If “9 Foods You’re Not Allowed To Buy” just left you hungry for more, Newsweek has compiled their list of 8 forbidden delicacies. “Forbidden” in this case, means that the dishes may be restricted or socially unacceptable. While a few overlap from the other list there are some new tasty morsels here to challenge your palette. Maggot-cheese, anyone? The list, inside…
8. Foie Gras
To produce foie gras, ducks and geese are force fed up to 4 pounds of food a day. While Chicago has lifted its ban on the little livers, California will enact a ban on foie gras beginning 2012 because of animal cruelty concerns.
7. Lobsters
Whole Foods and some other supermarket chains stopped selling live lobsters in 2006 because PETA and other animal rights groups have said that lobsters may not be treated humanely in transport. Many believe lobsters feel pain. For example in Reggio, Italy it is illegal to boil lobsters alive.
6. Haggis
Consisting mostly of sheep lung, liver and heart then minced with onions and boiled in the animal’s stomach, the U.S. banned imported haggis in 1989 over concerns that it could carry mad cow disease.
5. Sassafras
Sassafras bark contains an oil called safrole which the FDA banned in 1960 because of its link to cancer in rats. Nowadays a safer product is produced that is free of safrole and still delivers the sassafras flavor.
4. Absinthe
The green liqueur popularized in France in the 1850′s was banned in the U.S. in 1912 for its “harmful neurological effects.” Currently, Absinthe can be legally imported at reduced thujone levels. Thujone is the psychoactive ingredient in absinthe.
3. Raw Milk Cheese
The FDA has banned the transport unpasteurized milk across state lines. Unpasteurized cheese can only be sold if it’s been chilled to 35F and aged for 60 days.
2. Puffer Fish
While “fugu” is a dish that is very popular in Japan and Korea, the eyes and internal organs of this fish are highly toxic. Chefs are specially trained to prepare fugu as not to poison the customers. The critters contain saxitoxin and tetrodotoxin, a nerve toxin for which there is no antidote. The dish can be found at top Japanese restaurants in several American cities however harvesting puffer fish is illegal in Florida.
1. Casu Marzu Maggot Cheese
This is a runny white cheese made by injecting Pecornio Sardo cheese with cheese-eating larvae. (Who thinks of this?) Eaters of the cheese risk intestinal larval infection and some other health hazards. The cheese cannot be sold legally in Italy although there are a few cities and towns where it can be found. The U.S. has no laws against this cheese, maybe because nobody here wants to eat it.
Eight Forbidden Delicacies [Newsweek]
(Photo: Newsweek)
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What about jamón serrano (or ibérico) or cured prosciutto? If I could legalize one awesome food, it would definitely be pork-related.
Poison, Poison, Tasty fish. Hard to believe, but the Simpons episode where Homer ate Fugu came out 20 years ago.
Do lobsters feel pain even if you drop them headfirst into boiling water? I would think that would be an instantaneous death, given the size of their brains.
Flordia?
RELEASE THE HAGGIS!
I enjoyed Absinthe when I lived in London, or at least I think I did, I was too busy freaking out…
@B:
I was just about to reference that episode…
@Ash78: It is not forbidden, just expensive:
[www.tienda.com]
Also, I find prosciutto at my local Randals.
Every time I learn about some really disgusting food, the same image comes to mind:
Person 1: We’re all out of food. We haven’t had anything to eat for days.
Person 2: Well, there is that cheese that all full of maggots…
Person 1: Ew. But I’m hungry… (chomp chomp)
Person 2: How is it?
Person 1: Shut up and eat.
– weeks later –
Person 3: Hey, how did you guys survive?
Person 1: We ate the maggot cheese.
Person 3: Eww!
Person 2: No, no, it’s really good! Yeah, that’s it! It’s delicious! Really! Not disgusting at all! No! Not at all! Here, try some…
And a new culinary tradition is born.
For “maggot cheese”, substitute “cod that got lye spilled on it” (lutefisk), “that dead shark that washed up on the beach two months ago that we buried” (hakarl), etc.
@Ash78: I’m pretty sure those are legal, but not widely available.
This article should definitely mention horse. Perfectly acceptable food in many places that makes people in the U.S. squeamish for some reason.
@The Count of Monte Fisto: It’s okay to eat fish, because they don’t have any feelings.
Thanks for the heads-up on the hams. This is apparently news!
The first jamóns ibéricos were released for sale in the United States in December, 2007, with the bellota hams due to follow in July 2008
Lobsters: Isn’t killing and butchering any animal “cruel” and “painful”. We can’t boil a lobster or force feed a goose, but we can bow hunt dear and allow it to slowly bleed out? I for one, have no issue killing and eating any animal that isn’t smart enough to get out of the way.
