Click Here to Subscribe to Curious History
Funky Fungi
Bearded Tooth Mushroom - This strange looking fungus is edible when young and grows primarily in North America. The mushroom is unique due to its unusual, white and hairy appearance. The taste resembles seafood and is used mostly in Chinese cuisine.
Sky Blue (Entoloma Hochstetteri) - It is named after the German naturalist Ferdinand von Hochstetter. Found in the woodlands of New Zealand and India, the small mushroom is known for its blue color because of three azulene pigments and is not edible.
Cauliflower (Sparassis) - This unique mushroom derives its name from Greek meaning “to tear”. These species are found in Korea, USA and Australia. The mushroom is edible only when its still white in color.
Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) - They belongs to the poisonous types of fungus usually growing in the regions of the Northern Hemisphere. These beautiful deep red mushrooms are large with with white spots and are one of the most recognizable types of mushroom.
Turkey Tail (Trametes Versicolor) - This fungus can be found all over the world and looks like turkey feathers. The importance of this species is high in China and Japan as they are used in medicine for therapies against cancer.
(Source: toptentop.com)
The World’s First McDonald’s
The world’s largest chain of fast food restaurants that serve about 70 million customers each day in 120 countries began operation in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant run by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. The original restaurant was named “McDonald’s Famous Barbeque” and served over forty barbequed items.
In October 1948, after the McDonald brothers realized that most of their profits came from selling hamburgers, they closed down their successful carhop drive-in to establish a streamlined system with a simple menu of just hamburgers, potato chips, and orange juice. The following year, French fries and Coca-Cola were added to the menu. This simplified menu and food preparation using assembly line principles allowed them to sell hamburgers for 15 cents, or about half as much as at a sit-down restaurant.
(Source: amusingplanet.com)
Strange Vintage “Food” Costumes
Costumes of the past were the best. They were homemade, creative, and fun. Today’s costumes are mostly store-bought, generic and cheap. Technology does not always make something better.
Cabbage Beauties
Chinese artist Ju Duoqi stocks up on cabbages in the Beijing vegetable market and then transforms the humble vegetables into works of art depicting beautiful women — that sometimes leave very little to the imagination.
She often spends hours in the market picking out cabbages that reflect the curves of a woman’s body, or that can be cut to make limbs or other accessories, using a combination of round cabbage and longer, slim “celery” cabbage.
Back in her studio on Beijing’s outskirts, Ju uses toothpicks and knives to reshape the cabbage leaves to represent different parts of the body — carving tiny hands, say, or using individual leaves for effect. She then uses a combination of whole cabbages and leaves to form sculptures. Different stages of decomposition — fresh, rotten or dry — create different effects.
Ju’s cabbage beauties series has been shown in Beijing, London, Paris, Los Angeles and Miami. The limited edition prints sell for 2,000 to 3,000 euros ($2,900-$4,300).
(Source: reuters.com)
Keeping Meat Fresh in the Middle Ages
One of the techniques was to dig cellars in the ground, inlay them with large stones covered with straw and put massive blocks of ice specially transported from the mountains, for example. This could preserve food for even a year.
Also, farmers used to put meat in large barrels filled with lard.
image: Butcher’s Stall (1551) Pieter Aertsen
Vintage Curiosities
~ Tennessee Model Household Guide. Practical Helps in the Household, by Mollie Huggins, 1897
![theoddmentemporium:
Fasting Girls
Fasting girls was a Victorian term for young women who, it was claimed, were capable of surviving over long periods of time without consuming food or other nourishment. They not only refused food but also drew attention to their fast by claiming to have special powers.
The ability to survive without food was attributed to some saints during the Middle Ages and regarded as a miracle and sign of sanctity. In some cases, the fasting girls also exhibited the appearance of stigmata. Doctors, however, ascribed the phenomenon to fraud or hysteria. Joan Jacobs Brumberg believes it to be an earlier incarnation of anorexia nervosa. There are numerous examples of fasting girls from the late 19th century:
Mollie Fancher [see image], otherwise known as the “Brooklyn Enigma”, was famous for her claim of not eating for extended periods of time. At 16 she was diagnosed with chronic indigestion and at 19, it was reported that she had abstained from eating for seven weeks. As a result of two accidents Mollie lost her ability to see, touch, taste, and smell. In addition to abstaining from food she also claimed to have powers that involved her being able to predict events and read without the ability of sight.
By the late 1870s, she was claiming to eat little or nothing at all for many months; a claim that lasted 14 years. Doctors and the public began to question her abilities and wished to perform tests to verify her claims, however, she died in 1916 without anyone knowing for certain.
Another tragic case was that of Sarah Jacob, the “Welsh fasting girl”, who claimed not to have eaten any food after the age of twelve. A local vicar, initially skeptical, became convinced that the case was authentic. She enjoyed a long period of publicity, during which she received numerous gifts and donations from people who believed she was miraculous.
