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Oddity Central

Indonesian Tribe Believes Chiseled Teeth Make Women Beautiful
Truly Curious Eats – The Annual Gala of the Explorers Club
Kids Toughen Up at Brutal South Korean Winter Boot Camp

Indonesian Tribe Believes Chiseled Teeth Make Women Beautiful

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 02:30 AM PST

If tattooed black gums are considered a thing of beauty in West Africa, it's chiseled, pointy-sharp teeth that's the 'in thing' for some Indonesian tribes. I do wonder though, why it's always the women who have to subject themselves to bizarre beauty rituals.

Well, we may not be able to answer that question any time soon, but we can tell you about Indonesian tooth-filing, a beauty regimen that involves the sawing of teeth until they achieve a sharp, narrow and pointed shape. Women in some Indonesian rural communities are considered extremely beautiful after they've undergone such a treatment. Mantawaian is one such village, where the wife of the village chief, Pilongi, had to go through with it a couple of years ago. She had managed to avoid the ritual when she was a young teenager, but as the wife of a powerful man in the village, she had to oblige him by becoming more beautiful.

Photo: Brommel

Located on a remote Sumatran archipelago, the ideals of beauty for the Mantawaian people go far beyond the skin. According to a National Geographic documentary, they go through a number of rituals such as teeth chiseling in order to maintain a balance between the body and the soul. They believe that at the dawn of time, the Mantawaians had split into spirits and humans. But the humans are always under the threat of re-joining the spirit world if their own souls aren't kept happy or aren't pleased with their bodies. So permanent decorations like tattoos are made on the body to make the souls happy, and to avoid death for as long as possible.

Tooth-filing is an extremely painful practice, which thanks to the progression of time has become optional for many young women. Pilongi had to go through with it however, because her husband needed a beautiful wife in keeping with his status in the village. "I asked her to do it and I assured (her) that she would be more beautiful afterwards," said her husband. Pilongi herself did not know what to expect. "But when they do it, I will just let them sharpen my teeth," she said. The tooth-filing ceremony took place in the village communal house, and several villagers had gathered to witness it. Excited and nervous, Pilongi made her way over there as well. "I am not worried about the pain. If I think about that, I won't get more beauty." The sawman sharpened his tools in preparation for the event – a sharp chisel causes less pain and gets the job done faster as well.

The surgery was performed without any anesthetics, as is the general practice. It was over rather quickly, and Pilongi was given a raw green banana to chew on and dull the pain. She was visibly relieved and happy after the ritual was over. "Now that my teeth are sharp, I look more beautiful for my husband," she said. "So he won't leave me." Her husband, however, had a different story to tell. "Maybe when she is tired of me, she will get a new husband, now that she's beautiful," he joked. But what matters most to Pilongi and the other Mantawaians is that her soul is finally back in balance. Now, if she could only avoid biting her tongue.

Indonesian Tribe Believes Chiseled Teeth Make Women Beautiful was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Truly Curious Eats – The Annual Gala of the Explorers Club

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 01:30 AM PST

Members of New York's exclusive Explorers Club get together once a year at the Waldorf Astoria hotel to enjoy some of the most unusual dishes ever conceived. From live tarantulas to juicy cow eyeballs, the menu of the Annual Gala of the Explorers Club features everything you’ve never wanted to put in your mouth. A fair warning – make sure you’re reading this and especially watching the video, on an empty stomach.

The annual gala dinner of the Explorers Club is no dainty affair.It’s a black tie event, but that's about it as far as niceties are concerned. As you’re about to see for yourself, guests of this bizarre dinner gleefully sink their teeth into live tarantulas, tear the heads off exotic roaches, nib on succulent cow's eyeballs and snack on battered monkey's hands. Not really the kind of things ordinary people usually get dressed up for, but then again, Explorers aren’t exactly ordinary. These are people who have traversed the Earth in various expeditions of exploration, who love to discover new and fascinating things, even when it comes to food. This annual gala gives most of them a chance to try obscure dishes, even if they aren’t the most appetizing in the world.

