05 May 2007

Greetings from Rome

by Phil Johnson

o I'm in Rome tonight, on my way home from Sicily. This week will be busy again, and I'm not even sure whether I'll be in any state of mind to blog on Monday morning.

When I created my first Web site in the mid-1990s, I bit off a lot more than I could chew. In addition to The Spurgeon Archive, I originally intended to post as much material as I could from my second-favorite historical character, Cotton Mather.

That never fully materialized, and since I have been blogging, my infamous bookmarks and The Hall of Church History (a list of links to [mostly] primary documents from church history) have looked like I abandoned them.

You'd think I would get lots of requests to update the bookmarks and Spurgeon material. And I do. But the thing people ask for most of all are updates to a small collection of gross and disgusting essays collectively titled "Strange Things I have Eaten." I don't think I've added a new article there for more than five years, even though I've accumulated a long list of tales that would make good chapters in that little anthology.

So tonight I added an item to that menagerie, titled "Fish Heads and Tentacles and Sea Urchins and Such."

Enjoy.

I'll wave on my way over your house on Sunday. See you when I get home.

Phil's signature

19 comments:

wordsmith said...

I haven't been able to muster up enough courage to eat fish eyes, but my husband has no problems. I guess it must be the lack of an Asian gene that prevents me from overcoming that hurdle. Don't look for me on Fear Factor anytime soon ;)

Anonymous said...

Remember, never eat anything bigger than your head.

And say hello to his Popeness for all of us in reformation land!

James Scott Bell said...

Looks like the thing John Hurt bent over in Alien.

donsands said...

Octopus. Ain't no way for me, too slimy. But I always say to the adventerous types: Bon Appetit!

Rich said...

The irony here is just dripping. Phil's on the way back from Rome and Francis Beckwith (ETS pres) is on his way there - ecclesiastically

Looking forward to Teampyro's take on this.

http://www.francisbeckwith.com/

Troubling.

Anonymous said...

Fish heads, Fish heads
Rolly polly Fish heads
Fish heads, Fish heads
Eat them up, Yummm


Couldn't resist

DJP said...

Dude — do they serve stuff like this in Tulsa (I ask with a mixture of horror and fascination)?

Doug McMasters said...

Next time you're here in London, we'll have to travel to the East End and enjoy some jellied eels.

sim said...

There is a soundclip of Phil Johnson in an interview over at Theologybites.blogspot.com - does anyone know if the whole interview is available somewhere? Thanks

BTW the clip is in the evangelism section....

Colin Maxwell said...

Maybe the Pope is going to update his index of Forbidden Books?

DJP said...

"Jellied eels" just sounds like "fried potato chips."

Doug McMasters said...

Even though I shared in Phil's worm-eating experience, detailed in his article "Fat-free, Calorie-free Ambrosia!," watching Phil down a candy-coated scorpion ranks as my favorite Phil Johnson culinary moment.

But even that didn't prepare me for the far reach of Phil's predilection for strange food. After a delightful meal at a local Thai restaurant, I brought some of the leftovers for Phil to taste--curdled pig's blood soup. Sure I found a new item for Phil's litney of the exotic, I bounded into his office with the offering. "Cool," was his reply, "which type is it?"

"Huh?," was my only reply as I stood silent before Phil's detailing of the various varieties of curdled pig's blood soup he's scarfed. I was before a master.

Among all the fish available at a sushi bar, I've passed by the sea urchin--others have told me of its stale, tidal-pool taste. Phil, I tip my hat to you.

We wait expectantly for the next installment of "Strange Things I've Eaten."

candy said...

It is a badge of honor in the west to eat Rocky Mountain Oysters (which I have never eaten) and it is highly important not to tell someone what they are when you offer them to be eaten. I have never offered them either.

Anonymous said...

candyinsierras:

Big 10-4 on the Mountain Oysters here in the great American West. A local establishment here in Nebraska has a yearly feast of these, um, delicacies which they have entitled the "Testicle Festival."

As I always say, tacky is as tacky does.

ezekiel said...

Better than chicken.....

Ben said...

Don't scare us like that, Phil. When I saw the title I thought you had converted too.

Stefan Ewing said...

Go to South Korea and sample all kinds of exotic seafood delicacies, only half of which I have the intestinal fortitude to even consider eating....

candy said...

Phil You SO SERIOUSLY need to add your pictures to this collection.

http://www.plan59.com/scarykids.htm

DJP said...

Mercy, Candy -- those look just like Pyro-graphics pix, without the logo!