How about some tasty Hákarl? I.e., Rotten shark head from Iceland? See [en.wikipedia.org]
Frankly, I don’t eat anything that the seagulls wouldn’t touch.
“Hákarl is prepared by gutting and beheading a Greenland or Basking shark and placing it in a shallow hole dug in gravelly-sand, with the now-cleaned cavity resting on a slight hill. The shark is then covered with sand and gravel, and stones are then placed on top of the sand in order to press the shark. The fluids from the shark are in this way pressed out of the body. The shark ferments for 6-12 weeks depending on the season in this fashion.
Following this curing period, the shark is then cut into strips and hung to dry for several months. During this drying period a brown crust will develop, which is removed prior to cutting the shark into small pieces and serving. The modern method is just to press the shark’s meat in a large drained plastic container.”
The claims that lobsters can “feel pain” are absurd. Functionally, they’re big aquatic bugs. Can their nervous system perceive that boiling water is a hostile environment? Sure. But it’s just another stimulus that evokes a response, like hunger or presence of a mate
The idea that they can feel pain and suffer in a human (or even mammalian) sense is unfounded anthropomorphization and nothing more.
A lot of research has been done on Absinthe recently. In actuality, well made Absinthe using authentic, traditional recipes have very low thujone levels. Additionally, the high alcohol content limits the amount of thujone that one can ingest.
I also remember reading an article describing how thujone really doesn’t have much affect on the human body, even at higher levels. Unfortunately, I can’t find the article right now to back that up.
[www.thujone.info]
I got back from a business trip to Scotland not long ago and I can assure you that haggis is tasty, if a bit greasy, but it’s basically a loose sausage. You can obtain it in the US; it’s made and canned by a firm in Texas. The closest American equivalent, as I found out last week in Lafayette, Louisiana, is “boudin balls.”
The foie gras geese don’t suffer. The goose raisers are not sadists. They use a device with a tube, and it doesn’t hurt the bird. The greedy wretches are more than happy to have a belly so full they practically have to drag it around.
Another article on absinthe/thujone for your enjoyment.
[www.absintheonline.com]
I’ve eaten fugu. It’s OK, but it doesn’t really have much of a taste, IMHO.
I shall become a hippy veggie. Peace!
@Nelsormensch: Can you put the lobster in water and then heat it up?
@kylenalepa: It tastes like burning.
so my raw, live monkey brain is still legal?
California will enact a ban on foie gras beginning 2012 because of animal cruelty concerns.
No, because of stupid people who anthropomorphize the geese. No, you wouldn’t want a tube put down your throat and then feed poured down it. The geese don’t seem to mind. My friend, Andrew Gumbel, has written about this for The Independent, and there’s a quote, too, from a foie gras farmer in New Zealand here: [www.advicegoddess.com]
Furthermore, if you know anything about the farms where birds are raised for foie gras…the animals we all eat without thinking (factory farmed chickens, for example) would be lucky to be raised in such a way.
If you don’t want to eat foie gras, don’t eat it. Don’t stop me from eating it.
@Amy Alkon: I think the foie gras bans are purely a case of excellent propaganda by the animal rights activists. It’s stupid, and makes no sense, but most people don’t know or care much about the issue beyond just maybe having heard that the geese are “force fed”. Personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with it, and it’s delicious. Like you said, if foie gras production is wrong then a whole host of other agricultural practices are also “cruel”.
I was very surprised at Sassafras being listed as a substance banned by law in the US. It grows wild in the northeast and has distinctive leaves, so it wouldn’t exactly be hard to DIY if people really wanted it.
I even remember my Girl Scout troop leader explaining its historic and modern uses (including rootbeer flavoring) when we were on a nature walk…in the 1990s.
What about Ortelan(sp?). A tiny, endangered bird is captured live. It is held captive with its eyes poked out so it never can tell night from day and just eats contantly. It is drowned alive in cognac and served whole (innards and all). It is considered the pinnacle of French cooking and completely illegal. You eat it with a sheet over your head – partly because it is so cruel you hide your face from God. The bird is so small you pop the whole thing in your mouth. The fist chew is meat, the next is organs, and the final bone. (part of the flavor is human blood and the bone cuts the gums).
Found the link…
[en.wikipedia.org]
@cloudedice: Clearly you missed the classic Savage Steve Holland/John Cusack vehicle One Crazy Summer, in which it was scientifically established that lobsters dropped slowly into a boiling pot do, in fact, scream for mercy.
