Most unusual foods

[amirm]

Here is a thread to post the most unusual foods you have eaten. My list is long, including Whale sashimi, various snakes, alligator tail, blowfish, ostrich, chicken and sheep brain (before the latest diseases), sheep testicles and internal organs, cod sperm (Shirako)... OK I better stop here .

What are some of the items on your list?

 

[MylesBAstor]

Here is a thread to post the most unusual foods you have eaten. My list is long, including Whale sashimi, various snakes, alligator tail, blowfish, ostrich, chicken and sheep brain (before the latest diseases), sheep testicles and internal organs, cod sperm (Shirako)... OK I better stop here .

What are some of the items on your list?

I actually don't find ostrich unusual Eat ostrich burgers regularly along with buffalo and venison burgers. Among the healthiest meats (lean and low in fat) out there. In fact, venison is the leanest meat. Of course, because they are so low in fat, you have to cook the meat at a lower heat or else it tastes like rubber.

 

[Dimfer]

A balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell.

Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors in the regions where they are available. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines. They are common, everyday food in some other countries in Southeast Asia, such as in Laos (where it is called Khai Luk), Cambodia (Pong tea khon in Cambodian), and Vietnam (Tr?ng v?t l?n or H?t v?t l?n in Vietnamese). They are often served with beer. wiki

common in the Phils & Asia, but considered unusual here in North America

 

[jadis]

A balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell.

Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors in the regions where they are available. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines. They are common, everyday food in some other countries in Southeast Asia, such as in Laos (where it is called Khai Luk), Cambodia (Pong tea khon in Cambodian), and Vietnam (Tr?ng v?t l?n or H?t v?t l?n in Vietnamese). They are often served with beer. wiki

common in the Phils & Asia, but considered unusual here in North America

Dimfer,

I see this 'food' while growing up and I can never imagine how this can be swallowed or eaten, sometimes with a small chick inside. Needless to say, I have never, and will never taste this. lol

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Where I come from , Haiti, we eat many things that North Americans would find at least unusual. We , for example eat the whole animal: Stomach, Liver, Ears, Tongue, Brain, Intestines, testicles, Pen*s, Feet, Tail. We even have a delicacy made of pork, beef or goat intestine stuffed with the animal blood .. called boudin. We don't eat snakes or insects or worms or Dogs but people do it cats at times , when they can find them wild but it is not widespread by any means.
I have however had, insects, snakes, alligators, apes and even cats (sorry if I offend sensibilities but it is a matter of culture) .. I have eaten the poisonous fish the Japanese prepare. I am now a vegetarian and these days I am very much in fermented foods, some of them are very weird looking especially during the brewing/preparation stage, Kombucha for one, I make my own by the way as well as Yogurt, Milk and Water Kefir and my own Kimchi ...
I am not too sure I would go for the worms and bats .. I have my limits it seems ...

Frantz

 

[Steve williams]

Gosh Frantz, you're my hero.

There isn't a way I would eat any of that stuff

BTW I use Kombucha in my medspa to apply to the face as a mask for wrinkle reduction

 

[JackD201]

I'll try anything once....except insects and perhaps that rotted shark meat that even Zimmer couldn't keep down.

Dimfer, Frantz all I can say is YUMMY!!!!!!

 

[Dimfer]

Balut as yucky as it might look, is surprisingly tasty. I buy them at oriental stores here in Edmonton.

I was quite adventurous in my younger beer/gin drinking days. Growing up in the province, we experimented on a lot of things. Some of the delicacies I've tried were "bayawak" or monitor lizard, snake, rabbit, and dog meat. My Canadian friends always find it disgusting listening to dog meat stories because they always associate it with their pets, but in my expererience, most of the dog that were eaten were raised for the purpose, just like raising a goat or a chicken for special occasions. And honestly, it taste good, it has it's own flavour. When cooked right, exotic meats are worth trying.

The only food that I was not able to eat was adobong salagubang (a variety of scarab cooked in soya sauce), quite popular in some parts of the country - but no matter how drunk I am, it won't go down.

