited a hotpot restaurant (in Iceland, however, hotpots are for people--outdoor jacuzzis), in which you cook your food in a pot of broth on a burner at your table. We ordered the usual items of leafy greens, pork, chicken, etc.--and shrimp. This restaurant kept their shrimp very fresh, live in tanks. They brought us the bowl of  live shrimp, which, by this time, I was used to, having lived in Asia for some time now. We proceeded to dump the shrimp in the hotpot--and they all proceeded to jump back out all over the place. We scrambled to recover our dinner before it escaped, and this time, when we added them to put, one of us stood by with the pot cover (so that's what it's for...). A kind of "popcorn shrimp", I suppose.

















Another visit to a restaurant in Bejing gave me the opportunity to try frog's legs; it's like chicken, only, bonier. Lots of little bones. The meal was being ordered by some Chinese acquaintances, so it was a given that there would be some "unknowns". So, the frog's legs and goose liver were fine. I was game to try things, although six months pregnant. Then there was a stew with meat in it. I ate some, and couldn't quite place the flavour. I quietly asked Tony what it was. He asked his friend, who told us it was...dog. I smiled awkwardly, and with great restraint, managed not to "woof" my meal (sorry; couldn't resist).
 









Icelandic Jólamat: Christmas dinner, with smoked leg of lamb, various  veggies, potatoes and thin crispy laufabraud. Delicious!


 





For the truly daring, come to Iceland. Get here for the 23rd of December for  Thorlaksmessa. A few days before that, and one can buy fresh skate at the stores, take it home, hang it up in a warm place, and let it rot for a few days, till its ready for the 23rd. Tony tried this without knowing what it was at the university the first year we were here. He went to the cafeteria, with a slighty stuffy nose (but enough to severely inhibit his sense of smell), and found to his delight, a delicious-looking abundance of cooked fish. He took a generous helping, sat down and took a big bite. Well, it cleared his nose...










                     No animals were harmed in the making of this photo...     










We knew this one was coming, having been sufficiently warned. The traditional recipe is for a fisherman (or a few of them) to catch a big shark (probably a Greenland shark), pee on it, bury it in the sand for about six months, and dig it up just in time for another feast, Thorrablot, around mid-February. It's cut into small cubes, and chased down with Black Death (a fairly potent Icelandic schnappes, I'm told). I tried a very small "smakka" (taste), very small, whose fragrance was, well, pervasive. WHOA!  Another traditional stuffy nose remedy! No, I did not ask just how "traditionally" it had been prepared.










                                         "YEAH! I like it!"
      Jonathan with cousin Tara and Tony's sister.




 Daniel has just tried durian for the first time; Uncle Henry is enjoying this.

In Japan, there are restaurants that keep tanks of live fish for sashimi. Some restaurants take extra precaution to let you know that your fish actually came right from one of those tanks, and not just from a supply handily chilled in the fridge. A Malaysian friend took us to one such restaurant (which we did not know about), and practically giggled as he ordered some dish that we were unable to translate as yet. Well, the waiter came fairly quickly out of the kitchen, and placed before us a platter with a fish that had been prepared with the flesh neatly sliced and arranged on the fish carcass (not the most appetizing word, but all I can think of). Fine; I've seen that--but NOT the fish thus arranged giving a last great gasp as it expired on the table before you! I gasped, too, a little louder than the fish...It was almost all gone before they were able to finally convince me to try a little piece ("You have to. It's really fresh!"). Well, yes it was, but that was the last time I let our Malaysian friend order for me! In addition, eating out with him was then considered "high risk".













As you know by now, Asians like their food really fresh. It is not uncommon to, say, order roast fowl or steamed fish, and the head comes along with it. This authenticates the dish: it really is what you ordered. We were in a restaurant in Japan (yet again!), and ordered lobster sashimi (raw lobster, but no rice, as in sushi). Not even Tony (favorite quote: "Cantonese will eat anything with four legs, except tables and chairs") was not prepared for this one. The lobster was brought, the tail meat nicely sliced and presented on the tail shell, with, no surprise, the head--except the head was still alive! And it remained so the rest of the meal! The antennae moved and so did the eyeballs (are you sufficiently grossed out now?). Again, it took a bit for me to get up the nerve to eat it; after all, it was watching us eat it. And so we reached a new "level" of authentic food: self-authenticating lobster. (I still shudder.)


Samuel trying to figure out what it is; Daniel just finished eating it: Phoenix Claw (chicken feet). We told them after they ate it :)









Here are some other things, in alphabetical order, I have tried:
bear, bison, caribou, crocodile (tough), durian (super stinky fruit, I won't go into the texture...), emu, horse (raw; in Japan, so it was nobody I knew), kangaroo, octopus, ostrich, shark, snake, turtle, whale (a very traditional food for some peoples, but my personal preference is to watch them).












Tony's sister, having just eaten something doused with wasabi (Japanese horseradish).







 I was in the grocery store, soon after arrival and diligently learning Icelandic vocabulary, picking up items in the frozen food section while translating: pork, salted pork, smoked pork, salted and smoked pork, horse, salted horse, smoked horse, salted and smoked horse, lamb, salted lamb, smoked lamb, salted and smoked lamb, and--ARRGGGHHHH! I dropped the item in my hand I had just identified: a frozen half of sheep's head (lightly singed).













What happens when you stuff your mouth with something and a lot of wasabi. When there's that much wasabi, it doesn't really matter what the "something" was... Our nephew, Genesis.







Thorrablot has some other things you might be interested in (or not). How about that sheep's head mentioned earlier? Or sheep's head jam? Spiced pig's head jam, too. There's also pickled pressed ram's testicles. Perhaps whale blubber, or, for the politically correct, fake whale blubber. Liver and blood sausage, and various other items made from "secondary meats". If you are fortunate to know someone who does these extras, there's seal flippers and sheep's leg jam. If you're really into it, here's a great link for Icelandic feasts and celebrations . Recipes, too!







                                    "Now you're talkin'..."















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