Surprising and Shocking Fun Facts: The Treasure Book of Amazing Trivia: Trivia Books, Games and Quizzes, #1

By Bill Rogers

Surprising and Shocking Fun Facts:

The Treasure Book Of Amazing Trivia

This book will keep you entertained! You will discover fun and interestings facts you probably never knew existed! 

If you've ever shivered at the idea of eating tarantulas, or wondered why medieval kings have such odd nicknames, you'll enjoy a trip round the world of weird facts with this fascinating book. From weird food to odd funeral customs, from explorers who got lost to misleading translations, the book contains hundreds of intriguing trivia facts.

Maybe you want to impress your friends with a wealth of trivia – or maybe you're just fascinated by strange customs and odd traditions! This isn't just a round-up of odd facts – it's a treasury of enjoyable stories, some with a humorous turn or a twist in the tale.

You'll be disgusted by some of the weird foods covered in the book – amused by Mark Thatcher, lost in the Sahara – captivated by the attempt to conquer the North Pole by balloon – and amazed by the way some Filipinos take their dead relatives out for a walk. We also introduce you to Columbus, the biggest failure ever, and the wonderfully named Ivailo the Cabbage, King of Bulgaria.

You may not be able to get a degree in geography or history with these fun facts – degree courses would be a lot more fun if you could! But this book will take you on a trip round the world and through the centuries that is enthralling and never, ever dull.

This book is full of fun and interesting facts and trivia! 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Rogers
• Release date: Sep 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386008798

Bill Rogers

Bill Rogers wrote ten earlier crime fiction novels featuring DCI Tom Caton and his team, set in and around Manchester. The first of these, The Cleansing, was shortlisted for the Long Barn Books Debut Novel Award, and was awarded the e-Publishing Consortium Writers Award 2011. The Pick, The Spade and The Crow was the first in a spin-off series featuring Senior Investigator Joanne Stuart, on secondment to the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the National Crime Agency, located on Salford Quays, Manchester. Formerly a teacher and schools inspector, Bill has four generations of Metropolitan Police behind him. He is married with two adult children and lives near Manchester.

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Surprising and Shocking Fun Facts:

The Treasure Book Of Amazing Trivia

Bill Rogers

© 2018

COPYRIGHT

Surprising and Shocking Fun Facts: The Treasure Book Of Amazing Trivia

By Bill Rogers

Copyright @2018 By Bill Rogers

All Rights Reserved.

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Table of Contents

Around the world in eighty weird foods

See Naples and die

Lost in translation

Weird worship

Animal Magic

Kinkering Congs*

Enough to drive you to drink

Explorer fails and map mistakes

Around the world in eighty weird foods

All of us have to eat. But what's sauce to the goose is 'Oh my God, what is that?' to the gander. Some things are, to put it mildly, an acquired taste. Some of our food preferences are culturally ingrained, such as the western refusal to eat insects or snakes; others are individual. It may not be the food so much as the combination that's weird.

Anyway, the world is an amazing place and that's particularly the case when it comes to exactly what we're prepared to munch. So let's start off on our travels - around the world in eighty weird foods.

Fancy some pigs' ears with your beer, sir?

If you're out for the night in the bars and pubs of Vilnius, be prepared for some stomach-churning beer snacks. True, some are not too bad - 'chips' of fried bread with garlicky dip - but are you really ready for (1) kiaules ausis - smoked pig's ear strips? Some fans, apparently, love the crunchy cartilage inside.

Lithuanian beer-drinkers also love (2) lasiniai. It looks like bacon, only with all the red bits taken out - just one big slab of lard. Just take a bit of black bread, whack a thick slice of this stuff on top, and... well, you have a lard sandwich.

It gets worse. Head to a restaurant serving traditional fare and you may even find a whole (3) pig's ear boiled and served up as the main course with a loading of horseradish and pickles.

While you're in Vilnius, you might like to take a detour to the Republic of Uzupis. It's a real nation, with its own national anthem, flag, currency, president, and even an army (currently just eleven men, which means they also have a national football team). It does not, however, have a Lithuanian embassy - which is odd, since it's landlocked by Lithuania on all sides. Uzupis has always been a quirky, slightly Bohemian area, and features some intriguing sculptures and street art. Fittingly, Uzupis National Day is celebrated on... April 1st.

Suck on my chocolate salty balls

When South Park's Chef created his chocolate salty balls, the innuendo was more convincing than the recipe. And there's a Ukrainian phrase, 'chocolate coated lard,' referring to way-out flavour concoctions (like bacon ice cream, and yes, that is a thing).

But the problem with making a joke is that sometimes, people take it seriously. Tsarske Selo restaurant in Kiev actually developed a chocolate-covered lard dessert which has now become popular as (4) 'Ukrainian Snickers'. It's probably not the best thing for your waistline - one serving of salo lard makes up just under half the recommended daily calorie intake, and that's before you slather it with chocolate sauce - and possibly it's not the best idea if you want to save yourself a coronary.

As for the taste, opinions are divided with even some Ukrainians calling the choc-and-salt mix 'disgusting'.

Sisig - eating the parts other recipes don't touch

Once you've got your pork chops, ham, and lard, you've still got a lot of pig left. You don't want to waste it, do you? So in the Philippines, the snout, cheeks and ears are chopped up into tiny pieces and fried in pig fat till it goes crispy. Add a bit of salt and vinegar, a squeeze of lime, and a bit of pepper, and you have a(5) sizzling plate of pig-parts to soak up your beer.

Colombia: great coffee, pity about the ants

In Santander department, in the north of Colombia, you'll find (6) hormigas culonas or 'big-ass ants'. They're bad-ass ants, too - the little soldier ants can give a nasty bite, so ant-hunters go clad in rubber boots as they collect the bloated queen ants, swollen with eggs (that's what makes the 'big ass'). Because the queens only bear eggs in the rainy season, ants are a seasonal delicacy - unless, of course,