1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,480 By now, I'm sure that many, if not most, of you have 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:09,439 at least tried that now most westernized of Japanese delicacies, sushi. The concept 3 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,839 of eating raw fish seems like it may have taken a while to catch on 4 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:16,879 amongst Western cultures. For the truth is, as we'll find out in far 5 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:21,199 more detail to day, not only were Western cultures happily eating raw fish for 6 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:27,039 ages at one point, they were m in fact eating it so raw as 7 00:00:27,079 --> 00:00:30,879 for it is still in fact to be alive. Now, we aren't talking 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:34,560 about great, big bluefin tuna, or heaven forbid, a sword fish, 9 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:38,119 although that would take sword swallowing to a whole new level. No, we're 10 00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:42,520 talking about a fish that, unfortunately for it, had the two qualities needed 11 00:00:42,719 --> 00:00:46,840 for it to become the chosen fish. Firstly, it was small enough to 12 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:51,200 be easily gulped down in one go. And secondly, they were fairly ubiquitous, 13 00:00:51,439 --> 00:00:55,920 found in homes, bedrooms, colleges, and pet stores everywhere. That's 14 00:00:55,960 --> 00:01:00,520 right. Today, we're talking about the nineteen thirty nine craze of college students 15 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:10,959 competing to swallow as many as they could of the humble goldfish. Welcome to 16 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:15,000 the fantastic history of food. Strange but true stories from history that in some 17 00:01:15,079 --> 00:01:30,280 way involved food. I'm your host, Nick Charlie Key. In nineteen thirty 18 00:01:30,359 --> 00:01:36,599 nine, in the hallowed halls of Harvard University, boredom was brewing. A 19 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:42,319 freshman student by the frankly ridiculous name of Lothrop Wthington Junior began bragging to his 20 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,519 friends that he had, in fact once eaten alive fish. At first, 21 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,519 his friends just rolled their eyes at what was clearly just another classic Wthington Junior 22 00:01:49,599 --> 00:01:55,560 tall tale. But Lothrop was adamant he had done and if they didn't believe 23 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:59,159 him, he would do it again. All right, They said, put 24 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:01,959 your money where you're fishy mouth is. So he bet them ten dollars that 25 00:02:01,959 --> 00:02:06,799 he could do it again, And from that moment it was on. This 26 00:02:06,879 --> 00:02:08,919 wasn't just going to be a quick axe done in a dorm room. No, 27 00:02:09,199 --> 00:02:13,360 this was going to be a spectacle for the whole student body to witness. 28 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:15,759 Not only that, but they had't even organized for some members of the 29 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:20,680 press to attend and cover the event. So a few days later, on 30 00:02:20,719 --> 00:02:23,919 the third of March, he got up into a raised platform in front of 31 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:27,800 a grinning crowd, of his peers. He surveyed the scene in front of 32 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,639 him, and there on a small side table was a ball with a little 33 00:02:30,759 --> 00:02:37,800 three inch goldfish happily and thankfully obliviously swimming around. He looked up again at 34 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:42,080 the crowd and said, everyone ready. The chair that erupted was all the 35 00:02:42,199 --> 00:02:46,400 encouragement he needed to go ahead. He plucked the doomed goldfish out of its 36 00:02:46,439 --> 00:02:51,199 ball and dropped it right down his throat in one giant gulp. Everyone was 37 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:54,879 silent as they watched His eyes widened briefly as he suppressed his gag reflex. 38 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,639 Then he opened his mouth and proudly thrust his tongue out for everyone to see 39 00:03:00,879 --> 00:03:05,120 there was no longer any fish in his mouth. The crowd went wild, 40 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:08,680 cheering him on as his friends happily produced the ten dollars there had bet him. 41 00:03:08,719 --> 00:03:12,680 In a comment to the local press who had attended, he mentioned that 42 00:03:12,719 --> 00:03:15,360 the toughest part about it had been the scales catching in his throat as the 43 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:21,319 fish went down, In an amusing juxtaposition to his activities that day, He 44 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,919 followed up his stunt by eating fried fish and chips for dinner that night. 