Beefy.
A little escargot, anyone? Yep, this is a giant 'beef snail' (蛞牛 or kuo niu), that Dad is holding.
As kids hiding in the mountains from American P-38 bombers, he and his siblings would gather several, smash and remove the shells, then roll them around in hot ashes to neutralize the bitter slime. After opening and removing the guts, they can be boiled, fried, or cooked however you please - just like beef strips. Dad remembers giant snail stirfry with fondness.
These giant snails now wander all over Taiwan, from remote mountain wilderness to urban areas like this library parking lot. They were introduced in 1932 by a Japanese scientist for a protein source, but haven't really caught on as a mainstream food because they harbor a dangerous parasite that has to be cooked at high heat. In spite of all this, the snails certainly made a difference to hungry Taiwanese families during WWII.
What we think of as food...
The beef snails might seem exotic, gross, or even laughable to contemporary Americans. But we've been down this road, too.
The humble armadillo that makes its home in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida might not look like food to you. But it was so common on dinner tables during the starvation times of the Dust Bowl it was called 'Depression Pork'. Yes, I've eaten them (while doing fieldwork in Venezuela). We rolled them in hot ashes to remove the hair, scraped them with the back of a knife, gutted and quartered them, and roasted or made them into a savory soup. And yes, they do taste sweet and fatty like pork!
Cultivating an open mind about unconventional or unfamiliar foods can stave off hunger in lean times, and today it might be one way to diversify our diets and restore our ecosystems. I'm just sayin'.
makes me reflect on how the similar types of unconventional foods could be seen as desirable when shown in a French/European light but not as favorably in an Asian light...
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