What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten?

[Mrs. Readsalot]

Dh is currently watching serveral shows on Travel and food channels that center around eating strange...OK yucky , horrible , disgusting sounds food. So what is the strangest thing you have ever eaten on purpose?
For me it would have to be raw octopus. I had it while I was living in Hawaii and it was fantastic. Now a lot of people would say the steamed crabs we eat here in Maryland are disgusting, but we love them, I guess it is all in what you are accustomed too.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

Rattlesnake. Before kids, I worked as a quality engineer in a small manufacturing facility. I was doing this training called 6 Sigma. One trip for the class was to go to Phoenix. The group went out to some western town thing and had dinner there. Someone ordered rattlesnake for the table to try. Kind of tasted like just fried something or other.

[Claire]

Frog legs. They were very good.

Moldy tempe (I think it was tempe, anyhow). I ate this when I was in Indonesia. It's some kind of soybean wafer that is allowed to mold for about a year. I loved it!

[Momto4kids]

Rattlesnake bites. Ewww gross. They were nasty.

[JESSICAinMD]

Frog legs here too.
Kim Chi in Korea
Dried Squid Chips also in Korea
Cricket Lickits (a lolly pop with a cricket in the center.) I was still a kid. I didn't realize it was real Cricket until after the fact.
Gator bites

[Jean in Newcastle]

My husband loves to eat Balut (sp? or is it Baloot?) It is an egg with duck (or chicken?) fetus still intact. He's Filipino so he can claim it as an ethnic delicacy. I have to turn my head and not watch if he's eating it! (They featured it on Survivor once.)

The weirdest thing I've eaten is sea urchin in Japan.

[Jennifer in MI]

Kim Chi in Korea


Yummmmmm.. I LOVE kim chi!

My husband loves to eat Balut (sp? or is it Baloot?) It is an egg with duck (or chicken?) fetus still intact. .

Okay - that is just, well, ewwwww . . . Call me chicken, but, well, ewwwww!

I guess I'm not that adventurous! I've eaten alligator and squid and tripe. Those are about the weirdest things I've ventured to try!

[Jodi-FL]

We were in Brazil when I was 7, and well, when you're in the Amazon jungle and told that it's what's for dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, or snack) you eat it. without questions. I just remember it was soft and you had to bite off the end and suck it out.

[Montana Peach]

A whole baby octopus that was in some soup we had at a Japanese restaurant. IT was about three inches long.

I grew up in the Deep South and frogs' legs were a normal thing (usually caught fresh) and I like them a lot. Kim Chee is a favorite here.

[Jenny in Atl]

Bugs, snails, haggis, blood sausage, monk fish (very ugly thing but tasted good), and more which at this time alludes me, so it must not have tasted good or was not weird enough for me to remember.

[Michelle in MO]

(I posted this previously under something else) I liked to bring a tin of sardines and a thermos of hot cocoa with me when I went sledding in Minnesota!

:eek:

[Wendi]

Fried alligator tail (back in FL)
escargot (well, I think eating snails is weird, anyway)


Wendi

[Tracey in TX]

Octopus--the suction cups had a strange texture

raw salmon (didn't know it was supposed to be smoked for lox and bagels!)

pasta w/ salsa (first dinner I ever cooked for DH...wonder we had another date)

rose petals

[KIN]

Yep, fried caterpillars. I was at summer camp and some missionaries brought fried caterpillars from Africa. They told us they ate them at ball games like we eat popcorn! They were...crunchy. :001_huh:

[Alice]

Water buffalo.
Jellyfish

[Amira]

Horses are prized meat in Central Asia. But not in my stomach.

[Tutor]

I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food. To be honest, the first thing that popped into my head was asparagus. That is one weird lookin' veggie.

[Jane in NC]

Now a lot of people would say the steamed crabs we eat here in Maryland are disgusting, but we love them, I guess it is all in what you are accustomed too.

Crab, disgusting?? Getting all of the meat out of a steamed crab is an art form!

My story concerns something that I won't try but my husband and son did. A good friend of ours said that sea urchin is something that everyone should try--once. So my husband and son did try it at a sushi restaurant--once. My husband's comment was that it tasted like "velvet", the point being that the texture is so peculiar that one forgets the taste. They are braver souls than I.

Jane

[elegantlion]

Escargot and frog legs (does taste like chicken)

[Laura Corin]

I was in a social situation in Taiwan where I couldn't turn it down (we had been invited to share a neighbour's Chinese New Year meal). It was stuffed with pork and herbs and didn't actually taste too bad - just a bit rubbery. I couldn't get the idea of what it actually was out of my head though.

I also ate turtle 'paw'. It tasted like duck, but having the whole turtle lying on the serving dish was a bit too much for me.

Laura

[Jennifer in NH]

Kangaroo. I was an exchange student in High school. We lived on a farm and used to shoot them and then have "wallaby stew". We also ate rabbit. and I have had emu, but I've had it here in the States, not in Australia. I've had octopus once, didn't really like it...

