"weird food" news and stories

Got a hankering for a ketchup sandwich? Salivating at the thought of scrambled eggs and grape jelly?

No, we're not talking pregnancy cravings -- we're talking strange (and objectively tasty) food cravings brought to you by a recent CafeMom.com inquiry: "Which weird foods do you eat that other people find utterly revolting?" Popcorn and Sno-Caps are so elementary, my dear Watson.

Included after the jump are just a few of the bizzare reader responses:

We've covered some odd food and drink products here at Slashfood, from Lamb & Mint Potato Chips to Pizza Flavored Beer to Turkey and Gravy Soda, but this might be one of the weirdest. They're Pickle Sickles: popsicles made with pickle juice.

Now, I like interesting food products, and I'm even interested in those Kool-Aid Pickles Joanne talked about a couple of months ago, but popsicles made out of pickle juice? Yeah, that's refreshment: the ice cold feel of a popsicle for those hot summer days, only with the taste of pickles! Check out the site though. The ordering page is blank right now, but there's a "Pickle Sickle Song" to keep you entertained.

If anyone tries these, please let us know how they are.

A lot of people know Anthony Bourdain either as a chef or "that guy on the TV shows who travels a lot and eats funky things." Sure, he's both of those things, but he also happens to be a very good writer. Not just his books that look behind the scenes of the restaurant biz (like Kitchen Confidential, a must read for anyone in the food service industry), but also his mystery books. Bone in the Throat, Gone Bamboo, and The Bobby Gold Stories are all terrific reads. The guy can write, period.

Now he's back with The Nasty Bits, a collection of articles he's written for several publications, including Gourmet, Chow, Esquire, Best Life, Blackbook, The L.A. Times, Town and Country, and others. Nicole picked it as the Cookbook of the Day last week, and I think this might be one of his best books yet.

Personally, I don't have a problem trying strange meats. I might try them only once, but if other people are willing to eat them than so am I. I do draw a firm line somewhere, but there are probably hundreds of options of edible critters without getting too specific with regard to breed. Over at Boing Boing, they captured a neat shot of a roasted, teriyaki-glazed alligator, an image you may want to avoid if you are a vegetarian. Of course, they followed up with a vegetarian version, pictured above, for non-experimental meat eaters. I've had alligator, rattlesnake and kangaroo, in addition to the much more ordinary bison and ostrich. The kangaroo reminded me of lamb and had a nice flavor with a bit of a gamey taste. The rattlesnake had a meltingly tender, flaky texture. What's the weirdest meat you've eaten?

[Image via Boing Boing]

A Japanese sake company noticed that its master brewers always had such nice skin! So Ozeki asked 11 employees to drink sake (270 millileters, to be exact) and measure the moisture in their skin before and after. Moisture content of their arms grew by 30%, compared to no change when drinking another alcoholic beverage.

The employees may have gotten sloshed, but it was for a good cause! Now several Japanese companies are developing sake-based skincare products. Evidently, there are 36 active substances in the sake-derived extracts produced by Yushin-Brewer, which contains koji mold, lactic acid bacteria and yeast. Yushin-Brewer is also making an anti-ulcer product. And I have no idea how that relates to having moist skin, but there you go.

I think I'd rather just get the lovely skin effects from drinking the sake. You?

Source