I recently read the book, "Endurance : Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing, about Shackleton and his crew who survived on drifting ice packs in one of the most savage regions of the world before they were finally able to set sail again in one of the ship's lifeboats. Anyways, they said they ate 'Penguin hoosh'. From the context I guess it's penguin stew, but I'm just curious if any of you ever heard of it. Sounds delicious!! Just kidding. By the way, the book was excellent.
hoosh - A kind of thick soup. 1905 R. F. Scott Voy. ‘Discovery’ I. 445 The cook+proceeded to prepare the ingredients of the hoosh, by which term the hot, thick soup that constituted the sledging meal was generally known. 1911 I Jrnl. 29 Nov. in Last Exped. (1913) I. xvi. 479 They had some of Chinaman's undercut in their hoosh yesterday. 1919 E. H. Shackleton South xii. 239 The hoosh-pot with our precious limpets and seaweed was kicked over in the rush. 1922 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 73/2 The thick savoury ‘hoosh’ of pemmican and broken plasmon biscuit. [OED]
last week i went up to Mus. of Natural History to see the IMAX about Shackleton--
I have had a hard time understanding his appeal-- but learning the detail of the Incredible Voyage was impressive. the IMAX film will be making its way around the country-- i recommend it, if it comes round your way.
I was thinking the "hoosh" part sounds like onomatopoeia for parting with the delicacy undigested. Penguin sounds worse than New England coot. The directions for baking a coot call for nailing it to a shingle, bake one hour, throw the coot away and eat the shingle.
Very like the Australian outback recipe for their beautiful pink galah. You put the galah and an old boot in a billy and boil them up until the boot is nice and tender, then you throw away the galah and eat the boot.
I also want to tell you about the Inuit delicacy giviak, but I'll need to get permission to quote, because my source's words couldn't be improved on. So hang about it a bit...
If anyone out there is looking for a subject for their dissertation, might I suggest the close connection between linguaphilia and an obsessive interest in food and recipes? Could Freudians be right and we are all searching for different kinds of oral gratification ? .. Not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm as bad as anyone else.
Natural History magazine used to have a column each month on the anthropology of food-- Food, is such a basic part of life-- and people every where have the same problems-- how do you make cheap, available food interesting to children-- and also-- how do you speed up prep time. (mother are the same everywhere, and don't want to spend hours in the "kitchen"-- even if the kitchen is an open flame with a crude grill!.
Like language, we learn what food is edible at our mother knee's before the age of five -- and food has a power ability to evoke emotion. It is a basic element of life-- and every where, themes are repeated-- think of a blintz, or an egg roll, or a burito, or crepe, -- or cannolli or manicotti-- the same sort of "solution"-- simple available ingredients-- all rolled up--
Of course, i could be wrong about this-- but does any one else see the comparision? basic elements (words or cheese) formed into sentence (with grammer rules) or basic foods, formed into the same shapes for eating? (also following some basic rules!)
Yes, interesting idea Helen - and the thought of these both being formative experiences at our parent's knee ( Max!) seems to reinforce the analogy.
(also following some basic rules!)
But most of us don't follow recipes slavishly (dare I say 'religiously'), do we? We read some recipes, see what's actually in the fridge, then sling things together in a more creatively informed manner, according to our own 'idiolect'. Just like language...
A giviak is an Inuit delicacy, made by stuffing a whole sealskin with whole raw auks, and letting it ferment underground.
First you need a dead seal with an undamaged hide. With your flensing knife, reach in through the seal's mouth and carefully separate the carcass from the skin and blubber. Pull the seal carcass out of the skin, through the mouth, without breaking the sealskin.
Then stuff the dead auks - feathers, feet, and all - into the sealskin. Sew up the mouth, and bury the bloated skin. During the summer months, the seal blubber on the inside liquifies, melting slowly into the dead birds. Fermentation occurs. Months later, dig it up.
Bring the giviak to a party. Guaranteed fun!
To eat one of the little birds from the giviak, hold it by its feet, and eat the feathers first by shucking them off with your teeth. Then crunch up the rest of the oily, delicious morsel -- bones included. The heart and the coagulated blood inside it are the best part, with a texture and taste reminiscent of the finest cheese -- according to Peter Freuchen in his book "My Life in the Frozen North".
Warning: In Inuit culture, refusing to eat what is offered you is very insulting to your hosts!
Thanks to [geeklizzard] for permission to quote this.
Well some basic rules are followed--(or not)-I am thinking of the Friend's (TV) episode where one of the characters was making a "trifle" and two pages of the cook book stuck together and she had mixed up a trifle recipe with one for shepard pie--and had sweet custard, jam, ground lamb and mashed potatoes (or some other strange concoctions) in the dish.
while it it not uncommon to mix sweet with savory (mint jelly and lamb) there are some limits... even for creative cooks. I have read about some brownies that include "hot chilies" but i tend to like my desserts not to be mouth sereing! and while maybe a case could be made for hot chilies in brownies-- you wouldn't have both hot chilies and meat-- and still consider it a dessert--
there is always my favorite Monty python-- about the "interesting" chocolates-- like the Crunchy frog chocolates.. --look out, hyla-- it where you take a sweet young frog, boil them in the finest spring water, and cover them in chocoate.. the health inspector asks if the frog have been gutted or de boned-- but not they haven't-- all natural-- and the bones are what make them crunchy-- I am sure some one will google the monty python site and get use a link to the complete skit.. some of the chocolates did not follow "the rules' for food!
Yes, interesting idea Helen - and the thought of these both being formative experiences at our parent's knee ( Max!) seems to reinforce the analogy.
Even though I laughed out loud when I read that (thanks, mav) the food I did experience as a child was very different from that which I would have experienced at my mother's knee. My childhood was filled with an intersting mix of what was, in 1970s NZ, the exotic, parathas, chappatis, jilebis, and the very mundane. Those Indian breads would be used to wrap cheap mince stews of a sort easily thrown together quickly by a working single parent. There were also of course the chillis to take to school and give out to friends to try, calling them Chinese carrots, and waiting for the anguish and pain to spread as they bit into them.
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? .. Not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm as bad as anyone else.
