H O O K E D - Food To Die For

Food To Die For

Written by Lua Yiling and Rachel Xu

If you think that high cholesterol, high blood sugar levels or our all-time favourite sin - gluttony, are the only things that await you in your meals, think again. In line with everything dangerous - the HOOKED team presents to you, our readers: Food To Die For…literally.

Let's ease you with something mild first, shall we? (May cause some discomfort. Do not eat/drink if affected.)

Eggs

        Raw eggs cracked into a bowl to complement toast and kopi-o may taste as sumptuous as they look, but are they safe for consumption?

        Runny sunshine eggs alongside sausages and potato wedges, on a big breakfast platter, can also become culprits in cases of food poisoning. This is due to the fact that uncooked yolk can be easily contaminated by the microorganism salmonella, causing food-borne illnesses like dysentery, vomiting and nausea.

        In many households these days, only thoroughly cooked egg dishes like French toast or omelettes are eaten. However, this is not always the case, because two decades ago, when the salmonella strain had not infected chicken eggs, it was even safe for children to lick cookie dough while their mothers were baking cookies!

Fatal Factor: 2.5/5

Coke

        Far from being the healthy beverage marketed by Coca Cola, Diet Coke is extremely worrying to nutritionists.

        Although it has low calories and sugar content, it has addictive substances, increasing the Diet Coke sales chart over the years at the demise of health problems in its avid drinkers.

        Aspartame in Diet Coke suppresses serotonin and increases carbohydrate carvings. Once in the body, aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde, methyl alcohol and formic acid, all of which clog up the liver, preventing the otherwise effective organ from processing nutrients and detoxifying fats.

Fatal Factor: 1.5/5 (unless you are a supersize coke drinker, something else will kill you first in this cruel world)

Popiah Baby Rats

        Amongst the many bizarre folk remedies that have been passed through generations, the most astounding one would have to be this: Popiah Baby Rats.

        Many Chinese actually believe that downing a salted vegetable, which is wrapped with a squealing baby rat, helps to improve your immune system. Flabbergasted faces, anyone?

        This may not be all too common in Singapore but believe me, such an absolutely inhuman (to oneself) practice exists somewhere in this small world.

        Aside from the fact that this should make everybody's skin crawl, picking a newborn baby rat from some random sewer and proceeding to merely wash it before inserting it into your digestive system is SUICIDAL.

        Imagine the grotesque amount of germs you are consuming! Some diseases known to be borne by sewer rats include Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, Salmonella enterica serovar, Typhimurium and Leptospirosis. Long wordy disease names but all you need to know is that you will wish you never ate that popiah rat when you come down with the symptoms. Not to mention that they are all potentially fatal.

        It is a good habit not to put every random thing into your mouth.

Fatal Factor: 3/5 (if you bleached, parboiled and scrubbed your rat)
4.5/5 (if consumed directly from the sewer)

Deadly Fish

        The bible warns about only eating fish that has fins and scales, hence, we should take precaution in preparing fishes like swordfish, tile fish and blowfish (fugu) , which all have high susceptibility to mercury contamination.

        Mercury, a neurological poison that is concentrated in fatty tissues of fishes, causes hyperactivity and poor concentration.

        Histamine poisoning by eating swordfish causes diarrhoea, palpitations, headache, nausea and dyspnea.

        Tetrodotoxin causes pufferfish or blowfish poisoning, resulting in rapid death. Symptoms are manifested within 15 minutes of ingestion; perioral tingling, a floating sensation, a feeling of overall warmth and slurred speech.

        A pinch of the white powder produced by a medium-sized fugu can kill more than 80 people.

        Despite the danger, demand for fugu dishes remains sky-high in countries like Japan, where it is treated as a delicacy. The Japanese fork out hefty sums just for a hearty well-cooked fugu dish. One can easily lose count of the number of fanciful restaurants in Japan serving various types of fugu dishes.

Fatal Factor: 4.5/5 (seriously folks, your life lies in the hand of the person who prepares your dish. NO JOKE.)

Absinthe

        This notorious green liqueur first gained popularity in France during the late 19th and 20th century, amongst the Parisian artists and writers.

        Its colourful reputation stems from the fact that the drink is believed to cause hallucinatory effects and thus, disinhibits (to a socially unacceptable extent) its consumers who have been said to have committed numerous disgraceful and in certain instances, heinous crimes.

        An example often thrown up is the Lanfray murder, which was the impetus behind the eventual ban of the drink in most of Europe and the United States. The mad man was said to have murdered his pregnant wife and two children under the influence of the drink (please note that he is an alcoholic, so one should not be melodramatic and pin it all on the liqueur).

The main herbs used in concocting this potent brew include grande wormwood, florence fennel and green anise. The poison usually has a whooping 65-70% concentration of alcohol and preparation involves placing the liquer in a cup, with a cube of sugar positioned in a slotted spoon above, while water is poured over till the desired ratio is obtained.

With fans such as Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemmingway, one ought to fall prey to the ‘green fairy’ at least once in their life. Just keep your antics confined to yourself in your own bedroom.

Fatal Factor: 5/5 (considering how you might be hung if you become Lanfray II)

Bon Appetit! HOOKED

Images courtesy of:

www.alandia.de

http://www.dkimages.com/discover
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/critters/rats/ http://www.american.edu/
http://www.jessenickles.com/
http://www.smh.com.au

Comments

Write Comment
Name: Guest
Title:
Comment:

< Prev		Next >