Ok, [en.wikipedia.org] . Damn, when humans poke a live animal’s eyes out and call the results a gastronomic delight, it’s really just a return to Neanderthal days.
And on another note, why are the damn edit boxes on Consumerist now like 1 inch wide???
I had no idea that haggis importation was banned. I was in Scotland last year and had haggis served about three different ways (once even in a fairly upscale restaurant) and it was delicious. I’m surprised that it’s not easier to find on at least a few restaurant menus here in the U.S.
I need to see if there’s a good Scottish bar here in the Chicago area that has a local food night. I wouldn’t mind a pint of draught Belhaven either.
@choinski: That is one of the most disgusting things I have ever read.
@choinski: According to your link, they are not endangered, except maybe in France. They are protected by law, however. Kind of similar to how the American bald eagle is no longer an endangered species, but is still against the law to kill.
shame though…sassafras is yummy
These days Sassafras probably remains on the no no list because one of the key components of ecstasy is derived from the oil. Easier to bust people for having it that way
@choinski: Any dish that relies on the diner’s bleeding gums for flavor is seriously f’ed up.
@apotheosis: I believe you were speaking tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek, however, I made no mention of lobsters. Try responding to someone else.
@cloudedice: whoops, meant to reference @Nelsormensch’s post. My bad.
Who cares if lobsters feel pain? They are tasty!
@Geekybiker: Seriously, if passenger pigeons tasted that good with lemon and drawn butter, the damn things would be extinct.
@Pasketti: LOL. I bet this is EXACTLY how new foods are found.
@choinski: Holy Jesus Christ! That is horrifying in every way! “mmmm this bird is good, but if only I had mixed some of my own blood with it…I know, I’ll eat the bones too!”
I’ve always wondered why lobsters are boiled alive…is it because people don’t want any small part of it crushed before eating? Can’t they drive a little stake through its head or something?
@apotheosis: Passenger pigeons are extinct… Though if you were being sarcastic, don’t mind me.
I can’t believe veal didn’t make the list. I for one would not even consider eating any of those things anyways…yuck!
@Balisong: They sometimes do cut lobsters’ head in half before cooking.
@VikingP77: I’m not sure that veal is forbidden in very many places (except perhaps places that forbid killing cows in general). Veal is delicious, too.
Some of the items on this list are delicious. Why wouldn’t you consider eating any of them?
I always thought that it was illegal to sell jamóns ibéricos outside of Spain, not that it was illegal to import due to US laws.
Making hákarl nowadays has another purpose. The Icelanders ferment and dry the shark meat to extract detergents and PEG that accumulates in the meat. Originally, the fermentation was to remove the uric acid produced by the shark, but modern living has added new poisons to the shark’s meat.
@timmus: It was probably the Cro Magnons that decided to eat living eyeballs, not the Neanderthals. Then again, protein is protein.
@MonkeyMonk: There are a few places in the US that make haggis with domestic meats. And because I enjoy sharing the love:
[www.thescottishgrocer.com]
[www.caledoniankitchen.com]
@cloudedice: @cloudedice: thank you. I’m glad that there is at least one other person on this planet who can tell myth from fact
@apotheosis: That is 100% untrue. While yes, there is a screaming noise, it does not issue from the lobster’s mouth, but from it’s shell, due to it cracking and steam being released. In that respect, it’s more of a whistle than a scream.
I also cannot honestly believe that lobster is banned anywhere. It’s delicious. If you tried to ban lobster on the Canadian East Coast, they’d pro’lly hang, draw and quarter you.
@B:
A friend spend Christmas in Japan last year and had a fugu dinner. All parts of the meal have fugu, every course. He said it was… nothing special, not really all that tasty, and very expensive.
I think I’ll pass. But somewhere there’s some chou doufu [paper.sznews.com] & balut with my name on it [www.deependdining.com]
@The Count of Monte Fisto: They do, from what I understand.
There are two humane ways to kill a lobster:
1: Give them 15 minutes in the freezer, then remove from freezer and immediately drop them headfirst into boiling water. The freezer time renders them unconscious, then when they go in the water, they’re dead before they wake up.
2: Split the head in half, between the eyes, with a large chef’s knife, then drop immediately into boiling water. The knife kills them instantly if done right, but you have to start cooking immediately in order to prevent the meat from putrefying.
@Balisong: Mostly because most cooks (especially home cooks) are too squeamish to actually stab and kill their food. Tossing it into a pot is easier.
@choinski: That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard of.