As for baloot..I saw that episode of Survivor, and I wouldn't really want to be in the same room! eeewww!

[cin]

Dog meat in Vietnam. One bite. And I really can't tell you what it tastes like because of the mental anguish that accompanied it. :ack2:

[Cathy in TX]

Whenever my grandparents sent a beefer to the slaughter house, we would have scrambled brains and eggs for breakfast the next morning. I quit eating them when I realized the name meant actual brains.

Cathy

[nmoira]

I've also had sea urchin gonads (uni); it's quite good, but I don't recommend anything less than Grade A uni. I've also tried raw (but not living) shrimp, octopus, tripe, escargot, authentic haggis & vegan haggis (I only count the latter as "strange"), and frogs legs. An acquaintance of mine recently ate small live octopuses in Singapore. I couldn't bring myself to do that in a million years.

[Soph the vet]

Marmot in Mongolia. It's rather gamey tasting, not like chicken.

[RoughCollie]

I ate frog legs once, because in my Dad's family, people eat that. They did taste like chicken, not bad at all. But I don't think I'll be eating them again.

Asparagus was the first thing that popped in my mind too, Tutor. I tried it because it was served at a friend's house for breakfast, and I did not want to offend my friend by not eating it.

I love asparagus! It's my favorite vegetable.

[Liberty]

For me it'd be escargot (in France), fried squid, alligator bites and buffalo burgers.

[Elaine]

My husband loves to eat Balut (sp? or is it Baloot?) It is an egg with duck (or chicken?) fetus still intact. He's Filipino so he can claim it as an ethnic delicacy. I have to turn my head and not watch if he's eating it! (They featured it on Survivor once.)

The weirdest thing I've eaten is sea urchin in Japan.

Where's the barfing avatar when you need it!:D

[Elaine]

Dog meat in Vietnam. One bite. And I really can't tell you what it tastes like because of the mental anguish that accompanied it. :ack2:

Again I ask, where is the barfing avatar??;)

[Elaine]

Whenever my grandparents sent a beefer to the slaughter house, we would have scrambled brains and eggs for breakfast the next morning. I quit eating them when I realized the name meant actual brains.

Cathy

:ohmy: That made me laugh.:001_smile:

[TCoppock]

I was gagging as I read some of the responses here. I am not adventurous at all. Although I do eat gator all the time I never considered it strange. LOL I guess what one considers strange largely depends on where they are raised. I think I would have to pass on many of the dishes you women have tried. You all are WAY more brave than I am.

[lynn]

steamed clams. I am a yankee living in the south married to a southener and they think that is just sick.

I've eaten alligator in S. Fl. It's the everglades afterall.

My fil lives on the panhandle of FL and I kid you not we pass through this little town that is known as the possum capital of the world. One can actually purchase potted possum. I smelled it but sure as heck would not eat it. ewe ewe ewe.

[RoughCollie]

I am a Southerner living in the north, and I'd never heard of calamari, steamers, or fried clams that have their bellies still on them (or whatever you call that round, bloated sphere). I won't eat any of those.

steamed clams. I am a yankee living in the south married to a southener and they think that is just sick.

[Jenny in Atl]

If I could eat calamari on a daily basis, I would die a happy woman.

[chickenpatty]

Jellyfish, only seconds out of the bay.

Kimchee isn't a wierd food, we eat it all the time! (I can even make it!):hurray:

I remember enjoying pickled pig's feet with my great gramma when I was little. Ewww!

[Karin]

Hmmm. I can't say for sure, since I used to eat at restaurants in Vancouver where they served things from the ocean I ate and I don't know what they were. These were in Chinese restaurants that served REAL Chinese food and didn't serve differently to "round eyes." My philosophy at that time was that if I didn't know what it was, it was fine. (I was young and adventurous.)

But I can say I've eaten a peacock egg (so far no one's mentioned that), rattlesnake, smoked moose, dirt (on purpose to be funny when I was in kindergarten), haggis, but hated it and didn't know what was in it until afterward, tongue (okay, weird to me), beef tripe (to help someone out who ordered the wrong thing at one of those Chinese restaurants I mentioned--another half-Icelandic person I know was adventurous as me about those things. No doubt other things I knew about but have forgotten.

Things I've eaten I don't think weird: frogs legs (boring, not as good as chicken), freshly caught and steamed clams, veranichi, escargot, meat cooked with fruit (in a Morroccan restaurant).

[Susan in IL]

In Chinatown in LA. A group of us went with a friend who is native of China and he insisted we try everything. They were having lobster wars that night and we ended up only paying about $100 for 8 of us to eat and that included 5 lobsters.

I probably ate more weird stuff the next morning when he took us to DimSum (sp?). The menu was in Chinese and he ordered everything.

[Antonia]

Gator tail, buffalo, chocolate-covered ants. Oh, and I used to eat a lot of birdseed as a kid.:tongue_smilie:

[Jennifer in NH]

If I could eat calamari on a daily basis, I would die a happy woman.

