Blog Topic #10

There are a lot of bizarre foods out there. The show "Bizarre Foods" with Andrew Zimmern takes you to other cultures where he samples the local cuisine, a lot of which I personally could never dream of eating. Diets vary from culture to culture. Different regions of the world have access to different foods. In Africa for example, many people do not have access to foods that are rich in vitamins and nutrients. Drinking cow blood is one way to get iron. In many places, all parts of an animal will be eaten. Nothing goes to waste. As Americans, we are used to eating what we want when we want. All types of foods are available 24/7 via drive-thru's. The types of food and the quantities that Americans eat differs greatly from other countries and cultures. However, globalization is slowly having an impact on what people will eat in the future. For example, China had one McDonald's only a few years ago. With the introduction of cars, there are now hundreds of McDonald's in China. McDonald's is only one example, but I believe that as globalization increases, cultural cuisines will be introduced to new foods and, as a result, begin to change.

My personal ventures in bizarre foods has been rather limited. I am not much of a world traveler and have not been exposed to many interesting foods. This doesn't mean that I've never tried anything out of the ordinary. While in Alaska, I sampled frog legs. Oddly enough they tasted just like chicken. The smell however wasn't so great. They smelled swampy and the scent made me nauseous. I also tried calamari, caviar, and reindeer chili. All of those were pretty tasty with the exception of the caviar. The minute i bit into the caviar it was like a salty/fishy explosion. It was awful and it was on top of salad. I wouldn't recommend it. That was not a good experience for me but I'm open to trying new things. I think food is a wonderful way to get a "taste" of different cultures. I would definitely be open to trying more interesting and bizarre foods in the future.