Roasted Rat and More

An Indian king loved to eat rats!

King Someshwar III was a king of the Western Chalukya Empire (it covered parts of the modern-day Indian states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh) who ruled between 1126 and 1138. He wrote a Sanskrit book called Manasollasa which when translated into English means ‘Refresher of the Mind’. His book was largely devoted to princely pleasures, especially food. He has described different kinds of food like lentil dumpling in spicy yogurt sauce, pork fried with cardamoms, fried tortoise and many others but did you know he is also mentioned a recipe for roasted rat?! Yuck! I found this information in Ian Crofton's book, A Curious History of Food and Drink.

Civet coffee was actually invented by the peasants working in the coffee farms.

When the authorities in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day islands of Indonesia, Java, half of East Timor, Borneo and Sumatra) banned the peasants working in the coffee plantations from using the berries for their own consumption, so, the peasants found a way to not break the law and still be able to use the coffee berries for their consumption. The peasants had observed that the luwak or the palm civet ate the berries for the soft pulp, and then excreted the undigested seed in its droppings. They peasants used to collect these seeds, which they washed, roasted, and ground to make a powder. This powder was then put in water. When it was put in the water it became a delicious beverage known as ‘kopi luwak’. When translated into English this means ‘civet coffee’. Later the plantation owners themselves started making this kind of coffee. Today kopi luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world selling for $600 per pound.

 

There was a Roman noble called chickpea!

In Rome there lived a political writer and orator called Marcus Tullius Cicero. It was said that his original surname was Plutarch. But his surname had been changed to Cicero because one of his ancestors had a blemish on his nose that looked like a chickpea. Which in Latin is cicer. It is more likely that his family did well in the chickpea business so, the name. Other Roman noble families also had strange surnames like ‘Lentulus’ which means ‘lentil’, ‘Piso’- ‘pea’ and ‘Fabius’- ‘bean’. Imagine having a capsicum annum which means potato as your surname?!