45 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:30,639 Newspapers and magazines all over the country ran with the story, with Time and 46 00:03:30,759 --> 00:03:35,719 Life magazines featuring the stunt in articles of theirs, and with this reporting came 47 00:03:35,759 --> 00:03:39,080 a level of fame and notoriety, both for Lothrop himself and for Harvard as 48 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:44,439 an institution. Now we all know how competitive it can get between the country's 49 00:03:44,479 --> 00:03:47,360 top colleges when it comes to any form of sport or competition, but it 50 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:52,879 seems that even football, basketball, and baseball briefly took a back seat to 51 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:58,800 the new goldfish swallowing craze that began to sweep the country's institutions. The University 52 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,759 of Pennsylvania, looking to put their names in the hat, chose their champion, 53 00:04:02,039 --> 00:04:06,960 who set the bar for future attempts by swallowing twenty five poor goldfish one 54 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:12,919 after the other. Mit not to be outdone, took the title themselves of 55 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:17,120 the newly coined Intercollegiate Goldfish Swallowing Champion when one of their students, Albert Hayes, 56 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:23,600 smashed Pennsylvania's record of twenty five by upping his intake to forty two goldfish. 57 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,879 Hayes would take almost a minute per fish in his attempt, as he 58 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,040 reportedly struggled with the fish flopping around in his mouth and once or twice having 59 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:45,639 a jump clear out as the fish sought its freedom from Albert's gaping more at 60 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:49,800 colleges and universities all around the country, the craze spread like wildfire. Girls 61 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:56,040 began joining in two and fierce rivalries began to emerge between historically competitive schools. 62 00:04:56,639 --> 00:05:00,959 Most struggled to match the totals set by MIT, but tent to simply be 63 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,800 ahead of their closest rivals. The record would be broken later that same year 64 00:05:05,079 --> 00:05:11,600 by a student named Joseph Deliberato, who attended Clark University. He was not 65 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:15,439 content with simply beating the record of forty two. He wanted to obliterate it 66 00:05:15,519 --> 00:05:21,639 so completely it would possibly never be beaten again. So on his Fateful day, 67 00:05:21,879 --> 00:05:27,360 he steadied himself in front of the massed crowd and began swallowing goldfish after 68 00:05:27,399 --> 00:05:31,160 goldfish. He started strong, keeping up a fairly steady pace and rhythm of 69 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:36,079 goldfish being plucked from the tank and subsequently plopped into his mouth. When he 70 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:40,560 was in the thities and nearing the record, people began to notice him starting 71 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:44,639 to sweat, and he was gradually slowing down a little. He plopped the 72 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:47,759 fortieth goldfish into his mouth, and the crowd cheered even louder. Just three 73 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:53,680 more to go to break the record for Clark University. In went number forty 74 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:59,399 one, then forty two. The crowd waited in silence as he closed his 75 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:03,120 eyes lifted number forty three high into the air above his open mouth. He 76 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,480 let the fish go, and he gulped it down, just like he had 77 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:11,759 the others before it. The crowd erupted. He had done it, he 78 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:16,439 had broken the record, but he wasn't stopping. He plucked another, and 79 00:06:16,519 --> 00:06:20,879 then another, and in another, swallowing each one with gusto and a renewed 80 00:06:20,959 --> 00:06:26,439 vigor. By the time Joseph was done, not only had he broken the 81 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,560 previous record, he had smashed it to bits by more than doubling it, 82 00:06:30,959 --> 00:06:35,560 eventually calling it quits after swallowing a record eighty nine goldfish in one sitting. 