What is the strangest food you've eaten?

[108]

So I was watching the Australian Biggest Loser today because I saw the ad and I wanted to see whitey eating Yum Cha. It was all pretty standard stuff until it got to the chicken feet. The fat chick was making out like it was chicken turd. Pigs roll around in their own feces but oh no I can't eat chicken feet, they walk around on them all day! It's not that bad bitch, really.

Anyway, I was wondering what strange stuff people have eaten while on holiday, or whatever.

I've had it pretty easy. Just standard stuff like turtle and snake were probably the most exotic stuff I've eaten. I had snakes blood + vietnamese vodka as well, though oddly enough I can't remember it too well.

[Hairyman]

Sea Urchin Sushi. It is supposed to be a delicacy, but it is the most disgusting stuff I have ever tasted.

[kleph]

i loooooove sea urchin.

but that isn't even in the land of weird food for me. here is the lady that sells organs at the market just down the street. i have eaten pretty much everything you see here at one time or another and can cook a fair bit of it as well.

http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/carne.jpg

but the one that tends to really freak people out is Peru's famous cuy or what we call guinea pig...

http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/cuy003.jpg

[BlueBoy]

I've had fried chicken feet before. Probably the weirdest thing I've eaten.
I got more fun out of it being a prop than from actually eating it.

[kleph]

boiled chicken feet is a delicacy here in peru as well as in louisiana. truth is, using chicken feet is the secret to making a chicken stock because the cartilage breaks down and adds to the flavor. it also is the best meat on the bird.

[Afta Image]

Kangaroo is nice if cooked well, but probably not that uncommon these days.

Chicken feet, totally gross but I tried it (by accident).

Would like to try frogs legs but never gonna try snails.

[kleph]

snails really are not that bad. the problem is you are thinking of them live which puts you off. typically they are served with some type of sauce that makes it much more palitable anyway.

one food that is simply delicious but most folks can't deal with is tounge (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?p=511123&highlight=tounge#post511123).

[Afta Image]

Yeah, I just dont think I will ever get around to tongue or snails.

I am just a pussy but meh.

[kleph]

not really. the fact is we don't eat organ anymore but, at one time, it was quite common. back in the day we ate the animal pretty much at the time it was slaughtered, it was common to eat every part possible.

two things dramatically changed that. first was refrigeration. suddenly, we didn't need to be close to the point the animal was killed in order to consume it. second was the supermarket. when you start catering to a mass market, you have to dramatically alter what you sell. meat tends to last longer than organ, even refrigerated. the supermarket system requires the meat sold is several days old so, due to health concerns, organ has become less and less common.

but in places like peru and south america the preparation of these dishes is still possible and still a dynamic part of the cusine and the culture. i really never learned to cook tounge until i came to peru because, even though i liked it, i just couldn't buy it when i lived in california and texas.

taste is like smell in that you typically know instictively when something is not pleasant. but with taste there is also a large grey area where something we are not used to can be percieved as "bad." in many cases, you need to try it a few times to get a correct read on if you like it or not. so i have no problem eating tounge but i just don't like okra.

[108]

I used to eat sea snails when I was a kid. I don't know how legal it was, but we'd get them from the beach, cook them up, and pry them out with toothpicks. Dip them in good old chilli-lemon-salt-whitepepper sauce and that's good eatin'.

I don't think I could handle a garden snail (http://www.blogjam.com/2005/08/02/garden-snail-risotto/) though.

[smiff_f]

Fish bladder soup.
My chinese gran cooked it.
I ate it.....
Not bad really...
No real flavour of it's own..
Very similar to Trepang..

[Goat Boy]

I love a good Yum Cha. Nothing starts the day off well like eating non stop for 4 hours.

Had all the standard odd foods, such as raw horse, haggis, balck pudding, had chicken's feet plenty of times and same goes for escargot.

Managed to have snake and turtle in China this year, picture attached. I tried to find dog and cat but couldn't. I would have happily given that a go.

