Stanwood Library puts squid ink, octopus on kids’ menu
Published 10:18 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2009
STANWOOD — The menu included a grass jelly drink, hot pickled plums, squid ink, fermented tofu, escargot, baby octopus, pork blood and pig uterus.
Not the average afternoon snack, but there were plenty of kids who wanted to give it a try.
Librarian Rob Branigin started a new season of after-school meetings with teens Tuesday at Stanwood Library with a contest fashioned after TV’s “Fear Factor.” For every unfamiliar or disgusting thing they tried to eat, each contestant got their names put into a cookie jar for a drawing to win a $50 gift certificate to spend at Snow Goose Book Store.
Stanwood Middle School student Emily Callies, 12, had read about the contest in the newspaper. Being a former “Fear Factor” fan, especially the gross eating part of the reality game show, Emily decided she and her sister Christina, 14, should try to swallow some of the strange items placed in bowls lined up on tables in the library conference room.
The sisters were among the many who didn’t sample much.
As the more brave among the crowd made their way through the line, the laughter, cheering and gagging increased.
Taste and texture of the menu were factors in the contest, and food reviews were immediate and colorful.
“Yuck.”
“Blech.”
“Ooohh.”
“Ugh.”
“Oh, that’s not so bad,” Kendall Scott, 12, said of the escargot. “Really chewy, though.”
Just close your eyes and do it, 12-year-old Darren Redford’s friends said. But the octopus tentacles were a little too much for Darren.
“Urp.”
Gabriel Royz, 15, a Stanwood High School student, took a big bite of cooked pig uterus. He chewed for at least a half-minute, tried to breathe, closed his eyes and then vomited into a nearby wastebasket.
Seventh-grader Mathew Starr, 12, called the process “interesting” and proudly bragged that he didn’t gag on anything.
Tia Mervyn, also 12, was one the first to try the squid ink, which turned her tongue and lips black.
Catie McCammond, another seventh-grader, tried everything. Even the canned pork blood. Cooked blood is much better, she said.
“My dad owns a restaurant,” Catie said. “I wanted to tell him about some things he should serve there.”
Branigan shopped at the Seattle Asian market Uwajimaya for his after-school snack menu.
Tristan Heitt, 19, was somewhat familiar with some of the foods. He entered the contest because he needs help to buy books for college.
“And I hadn’t eaten all day,” he said. “So I thought, why not?”
In the end, 13-year-old eighth-grader C.C. Nelson had her name pulled from the jar to win the gift certificate.
After claiming that the pig uterus reminded her of a cold noodle, C.C. got a high-five from her friends.
Then they went out to do their homework in the library.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
More info
For more information about programs for teens at the Stanwood Library, call 360-629-3132.
