Grossopedia: A Startling Collection of Repulsive Trivia You Won’t Want to Know!. Rachel Federman

chapulines)

      Did You Know? On average, most of us swallow about a pound of insect parts every year.

      Champagne and Fish Eggs

      Caviar—the go-to disgusting food for various dares and challenges—are fish eggs: unpasteurized sturgeon roe to be exact. Is it the fact that they’re uncooked that’s repulsive? Or maybe it’s just the visual—kind of like how one ant alone is fine, but hundreds teeming around the dropped lollipop is horrid. A Japanese company sells edible fake caviar that is pretty convincing. Help endangered fish populations: eat more fake caviar!

      Mmmm...Civet Droppings

      Forget Sumatra, when it comes to quality coffee, civet droppings are all the rage. The beans are called Kopi Luwak, but don’t let the name fool you. They come from the backsides of civets (In the Know). And don’t worry, they’re fermented by the time they’re dropped off. You can pay up to $600 per pound for these partially digested berries. According to the New York Times, they are reported to be “smooth, chocolaty, and devoid of any bitter aftertaste.”

IN THE KNOW

      Civet: a generally nocturnal animal found in Southeast Asia that resembles a cat (called “toddycats” in the U.K.).

      The Bone Truth

      You may know that Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies, but why stop there? The fish’s bones are also thrown in for good measure. (As far as we can tell, anchovies themselves don’t even need bones. Why they feel compelled to bring them along to the Worcestershire sauce is anybody’s guess.)

       A Single Scoop Will Do

      Rainy summers in England led to this innovative cozy cone as an alternative to traditional frozen treats served from ice-cream trucks. Aunt Bessie’s “Mash Van” tours the U.K., serving up a familiar combo with a twist: mashed potatoes, sausages, and peas inside a cone traditionally reserved for ice cream. Instead of dinner for dessert, why not try it the other way around?

       Tails, You Die

A fugu fish (also known as a puffer fish or blowfish) is sometimes toxic, but that doesn’t hurt its reputation as a delicacy in Japan and, increasingly, in the United States. Its effect on approximately 300 unlucky people a year, however, is rather indelicate. Victims croak—and we don’t mean imitate the sound a frog makes. Instead, consumers get snuffed out, breathe their last breath, hit the junkyard, land in their final resting place. After eating this fish, some people go swim with it.

      From a consumer advisory on the Food and Drug Administration’s website: “The liver, gonads (ovaries and testes), intestines, and skin of some puffer fish contain the toxins tetrodotoxin and/or saxitoxin. These toxins are 1,200 times more deadly than the poison cyanide and can affect a person’s central nervous system. There are no known antidotes for these toxins. Puffer fish must be cleaned and prepared properly so the organs containing the toxins are carefully removed and do not cross-contaminate the flesh of the fish. These toxins cannot be destroyed by cooking or freezing.”

      Hmm. We think that puts puffer fish pretty safely in the “not worth it” category when it comes to extreme eating.

      Biting Back

      If mosquito season is making you hungry, you’re not alone. Marc Dennis, founder of Insects Are Food, believes that mealworm French fries and chocolate-dipped crickets are examples of “what sushi was two decades ago”—rather exotic, but about to go mainstream. As defined on his website, “entomophagy” is the practice of eating insects, including tarantulas and centipedes. Dennis believes a bug diet is nutritional, sustainable, and delicious and simply requires changing preconceived Western mindsets about what constitutes a meal, given that eating insects is common practice the world over.

      Did You Know? There’s a popular dish in Nepal made from bee pupae. It’s called bakuti and tastes like nuts. Sometimes you feel like bakuti, sometimes you don’t.

      Grubby Grub

      Need some inspiration for your newfound love of entomophagy (Biting Back)? Get into the practice of eating insects with The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook: 33 ways to cook grasshoppers, ants, water bugs, spiders, centipedes, and their kin, by David George Gordon. One online reviewer originally bought it as a prank but ended up enjoying the recipes. I wonder what dinner guests say? “I’ll have the thigh. No the other thigh. No the other thigh.” Bugs for Lunch by Margery Facklam and Sylvia Long is a rhyming picture book on the subject just for kids.

      Did You Know? The Insect Club in Washington, DC is now gone, but it once served up some really fine mealworms. (Don’t worry—they tasted like chicken.)

      Odd Combos

      Sometimes preferred foods alone aren’t inherently gross, but the combination of unlikely flavors is not everyone’s cup of vinegar tea. Need some unusual snack ideas?

      (We found people who liked each one of the above specialized blends; though no one person could honestly say he or she liked all of them. Do you?)

       How about:

      • Peanut butter and mayo

      • Beans and chocolate

      • Pickles and peanut butter

      • Popcorn and mustard

      • Ketchup on pancakes

       WORLD’S STRANGEST ICE CREAM FLAVORS:

      • Cold sweat

      • Caviar

      • Spaghetti and cheese

      • Lobster

      • Guinness

      • Horse

      • Sea slug

      • Bacon and egg