The Irish standard., 1886-12-11
THE HUMAN APPETITE.
Queer Dishes from Every Habit
able Part Of the Globe.
Countries Where Bears Paws, Elephants
Feet, Deers' Noses and Odd Parts Of
Other Animals Are Considered
Epicurean Morsels.
[Household words.]

| FHousehold Words.1
The New Brunswickers find special
charm in the loose nose of the moose deer.
Sharks fins and fish maws. unmatched
ducks and chickens, sea-slugs and BIRDS
nests are all priced by the omnivorous Chi
nese. The Parisians eat horse flesh; and
at the exhibition of 1851 NJ. Brocchieri
showed and sold delicious cakes, patties
and bon-bons Of bullock's blood, rivaling
the famous marrons glaces Of the confis-
cries Of the boulevards. This seems almost
q triumph of art. In Havana the shark is
openly sold in the market, and the Chinese
ascribe special invigorating virtues to its
fins and tail. The Gold Coast negroes are
all fond Of sharks as they are of hippopot-
ami and alligators, and the Polynesians
are also very fond Of sharks flesh quite
raw.
Caymans and crocodiles, lizards and frogs
are all eaten and enjoyed by certain people.
The typical crocodile is like veal; but some
species have strong favor of musk, and
some are like young, juicy pork, while others
| resemble lobster. Others, again, have a
the whole, therefore, crocodile is uncertain
eating, and not to be ventured on with RASH
ness. Alligator is supposed to be invigor-
ating and restorative, and at Manila is sold
at high prices, the Chinese clutching
at the dried skin, which they use in their
awful messes of gelatinous soup. Alligator
is likened to sucking pig, but it's eggs have
a musty flavor.
The French are notoriously addicted to
frogs, which command high price in New
York also, where they sell the large bull
| frog, sometimes weighing half pound,
as well as the tender little green
| animal (rana esculenta) whose hind
legs taste so like delicate chicken
| when served with white sauce in restau-
rants and hotels Of Paris and Vienna.
OF course, frogs do not escape the Chinese,
who devour every thing with blood and
fiber, and the negroes of Surinam eat the
loathsome Surinam toad. Monkeys are
also considered good eating in some coun-
tries. African epicures are never more
charmed than when they can dine of g
highly seasoned, tender young monkey
baked Gypsy fashion in the earth. The
great red monkey, the black spider monkey
and the bowling monkey are all eaten by
the various peoples among whom they are
found. The flesh of the monkey is said to
be both nutritious and pleasant.
One species of bat is considered good eat
| ing by the natives of the islands of the In
| BY naturalists the edible bat, and it is said
to be white, tender and delicate; but for all
that, it is hideous beast, like a weasel,
| with a ten-inch body, covered with close
| and shining black hair, and with four-foot
wings, when stretched to their full extent
In the South Seas, too, a dog is favorite
| dish, and puppy stew is royal feast in
| Zanzibar; but it is only fair to say that
where dog is eaten it is especially fattened
for the table and fed only on milk
and such like cleanly diet. The Aus
tralian native dog or dingo is eaten
by the blacks, but by no one
else; and South African will give a
| COW for good-sized mastiff. The American
panther and the wild cat of Louisiana are
said to be excellent eating, so is the puma,
which is so like veal in favor that one
hardly knows the difference. Lions flesh,
too, is almost identical with veal in color,
taste and texture. Bears paws were long
German delicacy, and the flesh is held
equal or superior to pork, the fat being as
white as snow. The tongue and hams are
cured, but the head is accounted worthless
and thrown away. The badger tastes like
wild boar. The Australian kangaroo is not
much inferior to venison, and kangaroo
tail soup is better than half the messes
which pass in London under the name of
ox-tail soup. flashed wallaby is dish no
one need disdain, and there is small
! species of kangaroo as good as any hare
ever cooked: An Australian native ban
quet is an odd mixture Kangaroos and
wallabies, opossums and flying squirrels,
kangaroo rats, wumbats and bandicoots
represent the pieces de resistance, while
rats, mice, snakes, snails, large white mag
gots, worms and grubs form the little
dishes and most favored entrees. A nice,
fat marmot is treat-why mott They are
pure feeders.
The muskrat Of Martinique is eaten,
though indescribably loathsome to Euro
pean; but the sleek rats of the sugar-cane
plantations make one Of the most delicate
fricassees imaginable, so tender, plump,
cleanly and luscious are they. The Chinese
are in rat paradise in California, where
the rats are enormously large, highly Ia
vored, and very abundant, rat soup being
considered by all rght-minded celestials to
beat ox-tail or gravy soup hollow. The In
dians eat the beaver, which is said to be like
pork, and porcupine is prime dish with
the Dutch and Hottentots Of the Cape and
with the Hudson Bay trappers, and, in
deed, with the inhabitants of all the coun
tries where the creature is found, the flesh
being good and delicate, and, moreover,
accounted exceedingly nutritious.
Elephants feet, picked in strong today
vinegar and cayenne pepper, are consid-
cred in Ceylon an Apician luxury. The
trunk is said to resemble buffalo's hump,
and the fat is 80 highly priced by the bush
men that they will go almost any distance
for it. Hippopotamus fatis also considered
|