Are You Gonna Eat That?: A Guide To Yukky Cookery

Are You Gonna Eat That?: A Guide To Yukky Cookery
by William I. Lengeman III

Food preferences are a subjective thing, if I may begin by stating the blatantly obvious. We all like what we like, and while many of us would gag at the prospect of wolfing down lamb's brains or badger, there are probably those who might be equally repulsed by Pringles or peanut butter.

If you've busted the bindings on your Joy of Cooking or Fannie Farmer Cookbook and you're ready for something more adventurous, these books may broaden your culinary horizons. Even if you never prepare a recipe that utilizes treasures like herring semen, they make for some thrillingly vicarious armchair cuisine.

Curiosities of Food: Or the Dainties and Delicacies of Different Nations Obtained from the Animal Kingdom (1859)
by Peter Lund Simmonds
Vegans turn tail and run. Those looking for a meatier type of tome should seek out the facsimile edition of this seminal summary of carnivorous wonders. Among it’s many dubious delights - such gustatory gems as hippo, rat, kangaroo, armadillo and the once abundant, and now extinct, passenger pigeon.

The Original Road Kill Cookbook (1987)
by Buck Peterson
This one's tongue in cheek. After all, people don't really eat road kill. Right? If you can’t get enough of this stuff you're in luck. Peterson wrote two more volumes of roadkill cookery and a coloring book and Quixote Press has released numerous volumes in the State Roadkill Cookbooks series.

The Book of Ramen: Lowcost Gourmet Meals Using Instant Ramen Noodles (1995)
by Ron Konzak
It a long way from haute cuisine, but it's arguably better than whale penis, bat's ears and whatever. Konzak presents a wide array of soups, salads, and main dishes, including Hungarian Noolash, Savory Ramen Custard and a few dubious sounding desserts. Noodles With Prunes, anyone?

Garlic Lovers' Greatest Hits: 20 Years of Prize-Winning Recipes from the Gilroy Garlic Festival (1998)
by Gilroy Garlic Festival
One man's garlic is another man's putrid, reeking stench - or something like that. If you've ever driven though Gilroy, California you wouldn't have much trouble figuring out what they're famous for, even with the windows up. Anyway, the title says it all. The legions of fanatical fans of the "stinking rose" should be ecstatic over this sort of thing.

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating (2004)
by Fergus Henderson
The charms of this particular tome are lost on my tender vegetarian soul. But it stands to reason that if you're going to eat certain parts of animals, you might as well eat the other parts too. That’s the argument set forth by chef Henderson, who operates St. John – a London restaurant devoted to this sort of thing. My late grandfather, who believed wasting food was the greatest crime anyone could commit, is looking down and nodding approval.

Extreme Cuisine: The Weird & Wonderful Foods That People Eat (2004)
by Jerry Hopkins
This one's essentially an update of Jim Morrison biographer Hopkins' earlier work, Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats, and Butterflies: An Epicurean Adventure Around the World, in which he ruminates on the consumption of dogs, cats, rats, whales, urine, human flesh, and the one that really makes me cringe - lungs. Anthony Bourdain, the Hunter Thompson of the culinary set, contributes the foreword. Bourdain tracked down such delicacies as cobra hearts and deep-fried Mars bars in his own A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines.

Additional Resources:

Extreme Cuisine
I Should Have Stayed Home: Food Tantalizing Tales Of Extreme Cuisine, by Roger Rapoport, Bob Drews, Kim Klescewski
It's Disgusting and We Ate It!: True Food Facts from Around the World and Throughout History, by James Solheim
Unmentionable Cuisine, by Calvin W. Schwabe

Garlic
Everything Tastes Better with Garlic, by Sara Perry
The Garlic Cookbook, by David Direst
Garlic, Garlic, Garlic: More than 200 Exceptional Recipes for the World's Most Indispensable Ingredient, by Linda Griffith, Fred Griffith
The Garlic Lovers Cookbook, by Gilroy Garlic Festival Committee
The International Garlic Cookbook, by Collins Publishers
The Stinking Cookbook: The Layman's Guide to Garlic Eating, Drinking, and Stinking, by Jerry Dal Bozzo
The Totally Garlic Cookbook, by Helene Siegel, Karen Gillingham

Ramen
101 Ways to Make Ramen Noodles Cookbook, by Toni Patrick
The Top Ramen Noodle Cookbook, by Elizabeth Prungel, Heather Spyker

Roadkill
Critter Cuisine, by Mary Ann Clayton, Al Clayton
How to Cook Roadkill, by Richard Marcou

SPAM
SPAM: A Biography: The Amazing True Story of America's "Miracle Meat!", by Carolyn Wyman
Hawaii's 2nd Spam Cookbook, by A. Corum

First published in Burnt Toast.

Copyright 2006, William I. Lengeman III.

Image: Ten Speed Press