• Dagnet@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Weren’t lobsters like that? I remember reading somewhere that only poor people ate them sometime ago, beaches would sometimes get flooded with lobsters

    • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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      3 months ago

      Iirc that’s mostly because they spoiled so quickly. That’s part of why it was inhumane to feed them to prisoners (the other part was they just ground up the entire lobster).

      In fact, many religious food restrictions are based on foods that could easily make you sick, like pork.

      • EldritchFeminity
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        3 months ago

        I think it also had to do with the fact that they’re bottom feeders, as most fish spoil fairly quickly without proper care (though some are definitely worse than others - I think shark starts going bad literally as soon as the shark dies).

        Like your second point, many bottom feeders are more likely to have parasites and, therefore, probably built up a reputation as being unfit for eating (though lobsters don’t have any parasites that I’m aware of).

      • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Someone told me they don’t eat pork because the pigs were at the bottom of the ark and and ate the shit of all the other animals and that is since then canon for me, because it’s one of the funniest reasons to not eat pork

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          You may think you’re disgusting, but you ain’t “getting so into scat fetish that god themself makes an entire religious dictat about avoiding your nasty ass” disgusting

    • BougieBirdie
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      3 months ago

      My great grandmother grew up rough during the depression and lived near enough you could fish for lobster.

      Her family would bury the lobster shells instead of putting them in the trash because they were ashamed the trash collectors might see they were eating sea bugs.

      She still definitely enjoyed lobster. When it was in season it was tradition to have a family reunion for lobster dinner, and she boiled a mean sea bug. But she never could fathom even going to a restaurant to order a lobster - and that some people thought it was fancy would make her head explode

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I chunk many of my shells in the tiny ponds around the house (not too many though, they only range from 15 to 70 gallons). Calcium dissolves back into the water and tiny animals get a free meal, bolstering the bottom of the food chain.

          Also used to throw a shell or three in my fish tanks so the snails could pull dissolved calcium.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        But she never could fathom even going to a restaurant to order a lobster - and that some people thought it was fancy would make her head explode

        This makes me think of how shredded tuna has become very expensive during my lifetime. It’s still not super expensive but it’s not dirt cheap either.

        I’m thinking that when I’m old, will I see fancy restaurants serving spaghetti with shredded tuna, accompanied with real parmesan.

        As it used to cost like some cents or something. Like 60 cents € or something for a can, whereas now it’s more than 2€.

        Hehe, sea bugs.

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Iirc lobsters can become much much larger than the ones we eat which are lil babies (comparatively speaking). The 2 or so lb lobsters we see are like 5yo but lobsters can live to be 100+ and 15lbs or sumsuch. Maybe the old crotchety ones folks ate back didn’t taste as good?

    • hushable@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      same with quinoa, price went up so much that people started cultivating it outside of its native south America and then the price plummeted so bad that it caused financial devastation among farmers

  • Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Pineapples were also a sign of wealth.

    There was a time when people would rent a pineapple to just sit on the table at a party.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Have you watched the new Time Bandits show on Apple TV? It’s based on the old movie. There’s a whole episode where they fall into a 1700s French socialite party where the Earl of Sandwich–or whatever his name is–has rented a pineapple in order to have a pineapple viewing party. The episode was one of the funniest ones this season, highly recommend it.

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It definitely improves from there since pilots have to spend time introducing the world, characters, etc. But yeah, if you don’t like British/New Zealand style humor, particularly that which pays much homage to Monty Python and Terry Gilliam movies, then it won’t be appealing.

            • boonhet@lemm.ee
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              3 months ago

              People here will probably soon start thinking I’m an Apple shill with all the comments I make, but IMO, TV+ has tons of great original content. Definitely recommend taking a peek at their shows. And the movies.

              Of course, nobody says you have to pay for it. Yarr!

              • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Apple+ has consistently been putting out some great shows. Severance is one of my favorite shows of the last few years, it’s frustrating that season 2 has taken so long to come back. Foundation is also great, despite it absolutely butchering the source material I still found it to be entertaining, especially the scenes with the Emperor clones. Ted Lasso is of course some fantastic comedy. Monarch was awesome, really enjoyed that Godzilla spin-off. There are probably a few others I can’t recall off the top of my head.

                • boonhet@lemm.ee
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                  3 months ago

                  I’m really enjoying Bad Monkey right now. Might be the first time I find Vince Vaughn relatable, but that might just be because I’m also a lazy sarcastic prick.

