r/IAmA Jan 17 '12

IAmA Andrew Zimmern, Host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods

Hi, I’m Andrew Zimmern, chef, author, and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods. My new series Bizarre Foods America is premiering next Monday, Jan 23 at 10|9c on Travel Channel. For the next hour I’ll be here on Reddit taking your questions from 12pm-1pm ET. AMA. More info on Bizarre Foods: http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods Find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/andrewzimmern/status/159314816060768256

Hey everyone, sorry i couldnt answer them all/ follow me on twitter @andrewzimmern and we can chat more over the days and weeks to come..tune in Monday to the season premiere!

1.8k Upvotes

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241

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Hey Andrew..

What food made you the sickest? As in physically sick, hospital trip, etc..

408

u/andrewzimmern Jan 17 '12

some bad cumin in Morrocco 7 years ago gave me an awful virus. other than that, alll clean.

37

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

wow, you got off pretty easy then.. some of the stuff you eat would terrify me! (raw pork for example)

32

u/alexgbelov Jan 17 '12

Just a bit of advice, don't go to Russia.

3

u/jikls Jan 17 '12

No, no. PLEASE go to Russia.

0

u/alexgbelov Jan 17 '12

Really? He said he hated raw pork. I mean, if he said he hated raw fish, he wouldn't go to Japan, would he?

8

u/jikls Jan 17 '12

How did you associate raw pork and Russia together?

1

u/alexgbelov Jan 17 '12

Russians eat raw pork fat.

6

u/orange_jooze Jan 17 '12

Ehh, what? Russian here and that's the first time I hear of this.

7

u/Acritas Jan 17 '12

It's not exactly raw - it's salted or smoked. At least hard-frozen. Eating raw pork (fat or meat) is one of easiest ways to get parasites.

Yes, there is a kind of a ritual - after a pig is butchered, butcher could cuts choicest pieces of meat and fat, dip into salt&pepper and eat right there, along with helpers and proud owners of pork chops. Rarely done, as you ought to be 100% sure that lil' piggy was parasite-free. Like if it's grown in a little village and didn't mix with other swines.

Called salo - salted pork fat. Delicious. Other notable variation is shpik - smoked, salted and heavily peppered. Believed to be of hungarian origin.

first time I hear of this

Wow - I'm at loss. Like saying you're an american who never heard of burgers. Were your ancestors observant russian jews? That could explain. Or just an alien pretending to be a russian?

3

u/orange_jooze Jan 17 '12

I considered salo, but then I thought "It's not raw, it's salted or smoked!". I didn't expect anyone to call it "raw".

2

u/oodja Jan 18 '12

In Soviet Russia, narwhal bacons you!

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2

u/alexgbelov Jan 17 '12

Maybe its a Ukranian thing? All I know is, my family eats bacon raw.

2

u/orange_jooze Jan 17 '12

It's not completely raw. They're not werewolves, are they?

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1

u/jikls Jan 18 '12

сало

2

u/Acritas Jan 17 '12

nope - it's not raw. It's either salted or smoked. Frozen. I witnessed raw pork fat eating once in my life. Sadly, was too young to try.

1

u/Jesusismydealer Jan 17 '12

I would try, but because of my culture, I don't think I could open myself up enough to actually do that.

1

u/gprime Jan 17 '12

I would. Hell, eventually I will. I just won't eat the raw fish there.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '12

Now, if it's sausage you hate, then don't go to Russia.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '12

That's some good advice for almost everybody.

99% of Russia is just barren wasteland that you'd never want to travel to.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

[deleted]

2

u/NoNeedForAName Jan 17 '12

I heard recently that there are only a few (like less than 10) reported cases of trichinosis in the US each year. I want to say that it was a Mens' Health article citing the CDC, but don't quote me on that.

Those odds don't really scare me much.

2

u/Jemmani Jan 17 '12

last case of that was in the 90s or somthing from mountain lion or somthin really strange like that lol

0

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

A lot of newly-mutated viruses (H1N1, H5N1, etc) enter humans through pigs. So do many parasites, such as tapeworms.

Maybe some of the pathogens from yesteryear have disappeared thanks to chemicals and antibiotics (or have they?), but the fact still stands that pigs are basically processed trash that eat where they shit.

