Writing any sort of book takes a lot a research. Worldbuilding takes lots and lots of research.

You have to build authentic geography, socio-political landscape and history, as well as more mundane things like what people eat. This leads to researching Things People Eat to Make Them Seem Exotic.

In the spirit of Things People Eat to Make Them Seem Exotic, I give you this little snippet from today's news.com.au

A Serbian chef is bringing out a no-holds-barred guide to cuisine with a twist: The Testicle Cookbook - Cooking With Balls.

Hailed as the world's first testicle recipe collection, the cookbook includes author Ljubomir Erovic's favourite dishes, like testicle pizza, battered testicles and and barbecued testicles and giblets.

Several different animals, including stallions, ostriches, bulls, pigs and turkeys, get the Erovic treatment.
 
"The tastiest testicles in my opinion probably come from bulls, stallions or ostriches, although other people have their own favourites," he said.
 
"All testicles can be eaten - except human, of course."

Testicles are rich in testosterone and they are believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac in countries such as Serbia and China.
 
"The best for aphrodisiac properties are sheep and stallion testicles," Erovic said.

And with the credit crunch kicking in, more people may give up their rump steaks and turn to testicles instead.

Erovic also organises the World Testicle Cooking Championship, held annually in Serbia since 2004.

It draws in chefs from Australia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Norway and Serbia. One tonne of testicles are prepared for the event.
 
"When not cooking or eating testicles, or helping others to do so, (Erovic) now runs a company involved in the maintenance of medical and dental equipment," the book said.

They have a World Testicle Cooking Championship? Jeez!

You learn something every day, don't you:)

Read the full article here

They even have a website for the World Testical Cooking Championship, where I learned, amongst other things, the Aussies were a no-show. Mustn't have had the balls, or something:
http://www.ballcup.com/home.html

LOL... I Bet you couln't wait to get that one out!

I bet you loved typing that one in! I don't think I have seen the word testicles that many times in a single blog entry before :P