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I've always thought that you could divide Americans into 2 basic
groups: Those who eat pork rinds and those who don't. The first group
ingest the rather styrofoam tasting pork skin snacks like you would
potato chips, sometimes with a good shake or two of tabasco sauce to
spice them up a bit. Myself, I've never been able to get into them.
In any case they are certainly a very unusual snack.
Americans, especially males, also tend to eat a lot of jerky (beef and
otherwise), as well as those spicy beef sticks like Slim Jims that you
find in bars or at the grocery. Some of those I like and some I don't.
I really like the thin, very spicy Old Wisconsin cocktail pepperoni
sticks. They make a great snack while watching a movie. But you
probably don't want to eat that kind of thing too often unless you are
saving up points for your next coronary.
Every culture has its own foods. And as a matter of course they have
their own snack treats also. Sometimes these snacks translate into
another culture and sometimes they don't. And of course it all depends
on individual taste as well, no matter what the culture.
Yesterday I ran across a photo-essay in the Village Voice about strange
or unusual snack foods from around the world. So I thought I would
present a few of their interesting finds here. (Photographs by the
individual writers involved.)
Ube.
If you like your pastry nice and purple, you
might try this snack from the Philippines.
Squid Balls.
I really don't have to make a joke about this
one, do I?
Patra.
This is an Indian appetizer made of chickpea paste
and lots of spices rolled up in taro leaves. I like
Indian food so I might like this one — though I'm
not too sure about it coming from a can.
Scrack.
Tiny Italian breadstick type things.
Remember kids, don't do Scrack!
Dried Wild Fish.
'Cause nothing pleases your kids more when they
get home from school than to give them a dried
fish snack.
Naughty Tomatoes.
These are like red crunchy Cheetos with a tomato
flavor that "hits sweet, sour, and spicy notes."
Sounds pretty good.
Hannah Montana Gummies.
The equivalent to Gummie Bears, but in a different
shape. They're supposed to look like guitars. But
to me they look like lizard tongues.
Twiglets.
"A species of pretzel that taste like they've been
dipped in V-8 Juice and then dried in the exhaust
fan of a barn." I think I'll stick with Pretzel Time.
Fried Noodle Sandwich.
Fried ramen noodles, pork, pickled ginger, and mayonnaise
on a steamed bun. I'm sorry, but this just looks like
maggots on a rotting corpse. And trust me, I've seen
maggots on a rotting corpse.
KFC Snack Bowl.
Not to be outdone by the noodle/maggot sandwich, here
in America you can go into a local Kentucky Fried Chicken
restaurant and get much the same thing. Or not.
Freakish Sapor.
These are peanuts. But I think I would tend to shy
away from any food item with the word "freakish"
on the wrapper.
Yogurt Scotch.
Yogurt candies with a sweet and sour flavor. I imagine
they taste a lot like Sweet Tarts except more mellow.
But I don't know for sure.
This Insubstantial Pageant Faded 
Thanks Linda. And I'll check it out. Coming from an anthropology background I love that kind of stuff.
Who knew? Very entertaining post, Edward. Totally agree about the Fried Noodle Sandwich. :yuck: Seen more maggots than I care to remember.:up: Good post. BTW, have you ever seen the documentary films called Mondo Cane about strange habits around the world? Worth a look if you can find a copy. Has some very, uh, interesting eating practices. Go here to read about it. Might be on YouTube somewhere
Really, Tamil needs to make us a smiley for odoriferous. 😀
My favorite: Dried Wild Fish.With an additional bonus – you'll always have a seat for yourself on the train.
Well, there ya go!LMAO.
That's the best I got! 🙂
"Squid Balls.I really don't have to make a joke about thisone, do I?"Loves me some squid balls :pthe prices are too high Eddie!this store is riping you off!How on earth you think of all these things! you are a genious!:lol:thanks for the fun time here! 🙂
"Loves me some squid balls"Help yourself! :devil: "the prices are too high Eddie!
this store is riping you off!"No wonder I'm having a tough time maintaining my $1.95 per day Scrack habit! :pI'm a genie, you say?RRRRRRRRRRRRrrrooooooooaaaaaaaarrrr! Why do you wake me from my bottle!