I'd try any food once, even human.

EDIT: Eaten live witchetty grubs and sugar ants when I've gone bush also.

[108]

but the one that tends to really freak people out is Peru's famous cuy or what we call guinea pig...
Ugh! It probably wouldn't be too bad if it were cut up, or something, but it looks like they just scraped up some roadkill and fried it up. Look at his furry little feet! Poor little fella :(

[kleph]

Ugh! It probably wouldn't be too bad if it were cut up, or something, but it looks like they just scraped up some roadkill and fried it up. Look at his furry little feet! Poor little fella :(

oh, it's worse than that. i got to pick which one i wanted to eat.

[108]

oh, it's worse than that. i got to pick which one i wanted to eat.
What, you mean from live specimens? I bet whichever way you turned that plate, his eyes followed you :D

[kleph]

What, you mean from live specimens?

oh my, yes (http://www.kleph.com/blog/2004/02/not-just-for-breakfast-anymore.html).

I bet whichever way you turned that plate, his eyes followed you :D

that's why you eat the brains first.

[beowulf437]

Well I like brains and eggs and head cheese and a lot of people think that's strange. I have tried snoot, didn't much care for it, kind of like eating stringy pork rinds. Chocolate covered ants have kind of an interesting tangy taste, but are not something I would want to eat a lot of.

[108]

oh my, yes (http://www.kleph.com/blog/2004/02/not-just-for-breakfast-anymore.html).
Reading that reminded me of something that used to be pretty common around my household. The animal rights activists would be over to my house in a flash, if they knew what we did to ducks over in my corner of suburbia.

On special occasions, my dad and uncle would go out and buy a live duck. Then they'd slit it's throat and collect the blood in bowls. The bowls would have some clear liquid in them already (oil or vinegar or something. maybe it was egg-whites. I never asked) so the blood would congeal fast. The duck was then plucked and boiled.

One everything was done, it was served on plates with the congealed blood with the meat and organs on top, with crushed nuts and herbs as well.

I was way too squeamish as a kid to try that, but I gave it a go when I went home to Vietnam a few years ago. The secret to eating it: lots and lots of lemon. Crushed prawn crackers into it is pretty good as well.

[kleph]

blood dishes are another thing we have lost with modern eating habits. real mincemeat is a joy to consume but formidible to watch being prepared.

[EvilMuppet]

Black pudding is rock'n good, dunno why people freak out so much. Although i know some people think its actually nothing but blood in a sausage covering :s

Ox tounge if fantastic tastyes like the best ham ever.

[coreageek]

I actually see people eating chicken feet all the time, as I live in Brooklyn's Chinatown now. Lots of interesting food there, I haven't tried most of it yet, though I am planning on trying snails (chinese style) pretty soon.
I've eaten a lot of strange things in my life - sea urchin is the worst tasting, but not the strangest.

When it comes down to it, the strangest food one can ever eat is Velveeta Cheese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velveeta).

When you grow up in Ohio, you're made to think that this stuff is normal. Hindsight is 20/20. IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE REFRIGERATED.

[kleph]

i would rather eat a 32 oz styrofoam cup than one single slice of velveeta.

[coreageek]

But you can't melt a styrofoam cup over your tasteless midwestern food, even though the taste is better.

[TheBloatedFish]

I have eaten a few strange things so far in my life. These are as follows:
Snails - In my opinion have no flavour the only flavour is provided by the sauce on them.
Frogs Legs - Quite nice but just annoying there is so little meat on them.
Pigeon - Tastes a bit like chicken just richer really.
Squid & Octopus - Similar to snail no real flavour just depands on what its cooked with
Black & White Pudding - I wouldnt of considered this a strange food but seeming some of you have put it up here I will as well. I like black & white pudding its nice but in small amounts.
Haggis - Once again this is quite nice and if you think about it, it is really just a big sheep sausage.
This is all I can think of at the mo but im sure there is more.

