SC - Whipped Cream

[Liam Fisher]

You see, that's what's maddening!

It's not that I have any doubt at all that everything you've said is, as
they say, Gospel truth. Rather, it's that it would make such good jokes
if you weren't serious! And if you weren't serious, how would most of us know?

The comic potential is limitless! I'm jealous. OK? There, I've said it!

That being said, though, I wish to reiterate that I have great respect
for your knowledge and your admirable curiosity, and never doubted for a
moment about the Icelandic Penis Museum. Well, no more than a moment or two...
 
Nanna Rognvaldardottir wrote:
> 
> Adamantius wrote:
> >With all due respect for all concerned, I have a question for the list:
> >
> >Have any of you wondered whether Nanna had any role in Margaret Meade's
> >studies of Icelandic mating rituals?
> >
> >Or, to put it another way, ever wonder if, just perhaps, she's serving a
> >dish of tongue in cheek?
> 
> Who, me?

Yeah, you, ma'am ;  ).
> 
> Actually, every word I´ve said about Icelandic food and cooking is the
> honest truth. But I´ll admit most Icelanders get a kick out of telling
> people about the local delicacies, and offering them a taste. When Mick
> Jagger visited Ísafjörður (fishing village in the Western Fjords) a few
> weeks ago, the director of the folk museum was proud to display on TV a cube
> of fermented shark that he had been tricked into tasting (and promptly spat
> out).

I don't know which is more comment-worthy: that Mick Jagger is a food
nerd, or that somebody put his spitty bolus on display. I've heard of
hakaarl (sp?) before, it's one of those things I'd like to get around to
trying someday. It's said to resemble a rindless Camembert... . 
 
> And for me, many of these things are not local curiosities, to be savored
> maybe once a year, but the daily food of my childhood. Really. The evening
> meal almost always included something from the whey barrels - there was a
> really huge one, and a smaller one, and then a third one that contained bits
> my mother considered only fit for the dogs but my uncles and I (as the most
> adventurous of us children) would sneak into sometimes for a tasty morsel.
> 
> The fact is that, even though I´m interested in all aspects of food history,
> what intrigues me most is how people at the very edge of the habitable world
> managed with what little they had. Which means utilizing every edible part
> of an animal, and finding ways to preserve the food for the looooong winter.
> (BTW, I´m currently reading a Faroese book on this subject; seems that some
> very interesting recipes and methods have been developed in the Faroe
> Islands too.) And some of the things one comes across in researching this
> field are of such a nature that either you are ashamed of your ancestors and
> keep silent about their habits, or you develop a sense of deadpan humor
> about them. Which most of us do. But it is still the truth - we ate these
> things (still do in many cases), and treated them in this manner.

You're reminding me of the forces that drive the cuisine of the southern
Chinese "highlands", which has several short growing seasons: great
variety, but not really a great abundance of food altogether, and a lot
of it immediately dried or preserved in salt. 
 
> I suppose you could say that the Penis Museum is very much an example of
> Icelandic humor - it has the alternative name Reðurstofa Íslands (which I
> guess you could translate The Icelandic Penile Institute), which is meant to
> rhyme with Veðurstofa Íslands (The Icelandic Meteorological Institute). But
> it is still a real museum, and the guy who runs it is quite serious about
> it.
> 
> As for Icelandic mating rituals, there aren´t any. We tend to dispose of
> such preliminaries.

Well, I guess if you run out of ideas there's always a trip to the Penis
Museum... . I'm a little curious, I confess, whether the Penis Museum
has a souvenir shop, and what they might sell there.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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