 

[JackD201]

I like Rabbit...tastes like chicken! I don't know if I can expand on dining on anything else from the rodent family. Guinea Pigs from South American countries for example. I just wached G-Force on BluRay!

 

[rhopkins]

It's not terribly adventurous but venison heart and liver, crickets, grasshoppers, gator and sea urchin. Avoid the sea urchin...

For a while I was into hunting and cooking shortly thereafter. Venison tenderloin with a port wine cranberry sauce - that sort of thing. Seared on each side for two minutes, cut into one inch medallions. Mighty tasty!

My brother in-law is a trapper (hobby) and he has a cookbook for beaver, squirrel, muskrat, skunk, raccoon, otter, bear, and just about anything else you can shoot or trap. It's sort of a pioneer survivalist handbook. When it's -30 and you are living in a sod hut pretty much anything is good to eat.

A friend of my father in-law has had beaver. They were hunting buddies. Slow cooked with vegetables in broth. Apparently it's quite good but I can't eat the national animal. Of course if I were living in a sod hut and it was -30 I might change my mind.

“Sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know, ‘cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy @$%*.”

 

[JackD201]

Did someone say eating beaver was a good thing?

 

[amirm]

Avoid the sea urchin...

Most westerners take the same view of Sea Urchin to which I say, "lucky you!" Why? 'case few things in the world of good sushi/sashimi cost as much as Sea Urchin. So to the extent you don't like it, you save a ton of money in your lifetime!

Me? I am unlucky as it comes as few things are as good as fresh, briny Sea Urchin coming out of cold waters in winter time. Here, we have a local Japanese restaurant which buys fresh local Sea Urchin and cracks them open and serves it that instance. It amazes even my Japanese connoisseurs!

I think one of the reasons people don't like it is that a lot of Sea Urchin is not good quality. And when Sea Urchin gets bad, it can get really nasty. It develops an iodine, sharp flavor which can be like mixing egg yoke with cough syrup! Then again, most westerners bulk at anything with such runny texture so maybe it is a more general thing .

 

[Steve williams]

I've got to go with rhopkins advice on sea urchin as well amir

 

[rhopkins]

For me it was a texture sort of thing rather than a taste sort of thing... The urchin that is. I can't get my brain around it.

 

[flez007]

Well - we do to have a lot of unusual food in Mexico, that includes a lot of internal organs from cows and pork, insects, ugly-looking vegetables ant the like... I have tried them almost all (not all of my liking I might say), but the stragest of all was on a business trip to Chile, where I had a this sea molusc with lots of spines around - the thing was cut in half and had all the eggs inside and one supposed to have them as well! .. Very strong flavour... Won't try it again.

 

[garylkoh]

My family loves watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel - and we keep going YUM to some of the food being introduced.

Durian rank along with sea urchin (uni) among the foods that my family and I love, but I know most people will object to - either for the smell or the texture. IMHO they both taste awesome though

 

[Steve williams]

pretty soon you guys will tell me you like eating mountain oysters as well

 

[garylkoh]

I've tried them - didn't care for the taste.

About the most unusual thing I've ever heard of is for women who have just given birth to eat their own placenta - my wife had a group of friends who gather to cook and eat each other's placenta in the belief that it is good for the complexion. What lengths women will go to for beauty!!

 

[MiTT]

I had duck tongue once in China. Didn't really care for the texture, I thought I was eating some very chewy small mushrooms until they told me what they were. I don't know how to feel about eating something that's tasting me back...

 

[amirm]

I had duck tongue once in China. Didn't really care for the texture, I thought I was eating some very chewy small mushrooms until they told me what they were. I don't know how to feel about eating somthing that's tasting me back...

I have had chicken tongue. Texture is a bit strange but otherwise fine . I have also had sheep testicles Steve. A bit of odd after taste and smell but otherwise, it is "meat" .

On Dorian fruit, we bought one once, I had to eat almost all of it as my wife would spit out the first bit of she put in her mouth. That said, at the end I ate so much of it that it got to me and I don't eat it anymore.

Now eating placenta, I draw the line right there!!!