[Seeker]

I had dog several years back, was badly cooked and was tough to chew, but if done right I'll give it another go.

[wolfpac181]

Natto: Japanese fermented soybeans.
That stuff is foul smelling. the taste isn't too bad, but the smell mixed in with it. It horrible. It's kinda like beans with cheese melted in it. but doesn't taste that way.....
http://internationaleflcafe.com/japanese-food-miscellaneous_files/image003.jpg

[fenderbasher]

i would rather eat a 32 oz styrofoam cup than one single slice of velveeta.
What's the difference?

Isn't Velveeta considered a cheese-flavored product? (as in not a true cheese?)

[abelgold]

Many traditional Chinese dishes would be considered weird to Westerners about 10 years ago, but adventurous palates have removed some of the mystique now.

However, some western people I know are uneasy if they see fish cooked and presented on a plate with the head and tail still attached.

Have tried cuy in Peru; fried piranha in Brasil; snake in Vietnam; "cheese" in America; brains, giblets, tripe, sinew, ducks tongues etc all at home. China was the land of unusual food where I've tried turtle, dodgy snails and possum to name the most unusual.

You know how many chinese restaurants have fishtanks where you can select your own fish or lobster? Well, restaurants in China have all styrofoam boxes acting as tanks for water animals, cages and pens holding land animals, all of which can be selected. The often fascinating menagerie/zoo/menu often included animals such as goat, dogs, cats, mongeese, fish and shellfish galore, any birds which aren't poisonous - I even saw live emu's available for selection! As interesting as it was, it was kinda depressing to see.

[kleph]

emu is not a good cut of meat. possum is very common in the rural american south (but not all that great either). i think the china situation you describe fits my theory - you get a really wide variety of different types of meats as well as more exotic cuts of the animal when you eliminate the gap between the butcher and the kitchen. and, in my experience, doing so is always worth it to the adventurous gourmet.

[SOC]

I love a good Yum Cha. Nothing starts the day off well like eating non stop for 4 hours.

Had all the standard odd foods, such as raw horse, haggis, balck pudding, had chicken's feet plenty of times and same goes for escargot.

Managed to have snake and turtle in China this year, picture attached. I tried to find dog and cat but couldn't. I would have happily given that a go.

I'd try any food once, even human.

EDIT: Eaten live witchetty grubs and sugar ants when I've gone bush also.
I'm with you - will try anything once, except stuf I'm allergic too (like shellfish) ... have had chicken feet a couple of times, didn't like them much. Have had the requisite kangaroo, emu and crocodile back in Australia. Most times I find kangaroo cooked pretty poorly in restaurants - they overcook it to buggery, making it tough and unpalatable. The one time I had crocodile was at Edna's Table in Sydney - crocodile wontons, with a lemon myrtle sauce. Simly exquisite.

I've also eaten haggis (love it, with neeps and tatties and a dram) and fried eel and black pudding and frogs legs ... I'm curioius about horse and would definitely love to try human meat some time ... everyone says we taste like pork, but I'v heard on the grapevine we're closer to lamb.

[Munchkin]

I really liked the taste of shark and squid. It makes me smile when I see Tescos stocking up with reindeer meat in December :p

( A friend I was staying with in the US said his family loved pigs feet, and everytime I saw them in jars when we went food shopping, they made me gag )

[kleph]

pigs feet in aspic is glorious. and squid is great too. you can get it fried at pretty much any italian restaurant now but i like is sauteed down in a white wine sauce.

[btwong]

snake's heart in alcohol.

The heart was still beating, and i am sure i could feel the aorta's moving in my stomach.

then we proceeded to eat the body of the snake, cooked in 9 different dishes (fried, boiled, roasted, etc).

[kleph]

ooooh, that's like raw oysters. the reason they taste so good is because they are still alive.

