Wednesday 19 September 2012

Pick me a Winkle

Prompted by a weird text from my friend Linda who admitted to having eaten a frog and squid in her life (yeuk!), I just wondered what was the strangest thing or combination of foods you've ever eaten? Despite having eaten frog and squid, Linda baulks at the idea of eating snail. Well I haven't eaten frog which she says tastes not unlike chicken and I had squid once and thought it extremely tough and rubbery and have never touched it since.

As a kid however, I have had winkles. 

Winkles? Now I don't know if this is an English delicacy or a Yorkshire delicacy in particular, but winkles are a little mollusc which lives on seashore rocks and they graze on algae so they do do us a favour. They are quite small and look like a tiny snail - here's a picture:
They are generally boiled, sold in small paper bags and then we prized the meat out of the shell with a pin. There are all sorts of unkind things said about them - that they look like huge bogies (out of your nose) but although small, they were quite tasty.

Now, I'm not a faddy eater but I don't experiment with food too much although I don't mind trying new things that come along now and then.

Again, as a kid, I used to eat strawberry jam and Cheddar cheese sandwiches. Now I loved them, but some people think that's odd. I've heard of pregnant women being addicted to all sorts of strange foods including coal!

And my final confession is when I was a teenager, I used to smoke (shame on me - something I really regret although I did give up over  30 years ago) cinnamon sticks that we bought from the chemist. Bloody disgusting now I look back, but a lot of people who were not well off used to smoke all sorts of rubbish including my dear departed friend Jack who even smoked dried privet leaves and other concoctions from his garden clippings and was heartily sick as a consequence.

So here's the question - what's the strangest thing or combination of things you've ever eaten?

Chat soon

Ta-ra!

5 comments:

  1. I am very familiar with winkles. Had them many times as a child in Flamborough, but I must say I prefer crab claws which we smashed with a rock and pulled out the delicious meat. But I'm quite a picky eater so I don't remember eating unusual combinations.


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  2. Love winkles, as long as they aren't overcooked to a funny yellow colour. Strange food? Hmm. Oil fried locusts in honey, which reminded me of peanut brittle with legs that stuck in my teeth.

    It's true. Frogs legs do taste like soft chicken, as do snails. Garden snails are perfectly edible, but you have to 'purge' them for by feeding them lettuce for a week, which rather defeats the object :)

    I've eaten roast hamster in Peru, and grey squirrel in the Highlands, that were surprisingly similar. One isn't enough. I've had seal meat that had been buried for a month in Unalakleet, Alaska, which is why I insist on buying aged steak nowadays.

    But the oddest is the chips from our local Chippy. Long wet floppy things. Yeuk! Not a scratch on the crispy chips I almost lived on in Belgium, the home of the 'chip'.

    Oh, and deep fried mars bars in Glasgow. Don't. Seriously. Don't.

    I've been around a bit :) A job I had in my late teens, early twenties.

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  3. Well I have eaten horse in Uzbekistan some years ago - I thought it was very tender beef until I asked and was then told it was mare.

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  4. I'm a veggie I think it's weird anyone would want to eat another living thing or is it just me who's weird.

    I hope you don't mind me asking you on your blog, but please would you be so kind as to download the children's book posted on my blog to help promote it for the young authors who have their short stories published in it. Thank you.

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  5. H Chris
    and there is still a thriving lobster and crab industry up there on the east coast.
    XX

    Hi Wheelie,
    Blimey where haven't you been and what haven't you eaten? I have to say I've never been tempted by deep fried Mars Bar!
    XX

    Hi Weaver
    I've heard lots of people talk about horse and they liked it - not keen on trying it to be honest!
    XX

    Hi Paula
    You are not weird at all, I very much respect your stance and indeed many of my fellow spiritualists are vegetarians and is subject of regular debate in the spiritualist publications.
    I will do the download this weekend with pleasure
    XX

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