Text/Nanke Documentary
Editor/Nan Ke Documentary
<<——Preamble——>>
"It's easy to say that you like spicy food and salty food, but if you like to eat smelly food, then I really can't understand it"!
Human food is strange, and each region has its own exclusive dietary Xi, most of which are relatively normal dietary Xi, or sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty.
However, some food Xi habits seem very improper, completely out of the scope that we ordinary people can understand, these foods are famous for their "smell", not only the taste makes us incomprehensible, but even the people who eat these foods make it difficult for many people to understand.
Humans are naturally reluctant to smell because it means danger, and the smell of decay indicates that there may be predators or the risk of contracting diseases around us, so most of us avoid odors.
But there are always people who will go the opposite way to eat those stinky and baked foods, and today I will come to understand these strange foods that make people "prohibitive", which are more sour than the taste of your old sweaty feet.
<< - "Filling Stink Bombs" - Canned Herring - >>
Canned herring is no stranger to everyone, and it has been active on major social platforms on the Internet for a long time, and it is a frequent visitor to many funny videos and memes.
The reason why canned herring can be so popular on the Internet is actually because it stinks outrageously, and the smell is unbearable, and even eating canned flying feathers has become a very challenging thing, but the challenge ends in failure.
However, it is difficult to understand why canned herring is a proper delicacy in Europe, and why it can be a special delicacy when it stinks so much that it is impossible to swallow.
The stink bomb originated in the Netherlands, and it is rumored that the idea of herring was inspired by a severe food shortage in the region during the Middle Ages, when people did not have enough to eat.
Fresh herring still tastes good and doesn't smell stinky, but the biggest drawback is that it is difficult to preserve, and a slight increase in temperature will accelerate spoilage.
Therefore, in order to preserve the herring for a long time, the Dutch at that time chose to marinate it and seal it, and this pickling process is very similar to making small dried fish in our southern region, but the fundamental difference is that people bring soup to cans, while we are naturally air-dried.
This practice of sealing with soup will accelerate the fermentation of herring, and finally become a "stink bomb", although this practice does stink, but it also effectively prolongs the preservation time of herring.
Soon the secret method of making this herring spread to Sweden, and the Nordic country was immediately attracted by this fascinating "aroma" and improved it.
The Swedes soak the herring in highly salty water, then simmer it over low heat to ripen the herring, and finally encapsulate it with the ribbon fish in the soup to ferment naturally, and the final result is far more than the traditional Dutch method, and the taste is even better.
This is the ultimate evolution of canned herring, and the stench has been increased by an order of magnitude, and the smell is so intense that this stinky shockwave can break people down.
Specifically described as the smell of sewers, rotten eggs, poop and old socks, it's a mixed scent that you can't hide from it.
Someone in Japan has done a test to verify who is more stinky between canned herring and stinky tofu, and the result is that canned herring is a few grades stinker than stinky tofu, which is not a level of stuff at all, and even if you smell canned herring and then smell stinky tofu, you don't feel it.
And the smell of canned herring is very persistent, no matter how spacious your room is, as long as you open a can of herring and put it in the house, it won't be long before your house will be full of stink.
The power of canned herring can be seen by everyone, you have to say that people can't stand it is normal, and even some animals can't stand the smell of canned herring, before someone swished to feed the canned herring to the seal, the originally cheerful seal after eating the canned herring, suddenly burst out of a wail, animals can't stand the smell of canned herring, but some people just love to eat this smell.
In fact, the birth of canned herring was also a helpless move, when the coastal depression of the Netherlands could not be effectively managed, agricultural production could not be carried out, people could only rely on the sea to eat the sea to solve their livelihood, and over time contributed to the canned herring.
<< - Inuit exclusive delicacy - pickled puffins - >>
The pickled puffin may be a little unfamiliar to us, it comes from the Inuit people who live in the alpine region, and the smell of this thing is simply crushing compared to canned herring, and its smell is unmatched by other smelly foods.
The Inuit live in the cold Arctic Circle, where spring flowers are never in sight, and people have to run for their bellies every day, where food is more precious than gold.
In particular, the exclusive secret gourmet pickled puffins are a precious existence, which is done by sealing the captured puffins in a container that is the belly of the seal.
They hollow out the entrails of the seals, stuff them in flocks, use the salts carried by the animals to pickle them, and then bury them in the permafrost to ferment for several years.
In order to better preserve the puffins, they will also use reindeer tendons to sew the belly of the seal, and the key to success or failure is to see if the puffin leaks out of the seal's belly, and if you are not careful, it will fall short.
Therefore, it is the Inuit elders who usually make pickled puffins, who are a little more experienced, and will pass on this traditional secret recipe to the next generation for preservation.
It's incomprehensible that the process alone takes a whole day to make such a foul-smelling "delicacy" at such a high cost, but when you bring it into the Inuit production environment, you can understand how difficult it is for them.
The living environment in the Arctic Circle can be said to be extremely harsh, the average temperature of the whole year is maintained at more than minus 30 degrees, it is difficult for general vegetation to survive here, and there is a polar night cycle of about half a year, during which there is no sunlight, which is even more unacceptable for plants.
In this environment, it is simply fanciful to carry out agricultural production and have to rely on the most primitive hunting to make a living, so the life of the Inuit is still very primitive.
Every summer, the Arctic region receives a brief period of warmth, when many puffin birds fly in, and these birds are an incomparable delicacy for the Inuit people, and they can fill their stomachs just by eating seabirds.
However, it is difficult to sustain the winter of slaughter, and it is impossible for these seabirds to come to the North Pole in winter, so the Inuit can only save the puffins they catch in the summer in order to survive, but they have no canned food to use.
So they set their eyes on the big belly of the seal, which is the best container in the eyes of the Inuit, a seal caught and cannot be eaten in a short time, although the summer in the Arctic is also very cold, but the seal will still rot and spoil, and it will not be able to eat at that time.
It is better to use the seal as a container to pickle the puffin and keep it for the winter, when the time comes, not only the puffin can eat, but also the remaining seal meat, which is not only killing two birds with one stone, but the smell is too stinky.
However, the Inuit do not dislike it at all, it is better to eat something stinky than to be hungry, they have no choice, no matter how stinky it is, they have to eat it hard, and they have long been accustomed to this smell.
<<·——螺蛳粉无法理解——·>>
Snail noodles are very familiar to everyone, for those who like to eat, this is the supreme delicacy in the world, but for those who hate it, it is a smell bomb.
I believe that many friends have been poisoned by the people around them who eat snail noodles, and the incomprehensible smell is simply unbearable, as long as they smell it, they will instinctively retch, and this taste is extremely painful.
The smell of snail flour mainly comes from pickled sour bamboo shoots, and fresh bamboo shoots will not have any smell, but in order to retain the freshness and tenderness of bamboo shoots, people can only pickle them, and odorous substances will be produced during this period.
But this smell is controversial, people who like to eat will think it's a fragrance, but people who hate it will think that this thing stinks more than, and both sides can't understand each other at all.
Many girls like to eat snail noodles, which is stumped for their boyfriends and husbands, and in order to maintain the women's can only be willing to endure this smell.
<<·——Conclusion——·>>
The reason why stinky food can be popular in a certain area is actually because there may have been a famine or other disaster in this place before, and people are forced to eat some rotten food, and then the taste of long-term consumption has also changed, thinking that this thing is delicious.
Then in order to pursue this taste, people will deliberately create this smelly food to meet their own needs for a certain substance, and each eats their own, but do not affect others, especially friends who eat snail noodles.