Increasingly skeptical doctors eventually proposed she be monitored in a hospital environment to see whether her claims were true. In 1869 Sarah’s parents agreed and nurses were instructed not to deny Sarah food if she asked for it, but to see that any she got was observed and recorded. After two weeks, she was showing clear signs of starvation.
The parents were told that she was failing but they refused to let her be fed. They continued to refuse even when informed that the girl was dying, insisting that they had frequently seen her like this before and that lack of food had nothing to do with her symptoms. Sarah died of starvation a few days later, because she had actually been consuming very little amounts of food secretly, which she could no longer do under medical supervision. Her parents were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to hard labor.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdjrwe0a6e1rnseozo1_500.jpg)
Fasting Girls
Fasting girls was a Victorian term for young women who, it was claimed, were capable of surviving over long periods of time without consuming food or other nourishment. They not only refused food but also drew attention to their fast by claiming to have special powers.
The ability to survive without food was attributed to some saints during the Middle Ages and regarded as a miracle and sign of sanctity. In some cases, the fasting girls also exhibited the appearance of stigmata. Doctors, however, ascribed the phenomenon to fraud or hysteria. Joan Jacobs Brumberg believes it to be an earlier incarnation of anorexia nervosa. There are numerous examples of fasting girls from the late 19th century:
Mollie Fancher [see image], otherwise known as the “Brooklyn Enigma”, was famous for her claim of not eating for extended periods of time. At 16 she was diagnosed with chronic indigestion and at 19, it was reported that she had abstained from eating for seven weeks. As a result of two accidents Mollie lost her ability to see, touch, taste, and smell. In addition to abstaining from food she also claimed to have powers that involved her being able to predict events and read without the ability of sight.
By the late 1870s, she was claiming to eat little or nothing at all for many months; a claim that lasted 14 years. Doctors and the public began to question her abilities and wished to perform tests to verify her claims, however, she died in 1916 without anyone knowing for certain.
Another tragic case was that of Sarah Jacob, the “Welsh fasting girl”, who claimed not to have eaten any food after the age of twelve. A local vicar, initially skeptical, became convinced that the case was authentic. She enjoyed a long period of publicity, during which she received numerous gifts and donations from people who believed she was miraculous.
Increasingly skeptical doctors eventually proposed she be monitored in a hospital environment to see whether her claims were true. In 1869 Sarah’s parents agreed and nurses were instructed not to deny Sarah food if she asked for it, but to see that any she got was observed and recorded. After two weeks, she was showing clear signs of starvation.
The parents were told that she was failing but they refused to let her be fed. They continued to refuse even when informed that the girl was dying, insisting that they had frequently seen her like this before and that lack of food had nothing to do with her symptoms. Sarah died of starvation a few days later, because she had actually been consuming very little amounts of food secretly, which she could no longer do under medical supervision. Her parents were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to hard labor.
Curious History: Japanese Man Cooked and Served his Own Penis to Paying Guests
Mao Sugiyama, 22, cooked his genitals at a dinner for paying guests in Tokyo, Japan. Mao had his penis and testicles surgically removed by a physician in March. They had been certified free of infections and were frozen for two months before being served up at a banquet in Suginami, a residential area in western Tokyo.
He charged guests around £160 per person to eat the meal which was garnished with mushrooms and parsley. Guests were made to sign a waiver so he could not be held responsible if they became ill.
Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said criminal papers against Sugiyama and three other people who helped organize the event were sent to the Tokyo district public prosecutors’ office in late September.
Sugiyama who describes himself as an ‘asexual’ illustrator, could not be arrested for cooking or selling his genitals as there is no law against cannibalism in Japan. Mao said he had initially considered eating his own penis – but decided to serve them up instead.
If convicted of indecent exposure, Sugiyama, who has also had his nipples removed, could be jailed up to two years and fined up to 2.5 million yen ($32,000).
Announcing the event on Twitter he first offered to cook his penis for a guest for £800. However, he ultimately decided to split the ‘meal’ between six guests. He wrote on Twitter: ‘I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen (£800). I’m Japanese.’
Guolizhuang - Beijing’s Famous Penis Restaurant
This bizarre establishment opened its gates in 2006, offering all kinds of dishes with animal genitalia as the main ingredient. Many Chinese believe animal penises increase male potency and do wonders for women’s skin, so word about the culinary wonders served at the restaurant on Dongsishitiao Street spread quickly, and the owners were happy to expand their business. There are now several franchises throughout Beijing and one in Atlanta’s Chinatown.
(Source: disturbingpictures)
Believe it or not…
Artist Kittiwat Unarrom (Bangkok, Thailand) is the son of a baker and clearly influenced by his father he has created the “Body Bakery” – realistic looking sculptures of dismembered human body parts sculpted entirely from bread.
“I want to speak out about my religious beliefs and dough can say it all. Baking human parts can show the audience how transient bread, and life, is. Also, my bread is still bread no matter how it looks.” says Kittiwat Unarrom (source CNN)
