View Full Forums : Living deep inside the Arctic Circle is enough to test any man's survival instincts.


Panamah
10-17-2006, 10:48 AM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/6055506.stm

Would you have accepted the seal eyeball?

Over the last few days, I have done some extraordinary things.

I have eaten raw ringed seal, raw caribou meat and raw Beluga whale skin.

And to cap it all, I have dismembered a walrus.

No, I am not on a mission to become the most hated man in the Western world - I am making a TV series called Cooking in the Danger Zone, using food to understand people around the world who are going through crises or rapid change.

...

We pulled up to some pack ice and the seal was butchered by Theo and his nephews.

Theo expertly skinned it and everyone else hacked the best bits off for a raw snack.

John cut off an eyeball and ate it whole.

He offered one to me, but I declined, opting instead for a chunk of flesh.

It was strange to eat still-warm seal, and I cannot say that I relished the idea, but it tasted like fine, well-hung beef fillet, and it would have been a far greater tragedy to let any of the animal go to waste.

That was my first taste of "country food", as the Inuit call it.

When I asked what Theo thought of people who protest against seal hunting, he dismissed them with disgust.

This is not just hunting. This is a way of life that has defined an ancient people.

Wipe out the hunting, and you wipe out 4,500 years of Inuit culture.

Jinjre
10-17-2006, 11:00 AM
I think I'd have passed on the eyeball. Then again, I'm rather fond of my food not arriving in its 'original wrapper'. If we went back to growing our own food, I'd eat a lot of chicken. I couldn't eat anything that recognized it's name. And I'm really bad at not naming animals.

Klath
10-17-2006, 11:06 AM
Cooking in the Danger Zone (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/5153990.stm) sounds like an interesting show. The description of one of the episodes mentioned a "Beijing penis restaurant" -- uh, wow. I wonder if it's this place (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/17/wfood17.xml).

Would you have accepted the seal eyeball?
No, eyes don't taste nearly as good as meat (to me, anyway).

Panamah
10-17-2006, 11:23 AM
No, eyes don't taste nearly as good as meat (to me, anyway).
So you've eaten eyes?
"Beijing penis restaurant" -- uh, wow. I wonder if it's this place.
Reminds me of another Blackadder episode...

B_Delacroix
10-17-2006, 11:27 AM
One of my heroes is Ernest Shackleton because of his antarctic expedition. Everyone of his men survived in conditions that were just extraordinary.

I am unable to even guess what I might do were conditions bad enough.

Here is an accounting of the expedition (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/shackleton/expedintro.html).

Klath
10-17-2006, 11:49 AM
So you've eaten eyes?
Yep, fish eyes. When my family would go to dinner at a Thai place we'd sometimes get a dish with a whole fish in a spicy sauce. I'd eat the eyes to gross out my sister. :)

Klath
10-17-2006, 12:01 PM
One of my heroes is Ernest Shackleton because of his antarctic expedition. Everyone of his men survived in conditions that were just extraordinary.
He was great at taking care of his men but he wasn't quite so good with the furrier members of the crew. Poor Mrs. Chippy (http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/famous/chippy.html). :cry:

Panamah
10-17-2006, 12:06 PM
Yep, fish eyes. When my family would go to dinner at a Thai place we'd sometimes get a dish with a whole fish in a spicy sauce. I'd eat the eyes to gross out my sister. :)
LOL! Ok, that's hilarious. :D

Stormhaven
10-17-2006, 12:28 PM
Anthony Bourdain ate the seal eye on his show "No Reservations." It's just one of the weird things he's eaten among other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain">interesting items</a>.

Tinsi
10-17-2006, 01:41 PM
I'm just curious as to how it's possible to live "inside the arctic circle" - let alone DEEP inside it. Hollow earth theories?

*tease pan*

weoden
10-21-2006, 04:43 PM
I think eyes have vitamin C which is not in abundance at that latitude...

The liver has lots of nutrients as well.

Gunny Burlfoot
10-22-2006, 12:31 AM
Eating liver from local animals in polar regions is a bad, bad thing (if that's all you have to eat, it's still bad and will kill you) Vitamin A in polar animals reaches lethal toxicity very quickly.

An artic expedition learned that lethal lesson all too well.

http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/0502/life/158.html

You'll do better eating nothing at all.

Panamah
10-22-2006, 12:19 PM
That's polar bear, I think they eat seal liver.

I don't know how they survive. They obviously don't eat fruit or veggies most of the year. There's an explorer named (I'll mangled this) Stephannsen who lived on meat only for a number of years, he was quite healthy. The one theory is that they're getting the Vit. C they need from raw meat.

I'm just curious as to how it's possible to live "inside the arctic circle" - let alone DEEP inside it. Hollow earth theories?

Edgar Rice Burroughs. :)

Thicket Tundrabog
10-24-2006, 08:00 AM
I think eyes have vitamin C

Am I the only that read "I think eyes have vitamin see" ? :)

Panamah
10-24-2006, 11:28 AM
Am I the only the that read "I think eyes have vitamin see" ?
Most likely. :)