Strangest/oddest food you've eaten

[scottcsmith]

Me: mystery meet served by a street vendor in Subic Bay, Philippines. Meat? Poultry? Dog? Monkey? Soylent Green? Dunno. It didn't taste like meat or chicken. All I know is that it was the flesh of...something.

[Intelsucks]

1. Squid. It's like chewing on rubber bands.

I think the rubber bands taste better though.

Squid is in the "survival food" category, as far as I'm concerned.

[TXlib]

2. Not if it's cooked right.

[gold_bug]

15. same here

I tried dried squid from Korea.

[magnolia]

59. Bread it...

...fry it...call it calamari and it's...so delicious!

[renegade000]

61. definitely...with a little hot sauce

YUUMMMMM :9

[wickerwoman]

3. The strangest food I could recognize was guinea pig.

Strangest food I actually like is BBQd beef heart, but alas, no more.

Strangest of all time was some kind of tofu or seaweed product that looked and tasted like paper towels soaked in brine.

[Jim Sagle]

4. Fried plantains. I guess they're bananas or something like them.

That might explain it - I don't like bananas unless they're raw and a tad green.

[mobuto]

64. Fried plantains are a staple of Central American cuisine

They're more savory than bananas and you can find them here in most places.

[Jim Sagle]

71. I tried them at A Taste of Chicago.

[PartyPooper]

5. Kangaroo tail soup.

I've had some haggis, too!

:9

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. Calfs Brains. Scrambled with eggs.

It was pretty good. Served to me by the german mother of a friend i had when i was little. Never had it since.

[alwynsw]

7. Growing up on a Kentucky farm, much of the food we had could be considered

strange. Pigs feet, head, tail - everything but the squeal. Squirrels, rabbits, dove, quail, venison, raccoon, (o)possum (friend of O Henry), goat, mutton, squab, polk greens, dandelion greens, chitlins (chitterlings for the uppity types), fat back - you get the idea.

Since then, I've traveled extensively and have yet to meet a food I don't like. I suppose that's why I wear larger trousers than most.

[Dookus]

8. rattlesnake

[Red State Rebel]

74. Me too! Tastes like chicken! hehe

[Sandpiper]

9. Horse

Very chewy.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

55. Yep. Horse and brain.

[Webster Green]

10. Been there, done that....

Hoo boy! That brings back memories, crawling out of the bars in Olongopo, and buying monkey meat from the street vendors. Then having the shore patrol load us into cattle trucks with the rest of the drunks, to be taken back to the ship. Not such fond memories, in retrospect.

[tinrobot]

11. My sister...

No, I'm not a cannibal, but my sister tried to feed me all sorts of strange stuff when I was kid...

She thought I should like liverwurst, so she gave me a liverwurst and grape jelly sandwich -- but told me it was PB & J...

She covered some in chocolate and told me they were chocolate covered nuts...

There's more. We don't talk much anymore.

[Intelsucks]

12. Alligator meat is really good. I think the meat comes from the tail.

n/t

[greendog]

13. Cubed raw beef w/ mystery spice

I was invited to a very nice gathering put on by some Ethiopian friends. They served one of their traditional dishes...raw beef...pick it up with your hand...dip it into a bowl of wonderful hot spice....and eat it. Excellent.

I grew up in the midwest where beef tends to be cooked a little more than that...so it was odd, but good.

[jpgray]

14. Buffalo? Squab? :-) (nt)

[jpgray]

16. I just posted in the wrong thread

Ignore me!

[POed_Ex_Repub]

17. Crocodile Tail

Wierd enough for ya?

[Kool Kitty]

18. Head cheese.

I actually liked it.

[Rocinante]

19. Ok I got one

My poor old Aunt Flossie would serve up a good supper to all us kids when we were little, when our mother worked nights. I was a teenager before my uncle told me most of those meals included either possum or racoon meat.

[MinnFats]

20. 'anquilas' sauteed baby eel.

the spelling may be incorrect.
this was in Spain.
they're little, maybe three inches long, black, slightly thicker than spaghetti and delicious. sauteed in terrific spices.
my dining companions were horrified.
'you can see the eyes!' one of them moaned.
the waiter asked if i like them.
'yes, they're very good!' i replied.
'I will have the chef prepare more!' he said, and took off before i could say 'that's ok.'
my friends groaned.
i ate every last one of them.
if you're in madrid, the northwest or the Basque country, try it.

[benburch]

21. Would be hard to pick; Here is a list.

Chocolate covered ants.

French-fried baby bees.

Horse.

Bison.

Chipmunk. (On survival training. Not much meat here...)

Cattail root. (Also on survival training.)

Canned rattlesnake meat done up like tuna salad and served on a sandwich.

[Raine]

22. Library Paste

not a real food but when I was in school all the kids ate it. :shrug:

[terrya]

34. Coming out of the closet on this one. :-)

I used to eat library paste when I was in grade school, also.

[Lostmessage]

23. Skate Wing

It's a fish but it has wings?