                  The last days of Ptolemy Gray was a good one.

                  I didn’t think I’d like The Morning Show, but I ended up getting pretty invested, as there’s a lot of office politics.

                  Acapulco is funny and I love that in his rose-tinted glasses memories, the resort is literally pink.

                  Honorable mentions: Shantaram, City on Fire, The Silo… And there have been others I’ve enjoyed. There was a period where I had a solid 5 shows to watch every week, all on Apple TV.

  • toynbee@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Oysters are, indeed, vastly unappealing as food; however, they’re not trash - they’re excellent water filters.

    • beefbot
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      3 months ago

      Correct, it’s the garbage they store inside their flesh that’s the trash!

          • toynbee@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I don’t know how to answer this because I feel like the question mark is immediately addressed, heh.

            • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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              3 months ago

              I guess I was confused because “oyster flesh” is just the whole thing? You don’t really have partial cuts of oyster, so you’d have to find the idea of oysters themselves disgusting.

              I despise oysters as food but the idea of them existing doesn’t bother me. They’re just a bundle of muscle and organs in a shell, the gross part is eating them.

              • toynbee@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                I mean, that’s a fair assessment. Honestly, the main reasons it bothered me were:

                • The idea of consuming the entire body of something disturbs me (I don’t have a valid reason for feeling this while being happy to eat meat, it’s just my subjective reaction)
                • While flesh does refer to more than just skin, when I hear the word I think of skin, so I briefly thought of the oyster shell as the flesh, which made me think of harlequin ichthyosis
                • Oysters are gross, as we’ve agreed, so I figured being somewhat wry would be funny

                If you’re not familiar with the second, I’d recommend not googling it as you’ll likely find some gruesome images. The page I linked does have one somewhat cartoonish depiction of the syndrome, fair warning, but no actual photos.

                edit: Converted paragraphs to list format to avoid line break shenanigans.

                • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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                  3 months ago

                  The reason you have an aversion to eating whole animals is because you can’t distance yourself from the act of choosing to have that animal killed for a delicacy.

                  When you get a package of meat, most of negative mental impacts of the decision are taken out on slaughterhouse workers, who have tremendously higher rates of depression and anxiety. Put simpler, they have to find ways to deal with the negative emotions that come from the type of work they do.

                  Thats sort of how paying for stuff always has been, just the distance is father and we’ve figured out how to take the bad feelings and put them on marginalized groups who aren’t us. Bad feelings affect profit.

                  So if you had to go and point out which animal you want your cut of meat from, you’d likely have the same negative reaction to watching it be butchered as you would putting a whole dead animal in your mouth.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      3 months ago

      For real, that big salty lugee is great! Did you know they’re actually alive when you eat them? They also don’t have pain receptors IIRC so they’re a very ethical source of protein. - actual oyster enjoyer

    • lenuup@reddthat.com
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      3 months ago

      I am not a big fan of raw oysters, but if you bake them in the oven with breadcrumbs, cheese and a sauce, they are delicious

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I heard a thing in NYC was the immigrants could look for work, and if they didn’t find anything they could go to the shore, get enough oysters to survive, and keep going.

      • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        That must’ve been giving off a wonderful aroma. Especially combined with the cholera squirts of the era and ever present urine stank

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Local oyster place chunked the shells outside, covered the parking lot in fact. Attracted quite a feral cat population, but it didn’t stink.

          Also, I think you’re confusing modern “stink” vs. 1800s NYC “stink”.

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          So apparently that piss smell wasn’t actually from the open sewage.

          It was because before cars took over horses were the primary mode of transport for people who could afford it, and horse piss is absolutely rancid smelling if it lands on something that doesn’t just absorb it like dirt or soil.

  • Fleur_@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    First person to cook with oysters was one hungry motherfucker

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Indigenous Americans ate oysters for thousands of years. I guess they were okay with them because it’s not like coastal North America was devoid of other food sources.

    • Stamau123@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Granted lobster was considered poor person food because it spoils fast, and in the days of no refrigerators that was a big deal.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’ve read that the prison food method of lobster preparation was just grinding up a shitload of whole animals. Maybe heads cut off. So it was lobster meat, organ, and shell slurry. Lobster is good but I don’t want that.

    • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      In the 1970s, then-president of Mexico Luis Echeverría visited the remote fishing village of Huatulco, slated for touristic development soon after that.

