Okay, perhaps this is not a typical first food memory,
but it's one of my favorites. I've been watching the box set of Freaks and
Geeks and during one of the episodes, the "geeks" dare each other to drink a disgusting combination of
ingredients (salt, sardines, pickle juice...) for money. O how the memories came flooding back. When my brother and I were in elementary school, we used to do the exact. same. thing. We used to stand at the refrigerator and goad each other into drinking conconctions we created. Our rules were that you could only use three ingredients (to cut down on disgust-osity) and we could only pick items from the fridge.
Just like on the TV show, pickle juice was a favorite starter liquid.
Thinking back on it, the experience was actually very helpful. It taught us about flavor combinations, and we certainly drank enough MSG-laced brine to learn about umami at an early age. In fact, both my brother and I went on to have food-related jobs. Bro was a line cook at restaurants in San Francisco and Germany. I dabbled in catering and now write about food. Maybe it all started with a little kimchi juice-mayo-grape jam cocktail.
Anyone else do this?
DIY Foods: Making homemade sausage
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-12-2006 @ 9:47AM
Lynds said...
We did that all the time, also at restaurants with soda fountains we did suicides by mixing all the different sodas.
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4-12-2006 @ 1:43PM
eric said...
i distinctly remember 'drinking' a big mug of cold pumpkin pulp mixed clumsily with two raw eggs and a shot of cheap rye whiskey - my friend Mike and i often tried to out-horrify each other with taste and texture combinations.
the pumpkin pulp's awful chilled strands would go halfway down my throat as i slurped - still connected, diabolically, to larger chunks which remained unchewed in my mouth. the resulting 'tickle' right at my gag reflex nearly drove me insane.
the booze was a nice touch - especially because i was maybe thirteen at the time. it made me cough and go into a loop of choking and burning and desperate swallowing that lasted for what seemed like a million years.
the eggs cradled the whole deal in the sort of texture one would likely only find in the depths of a walrus's sinuses.
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4-12-2006 @ 7:26PM
Sharon said...
No disgusting combos, I was too chicken for that... but I do have horrifying memories of making chocolate milkshakes when my parents weren't home and turning on the blender without putting the lid on-- and trying to scrub chocolate off the ceiling before they got home.
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4-12-2006 @ 10:17PM
David T said...
One time I made my friend a Vodka and Pickle Juice shot. He didn't like it.
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4-13-2006 @ 1:40AM
Jenna said...
I think the most horrifying thing that I had among these lines (which ended my "I dare you to drink this" career) was Orange Juice, Hot Water, and NoSalt.
I haven't been able to eat anything with NoSalt in it without getting nauseated since 6th grade.
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4-13-2006 @ 11:58PM
Jessica said...
My cousins and I used to do this all the time in the kitchen when our parents were all in the back yard during summer time. We however, had no limit on how many ingredients and we usually spiced things up with a little salt and pepper... and We would not tell each other what was in the drinks... you just had to try to guess for yourself like a game.
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4-19-2007 @ 6:06PM
Mary Summers said...
MSG is poison! Yet you can buy it at the grocery store. One company calls it, "Accent" in the spice section. It's also in most canned soups, sauces, packaged meals, meats and so much more! It's "MonoSodium Glutamate" and it gives me heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat. No more of those scarey symptoms, and ER visits, since I found out, I always read ALL labels! Also make all meals myself, from scratch and use natural ingredients. I don't like taking chances with my health!
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