Food Travels with Emmy

June managed to get away from me without giving me the chance to post a single entry in this blog!  Part of that was the fact that my husband had ankle surgery in June, and for a few weeks it was hard to concentrate on anything other than his care.

So welcome to July!  Today's post is about an unusual YouTube food channel that is interesting, off-the-beaten-track, and quite modern, but also contains a surprising amount of food history: emmymadeinjapan.

On her channel, Emmy makes and tastes all kinds of interesting food.  Pre-fab food, such as MREs from a multitude of different countries' armies.  Ethnic food, such as a Cameroonian Spaghetti Omelette sandwich and Cajun fried alligator.  Retro food, such as a Coca-Cola Jell-O salad.  Novelty food, such as clear eggs, edible Japanese water balloons, and popsicles made out of canned soup.

But Emmy also makes historical foods.  As part of a series on foods from hard times, she has made Clara's Depression era Poorman's Meal and Civil War era dandelion coffee and hardtack.

In each video, Emmy prepares her food step-by-step before the camera.  After the dish is completed she tastes it, describing her perceptions for the video audience in clear, neutral language.  (Though sometimes the look on her face is priceless.)  The most surprising thing about her videos is that a lot of even the strangest dishes served turn out to be quite tasty.  

The embedded video shows Emmy making and eating a Victorian dish called drowned baby.  No babies were harmed in the making of this dish.  Drowned baby is a kind of boiled pudding, so called because after it is wrapped in cloth for cooking, the pudding looks a bit like a baby.  

I love Emmy's work because it's a constant reminder that humans will eat nearly anything in their respective quests for calories and novel tastes, and that's an important driver of the history of food.