      The people of the village prepared a dinner for the president, in an apologetic tone for being so humble and poor, all they had to offer him was lobster.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Warm water Pacific lobster tastes pretty bad. I made the mistake of ordering it once thinking it was like northern Atlantic lobster. It is not.

        • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I think it’s down to preference, as even the warm water Pacific lobster is the premium menu item on hotel and seafood restaurants in tourists towns in Mexico, and even in the United States west coast.

          I’ve had the Pacific lobster many times, but only one time did I have the northern Atlantic one, and it is more meaty, but flavor-wise I did not detect a dramatic difference.

          Granted, in the wrong hands, or if it’s frozen, lobster doesn’t taste like much of anything. I’ve made that mistake before, of ordering something like that in a random restaurant or a tourist trap.

          But you know what I really prefer? A heap of Dungeness crab, cooked in butter, wine and garlic. Then add lemon. Yikes.

          • ikidd@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Crab is 10X better than any lobster I’ve ever had. I’ve had flown in live lobster from Nova Scotia on a group buy. It was OK but not worth the price.

            On the other hand, I’ve pulled up Dungeness crab in Sooke Bay and cooked them on the dock and been eating it 15 minutes later. Frickin’ excellent. Even without garlic butter, crab is just awesome.

            • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              If you drive down Baja California, with Ensenada behind you as you keep going due south, you will start encountering a few stands and roadside restaurants here and there that always seem to have crab burritos on the menu. Some of these are thick with meat, also all the usual finely-chopped vegetables found in shredded beef machaca common in northern Mexico cuisine.

              When crabmeat burritos are on the menu, I know I’m south of Ensenada, near the boundary with that mythical, mystical, wild desert Baja. That sensation and flavor combo go hand-in-hand in me.

              EDIT: these places also usually make some killer huevos rancheros, too, some places accompany them with side helping of chorizo made with abalone or sea-snail.

    • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The most oysters I’ve ever had was three dozen, in the Baja coastal town of San Quintin. You told the man wearing rubber pants to the waist how many you wanted, he’d wade into the water with a machete in hand, hacked at what essentially was a rock of bunched-up oysters, then waded back to the shore.

      He’d plop that heap of oysters on a wooden table, give you a shucking knife, a bunch of lemons, Salsa Búfalo (not for buffalo wings, it was a brand of smoky hot sauce) and salt crackers.

      If they had a blue ribbon that said “I ate like a pig in San Quintin”, I am not ashamed to say I would have earned it.

      • Vandals_handle@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You just reminded me of the crab at Cielito Lindo, a massive pile of legs and claws drowned in spiced butter, a couple of Pacificos with the meal and a glass of Presidente brandy to cap it off. ¡El sabor!

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Yup. I prefer them smoked, so I get a can a couple times per year. I honestly don’t want more than that.

      But when it comes to mussels, load me up! I could eat those multiple times a week and not get bored of them.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    To be fair, both of those are delicious. That said, I haven’t had caviar itself (too expensive), but I’ve had plenty of other fish-egg products, and it’s fantastic as a sushi topper or in a salad or something. I also love lobster, crab, and other “weird” foods from the bottom of the ocean.

    Maybe I’m trashy, idk.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      My grandfather liked black caviar and had it sometimes (it’s cheaper than you would think, or was in the 80s). I remember it being mostly just salty. I did not care for it.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        If it’s anything like other kinds of fish roe (I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t), it’s not something to eat on its own, but with something. It basically adds some fresh fishiness to whatever you’re eating, for example mild pastas like alfredo or carbonara. I really like fish, so I find it adds some nice flavor to a wide variety of dishes.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            Hmm, he was probably missing out if that’s all he had it with. I’m sure it’s fine, but there are so many other ways to enjoy fish roe than just with bread or crackers.

            If you’re ever up for trying it again and like fish, try adding a little to an otherwise mild dish. If you don’t overdo it, you’ll keep the mild flavors of the dish, but with a taste of the ocean as well. A little goes a long way, so don’t go too crazy.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              I guess it was the German Jewish way to eat caviar? At least in the early 20th century? That’s what he grew up eating.

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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                2 months ago

                It’s certainly common, I just think there are better ways to enjoy it, especially for people new to it. But eating it on bread or crackers is the goto, at least for caviar itself (less so for other types of fish roe).