QUEER MEALS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 424, 4 May 1937, Page 3

QUEER MEALS

UNUSUAL TIT-BITS Some National Dishes Your idea of a nice breakfast is probably eggs and bacon, but in other lands they eat and enjoy the strangest things. In the polar regions, where the Eskimo lives, there are no fruits apd vegetables, and often it is very hard for these people to find anything to eat at all. At such times they are glhd to make a meal of candles, and even chew their boots to ward off hunger. Their favourite food, however, is a nice piece of whale flesh or seal, which is washed down with a drink of oil!

Among the natives of Northern Australia lizards roasted on the end of a spear are considered a great luxury. These primitive people also eat wasps, caterpillars, ants and kangaroo steaks. Parrot pie is a popular dish in Australian homesteads. Locusts, which are tike huge flying grasshopper, do damage in hot countries. One way of getting rid of them is solved by the natives of South Africa. When a swarm comes along they catch as many as they can and eat them. Those they cannot eat at are dried in the sun or preserved in salt water. Snakes For Supper. 9nakes for supper does not sound very appetising. But roast python is a very popular dish amongst the negroes of Africa and the West Indies. An English naturalist. Frank Buckland, once tried eating a boa constrictor, and declared it to be excellent, resembling veal in taste. Many foreign people like to eat creepy creatures. Snails, for instance, are quite an expensive luxury in French restaurants. The Romans liked them also, and as far back as two thousand years ago they used to rear snails on meal and white wine to make them taste nice. In Turkey they think nothing of making a meal of worms. In Brazil

the natives use white ants and spiders for flavouring sauces and puddings. One of the ugliest creatures ever eaten is the giant sea slug, which is considered a prize delicacy in China. You probably know that the French eat frogs. But these are much bigger kinds than those of our own country side, and they only eat the legs.. The French are so fond of frogs’ legs that they ask for them when they come to visit England. So now there are several farms there which supply certain London restaurants with thousands of frogs annually. White Mice Recipe. The Chinese are the most unfastidious eaters. One of their special dainties is white mice. The mice are tiny babies and have not yet grown any hair. They are served in a large dish on the floor. The guests sit round and each dips his mouse, held by the | tail, into a special sauce. Then it is ! dipped into a bowl of treacle, which is said to give.it just the right flavour. I Sharks’ fing are popular fare in I China, and they also eat cats and dogs. A great tit-bit in China is a ; thoroughly rotten egg, for preference many years old. Even in England there are many queer dishes which country folks enjoy. The gipsies love roasted hedgehog. The animal is covered with a layer of clay and cooked on the red embers. Squirrel pie and seaweed are popular dishes in some parts of Britain.