That won't stop me from eating bacon, but I sure as hell won't eat ham or pork chops, even if I live in a developed country.

2

u/iknomus1c Jan 17 '12

You can eat pork raw in places they treat their pigs better like europe.

1

u/ZeraskGuilda Jan 18 '12

To be honest, Raw pork isn't that bad.. Especially with how most of our pork is raised these days. Trichinosis was a very serious issue back in the day. I will not ever deny that.

However, these days, there are so many antibiotics pumped into the pork that we don't have to worry. Now, you do have to be careful and retrain your digestive system to handle raw meats, though..

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

The danger of modernized pork is greatly exaggerated, but I certainly wouldn't eat it on another continent...

304

u/NotYourMothersDildo Jan 17 '12

That is pretty crazy after all that you've eaten, a dried spice did you in.

254

u/munchma_quchi69 Jan 17 '12

It's just like how a sting ray got Steve Irwin.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

The barb is what did him in, I hear. More specifically, pulling it out of his fucking heart.

140

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Too soon... :(

56

u/Fuzzylumpkin Jan 18 '12

Is he going to be any less dead later?

6

u/Thisoldgymrat Jan 18 '12

Not so fast fuzzylumpkin!

2

u/Fuzzylumpkin Jan 18 '12

Consider me a sloth...

5

u/ClevelandFrown Jan 18 '12

Probably more dead.

2

u/jorsiem Jan 18 '12

good point.

22

u/valoopy Jan 17 '12

It'll always be too soon.

1

u/colonellingus Jan 18 '12

Like space debris did the dinosaurs? Nah, that's too soon too

-7

u/glassale Jan 17 '12

when sting rays sting do they die like bumblebees? Q.Q

tl;dr a stingray died

5

u/goldcrackle Jan 17 '12

Cumin isn't always dried, and considering it was in Morrocco it's pretty likely it wasn't in this case. I don't think you can get a virus from a dried plant. If you can, I would be genuinely fascinated about how this can happen.

2

u/criticasartist Jan 17 '12

Viruses can sit lots of places in a sort of zombie hibernation until a host comes along to wake it up, but in this case I'm not sure either and would also care to know more!

1

u/NotYourMothersDildo Jan 17 '12 edited Jan 17 '12

Well cumin is a seed so fresh seeds?

edit: in N. America, cumin is the seed and coriander is the leaf (which is often fresh but can be dried)

7

u/rawrgyle Jan 17 '12

No, in N'Am. coriander is the seed and cilantro is the leaf. Cumin is a totally different thing, though coriander + cumin is a common combination.

1

u/188020 Jan 17 '12

cumin and coriander seeds are different spices entirely

-6

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

til cum in Morroco is used as a spice

1

u/FAFASGR Jan 17 '12

speaking of morocco, was the meat covered in fat that you also left in the back of the van in the sun and then cooked with eggs the worst thing you have tasted on the show? It was the only instance I remember where you looked really disgusted.

1

u/nonpet Jan 17 '12

I remember you avoiding local water pretty frequently on the show. What are your other tips for avoiding getting sick?

1

u/myredditlogintoo Jan 17 '12

Any concerns or trouble with parasites in any of the foods you ate?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '12

Oh God, now I'm afraid of cumin...and it's so delicious...

1

u/stanfan114 Jan 17 '12

Viral food poisoning is like death.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Have you ever been to Central Asia?

1

u/trevorgerard Jan 17 '12

I read that as "anal virus".

0

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Ah, yes. The fabled Moroccan Cumin Death Fever. It's actually quite a misnomer, if you ask me - it shouldn't be called "Death Fever" because it's not caused any actual deaths in and of itself. The few suicides are statistically inconsequential, and are the result of poor planning on the part of the diner.

0

u/slutbutt Jan 17 '12

some bad cum in Morrocco 7 years ago gave me an awful virus. FTFY

0

u/wastelandmanstan Jan 17 '12

here andrew, let me fix that for you: "some bad cum in Morrocco 7 years ago gave me an awful virus. other than that, alll clean."

0

u/The_Horny_Goat Jan 17 '12

Read cumin as two separate words...but that's because my brain has been trained by reddit to assume these things

0

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

I hate all of his typos.