Sophomore Chris Howdeshell tastes pickled lotus seeds in Carolyn Smith-Morris’ Good Eats, Forbidden Flesh class. The class also tasted sugar cane and quail’s eggs. (Jordan Chlapecka)

Molly Palmison and Chris Howdeshell stood anxiously in front of their anthropology class as volunteers in a taste test on Tuesday. As their professor, Carolyn Smith-Morris, fed them small, beige vegetables, the students took a second to reflect on the unknown food, and classmates awaited their reaction to either an ecstasy or torment of the taste buds.

“It’s sweet,” Palmison said definitively after a look of surprise. “I’m not a big fan.”

A puzzled and intrigued look swept across Howdeshell’s face as he described a “bean-like texture” somewhat like garbanzo beans. The mystery concoction? Pickled lotus seeds, a vegetable commonly used in Asian cuisines and Chinese medicines.

“My first reaction was ‘What? What am I eating?'” said Howdeshell, who expected the seeds to be crunchy after looking at them. He and Palmison both agreed they would taste better warmed up with a dash of salt.

The students, along with Tuesday’s other four participants Danny Wilderotter, Anita Pandian, Daniel Montenegro and Courtney Guenard, are in the Anthropology class “Good Eats, Forbidden Flesh” that aims to break American cultural norms in food as well as research different cuisines from all over the world. Part of that research involves trying foods from different countries.

Every week students are asked to volunteer to taste a fruit, vegetable, bread or sweet without being told what it is until after they have eaten it. Their reactions can be used to dispel American food myths and to open students’ minds to other cultures.

Wilderotter and Pandian were treated to a serving of quail’s eggs, which are about the size of a silver dollar and were explained to be “mushy” by the testers. Pandian expressed her relief after trying the egg because it “wasn’t something too weird.” Wilderotter’s immediate reaction radiated enjoyment – this is not the first time he has eaten quail eggs.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I was just thinking ‘Put it down the hatch.'”

A large, orange substance cut in the shape of a hexagon confronted Montenegro and Guenard. Both students verbally described the block, of what they later found out was sugarcane, as “tough” and “sweet”, but their facial expressions depicted “revolting” and “danger.”

“I thought it would be soft because [Professor Smith-Morris] had a fork through it,” said Guenard, who appeared nauseous during the first stages of her taste testing. “But it was very difficult to chew.”

The sugarcane trial proved most students’ food stereotype wrong as they thought it looked and tasted like a vegetable relative to hearts of palm; however, according to Professor Smith-Morris the two foods are only soaked in the same juice.

“If I soaked an eyeball in the same juice as hearts of palm, would you think it was related to hearts of palm?” Smith-Morris said. She stressed the importance of not defining foods by the standards we already have in our minds.

All six students came out of the test unscathed and liberated, except for maybe Guenard, who expressed concern and confusion about her ability to swallow sugarcane and its affects. However, they have high expectations for the upcoming taste tests including snails, eyeballs and squirrel.

“I’m going to raise my hand every time,” Howdeshell said. “It’s a free chance to get to eat weird stuff.”