garum

[coyotegoth]

This is interesting; archaeologists have used to residue of a batch of garum to date the Pompeii eruption. (A friend of mine actually made some garum in college; it was like fish-scented spacking paste. Gods, what a reek; I thought making lutefisk with lye was the most messed-up thing you could do in preparing fish, but no.)

Comments

[aparecida.livejournal.com]

What about hakarl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl) (rotten shark)?

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Chef Gordon Ramsay, after challenging journalist James May to sample three "delicacies" (Laotian snake whiskey, bull penis, and hákarl), finally vomited after eating hákarl, although May kept his down. May's only reaction was "You disappoint me, Ramsay."

This made me laugh immoderately. Do the Scandanavian nations have a competition going as to who can do the worst thing to prepared fish?

[aparecida.livejournal.com]

I saw it on the episode of Bizarre Foods (mentioned just after that). The description of the process and the smell was horrifying. (It actually looked sort of tasty, though.)

I had to stop reading the garum page you linked to because I started getting nauseous.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

As a nascent classicist, I want to try garum sometime. But only if I can have the copious wine that it was traditionally served with.

[kyra.livejournal.com]

The sick "try anything once, twice if it doesn't kill you" part of the brain really wants to try this. The sane part of the brain reminds me that I'd rather slit my own throat than deliberately induce puking....