[rasputin1952]

35. I've had Skate too...

It is usually pawned off as Scallops. But, you can tell the difference while it's on your plate. Scallops have vertical muscle striations, while Skate has horizontal striations in the muscle. They use a punch to go through the Skate wings; and to be honest, it is some pretty good meat, nice and sweet.

O8)

[midnight armadillo]

24. Puffin,moss

I ate puffin in Iceland once. Quite tasty, and they're so cute! We were also served moss soup at one point, which was also good, although the texture of the moss was somewhat like skin.

[Jim Sagle]

76. You MONSTER. How COULD you?

:spank:

[bratcatinok]

25. Turtle food

back when it consisted of dried up bugs. Yes, I know, I was a weird child.

As children we weren't allowed to have any pets until I reached the age of 9 so we had tropical fish and periodically we'd have little turtles. Back then the fish stores sold turtles along with all of the supplies. We'd get the little round plastic turtlequariam with the ramp that led up to a platform where the fake plastic palm tree was.

The turtle food came in cardboard shaker jars but instead of being pellets it consisted of dessicated bugs. Of course, I didn't know what the turtle food was made of so if it was good enough for my beloved turtle, it was good enough for me. We went through quite a bit of turtle food because I liked it since it was crunchy, kind of like popcorn without the salt and it was smaller kernelled.

As an adult I have had alligator and my ex-husbands cooking.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. Scrapple, lutefisk...

haggis, octopus, various chocolate covered bugs, dried jellyfish, bacala, tripe, buffalo burgers, beefalo, unpronouncable and very nasty and black sausages from strange lands, extemely evil cheeses, "beef muscle" congee, fishhead stew... Not all of these, or a few others I've forgotten, have I actually enjoyed.

I've led a sheltered life, and never had some of the odder things I've heard of, such as Kenyan fermented milk and blood, live grubs, python meat, live monkey brains, peacock tongues, orang-outang lips, bull penis...

[RebelOne]

27. Fried grasshoppers

Thought I was eating nuts until I looked at the jar label.

[soothsayer]

28. Lion

seriously---they offer it one month out of the year here in a restaurant in the DC area.

[no_hypocrisy]

29. Alligator. Wild Boar. Reindeer (probably not Rudolph).

n/t

[RandomUser]

30. It's times like these I'm glad I'm a vegan

No mystery meat. Just lots of mystery processed psuedo-meats made from various types of fungi or microbial growths :)

[IronLionZion]

66. mmm...I've wanted to try vegan

Save a cow, eat a vegan.

[IronLionZion]

67. j/k

:toast:

[Mikimouse]

31. Hungarian Pickled Wild Boar...

One of the very few things that I wouldn't ever eat again.

[chefgirl]

32. Reading some of the replies

I've never thought of some of the things listed as 'odd', ie.. Scrapple, Skate Wing.

Some of the things I've eaten (mostly as a matter of my profession) that I have considered odd are:

Shark Fin Soup
Muskrat
Squirrel Brains
Emu Steak
Moose (Mainers will think this is completely normal)

The only thing on that list that I would consider eating again would be the Shark Fin Soup. It had a very light and delicate flavor. Almost a cross between a good chicken consomme and a seafood stock.
Certainly NOT worth what you would have to pay for it in a restaurant, however. The Japanese chef who cooked it told me they sell it for about $100.00 a bowl!

-chef-

[rasputin1952]

33. Rat on a stick,

But he absolute worst I ever SAW, was on TV, a National Geographic program about South America. This man caught a Bird Spider the size of a Dinner plate, and held it by it's legs slowly roasting it over a fire until the hairs were gone. It looked like an ice cream cone straight from hell!

After this individual finished eating the the spider, (somewhat like eating crab), he took this 1 inch fang and picked his teeth!

At this point, I was clamped to the sofa by my butt cheeks; and my eyes were the size of baseballs. :scared:

O8)

[Braden]

36. menudo

f****** horrible.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

37. SPAM...hands down

[judge_smales]

38. Dog I suppose.

It was very good, but I didn't know what it was 'till after dinner.

[Amaya]

39. Deer Heart

it tasted like chicken :D

[LTR]

40. Beef heart, escargot, tofu

Not a fan of any of them.

Also tried sushi. It wasn't bad, especially when you're washing it down with a good Japanese beer.

Also oysters on the half shell on spring break in Florida years back. Took down a dozen with marinara sauce and plenty of hot sauce.

NOTE: Oysters on the half shell are served LIVE.

[MissMillie]

41. You won't believe this but....

It was a sausage made from.... YAK.

[judge_smales]

43. Where would you get

such a thing outside of Mongolia?

[MissMillie]

48. In Montana (n/t)

.

[ScreamingMeemie]

42. calamari...yes, I know not that odd...but the little baby fried octupus

really got to me. sniffle

[XNASA]

44. Arby's

I'm not sure what it was that I ate. It was supposed to be some kind of beef sandwich but I don't believe it for a second.

[Liberal Classic]

45. Bear

Kind of stringy and tough.