I hear ya abut the salt. I omly eat twice a day and so can ususally manage the 2000 mg per day thing — but not if -'m sitting around eating pepperoni sticks and potato chips. 😆
I'm a deep-fried Southerner. :p When a child, we always killed two hogs after first frost every fall. Daddy and neighbors to help would kill, butcher and cure them. Mama made fresh cracklins' out of the pork skin, and you ain't never tasted nothin' as good as fresh-made cracklin' bread! Lordy, lordy. Them's sum good eatin', ya'll heah?
Lots of people around here eat those pork rind thingies. Not me, though. Tried 'em once. Yuck. Like eating deepfried cardboard.I like SlimJims. Can't eat them very often. Too much salt. Darn it.All-in-all, think I'll stick with cucumbers and watermelon.:lol:
Linda, I don't know whether you are putting us on or not. I really don't. :lol:But I'll assume they were really good cracklins. :pYou know, when I was a kid we would hit the old chuck wagon evenings and sit around the fire eaten fresh-made chile and tellen stories okay this really is bullshit so I'll quit now. 🙂
Sounds like a good environment pork-wise. I'm sorry, it seems no matter what I say about this I stick my foot in it. My uncle owned a diner in Indianapolis and he made his own breaded tenderloins from pork back that he would cut himself and his own recipe for the batter. Best tenderloins in Indianapolis, even won an award. And that's no bullshit. I love breaded tenderloins.
Actually, I was telling the truth, Edward, just the language was facetious. We DID kill two hogs every fall. We used everything on those hogs, too. We had a sausage grinder and Mama would grind and make our own sausage and put them in the rolls (only the rolls were about three times the length of the ones you buy. Daddy would butcher and cure the meat with salt and brown sugar and put it in the smoke house. We had fresh bacon that was cut right from the meat. Hams. Mama cooked the brains with scrambled eggs and we thought it was great. And she did make cracklin's and fresh cracklin' bread, all through the cold months. Nothing tasted better than that pork with fried potatoes and pinto beans and all the veggies that Mama had canned after harvest and all we could eat of the fresh veggies and fruits. And no one even knew the word cholesterol—it hadn't been invented yet.
Linda, when I was a kid we used to butcher 3 or 4 hogs every autumn or winter. Meat from one was always meant to be sold in order to cover expenses for feeding them all. I didn`t like fried brains but I enjoyed a lot in fried liver with a lot of onions. We used to make sausages, bacon and ham too and there was enough meat for a whole year. We were never rich and it was nice way to save money for something else.Cholesterol? :lol:Back to the topic. When I was in Japan last year, I have bought… something… made of dried fish or squid, I was not sure, there was everything on Japanese on the wrapper. And it was excellent, salty and spicy :up:
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Salty and Spicy. Ah, the first clue. We'll start from there. :pI'm glad you can share Linda's experiences, Darko. Me, I thought that bacon came from a cardboard and plastic package.
The kids in my Sunday School class this morning also thought that bacon came from a store. When I told them it came from a pig, they almost cried! You should have seen the looks on their faces when I told them that hamburgers, milk, and belts come from cows!I really shouldn't be a Sunday School teacher of 3- and 4-year-old kids.:worried::lol:
😆 I can just picture it. Well all I can say Star is that you haven't even got to geography yet. :pGood luck.:heart:
I think I'll just leave the geography to their parents.:yikes::lol::heart:
Thank goodness, Darko, you understood what I was talking about. You know the wonderful taste of fresh bacon and ham then. Mama always cooked the livers, also, but I never liked it. Still do not. Liver is about the only food I have tried that I won't eat and I do have an exception to that rule, too. I discovered in recent years that I really like chicken livers that are basted with BBQ sauce and grilled on an outdoor grill. Yum.Star—poor kids. Rude awakening to reality at an early age. 😆 I used to teach Sunday School, but to high school and college age. They knew where bacon came from, and a lot of other things that they shouldnt know.
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I eat fruit and vegetables and exercise on a regular basis, low fat, low calcium and none of them bad bad carbon hydrats. I never eat snacks, chips, fries, candy, chocolates, wine gum or any of those, I don't smoke, don't drink or swear.I also tell lies.
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I resemble that.