Me too! And why would steamed clams be weird??? Although I honestly haven't eaten one since a few years ago there was a intestinal worm in one and THAT made me gag! Yuck!

[chickenpatty]

Oh! That is so gross!!

[Amy in Orlando]

You guys are brave!!! I may never recover from the duck egg thing. :tongue_smilie:

I've eaten octopus and gator tail and I think that's about it. Does liver and onions count?

[CalicoKat]

Dh is currently watching serveral shows on Travel and food channels that center around eating strange...OK yucky , horrible , disgusting sounds food. So what is the strangest thing you have ever eaten on purpose?
For me it would have to be raw octopus. I had it while I was living in Hawaii and it was fantastic. Now a lot of people would say the steamed crabs we eat here in Maryland are disgusting, but we love them, I guess it is all in what you are accustomed too.

Seriously ground hippopotamus meat made into sloppy joes. :) I actually didn't know that's what I was eating until after the dinner.

Other strange foods I've eating include monkey, and flying ants.

[Musical Belle]

When I lived in Alaska, we ate reindeer quite a bit (it's a herd animal like cattle). If you were lucky you could get a moose and it would feed your family and everyone you knew for a long time. We had moose chili, moose pizza . . . . should I stop?

[Michelle T]

What can I say, apparently I suffered from pica as a kid. I was always eating holes in my pillowcases, I gnawed the ends off my own hair all the time, and loved eating paper.

But I don't do any of that anymore! :tongue_smilie:

[Mabelen]

I am from Spain, so a lot of the things already mentioned are/have been part of my normal diet: frog legs (crunchy), snails (in a spicy tomato sauce, I love those-better than the French style garlic and butter snails!), tripes (yum!), rabbit (with lots of garlic and white wine, delicious!), brains (those were when I was young and camouflaged in by mom), calamari (to die for, one of my cravings when pregnant!), raw octopus (a delicacy from Galicia), blood sausage (both Spanish and Scottish varieties), haggis, buffalo curd (creamy), horse meat...

I think though the best one is probably bulls' testicles (sliced thin and cooked as a thin steak). They actually taste great and are thought of a delicacy for the sick.

I can't think of anything else, does venison count as strange?

[Peek a Boo]

not gonna tell......not gonna tell....not gonna tell........

my mind is SO not *here* tonight!

:eek:

[*anj*]

If I could eat calamari on a daily basis, I would die a happy woman.

Same here. And I love it cooked any number of ways!
But that's not the strangest food I've eaten.
I just wanted to chime in and say I love calamari too!

[Fourmother]

--Pig ears cooked by my mother. She ate a lot of "odd pig parts" when she was a kid. I drew the line at the ears and refused to try chit'lins, mountain oysters, hog maws, or head cheese.

--Sliced eel cooked in broth. It was served at a formal dinner I attended in Beijing which meant I had to eat it so as not to be impolite. It was very bony, but it tasted pretty good.

[JennW in SoCal]

Chicken feet! (Chinese style) Didn't like them very much.

I like ahi sashimi (raw tuna), but not other types of sashimi. Calimari is ok, as long as there is a good dipping sauce!

My dh loves dried cuttlefish, a taste he developed growing up in Hawaii. I ban the stuff from the house because of the smell!

[Rachel]

Everyone in my family thinks I"m crazy but I love

Tuna and rice. Since I was a kid I would make up a batch of rice and dump a can of tuna in it........

My family says Ewwwww

[freethinkermom]

A marine bio professor I TAed for once dared me to eat the eggs from one of the live sea stars we were dissecting. He knew me well enough that I would do it without any reservations or flinching. He wanted to gross out the squeamish freshmen. It worked.

They were not bad. No different than roe in sushi.

[Lorna]

haggis, blood sausage, monk fish

:001_huh:

Hey, this is our regular diet in Scotland!

[AmyinPA]

Dh and I ordered a steamed soft crab sandwich last year in Baltimore. I pictured little red crab legs that I'd easily scoop the meat out of (aka Red lobster). Instead we got the entire blue crab slapped in between two pieces of white bread. huh? Of course we ate it since we were at one of the most talked about crab restaurants in Baltimore. But I can't say I enjoyed it much.

[Virginia Dawn]

My husband loves to eat Balut (sp? or is it Baloot?) It is an egg with duck (or chicken?) fetus still intact. He's Filipino so he can claim it as an ethnic delicacy. I have to turn my head and not watch if he's eating it! (They featured it on Survivor once.)

The weirdest thing I've eaten is sea urchin in Japan.

Isn't Balut traditionally *fermented* as well?

I've eaten squid, rattlesnake, armadillo, frogs legs, conch fritters, fried squirrel, none of those seemed particularly odd to me at the time. I generally avoid things that I consider disgusting like liver (ewww).

My father used to feed us weeds like dandylions, purslane, and amaranth.

But I'd have to say that the worst thing I've ever eaten was gum off the sidewalk! Apparently, when I was preschool age, this was a bad habit of mine. :tongue_smilie: Just thinking about it makes me feel nauseous.

