So, I was watching the travel channel last night with the ladyfriend, and there was a Lonely Planet episode on, one part of which involved the host going into a bar and drinking what’s called a “Sour Toe Cocktail.”
The bartender laid out on the table five shriveled human toes to choose from. The host, looking a little queasy, chose one, plunked it into his drink and swallowed the drink down, letting the toe fall against his lips (which is the rule of the bar).
Granted, this was in Canada, and I’m not familiar with their sanitation regulations for bars and restaurants, but I assume they’re comparable to those in the US. So, are there no problems when DHEC comes by for an inspection and sees that they serve drinks with alcohol soaked toes?
Also, are there any sanitary concerns? I mean, the guy at the bar said that people sometimes just send the toes in (“I could get you a toe, Dude. Nail polish and all”).
Well, the official website says that it has been dehydrated and preserved in salt, so my guess would be that it’s like prosciutto, sanitary-concern-wise. You wouldn’t have any problem putting a chunk of dried pig muscle in your mouth, but you’re dealing with food taboos here, so a dried human toe makes you queasy.
But as for whether any member of officialdom goes up there and actually inspects the toes, I dunno.
And all this time I thought Canadians were mostly sane. Well, except for insisting in living in Canada, but there’s got to be people for every weather I guess…
You would think this topic something new wouldn’t you. This thread I did held a discourse on the health issues, and legality of the practice. Transference drinking a brew with a Dead Man’s Toe? gabriela even comments on this, so it has to be good. Right?
Looking at the search results for threads I started seems to show a large percentage of questions like this. No surprise there.