83 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:41,160 As with most fads, its popularity burned brightly for a short while, but 84 00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:45,720 quickly began to die out. Its demise was partly due to the Massachusetts state 85 00:06:45,759 --> 00:06:48,800 Senator George Krapp, filing a bill to outlaw the practice in his state in 86 00:06:48,879 --> 00:06:54,759 order to preserve the fish from cruel and wanton consumption. The Public Health Service 87 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:59,279 doubled down on this by issuing a statement that live fish could contain tape worms 88 00:06:59,319 --> 00:07:03,839 and were there four unsuitable for consumption at all. Interestingly, the universities themselves 89 00:07:03,879 --> 00:07:09,839 fired back by publishing studies that showed that adult males could consume around one hundred 90 00:07:09,839 --> 00:07:15,959 and fifty live fish seemingly without consequence. Fifty years after the fad exploded onto 91 00:07:15,959 --> 00:07:18,560 the scene, the record is said to have been smashed yet again and set 92 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:24,759 at a frankly eyewatering three hundred live goldfish consumed in one sitting. This is 93 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,920 still somewhat in the realm of urban legend, though, but if true, 94 00:07:28,199 --> 00:07:36,920 surely won't ever be broken. One of today's sponsors is Athletic Greens. 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In 116 00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:26,279 the UK, however, you can now face legal prosecution for doing this. 117 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,679 Recently, a twenty year old from Suffolk was fined two hundred pounds and banned 118 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:35,799 from owning any live animals for a year after police found a video of him 119 00:09:35,799 --> 00:09:41,399 swallowing too live goldfish. Luckily for these two goldfish, howiver, he couldn't 120 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:45,279 keep them down and they were rescued and then survived after he threw them back 121 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:48,799 up again. In twenty sixteen, in Rotterdam, a few young Dutchmen, 122 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:54,360 after having a few too many drinks, began swallowing goldfish live from their home 123 00:09:54,399 --> 00:09:58,960 aquarium. Not to be outdone, a twenty eight year old man among them 124 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:03,399 scoffed at the simpler city of just swallowing goldfish and plucked a much larger, 125 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:07,840 and unfortunately for the man, much spikier, bronze catfish out of the tank. 126 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:11,639 He put the catfish into a glass of water, and, as can 127 00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:15,399 be seen on a video from the incident, his friends around him started chanting 128 00:10:15,399 --> 00:10:20,879 in Dutch big Fish, Big Fish, He tilts the glass back and swallows 129 00:10:20,879 --> 00:10:24,559 the catfish whole. From here, things quickly turned ugly as the man is 130 00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:28,039 seen struggling to dislodge it from his throat as he coughs up a bit of 131 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:33,960 fish and blood. Instead of immediately rushing the man to hospital, his friends 132 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:37,399 try to dislodge the fish by pouring beer into his mouth, followed by multiple 133 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:43,000 spoons of honey, and then finally some ice cream, before admitting defeat and 134 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,360 taking him to the emergency room. At the heart of the argument for or 135 00:10:46,399 --> 00:10:52,639 against this sort of practice is simple ethics. Animal rights groups will understandably say 136 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:56,639 that it causes needless pain to innocent living beings, but those in favor of 137 00:10:56,639 --> 00:11:01,320 such shenanigans argue that other foods like oysters, are eaten live all around the 138 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,200 world. In fact, there are many cultural traditions that favor the consumption of 139 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,360 live seafood as a delicacy, regardless of whether it holds any inherent cruelty in 140 00:11:09,399 --> 00:11:13,159 it. In Japan, there is a delicacy known as odori ebi, which 141 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:18,679 in English is translated as the dancing shrimp. It is considered a form of 142 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:22,440 sushi, whereby a baby shrimp that are still alive and able to move their 143 00:11:22,519 --> 00:11:26,159 legs and antennae are dunked into a strong alcoholic bath of sake in order to 144 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:31,279 render the shrimp intoxicated. Then they are dipped into a special acidic dipping source 145 00:11:31,279 --> 00:11:35,480 that makes the shrimp's muscles flex and contract as if it was dancing, before 146 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:41,279 quickly being eaten whole. In some instances, the head is removed prior to 147 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:45,559 serving and brought deep fried as a side dish. There is also a belief 148 00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:50,039 amongst certain chefs that when consuming the spiny lobster, the meat tastes the best 149 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:54,360 right out of the belly of the crustacean while