[Kyle]

I've had alligator at a cajun place, and once my grandfather brought pig intestines back from a Mexican market a city over from my hometown. Heated them up in the microwave and I can say it wasn't bad...but it definitely wasn't good. It was like a tasteless, waxy substance. Definitely not delicious.

I've eaten buffalo, which isn't odd at all. It tastes like hamburger, but it's an exotic food sort of.

Squid and octopus is commonplace for me, but i've never had it raw.

Yeah, I have nothing on most of you guys.

[bitch]

ooooh, that's like raw oysters. the reason they taste so good is because they are still alive.

Yum! Nothing better than natural oysters. All they need are either lemon, Semillon or some bloody mary shooters - and a view enhances them further. I hate them cooked and always treat them with a fair amount of suspicion, if they are not good enough to have natural, they are not good enough to have.

But I digress from the topic.

I like pigeon and squab but the only time they have been bordering on strange was when we went to Marque and our roast wood pigeon was presented with the brains included, the brain wasn't mind blowing (bad pun intended) but was fairly metallic and distinctive.

I like snails, a family friend is French and harvests them from her ample garden. Naturally, they are smothered in a garlic butter sauce and are delish. I have also had them with a chilli walnut sauce that was wonderful.

I don't find offal strange, I love black and white pudding and tripe (in an Italian style with a white wine sauce, much nicer than a chunky English style white sauce) but I don't like kidney. Foie gras is good but the last time I had it, the piece was actually too big and it was a little over-powering.

Crocodile and camel were nice, I've had emu but I think I enjoyed eating it more than the flavour (I hate emus!).

Basically, I'll eat almost anything, the "stranger" it appears, the more I want to try it.

The only time I have ever wussed out is when I was in Vanuatu (and battling Guardia - yuk!) and I didn't try the flying fox - only because it was cooked in its own bile.

[ShinymetalASS]

Sweet meat or bread or whatever its called.

Pancreas :)

It was .... kinda weord.

Not weird, but weord like that annoying kid in Big Daddy weeeord.

[EvilMuppet]

snake's heart in alcohol.

The heart was still beating, and i am sure i could feel the aorta's moving in my stomach.

then we proceeded to eat the body of the snake, cooked in 9 different dishes (fried, boiled, roasted, etc).

That was in vietnam? Cobra Meal or something. Including fried skin in salad. Did the shot include the venomsacs? (i strongly suspect that bit is a story told to scare westeners.)

[kleph]

liver. i just don't grok liver.

[d3kst3r]

Back when I was 8 my parents used to feed me sheeps brains. Back then I didn't know what it was and actually thought it tasted pretty good. We used to just sprinkle some pepper and herbs on them and cook it on high in the microwave for around 2 minutes.

Sheeps brains taste like a weird mix between strong mushrooms and raw fish. After it's been in the microwave it kind of bubbles and gets so hot that you have to wait a while before eating it. But well heated sheeps brains kind of melt in your mouth similar to the way heated marshmellows do.

And no I'm not trying to hijack this thread or anything, what I just wrote is 100% true and did actually happen when I was a kid.

[Goat Boy]

Swiss restaurants do the best sheep brains

[oggy]

quaill...like eating really little chickens
i love kangaroo, cooked med rare, red wine and cranberry sauce
smoked eel, and smoked prawns
camel, tough as nails, but really tasty.

friends owned a pub in the adelaide hills with specialised australian animals and shit...weird!

[oggy]

liver. i just don't grok liver.

*dry reaching at the thought*

[oggy]

Yum! Nothing better than natural oysters. All they need are either lemon, Semillon or some bloody mary shooters - and a view enhances them further. I hate them cooked and always treat them with a fair amount of suspicion, if they are not good enough to have natural, they are not good enough to have.


oysters with smoked salmon and melted cheese...oh yumm

kilpatric...1/2 doz entree` every time.

reading this thread makes me wanna go out for tea tomorrow night!