Second worst was my mother's experimental meatloaf that even my dad wouldn't eat.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

Dh and I ordered a steamed soft crab sandwich last year in Baltimore. I pictured little red crab legs that I'd easily scoop the meat out of (aka Red lobster). Instead we got the entire blue crab slapped in between two pieces of white bread. huh? Of course we ate it since we were at one of the most talked about crab restaurants in Baltimore. But I can't say I enjoyed it much.

I just can't swallow them. I can't even imagine what you thought when that arrived on your plate. I also can't eat raw oysters. My dad used to slurp them down as fast as he could shuck them.
I always have fun teaching inlanders how to eat steamed crabs. after they get over the ewwww factor they usually enjoy them.

[Emmy]

Probably snake soup is the strangest thing I've eaten. Somewhere in China in 1994. I was - starving. :)

[jacqui in mo]

The oddest thing I can remember is eating Ice cream with beans (like black beans) in it I had at a little well known ice cream tourist trap in Hawaii. Odd but not bad. My dh has eaten Chinese 100 year old eggs which he says are very strange. Not actually 100 yo but pickled in an odd way.

[crazycoffeechic]

Octopus is the strangest thing I've eaten, my ex mother-in-law used to eat fried squirrel brains when she was younger.

[Stephanie in FL]

Sea urchin when I was in college. That is the only food item I do not like at all.

I have also had gator, frog legs, escargot, calamari, and steamed clams. I don't consider any of those things strange though.

[HootyTooty]

Let's see, my mother grew up in the carribean so growing up I had a lot of interesting food.

As an adult, the strangest things I have eaten (before going vegetarian) were ostrich, bison, frogs legs, and escargot. Unfortunately, I am allergic to shellfish, I did not know this when I left my comfort zone on our cruise. :blink:

[Jean in Newcastle]

Everyone in my family thinks I"m crazy but I love

Tuna and rice. Since I was a kid I would make up a batch of rice and dump a can of tuna in it........

My family says Ewwwww

I like tuna and rice! So does my dd!:iagree:

[momo4]

Probably cow tongue. I forced myself, but now I am glad so I can say I ate it. Frog legs, buffalo, ostrich, and octopus.

[Kay in Cal]

Whale.

When I was an 8th grader living in Norway, I was required to take a special home economics class. My peers had taken home ec in 7th grade, but I and three Vietnamese immigrant kids had only started that year--so they made a special class just for the four of us. Every Wednesday morning we would cook a full traditional Norwegian meal together (from rolls, veggies, tea, main course, dessert) and eat it. They wanted us to taste "tradtional" Norwegian foods. Of course most Norwegians don't eat those dishes much any more, but we were to learn the culture, so we discovered foods like...

Whale (red meat, kind of like venison)
Reindeer (it is venison)
Fiskeboller (fish balls, like meat balls made with ground fish)
Gjeitost (Norwegian goat cheese--big mustard orange bricks, strange sweet taste)
Salt Licorice
and lots of boiled potatoes!

I'm vegetarian now (and have been since I was 18), so my only "weird" dishes involve strange vegetables and fruits.

[mellifera]

peanut butter, jelly and pickle sandwiches.:eek: I just watched dd1 eat one and was reminded.

[Julie Smith]

I'm a vegetarian, the only one in the family. And my Mom is a ... inventive cook.

Once she was making nachos. But she didn't have any nachos so she used ketchup chips. She didn't have any refried beans so she used green beans from the blender. She didn't have 'time' to grate cheese ontop so she put on big chunks of cheese. Then into the oven. ... But ketchup chips don't hold up to well to this kind of torture. So she ended up taking the pan out and pouring the resulting sludge on top of a new layer of ketchup chips.

Her comment when I complained, .... "But I thought you liked nachos! and you love ketchup chips".

Here are some cooking tips from my Mom:
"Just put your veggies in the blender. Then no one can pick them out of the food".

"Wrap it in Filo. Everything is fancy if it's wrapped in Filo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filo). Including Peanut butter sandwiches, pizza, and salad."

"The fire alarm just means dinner is ready."

...

To be fair she is an average cook most of the time. Just don't eat at her house when she is under stress. :)

[Old Dominion Heather]

Dog food... Specifically: Gaines Burgers... which were some sort of doggie delicacy for my great-grandmother's dog. I was about six, but I remember thinking they were pretty good. They came wrapped in plastic and looked like raw hamburger. I just hope they didn't have anything raw actually in them!:ack2:

[*anj*]

But she didn't have any nachos so she used ketchup chips.

What are ketchup chips? I can't even imagine..... :ohmy:

[*anj*]

Dog food... Specifically: Gaines Burgers... which were some sort of doggie delicacy for my great-grandmother's dog. I was about six, but I remember thinking they were pretty good. They came wrapped in plastic and looked like raw hamburger. I just hope they didn't have anything raw actually in them!:ack2:

Oh my gosh!!!! You just gave me an awful flashback.
I'm pretty sure I ate a piece of Gaines Burger too. :eek:

[Mabelen]

Pig ears are so good! They do have to be served hot, otherwise they don't taste right, though.

