Читать книгу Grossopedia: A Startling Collection of Repulsive Trivia You Won’t Want to Know! - Rachel Federman - Страница 15

You may know that Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies, but why stop there? The fish’s bones are also thrown in for good measure. (As far as we can tell, anchovies themselves don’t even need bones. Why they feel compelled to bring them along to the Worcestershire sauce is anybody’s guess.)

A Single Scoop Will Do

Rainy summers in England led to this innovative cozy cone as an alternative to traditional frozen treats served from ice-cream trucks. Aunt Bessie’s “Mash Van” tours the U.K., serving up a familiar combo with a twist: mashed potatoes, sausages, and peas inside a cone traditionally reserved for ice cream. Instead of dinner for dessert, why not try it the other way around?

Tails, You Die

A fugu fish (also known as a puffer fish or blowfish) is sometimes toxic, but that doesn’t hurt its reputation as a delicacy in Japan and, increasingly, in the United States. Its effect on approximately 300 unlucky people a year, however, is rather indelicate. Victims croak—and we don’t mean imitate the sound a frog makes. Instead, consumers get snuffed out, breathe their last breath, hit the junkyard, land in their final resting place. After eating this fish, some people go swim with it.

From a consumer advisory on the Food and Drug Administration’s website: “The liver, gonads (ovaries and testes), intestines, and skin of some puffer fish contain the toxins tetrodotoxin and/or saxitoxin. These toxins are 1,200 times more deadly than the poison cyanide and can affect a person’s central nervous system. There are no known antidotes for these toxins. Puffer fish must be cleaned and prepared properly so the organs containing the toxins are carefully removed and do not cross-contaminate the flesh of the fish. These toxins cannot be destroyed by cooking or freezing.”

Hmm. We think that puts puffer fish pretty safely in the “not worth it” category when it comes to extreme eating.