I think this dish has a darker legacy, and I think it might answer your question.
Back when people were curious if Covid came from bat soup, people pointed out that Chinese quinine was partly the result of Mao's famine, and the regular famines that occurred in China afterwards (but not to the depths as the one under Mao). The Chinese people got used to eating anything, and everything. Meaning that they started cooking everything and anything.
This particular reference reminds me of something that came up in Frank Dikötter
book "Mao's Great Famine". Hunger pangs drove people into nearly total madness, so people would eat literally anything in small doses not to go crazy. They would eat strips of bark, bits of leather, and yeah: tiny stones, so that they could feel like they were full. This was basically the last step they would take before they started digging up graves and eating the dead.
You eat a rock by eating it, because if you don't, you'll go insane. You use a rock because you've literally eaten every animal, every fish, every bug, every bit of tree bark, and every shoe you can find.
I don't like banning entire ideologies, but jesus christ almighty you can understand why people would just straight up ban it altogether. Leftism is possibly the most evil and violent ideology that could exist.
how do you eat a rock? do you just suck on it and spit it out? why use a rock?
I think this dish has a darker legacy, and I think it might answer your question.
Back when people were curious if Covid came from bat soup, people pointed out that Chinese quinine was partly the result of Mao's famine, and the regular famines that occurred in China afterwards (but not to the depths as the one under Mao). The Chinese people got used to eating anything, and everything. Meaning that they started cooking everything and anything.
This particular reference reminds me of something that came up in Frank Dikötter book "Mao's Great Famine". Hunger pangs drove people into nearly total madness, so people would eat literally anything in small doses not to go crazy. They would eat strips of bark, bits of leather, and yeah: tiny stones, so that they could feel like they were full. This was basically the last step they would take before they started digging up graves and eating the dead.
You eat a rock by eating it, because if you don't, you'll go insane. You use a rock because you've literally eaten every animal, every fish, every bug, every bit of tree bark, and every shoe you can find.
I knew people with recipes for fecal matter who now live in the US. It was all they had.
Hungry Ghosts is also pretty good on the famine.
I'll add it to my lists.
I don't like banning entire ideologies, but jesus christ almighty you can understand why people would just straight up ban it altogether. Leftism is possibly the most evil and violent ideology that could exist.
During the Covid riots in Seattle, all I could think about was the red guard wars.