Food Fear Factor

Today was Day 2 of the English Festival at UMAC.

My activity for the day:  Food Fear Factor.

I was the lone faculty representative with five student contestants.  I actually was not competing but just showing some school spirit and cheering on the students.  To be fair, I tried a bit of everything.

Now, take a minute to consider this:  Chinese people eat just about anything.  I've seen congealed duck blood (and tried it) on a menu before.  Jess and I were wondering to what extremes Mark (the coordinator) would go to in order to scare the Chinese contestants.  The only thing we could think of was dropping something on the floor before serving it (no one touches the floor here if they can help it).

Round one, I had a cracker with a great big dollop of wasabi on it.  Next was a cracker smeared with Vegemite (a vegetable spread from Australia) on it.  It was rather salty.  Afterwards was a sickly green, slimy "jello" that tasted of soured fruit and a Japanese dish of bitter soy beans in a sticky sauce.

Round two, I nibbled on the heart of durian (a Asian fruit that smells of rotting fish but I think tastes like a creamy onion - actually the only contestant who didn't make it to the end left because of it) and a chicken's foot.  Then they served bishop's nose (the tail of a chicken) and congealed, spicy pig's blood (it actually wasn't bad).

Somewhere in rounds three and four I had bee tea (I didn't have to eat the bee and actually learned that this tea is used in Chinese medicine to treat allergies), fermented mushroom tea (very tart), worm pie (actually like a quiche made of the silk worms that get into our corn at home - they tasted nutty and very good, but it was disturbing to see them hanging out the sides of the pie), and to top it all, pig's brain.  That was the worst.  It looked just like a brain and was a pale gray color, and it was really pasty. I didn't like that at all.

I wish I'd thought to bring my camera.  Luckily, the tech guy and one of the other teachers were snapping away.  But I don't have those photos yet (I'm sure they'll pop up on the ELC website soon).  In the meantime, here are some pretty accurate images from off the web.

Wasabi

Vegemite 

Durian

Does this need a caption?

Pig's blood

Pig's brain.  It's supposed to make you smarter.

I know what you're thinking.  It's not very wise for a person with chronic stomach problems to participate in this kind of contest.  But I actually ate lunch afterwards and felt fine!  There's probably nothing I would try again, though, except the mushroom tea.

 So when I finally got home this evening (a long day again, 9 am - 8 pm), I was feeling a little wired, and so I went grocery shopping.  And then I did something I don't usually do - I started cooking.  I usually just take tuna fish or egg salad sandwiches for lunch, but Angie made curry the other day, and it smelled so good!  I asked her how to make it, and it's really simple - just buy a seasoning packet (no MSG!) and coconut milk and any meats or veggies you want.  That's it.  So here's my lunch for tomorrow:

Before

During

After