One fancy soup served at royal feasts was called "garbage." It was made with birds' heads, feet, livers, necks, and gizzards. Soup was often called "sewe" and the server was called the "sewer."
        Just think how often kings must have shouted to their servants, "Get some garbage from the sewer and bring it for my dinner!"
 
 

        Some ancient Chinese ate live baby rats, while ancient Romans relished stuffed dormouse (a tree-climbing rat relative).  South America's Incas ate guinea pigs, and invading Eurpeans liked them too.
        But it wasn't just the ancients who enjoyed a steaming bowl of rodent stew. Many Americans today eat squirrels—cousins to the furry heroes who saved sailors with their meat and made emperors call for more.
 
 

        It's not easy making mincemeat of a rattlesnake. The snake's many tiny ribs make the meat hard to extract. And a six-pound snake might have only a pound or so of meat on its body.
        One restaurant buys skinned whole snakes (minus the head and rattles) from a snake farm in Texas. Chefs cook the snake, skeleton and all. Next they hand-peel the meat from the bones. Then they add spices and arrange the meat on a bed of mixed greens, crafting the snake into a delightful eating experience.
 
 

        Cheese happens when certain germs (called bacteria) and/or chemicals act on milk. Bacteria make your feet stink and give cheese its odor. Some of the bacteria in cheese are the same as the ones that live in your body to help digest food.
        Cheese makers use an enzyme from animals' stomach linings to curdle milk. Then they drain off the liquid, leaving behind curd, the first stage in a cheese's life. As the bacteria grow and spread, they give different kinds of cheese their special flavors.