The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-21
QUEER THINGS
PEOPLE EAT.
An Elephants Foot Properly
Cooked Is a Delicious MOrsel.
The Abyssinians Find the Flesh of Rhinoc.
eros Dainty Dish - Centipedes for
Children-Fried Porpoise Liver.

G1s5EAWEED is eaten on the coasts Of
sIss Scotland and Ireland in vast quanti-
N@SC ties, and though unpalatabIe and
fiavorleSs, 1t is at times the chief food of
some of the poorest. When dry it is richer
than oatmeal or Indian corn in heterogeneous
constituents, and takes rank among the
most nutritious of vegetable foods. LAYER
is an exception to the low estimation in
which seaweed is held and is favorite
condiment. We have known it eaten in
large quantities in North Devon, and with
much relish. To prepare seaweed for the
table, says the Scottish Review, it should
be stepped in water to get rid OF the
salt with which it is impregnated,
and little carbonate of soda removes
the bitter taste which to some pal
ates is most disagreeable. 1t should then
be Stewed in milk or water til mucllagn0uS,
and is best favored with vinegar or pepper.
Fungi are almost everywhere largely eaten,
though in England less attention is paid to
them than they deserve, and few kinds ap-
pear at table. A curious error is to suppose
that fungi are eatable and toadstools poison
Gus; no such line of demarcation exists,
nor, strictly speaking, has the name toad
stool ally precise meaning. Very many
fungi are edible, and the common agaric
usually eaten in England is not the most
palatable and wholesome Few foods are
more savory, and none are greater favorlteS,
than well-cooked fungi, and the souls OF
Yegetarians yearn for them.
The lion is eaten by some African races,
although its flesh is in small favor with
them, while the Zulus find carrion SO much
t. their liking that, according to Dir. Colenso,
they apply to food teeniing with large colo
MES OF .grubs the comprehensive word
" uborni,' which signifies in their uncouth
jargon great happiness" David Living
stone tells US that the aboriginal Australians
and the Hottentots prefer the intestineS of
animals, and he adds that " it is curious that
this is the~part which wild animals always
begin with, and that is the first choice of our
men" The hippopotamus is another fayorite
meat of the Africans when they catch it. lis
flesh, when young, is tender and palatable,
but it becomes very coarse and unpleasant
with advanced years.
THE ABYssINIANs
Find the rhinoceros much TO their liking. so
they do the elephant, which is also eaten in
Sumatra.
Dr. Livingstone speaks Of elephants foot
as excellent. 1--WE had the foot cooked for
breakfast, and found it delicious. 1t is
whi.ish mass, slightly gelatnous and sweet
like marrow. a long march to prevent bill
elephants loot. Elephants tongue and
trunk are also good. and, after long simmer
ing. much resemble the humps of a buffalo
and the tongue OF an OK; but all the other
meat is tough, and from its peculiar flavor
only to be eaten by hungry man." Tue
elephants eaten during the siege of Paris
were said to be u great success, and the
liver was pronounced finer Than that of any
goose or duck.
The people of Zanzibar should stand high
for the comprehensive character OF their
cuisine. Among other dellcacies are small
monkey and fruit-eating bat. Locusts are
relished by the Bedouin of Mesopotamia
and some other Eastern tribes: they are
placed on strings and eaten on Journeys with
bitter and unleavered bread. The Jews,
who were prohibited eating many kinds CT
food which our larger experience teaches us
are paatable and wholesome, as we'll as
seine that we do not venture to touch, we're
permitted to have their fill OF loeuSts. The
locust is an article of diet to this day, but
only of the very poor; il is thrown Into boil
ing water, and eaten with salt.
To live on locusts and wild honey conveys
a more accurate picture of extreme poverty
and frugality to a traveller in the East than
to any one else. LocustS, however. are not
always cooked; sometimes they are eaten
fresh. They are said to have Il strong veg
etable taste, the favor largely depending,
as might be expected, on the plants on
which they have been feeding. DIR. Living
stone, who showed his common sense by not
being lastldous, considered them palatable
when roasted.
Same of the savage tribes of South
America are accused of eating everything
that by any possibility will support human
life. Humboldt saw children draw enor-
nous cenupedes from their holes and
crunch them between their teeth, but insects
and their larvae are favorite food in many
parts of the world. la the West Indies a
large caterpillar, found on the palm tree, is
re kOned a great delicacy--and why not?
let us ask. To our civilized taste. however,
caIriOn and
BAD EGGS
Seem food which no human being could
relish. Not so; the Chinese prefer stale to
fresh eggs, and the pariahs of Hindoostan
fight greedlly with the dogs aud jackals for
putrld carton. They would relish the
rousettr. a kind of bat plentiful in Java,
which the natives value; but, although its
flesh is white, delicate and tender, it gen.
orally smells strongly of musk. The Nagus
also eat raw meat.
Among the Greenanders and the ESqui-
mauX the seal is an important food, and in
spite of being coarse and oily, was formerly
eaten in England. The porpoise was also
an English dish, and its liver is, when fried,
still, we believe relshed by sailors. Arctic
explorers have found the walrus very pala-
table, and it is largely consumed by the
Esquimaux. The Japanese, New Zealand
whale good eating, and the Esquimaux
highly approve of blubber, and get through
with enormous quantities. The crocodile is
greedily devoured by the natives of certain
districts of Africa. Its eggs i'll taste resem-
BILE hens eggs, with perhaps a smack of
custard.
To come to our own country, where we
do not eat sauerkraut aud blubber. BIRDS
nests and puppies, we shall, nevertheless,
find some odd foods. The hedgehog.
4. 1. D.. Il.
in Spain, is eaten by gypsies. Squirrels,
and arc most delicious and fully MS palatabe
selves stewed them, and we can testify that
are often eaten in the north of England. In
not as ordinary articles of diet, but at stated
ing on the borders OF the Matchmaking dis
bags with sDails to make soup, and we re-
member being told that they were excellent
eating. The English prejudice against
mortal considerable quantities have been
pastures for export to France. In the latter
people there only regret that sndilS are too
Covent Garden the common snail often APP
are almost exclusively members of the
London.