Chicken feet were my favorite part of soup when I was a little girl!

And elver (young eels) are expensive, but oh so delicious!

My, I am getting a craving for some of these... I can't! I am not planning to go home anytime soon! I think I'd better stop reading this thread!

[Karenciavo]

Dh and I ordered a steamed soft crab sandwich last year in Baltimore. I pictured little red crab legs that I'd easily scoop the meat out of (aka Red lobster). Instead we got the entire blue crab slapped in between two pieces of white bread. huh? Of course we ate it since we were at one of the most talked about crab restaurants in Baltimore. But I can't say I enjoyed it much.

You should have ordered a fried soft shell crab sandwich. :drool5:

[Laura K (NC)]

(not at the same time)

We hosted a Japanese student for a month and he introduced us to raw jellyfish. It looked and tasted like ramen noodles. They were sesame oil flavor. Squid jerky was another favorite of his, and so of course we wanted to try some, too. My 12yo ds took a liking to it and we just bought more of both the jellyfish and the squid last week. The processing of the squid makes it kind of sweet, if you can imagine it. Dried seaweed, nori, is popular in Japan for a snack. It's crunchy, salty, and very low in calories!

When I was in high school I visited a Swensen's ice cream parlor and they had dill pickle ice cream. I wasn't pregnant at the time, but I did want to try it. I don't recommend it!

[3lilreds in NC]

Ewww! I am not an adventurous eater and, well, EWWW!

I stopped reading after the baby octopus in the soup. Ack.

[LizzyBee]

I didn't respond sooner because I couldn't think of anything weird or exotic I've eaten. Then I realized that a lot of people don't hunt and would consider lots of the things I've eaten weird. So here goes:

Elk
Caribou
Squirrel
Rabbit
Venison, including the heart
Beef heart and liver (ok, that wasn't from hunting, but I grew up on a beef farm and precious little of the cows we butchered at home went to waste)
Farm raised buffalo
Chicken and turkey giblets (also not from hunting)

The grossest thing I've eaten was raw fish at a very nice restaurant in Japan. That was one of the most uncomfortable situations I've ever been in, because I didn't want to hurt my Japanese friend's feelings, but I didn't want to eat the fish, either.

[ereks mom]

Not cooked, just peel-and-eat. I was at a wilderness-survival event many years ago. I remember the cactus tasted like cucumber, but was slimy like okra.

[StaceyinLA]

I've eaten:

escargot
alligator
squid/octopus
frog legs
turtle soup
caviar
chocolate covered crickets and ants
various manner of wild game (rabbit, squirrel, deer, etc)
raw fish (in sushi)


And, of course there is all that strange seafood us Louisianians eat (soft-shelled crabs & crawfish, boiled crawfish- and yes, I've sucked the heads- boiled crabs, shrimp, etc., and the very best - RAW oysters!)

Of course, all of this was in my pre-veggie days. I occasionally eat seafood now, but that's all.

[Mamagistra]

...homemade blood boudin (where you actually stuff the meat and rice in the pig intestines)...

I LOOOOOOOOVE boudain!! :drool:

[Karin]

Does liver and onions count?

When I was in gr. 8 Home Ec was requisite for one year. Our home ec teacher, young and evidently concerned about the health and welfare of her students (or else on a tight budget) had us make liver dumpling soup. I kid you not. And we all had to try it, even me, who was just getting over being one of the pickiest eaters on the planet (easier to count what I'd eat than what I wouldn't). My mother, who hated liver, had never even made us try it before. Truly one of the grossest things I've ever tried (liver and onions really isn't that bad; I've had that, too) along with haggis.

But so far, I haven't read of anyone eating a gross thing I saw on TV once--tarantulas. There's some group of people that eats a certain kind of tarantula.

[hana]

Nothing weird. Not ever. Chili-spiced dark chocolate is as exotic as this girl gets. :-)

[Janet in Toronto]

A lot of my more adventurous meals have been thanks to my Middle Eastern MIL. She has made stuffed cow's heart, cow tongue, stuffed intestines, brains. I have also eaten a lot of raw seafood and kibbe nayyeh (steak tartare). We buy a seafood salad at our local lebanese grocer that has baby octopus, calamari rings, etc in a vinaigrette. We are also wide-ranging sushi/sashimi eaters.

[MIch elle]

"AH, it looks like suction cups!"

[AndyJoy]

DOG, and no, it wasn't intentional. I lived in Japan in 1989, and while it was illegal to serve dog there, we used to get yakitori (supposedly chicken!) from a little stand right outside the base. One day when we stopped, it was closed and there was a sign on it in Japanese. One of our Japanese friends translated it for us, and the gist was that they had been serving dogs instead of chicken. I can tell you that dog doesn't taste like chicken--it tastes so much better!:D

[lauracolumbus]

Barbecued monkey off a street vendor in Panama.

I should read this thread before any unwanted snacking.

Laura

[mama2cntrykids]

Eww, Head Cheese!!

