Strange Foods.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 4

Strange Foods.

The old saying that what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison is realised in the opposite tastes of people. The Turks shudder at the thought of eating oysters. The Digger Indians of the Pacific coast rejoiced in the great locust swarms of 1875 as

a dispensation of the Great Spirit, and laid' in a store of dried locust powder suflicieut to - last them for several years. The Frenchwill eat frogs, snails, and the diseased liver of geese, but draw the line at alligators... Buckland declares the taste of the boa con. strictor to be good, and much like veal.. Quass, the fermented cabbage-water of the Russians, is their popular tipple. It is described as resembling a mixture of stale fish and soapsuds in taste, yet, next to beer, it has more votaries than any other fermented .' beverage. A tallow candle washed down with quass forms a meal that it would be hard to - be thankful for. In Canton and other Chinese cities rats are sold at the rate of 2s a dozen, and the hind quarters of the dog are hung up in the butcher s shop alongside of mutton and lamb, but command a higher price. The edible birds’ nests of the Chinese are worth twice their weight in silver, the finest variety selling for as much, as £6 a pound. The negroes of the West Indies eat baked snakes and palm worms fried in fat, but they cannot be induced to eat stewed rabbits. In Mexico', parrots are eaten, but they are rather tough. The Guaclios of the Argentine Republic are in the habit of hunting skunks for the sake of their flesh. The octopus or devil fish when boiled and then roasted is eaten in Corsica and esteemed a delicacy: In the Pacific Islands and West Indies lizard eggs are eaten with gusto. The natives of the An--tilles eat alligator eggs, and the eggs of the turtle are popular everywhere, though up to the commencement of the last century turtle - was only eaten by the poor of Jamaica. Ants are eaten by various nations. In Brazil they are served with a resinous sauce, and in Africa they are stewed with grease or butter. The East Indians catch them in pits and carefully wash them in handfuls likeraisins. In Siam a curry of ant eggs is a - costly luxury. The Cinaglese eat the bees after robbing them of their honey. Cater- - pillars and spiders are dainties to the African bushmen. After they have wound the silk from the cocoon the Chinese eat the chrysalis of the silkworm. Spiders roasted are a sort of dessert with the New Caledoniaus.—Cassell’s Saturday Journal.