[Sasq]

pickled squid guts, or was it fermented soy beans covered in egg yokes? (natto)

[kleph]

snake's heart in alcohol.

The heart was still beating, and i am sure i could feel the aorta's moving in my stomach.

then we proceeded to eat the body of the snake, cooked in 9 different dishes (fried, boiled, roasted, etc).

here is a vid clip (http://www.anthonybourdain.com/frame.asp?id=23) of anthony bourdain consuming this interesting offering.

[SOC]

I've had alligator at a cajun place...
That reminds me, I had some alligator at a seafood place in Chicago when I was therte in November. Not bad, not bad at all.

[royale]

All the standard ones like brains, liver, kidneys, tongue, tripe, sweetbreads, black pudding, haggis, squid, octopus, shark (real common in Aus), sea cucumber (not urchin though) pigeon….
…and roo (restaurant, fresh, biltong, roo-tail stew etc etc) emu (restaurant and 'home caught'), buffalo (restaurant in NT and Vic), camel (restaurant in Vic), goanna (home caught), crocodile (restaurant in SA and NT) , snake (home caught), the usual Frenchies- snails and frogs legs (restaurants in QLD, Paris, New Caledonia etc)

[JessicaDV8]

I had raccoon at a barbeque in the Memphis projects. It tasted like desperation.

[Symon_magus]

My girlfriend's Grandma always serves boiled beef tounge. It's not bad, but not my favorite. I've eaten rattlesnake (cooked over a campfire), grasshoppers, acorns, ants, millworms, snails, dog, frog legs, lizard, shark, squid, sea urchin (with quail egg), kangaroo, buffalo, rocky mountain oysters, rat, and eel. I liked a number of the above mentioned, but perfer thick porterhouse steaks.

[Snapple]

When my sister and I were kids I pinned her down and made her eat dog shit, I imagine that would have been rather gross tasting.

[parentdetective]

I like to drink pickle juice....

[Snapple]

I like to drink pickle juice....

Funny you say that cos I get cravings for vinegar, and sometimes get a shot glass and down it, tis strange, not often tho.

[That Bloke]

Crocodile Jerky, just tasted like salted leather.

[Farnk]

When my sister and I were kids I pinned her down and made her eat dog shit, I imagine that would have been rather gross tasting.

Now that's an Iron Chef I'd like to see:

Iron Chef, Dog Grogan Battle.

Or the special director's cut for Melbourne:

Iron Chef, Dog Borrie Battle.

Sakai-san would need more that truffles and foir gras to pull that one off!

[Munchkin]

An ex-boyfriends mother used to cook up some weird shit . Caramel custard was a favourite ... '' I didnt burn the milk, it's supposed to be like that .. it's 'caramel' custard'' ( Burnt milk tastes nasty :( )

The semolina made with a ginger and honey tea-bag 'for flavouring ' .. that was another winner :o

[Solo man]

In the Philippines i had this duck egg in which the embryonic duck is about three quarters developed. It is a local delicacy although I cannot see them taking off in Australia.

[JessicaDV8]

Munchkin, did she also add Bisquik (or the Aussie equivalent to biscuit mix) to runny mashed potatos in order to thicken them up?

I forgot! I had a deep fried Twinkie at a county fair. It looked so nasty that I had to try it, just for the story. When I ordered it the guys behind me snickered, arrgh. (It was gross and I threw it out after one bite.)

[108]

In the Philippines i had this duck egg in which the embryonic duck is about three quarters developed. It is a local delicacy although I cannot see them taking off in Australia.
This is available everywhere. Just look in your local asian district, it's not just a Philippines thing. I used to eat it, but now I just can't stand to. Not with his little head looking up at me :(

[pinchy]

Cold chicken feet and jellyfish.... at some chinese restaurant...

the jelly fish had the texture and tasted exactly as you would expect...

[phunkachunka]

roasted crickets in thailand

chewy and crunchy at the same time.