That is all...lol...

--Pig ears cooked by my mother. She ate a lot of "odd pig parts" when she was a kid. I drew the line at the ears and refused to try chit'lins, mountain oysters, hog maws, or head cheese.

--Sliced eel cooked in broth. It was served at a formal dinner I attended in Beijing which meant I had to eat it so as not to be impolite. It was very bony, but it tasted pretty good.

[newlifemom]

Nine pages and not one sea cucumber . . .til now.:D Actually, I don't do really weird. Can't, my stomach couldn't take it, but I have become good friends with a family first generation Americans from China. They grew up here, but their parents did not. I have eaten a lot of very weird stuff for this 'heinz 57' kind of girl.

Also:
Shark fin soup
100 yr eggs
some soup for new moms (eww eww eww)
all manner of things I not which in dim sum outings. (honestly, I don't want to know)

It's all relative you know.:tongue_smilie:

[Natalieclare]

When I was working for a Japanese company as an "egg princess" in an Alaskan salmon cannery, I was served salmon fin and chum egg soup at an informal dinner. Let me just say chum eggs are HUGE and pop in a really squooshy way in your mouth.

I didn't have seconds.

ETA: My kids just told me the stangest thing they ever had to eat was a "mystery casserole" someone brought us after Ava was born. Turns out it was tatertot casserole, but they had never seen it before. :)

[runamuk]

My dad's family was pretty poor and only had meat if they shot it or caught it themselves. I've eaten squirrel, rabbit, possum, snake and turtle, all of which were pretty good.

I haven't seen Spam listed anywhere here, lol. My mom really liked Spam and made it quite often when I was growing up. I couldn't get past what it sounded like coming out of the can (kind of a wet sucking sound) and what it looked like before it was cooked, so I'd slip it to the dog when she wasn't looking.

[iwka]

home made (my grandfather was a butcher): blood sausage, head cheese, lard with cracklings.

also: fish head soup (just one bite), cooked beef tongue, frog legs, alligator, rice with strawberry or apple sauce (can't make my kids eat it, they say it's strange, but it was a very common dish for me when I was small)

my son likes scrambled eggs with maple syrup

[LizzyBee]

Squirrel
Rabbit
Elk
Buffalo
Caribou
Deer and Beef Heart
Hamburger Gravy (some people think that's very strange, but it's just like sausage gravy without all the grease...)
Raw shrimp, in Okinawa
Conch

Once when I lived in Okinawa, I was at an American friend's house, and some of her Okinawan friends were there. One of them brought cream puffs, so of course I put one on my plate cause I love cream puffs! So I sit down and take a bite of it, and instead of white cream it was filled with fish sauce! I had to discreetly spit it into a napkin because I couldn't force it down. So I'm sitting there with this thing on my plate and I'm wondering how in the world I can get it into the garbage without anyone noticing and being offended. Just then, my friend's very large dog came over and gulped it down in one bite. I was sitting beside another American who had made the same mistake, and she tried to get the dog to eat hers too, but he wouldn't. I guess he didn't like it either. :lol:

Oh, and Mrs. Readalot, I love Maryland crabs. When I lived in Florida, I couldn't find Old Bay anywhere, but when I lived in Okinawa the commissary carried it!

ETA: Oops, I didn't realize this is an old thread and I've already answered. Oh well.

[Lolly]

I tend to taste the wild outdoors. Last taste was a fiddlehead. It wasn't bad. Slightly nutty. (Wish I liked nuts.) Dh thinks I'm a little crazy.:D

[LizzyBee]

DOG, and no, it wasn't intentional. I lived in Japan in 1989, and while it was illegal to serve dog there, we used to get yakitori (supposedly chicken!) from a little stand right outside the base. One day when we stopped, it was closed and there was a sign on it in Japanese. One of our Japanese friends translated it for us, and the gist was that they had been serving dogs instead of chicken. I can tell you that dog doesn't taste like chicken--it tastes so much better!:D

Oh my gosh, was that stand right outside of Kadena? Was the yakitori on a stick? If so, you can add dog to my list. :001_huh:

[Ria]

My husband loves to eat Balut (sp? or is it Baloot?) It is an egg with duck (or chicken?) fetus still intact. He's Filipino so he can claim it as an ethnic delicacy. I have to turn my head and not watch if he's eating it! (They featured it on Survivor once.)

The weirdest thing I've eaten is sea urchin in Japan.

I think you win, lol. I'll eat just about anything. Raw stuff, squid, octopus, liver...you name it. But a fetus might just give me pause. That or a bug. I do not care to eat an insect. Gack. :tongue_smilie:

Ria

[alegnab]

A chitlin/chitterling, but only because my grandma made me eat it. I was a teenager at the time. She said she washed it out very well. It tasted like fried chicken skin, so it wasn't bad. I just couldn't get past the thought of what it was.