its head still unnervingly moves around 150 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:58,759 on the plate. Thankfully, this isn't truly alive, but simply the nerve 151 00:11:58,879 --> 00:12:03,440 endings reacting to the acid and salt. In India, there is a particularly 152 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:07,919 interesting yearly ritual that happens during the first week of June. Thousands of asthma 153 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:13,720 sufferers flock to the city of Nampalae in Hyderabad to take part in a yearly 154 00:12:13,759 --> 00:12:18,840 asthma cure called fish Prucedam. It's a practice that dates back to eighteen forty 155 00:12:18,879 --> 00:12:22,639 five and all started with one particular family. They claim to have perfected a 156 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:26,519 secret recipe that can cure someone of asthma, and have passed this recipe down 157 00:12:26,519 --> 00:12:31,159 the generations for almost two hundred years. A few years ago, in twenty 158 00:12:31,159 --> 00:12:35,240 eighteen, more than eighty thousand people attended the festival, with a Department of 159 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:41,360 Fisheries providing almost two hundred thousand fingering fish. The miracle cure involves a very 160 00:12:41,399 --> 00:12:46,639 specific type of murral fish that has the secret recipe yellow herbal paste stuffed into 161 00:12:46,639 --> 00:12:50,919 its mouth. This little fish is then swallowed whole and alive by the festival 162 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:56,000 goers. It is said to work even better if the patient feels the fish 163 00:12:56,039 --> 00:12:58,519 wriggling as it goes down their throat, as this is said to help coat 164 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:01,960 the throat with a special paste as it descends, making the chances of it 165 00:13:03,039 --> 00:13:07,679 working all the higher. Finally, for this long list of stomach churning examples, 166 00:13:09,039 --> 00:13:13,200 we finish on the Asian delicacy of sun Nakjee, which is the practice 167 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:18,120 of eating octopus tentacles served in sesame oil. Now that sounds at least pretty 168 00:13:18,159 --> 00:13:22,039 normal, so why is it on this list? Well, besides the fact 169 00:13:22,039 --> 00:13:26,000 that even though those octopus tentacles are not alive because of the oil they are 170 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:30,080 dastin. They wriggle and writhe as if alive on the plate, but still 171 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:33,360 they are technically not alive. So why are there on this list? Well, 172 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,879 true to form, people do in fact like to eat the whole baby 173 00:13:37,879 --> 00:13:43,120 octopus alive, but this is one delicacy that likes to fight back. On 174 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:46,720 average, six people a year are killed trying to eat these whole baby octopi 175 00:13:48,159 --> 00:13:50,960 as during the swallowing of the creature, it flares the suckers on its tentacles 176 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:54,879 and grabs hold of the inside of the diner's throat. Unable to get it 177 00:13:54,919 --> 00:14:00,720 to release, they unfortunately succumb to a lack of oxygen and become another victim 178 00:14:00,879 --> 00:14:05,639 of the octopus resistance. So before you decide that you two would like to 179 00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:09,480 try quickly downing some form of live animal, I'd recommend firstly just not doing 180 00:14:09,519 --> 00:14:13,559 it, but if you're adamant, maybe make sure it doesn't have any spikes 181 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:31,480 or tentacles that could spell disaster for your slow moving Saturday afternoon. Thank you 182 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,240 for listening to this episode of The Fantastic history of Food. If you'd like 183 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,519 to get in touch, you can find us on Twitter at food History Pod. 184 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:43,080 If you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate you taking a moment to 185 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,039 rate the show on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen on, and if 186 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:50,559 you can leave a review as well. I also have a Patreon account where 187 00:14:50,559 --> 00:14:56,080 you can support the show and get access to exclusive content, bonus episodes, 188 00:14:56,279 --> 00:15:00,360 and even the chance to choose the topic for an upcoming episode. All of 189 00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:05,919 this is only for our Patreon subscribers. Everyone who donates or subscribes will also 190 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,200 get a personal shout out from me on an upcoming episode. Check out our 191 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:13,200 website where you can find transcripts, show notes, and references for each and 192 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:26,720 every episode at food History podcast dot com.