W6 Odd Foods

Ever look at a certain food and wonder what the first person was thinking when he decided to put that food in his mouth and eat it? In other words, have you ever found it odd that people eat a certain food? One particular dish that I find delicious, but am curious of who decided it was food, is any type of crustacean- more specifically: lobster. Take one look at a lobster and you see a pair of giant claws attached to a hard-shelled alien-like creature that dwells at the bottom of the sea. Was somebody stranded on an island and by some chance decided to boil a lobster, and then crack off the shell and enjoy the sweet meet on the inside? I like to think that lobster became a dish amongst people who lived on the ocean and ate it because it was in abundance, and over time the taste for lobster spread to the point of today where lobster is somewhat of a delicacy. All I am saying is that I question how the first person who ate a lobster, was able to look at that spiky, clawed, hard-shelled monster and say, “I think I am going to eat that”.

           

Another food that seems odd that people eat (to me anyway) is escargot, or snails. When I think of escargot, I think of a man in Paris eating snails at a café in view of the Eifel Tower. I am sure that many Americans look at snails and think it is disgusting that not only do people actually eat them, but they are very expensive and fancy. My brother tried escargot when he was in France and he said they were delicious. They may be the best tasting food in the world, but that does not excuse the fact that snails are slimy and ooze everywhere. It just seems strange that at some point in human history a man or woman decided to devour a slimy snail. Were they starving? Because snails are not too big in size, not enough to satisfy a man’s hunger anyway, and are not really abundant anywhere either.

           

Who knows how lobster and escargot came in to being as far as food goes, but we know now that they are both very fancy dishes. It is ironic that animals as ugly and monstrous looking as lobsters and snails could be such a delicacy today.