Dh and my kids love scrapple. His parents fixed it for us for breakfast soon after we were married, so I did the polite thing and ate some. It tasted awful. It was crunchy on the outside but mushy on the inside. Dh is an extremely picky eater, and I'm completely convinced that had he not grown up eating it, he would think it was absolutely nasty. Dh slices it very thin, and it's crispier than theirs was, but I still can't eat it. For years it literally made me sick to my stomach to smell it being cooked. It took me about 20 years to get where I didn't feel sick from it, but I still think it stinks like crazy.

My parents ate fried soft crabs and oysters, but I don't think I ever ate them. I used to eat steamed crab every week while I was a teen. My dad's a hunter, and he eats squirrel, rabbit, quail, deer and whatever else he's allowed to hunt and kill. The only one of those I can remember eating was deer. I hated eating it, because deer are so pretty and I didn't want to eat Bambi. My dad also fished a lot, so I grew up eating a lot of fish, but I always hated it. Never could develop a taste for it, even after eating it regularly during my entire childhood.

I'm not an adventurous eater. I rarely even eat meat anymore. Just give me healthy whole grains, beans, nuts/seeds, veggies, and fruits, and I'm happy.

[Garga]

We go to the local Chinese buffet a LOT. We have become friends with the people who work there.

On Chinese New Year they invite friends of the restaurant to a special dinner with traditional Chinese food. (Not the normal Americanized Chinese food.)

I have eaten some very strange things at that New Year dinner....but I don't know what they were.

One thing looked like an anemone. Something else was a weird sticky, jelly, goopy stuff that tasted a little peanut-y. There was this white thing that tasted like rubber. Don't have a clue what any of it was....

[Garga]

duplicate

[specialmama]

My grandfather was a metis trapper and hunter. The strangest things I ate at his house were: raccoon, beaver, black bear, porcupine and turtle. Other things that weren't as strange: deer, moose, bison, fiddleheads, frog legs, partridge, and many, many, many catfish.

[Remudamom]

Mountain oysters, otherwise known as bull nuts.

[AndyJoy]

Oh my gosh, was that stand right outside of Kadena? Was the yakitori on a stick? If so, you can add dog to my list. :001_huh:

Yes, it was! Were you there in 1989 too? We were there from 1986-1989.

[asta]

Sheep entrails.

I was offered the eye (a great honor), but had to decline; I could only push myself so far.

Greece is wild.

[LizzyBee]

Yes, it was! Were you there in 1989 too? We were there from 1986-1989.

I was there from 1985-1988. I would never have known about the dog yakitori if it weren't for these boards. :001_smile:

[Spy Car]

If you ever get a chance to try Musk Ox don't miss it :drool5:

One of the "odder" items I've tried (and liked very much) is "Huitlacoche" (Corn Smut). Here in the US it's treated as a fungal disease and is considered a crop blight, but Mexicans know better.

It's purple, it looks angry, swollen, alien, and has a weird inky, fungal/bacterial taste, with a lot of funky bass-notes, a hint of residual sweetness, mild vomit-like flavors (it can induce spontaneous hurling in the suggestible).

Why US farmers would throw out this delacy is beyond me? :D

The USDA is trying to eradicate Corn Smut. Your Tax-dollars at work :tongue_smilie:

Bill

[Ibbygirl]

Things that I've eaten that might seem strange to some, but are normal to me are oxtail stew, goat meat, and paella which has all kinds of meats including baby octopus tentacles. Chewy! :D ;)

To me "strange" foods would be like bugs or grubs or worms or something like that. That would be pretty far outside of my comfort zone and I don't know how my gag reflex would deal with it. hehe ;)

[Spy Car]

To me "strange" foods would be like bugs or grubs or worms or something like that. That would be pretty far outside of my comfort zone and I don't know how my gag reflex would deal with it. hehe ;)

I was in Mexico City once and we went to a restaurant that specialized in snakes, grubs, worms, grasshoppers, ants, and crickets (all of which we ordered) then after we went to a Pulquería, which is a "men-only" cantina that serves the fermented juice of the agave plant called "Pulque" (which when distilled becomes tequila or mescal).

Pulque has a quite quite unusual sour-fermented-spoiled taste I liked (they thought the gringo was going to ask for "fruit juice to be added" but I did not. It's not exactly how milk would taste if you left it out of the fridge a day or so, but that gets you somewhat close :D

On top of snakes and grasshoppers, who cared anymore? :lol:

[Ibbygirl]

I was in Mexico City once and we went to a restaurant that specialized in snakes, grubs, worms, grasshoppers, ants, and crickets (all of which we ordered) then after we went to a Pulquería, which is a "men-only" cantina that serves the fermented juice of the agave plant called "Pulque" (which when distilled becomes tequila or mescal).

