Imagine swallowing a beating cobra’s heart. Or tucking into deep-fried bull’s
testicles, or a bowl of stir-fried dog. Maybe the thought of grilled mice on
rice turns your stomach? Not so Jerry Hopkins, who for the past 25 years has
rejected his "meat and potatoes" upbringing in the United States
to try out a range of regional specialities in a number of far-flung
countries. From a shot glass of warm bat’s blood in a Saigon bar, to roasted
water beetle washed down with beer on a Bangkok street, Hopkins has sampled
things that most of us would shudder to think about, let alone put in our
mouths. It’s all done in the name of adventure, but he does admit that
sometimes, "I just have to shut my eyes and swallow quickly."
If you do decide to give scorpions a whirl next time you’re in Singapore,
Hopkins’s book Extreme Cuisine will be indispensable. A "guide
to how the other half dines and why", it is a comprehensive overview of
unusual eating around the world. The chapter headings say it all – with
titles such as "Rats and Mice", "Guts" and "Human
Flesh", few food taboos have been left unbroken. Michael Freeman’s
vivid photographs leave nothing to the imagination, and there are recipes as
well: camel hoof paste and mango urine lassi, anyone?
Born in New Jersey, Hopkins admits that the food he was raised on was "pretty
boring now I look back on it". His first taste of more unusual fare
came at 14 when, on a Scouts’ trip away from home, he ate bison for the
first time. "It doesn’t seem all that unusual now given all the stuff
to which I’ve been exposed, but at the time it seemed pretty damn exotic."
The bison experience piqued his innate curiosity and kick-started a career
of trying bizarre foodstuffs whenever the opportunity arose. "Presented
with a different culture or cuisine, I think you should just jump in and try
it."
When he began travelling the world as a journalist, Hopkins increasingly had
the chance to put his experimental philosophy to the test. Alone in foreign
cities, he would visit local restaurants in a quest for the outlandish. He’s
eaten dog in three different countries, three different ways. "The
texture really varies, depending on the age of the dog. If you’ve got an old
dog it can be a little chewy." He’s tried deep-fried scorpion in
Singapore and bat’s blood in Saigon. "I had previously chickened
out of drinking snake’s blood in Taiwan, but several years had passed, so
when the bat was offered I thought, why not? A waiter brought the live bat
out in front of me and slit its throat so that the blood dripped into a
glass. It tasted salty."
Such gastronomic intrepidity has won Hopkins ardent support in some foodie
circles. New York chef Tony Bourdain, well known for favouring the bloody
bits other chefs can’t stomach, is impressed. Bourdain says that he owes
A Cook’s Tour, the book and television series in which he travels
the world trying everything from poisonous blowfish to cobra’s heart, to
Jerry Hopkins. He describes the earlier edition of Extreme Cuisine (entitled
Strange Foods) as, "My virtual Fodor’s Guide to the pleasures
and terrors of extreme cuisine."
Praise from such sources as Bourdain could indicate that eating odd food has a
certain macho cachet, and, indeed, many of the things Hopkins has swallowed
are supposed to enhance virility or act as an aphrodisiac. So, in the
stomach-churning, this’ll-put-hairs-on-your-chest stakes, what is the most
unusual thing that Hopkins has eaten? He pauses. "That’s a question I
get asked all the time. I’d have to say that it’s either my son’s placenta
or animal genitalia."
He ate bull’s ball in Mexico and sheep’s testicles in the United States
(misleadingly called "Rocky Mountain Oysters"). Both were
predictably "chewy". In contrast, his son’s placenta – which he
ate in 1972 while living in London with his former wife – "tasted
a bit like foie gras". It was sautéed in butter and onions, before
being blended to make a pâté and spread on crackers to offer guests who had
come to visit the new baby."Some of them tried it as well."
For the past ten years Hopkins has lived on a remote farm in Thailand, with
ample opportunity to eat food which might seem challenging to the Western
palate. His Thai wife, Lamyai, cooks traditional Thai food from "whatever
shows up". Recently, she made a lizard stir-fry. "This was my
first experience of eating lizard chopped up finely and fried. It tasted
somewhere between chicken and beef." Insects are another favourite. "Insects
are free, so why not eat them?" As we talk, Hopkins tells me that his
wife is in the next room watching TV and snacking on a bowl of stir-fried
beetles. "She’s sitting with her Thai friends and they’re helping
themselves, just like you would with a bowl of popcorn." Hopkins’s
beetle of choice is the mangda – a water bug of about three inches in length
that closely resembles a cockroach. He says they taste delicious, "sort
of nutty".
Indeed, the closest Hopkins gets to a polemic is to insist that we will all be
eating bug burgers in the future. "I don’t want to be a bore about it,
but the West’s addiction to beef is as inappropriate today as its addiction
to petroleum. We’re destroying all the rainforests in order to feed all the
cattle. I can’t go to a restaurant, order a steak and feel comfortable about
it. There are so many other protein sources, which are more readily
available. I really do think that insects are going to be a major protein
source one day."
It isn’t an appetising thought for most of us, but as Hopkins points out,
that’s just our cultural prejudices. After all, one man’s bug is another’s
black pudding, haggis or roasted bone marrow at St John. Indeed, one of the
things that Hopkins found most repellent on his culinary adventures was
Marmite, the much-loved British staple. And although his wife Lamyai might
love chopped lizard stir-fries she would never eat dog. "What is
considered repulsive in one part of the world, in another part of the world
is simply considered lunch."
Extreme Cuisine by Jerry Hopkins is published by Bloomsbury and is
available from Books First priced £10.39 (RRP £12.99) plus £2.25 p&p
on 0870 160 8080; www.timesonline.co.uk/booksfirstbuy