Photo: Epicurious

At the gala, the highlight is the cocktail hour, when the finger food might have fingers of its own. Along with legs, hands, a face, tails, and sometimes, if you're very lucky, even a tongue. Extreme is the only word that comes to mind when describing this unique cuisine. But the horrors are not limited to the dining hall alone; the true beauties can be viewed in the kitchens, where exotic creatures are brought in live from all over the world. Under the tutelage of exotic chef Gene Rurka, the chefs try out new recipes involving a few 'surprises' like pretzels made out of snails. Not all the chefs are very excited about handling the goods, though. Especially when chef Rurka opens a box of Madagascar cockroaches, you can see some of the chefs and managers recoil with fear and disgust. But others just want to know if the roaches are tasty.

Bags of eyeballs and testicles are prepared for poaching, roasting and stuffing. Reptile jaws of varying sizes can be found backstage as well. The tarantulas are steeped in brandy for 20 minutes, skewered, battered, and deep-fried. The oil is hot enough so that when the creatures are dipped in, they die instantly. There's no way you want to serve up something that will begin to crawl once it hits the tongue. The chefs work themselves up in a frenzy, while transforming roaches, rodents and reptiles into culinary art. "If you design it properly, it looks appetizing," says chef Rurka. "It's no longer the creature that everyone wants to step on and run away from." So you get masterpieces like sushi with crickets, worm-filled puff pastry, and eyeball appetizers.

The evening is a true test of the courageous palette, and unfortunately, not all the guests pass when they come face-to-face with their food, quite literally. It is not uncommon to find a few guests gagging on their food here and there. But mostly, you could hear comments like, "outstanding!" or "surprisingly succulent." "The whole idea is to bring smiles to people's faces, and we've done it," says chef Rurka. Well, look again, chef. Not everyone's smiling.

Truly Curious Eats – The Annual Gala of the Explorers Club was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Kids Toughen Up at Brutal South Korean Winter Boot Camp

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 12:30 AM PST

When the South Korean Army announces its biannual boot camp for civilians above the age of 13, there are lots of people who are more than happy to attend. Held at the command base in western Seoul, the 4 to 14 day camp offers basic military training to anyone able to pay the entry fee of 40,000 won (that's about $36). Teenage boys and young women are seen attending the camp, sometimes along with their families. This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, given that military culture is quite deeply ingrained in South Korea, a country ruled by army-backed regimes till the mid 1980s.

Apart from the ones run by the army, there are privately-run boot camps as well, which have become quite popular in recent times. People from various walks of life, ranging from school kids to nostalgic war veterans, company employees to families on vacation attend this kind of events. The army says the boot camp is an opportunity to test your limits, enhance your physical ability and learn to adopt the strong spirit of 'making the impossible, possible.' Major Lee Joo-Ho, a boot camp spokesperson says: "Boys obviously make up the biggest part because they have the mandatory service coming up." What he's referring to is the two years of mandatory conscription that all able-bodied South Korean men have to attend, in order to train themselves in case of an attack from North Korea. "But more young women are showing an interest, since they were allowed to join a college-based officer commissioning program last year."

The kids are put through all kinds of hardships during the rigorous training schedule lasting up to 10 hours a day, like basic exercises, rappelling, river crossing simulations, mock parachute landings in the pouring rain, and various team events. 15-year-old Yeom Huck said that he was "very nervous but thrilled" just before he hurled himself off an 11-m parachute jump tower. "Everything is fun – but right now I miss my parents," he added. 17-year-old Kim Tae-Hoon said that his father pushed him to attend camp as soon as he turned 13. His father's dream of joining the army was foiled due to poor eyesight. But Kim loved camp and has gone back every summer and winter since. "This is so good at relieving stress and much more fun that playing computer games," he remarked. His younger brother Tae-Hun also found it equally exciting. The 13-year-old said he was "glad to have lost some weight. And I feel more like a man." Not all the kids are equally thrilled, however. 15-year-old Cho Byung-Chan was angry with his parents for sending him. He does love his computer games, but his parents felt it's time for him to grow up. "It's hard. I'm hungry," he complained.

It's not just kids, but entire families that take vacations at the boot camps as well. Former army commando Yoon Jeong-Sik, for example, spent a summer vacation at the boot camp with his wife and two daughters. This was 24 years after he retired from the same unit. He wanted his family to learn what he did at the army – pride, self-confidence, and how to get along with others. "So I cajoled my ladies into coming here for character education. At first they were pretty jolly since they had no idea how hard it would be. But now I'm trying not to meet their eyes," he joked. Luckily for him, his family laughed along. Would you attend a boot camp vacation with your family if you had the chance? I'm not so sure I would. Just looking at the pictures tells me the kids are in a world of pain.