Bizarre Foods in TN (Pittman Center: law, cabin, cities)

[jkmewright]

They had a great episode of Bizarre Foods Appalacia last night. Andrew Zimmern toured NC, WV, and Pittman Center Tn. Very cool show but he ate possum, wasp larvae, squirrel and racoon YUCK. People are gonna love this lol

"Pittman Center, Tennessee
Andrew eats a real mountain meal and meets a descendent of the McCoy clan (from the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud).
Address: Mountain cabin in Pittman Center, Tennessee

Food Eaten:

* Raccoon and Possum Brains
* Barbecued Raccoon
* Baked Possum"

Appalachia

[2mares]

What is so bizarre about that? Normally, people eat pig brains and eggs, but if your BBQ ing a raccoon, might as well not be wastefull.

[Pam& Bill]

Sigh..... when will things like this cease to cause anyone to have a reaction?
I've never eaten any of the things mentioned.Sorry I am not jumping on the wagon to poke fun at southerners....
Pam

[jkmewright]

Actually the show was far from poking fun, that's what I loved about it. There was more to it than coons and possums but that WAS the TN segment.

I myself don't eat any of this stuff and probably never will so it was bizarre to me but I don't think that making fun and stereotyping is the point of the show. They travel all regions worldwide and show, I guess you would say, the most extreme diets for that area. So it's not just about crazy coon eatin' hill billies.

[yarddawg]

I'm not sure why this would be considered poking fun. Every culture eats things other cultures think are gross. Some of the mountain dishes might be a bit esoteric but are they really any stranger than some of the stuff eaten by, I dunno, maybe the French? Or the Japanese? Both fine cuisines that don't bear close examination.


I've eaten most of the things they mentioned and quite a few they didn't. Squirrel and dumplings is awesome.

[skinem]

Never eaten any of those things.

My late grandpa who came up reeeeeaaaaalllllyyy poor, and then got poorer when the depression hit told me one time he'd starve to death before he'd eat another possum. I guess there were times when that's what they had.

Possum...the other white meat.

[cowhorse53]

DH tells me that growing up very poor in GA, he not so fondly remembers his Grandmother having possum in the oven! He said it looked like a giant rat in the oven!! This memory still grosses him out! Swears he did not taste it! He is always glued to Andrew Zimern's show!! I could do without it!

[Tinman313]

This is the Road Kill Law in Tennessee...... Nothing like collard greens and fresh opossum that's if you like dark greasy meat....

HoneyHoney's Roadkill

[skinem]

The only thing I've seen anyone use the roadkill law for is deer. Around here I guess you could rack up on possum, raccoon and skunk, as well as deer. Fortunately, I see many more deer around here than skunks!

[MomsTn]

Don't think I would eat any kind of "brains". No matter what animal.
I believe when we were little we ate possum that my Granny C had cooked.
If memory serves me correctly, it wasn't too bad.

The only time I ever ate anything that I thought was "greasy", was when my other Grandma shot a bear.
It tasted okay, but not my favorite.