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Spanish cold soup typical from Granada and Málaga (Andalusia). Some are purely vegetable based but many use light meat or fish stocks. These soups tend to be lighter than winter soups and typically contain less fat and meat per serving. In warm climates, or in summer, many cultures make traditional cold soups. Soups have been made since ancient times. Would you eat those eyeballs? Have you? Or is that a food that's best left as a taboo? Tell us what you think.See also: List of soups and Category:Cold soups A bowl of Okroshka soup
#French cold soup with fish eyeballs free#
He's now contemplating offering a free shot of whiskey to customers willing to suck the eyeballs out of a whole roasted fish. "It didn't seem to be a super distinctive taste to me," Taylor reported, though he did like the soup's nice, fresh seafood taste. He then squeezed out the eyeball gel (best use gloves, he says) as a flavoring and thickener. After his fishmonger refused to provide pre-gouged eyeballs ("he said there was no way he was going to have his guys in the back cutting out fish eyeballs or they would riot," Taylor told the Chicago Reader), the chef cooked up grouper-head soup. Look on chat boards devoted to the protein-rich paleo diet, and you'll find debates on the nutritional benefits of caribou eyes.Īnd in Chicago, chef Cary Taylor took on the challenge of making a fish eye dish. In the past few years, more adventurous Americans seem to be discovering fish eyes (and we're not talking the slang for tapioca pudding). Wang then realized that what had seemed to be the selfless act of motherhood had been instead an act of self-protection. So when relatives recently gathered at a Cantonese restaurant, Wang offered her mom the fish eyes as a special treat. When she was little, Wang's mom always saved the fish eyes just for her.
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Swallow too quickly and you'll miss the nuances." "A rush of fatty fish flavor is accompanied by a gelatinous, spongy texture. Shanghai-born food blogger Chichi Wang relishes fish eyes: "The trick to eating a fish eyeball is to keep it in your mouth for as long as possible," she writes. "And in Asia fish tend to be cooked with the head on - it's a sign of good fortune when things have a head and a tail!" (Gelatinous.)," one of our intrepid readers commented. "I've had the fist-sized eye of a garoupa, steamed and garnished. Indeed, Asian cultures probably win the prize for not just tolerating but embracing fish eyes, both raw, as in sushi, and cooked. Fish heads and octopus, cooked in winter melon soup with dried scallops. Elvers, tiny eels that resemble spaghetti, are popular not just in Europe but also in Asia.
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As our well-traveled readers pointed out, small fish are eaten whole in many cultures, from British whitebait to the dried fish snacks ubiquitous at Asian groceries. Fish eyes seem the most acceptable form of ocular cuisine, my fastidious soup-eating friend excluded. Maybe the eyes of other mammals are just a bit too close to home for most people. "Eyes may be special because it is so clear that they are an animal part, and they have some special significance for many people." When it comes to Americans, "people in our culture are disgusted by eating any non-muscle part of edible animals, says Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania who studies human food choice and disgust. "When I said, 'Where's the brain?' they looked at me with horror." "The consistency is quite offensive," he reports.īut even traditional Icelanders have their food taboos - the sheep head was served without the brain. Ears, eyes, nose - everything."Įverything, including the eyeball. "You get half a sheep's head on your plate," he told The Salt. They served svio, or boiled sheep's head. Serpell learned that firsthand when he sat down to eat with a family in Iceland. So it's not entirely surprising that we find eyeballs disconcerting." Boiled sheep's head is traditional in Iceland and Norway. "Eyes represent faces," he said, "and it's through the face that we learn to recognize and empathize with others. So I called James Serpell, director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania, and asked why eyes creep people out. Alas, when the bowls were laid out, the one with fish eyes staring balefully upward landed in front of the most fastidious eater in the room.
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