Pulque has a quite quite unusual sour-fermented-spoiled taste I liked (they thought the gringo was going to ask for "fruit juice to be added" but I did not. It's not exactly how milk would taste if you left it out of the fridge a day or so, but that gets you somewhat close :D

On top of snakes and grasshoppers, who cared anymore? :lol:

LOL I'm a native Floridian, but my family is Spanish/Cuban. I remember growing up in Ft. Lauderdale, I went to school with some other kids who were natives who ate frogs, snakes, alligators and such. Even though I've lived here my whole life, I've never once eaten any of those things. I don't know, I guess Cuban food tastes so good that I've never had the desire to try the more "native" fare. ;) :D

[Spy Car]

LOL I'm a native Floridian, but my family is Spanish/Cuban. I remember growing up in Ft. Lauderdale, I went to school with some other kids who were natives who ate frogs, snakes, alligators and such. Even though I've lived here my whole life, I've never once eaten any of those things. I don't know, I guess Cuban food tastes so good that I've never had the desire to try the more "native" fare. ;) :D

We have a great Cuban place around the corner. It does strike me funny that a Cuban restaurant is called "Versailles". But after the first bite, no more laughing :D

Bill

[Ibbygirl]

We have a great Cuban place around the corner. It does strike me funny that a Cuban restaurant is called "Versailles". But after the first bite, no more laughing :D

Bill


That is so funny! There is a Cuban restaurant called Versailles down here in Miami also. It is a Cuban/French fusion though. I wonder if it is owned by the same people as the one where you live?? :confused:

I can never eat in Cuban restaurants. The food is never as good as the homecooked version and I always leave disappointed. :( Cuban sandwiches and cafe con leche are the only things I can order from a restaurant and actually enjoy. :)

[Spy Car]

That is so funny! There is a Cuban restaurant called Versailles down here in Miami also. It is a Cuban/French fusion though. I wonder if it is owned by the same people as the one where you live?? :confused:

I can never eat in Cuban restaurants. The food is never as good as the homecooked version and I always leave disappointed. :( Cuban sandwiches and cafe con leche are the only things I can order from a restaurant and actually enjoy. :)

If memory serves, I think there was a famous restaurant in the pre-Castro period called "Versailles". The one (actually there are 3 around LA) here is stricky Cuban (no fusion). Their food is really good. Most people go for the citrus and garlic marinated grilled chicken, but their roasted lamb is the secret best dish. Getting hungry.

Have you ever gone swimming at the Biltmore in Coral Gables? I love that pool. has nothing to do with food. I just love that pool.

[Ibbygirl]

If memory serves, I think there was a famous restaurant in the pre-Castro period called "Versailles". The one (actually there are 3 around LA) here is stricky Cuban (no fusion). Their food is really good. Most people go for the citrus and garlic marinated grilled chicken, but their roasted lamb is the secret best dish. Getting hungry.

Have you ever gone swimming at the Biltmore in Coral Gables? I love that pool. has nothing to do with food. I just love that pool.


I LOVE Coral Gables!! It's such a pretty city. The Biltmore is a beautiful hotel! I've never swum in it though. I'm an ocean girl more than a pool girl I guess. :)

[Spy Car]

I LOVE Coral Gables!! It's such a pretty city. The Biltmore is a beautiful hotel! I've never swum in it though. I'm an ocean girl more than a pool girl I guess. :)

I'm an ocean guy too. But trust me on this, go to the pool some night, there will be like nobody there. And this pool is magic. The water is soft, you feel no chlorine, there is a water fall and the pool is HUGE!!!

I believe it is the largest pool in the United States. And so elegant. You must do this.

[Ibbygirl]

I'm an ocean guy too. But trust me on this, go to the pool some night, there will be like nobody there. And this pool is magic. The water is soft, you feel no chlorine, there is a water fall and the pool is HUGE!!!

I believe it is the largest pool in the United States. And so elegant. You must do this.


LOL Why do I feel like you're using a Jedi mind trick on me?? hehe ;)

Bill: "you must do this"

Me repeating: "I must do this" ;) :D hehehe

Okay, I will check out the Biltmore pool some night and feel this soft water! hehehe

[asta]

I'm an ocean guy too. But trust me on this, go to the pool some night, there will be like nobody there. And this pool is magic. The water is soft, you feel no chlorine, there is a water fall and the pool is HUGE!!!

I believe it is the largest pool in the United States. And so elegant. You must do this.

Perhaps they use chlorine salt instead of chlorine gas. Chlorine salt pools feel very "soft".

[momto5blessings]

it was awful! It is considered "good luck" here on New Years, kind of like black eyed peas and ham hocks (or whatever it is my dh family eats then) :)

[momto5blessings]

a visit to the "roof of the world". I felt bad when I learned it was an endangered species. It was really, really the best meat I have ever eaten.

[Spy Car]

Perhaps they use chlorine salt instead of chlorine gas. Chlorine salt pools feel very "soft".

Interesting. I don't know. I just know this pool is huge, the water is soft, the hotel surrounding (part of) it is grand, elegant, and beautiful.

I just had a feeling of well-being in that pool that I've never experience anything quite like. That good!

Bill

[ThatCyndiGirl]

placenta. My own. (our would that be 'my daughter's own'?)

Not the best taste in the world. I prefer alligator.

[Soph the vet]

Marmot in Mongolia. Yak too.

[Heather in NC]

Durian fruit...it's the devil's food.