[101 Proof]

46. Calamari....

never again. :puke:

[Kellanved]

47. why not?

Weren't they done right?

As for "strange food", I have rather long list
Frutti di Mare (not strange IMHO)
Locusts
mealworms (roasted)
cricket-cookies
Blutwurst
Andouilette (tripe sausages - that one I'll never touch again)
Alligator tail (in an Italian (sic) restaurant)
Frikandel speciaal (Horse)
Tartar (raw beef)
Gjetost cheese
"Handkäs mit Musik" (Hessian dish; vile smelling fat-free cheese with onions and dressing)
fried sweetbread
Züngli
...

I shied away from the lamb brains, don't ask me why.

[kmla]

49. Elk. A friend served up some spaghetti, and the elk was in the sauce.

Not bad. But it's not like I need to have it again, though.

[mainer]

50. Sea cucumber

Rubbery and without flavor unless it's drenched in sauce.

[mainer]

51. Fruit bats

Cooked in soup with coconut milk. In Micronesia.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. Raw horse meat dipped in soy sauce

in Tsumago, Japan.

Evidently, the Japanese have to have their raw foods, because in the mountainous areas, where it was impossible to get saltwater fish for sashimi in the old days, people took to eating raw horse meat.

It looked like thinly-sliced beef, but the predominant flavor was Kikkoman.

The most vile thing I ate in Japan was kazunoko, which is herring eggs.

In China I turned down the opportunity to eat deep-fried whole sparrows (crunch-crunch), but I actually thought the shark fin soup was delicious.

[LynneSin]

53. Frog Legs - and yes they did taste sorta like chicken

They were sauted in garlic and real real yummy.

I've also drank homemade Dandelion Wine. Tasted like something a wino would buy for $1.99 from the local liquor store.

[jimbo fett]

54. BOOGERS!!!

[Pobeka]

56. Pickled jellyfish

I didn't know it at the time, was a going away feast at a chinese restaurant where the guest was related to the restaurant owner, and they pulled that one out. As I recall it tasted like -- pickles.

[boneygrey]

57. Live Goldfish and Grilled chicken heart

Fish-I lost a bet. No taste. Swallowed whole.

Heart-at a Brazilian steak house. Nasty.:puke:

[Nikia]

58. Turtle

One of the guys my mom dated when I was little had an annual family event that involved eating turtle. I don't think it was an ethnic or religious thing. They just got together and ate turtle every year.

[Pobeka]

62. I had snapping turtle once

It tasted like beef tenderloin. It was excellent.

[cosmicdot]

60. I think it was sea urchin soup

served in half of an urchin

Deep Blue, once a restaurant in Grand Case, St. Martin, F.W.I.

once was enough

[bif]

63. Blackened pig lips

in a tapas var in Spain. Wasn't bad. Kind of like burnt pork rinds only with a bit more substance.

[IronLionZion]

65. goat brains

In hindsight brains are terrible. They could have a lot of diseases and are pure fat. And it tasted bad, but damnit I wanted to try it.

[IronLionZion]

68. kallu, an alcoholic drink made from tree sap

its disgusting

[mobuto]

69. I've eaten odd foods

plenty of animals and parts you don't generally find at the A&P. But while its not so unusual, the strangest and most inexplicable food item in the world has got to be Vegemite/Marmite. Having tasted them, I can understand why someone would eat pig brains, raw pork sausages, whale or slabs of spiced lard on toast (none of which I believe are Kosher so don't tell my Rabbi). But I cannot understand why someone would voluntarily ingest a yeast extract the consistency of library paste.

[watercolors]

70. Dasheen

While in Dominica in Oct we had the experience of eating mostly native dishes at the hotel we were staying at. It was served first as a soup and then fried like French fries. It is a very large root plant, similar to rutabaga, with very large leaves. Soup was made from the leaves, very light, almost like spinach, and root cut up like fries, both excellent. We even had fried flying fish, not so good, tasted like shoe leather! Breadfruit served several different ways, and the nut of breadfruit boiled taste like chestnuts. In all it was a very unusual time of discovering many unusual dishes. The Dominican breakfast was the topper, smoked herring in a barbecue sauce, cod fish with tomato and onions and scrambled eggs, and Johnnie cakes, and sliced avocado and cucumber.

A great place to visit, diving Ok, not spectacular, but if you like to hike, it is just great. Rain forest, lovely waterfalls, many sight to see.

[beawr]

72. Cicadas

The 17 year variety, due here in the DC area this year

[NNN0LHI]

73. Possum

More I chewed the bigger it got.

Don

[101 Proof]

75. Nothing much here to report except...

I once ate a pound of butter in a 1/2 hour. I won $50 from a bet. :) Too bad I was hugging the toilet for the rest of the night....

[imax2268]

77. Boaconstrictor...

when I was in Phuket, Thailand...it was pretty good...

tasted like chicken...heh heh heh...

[Art_from_Ark]

78. Heck, I eat something "strange" every day

It might be fermented soybeans, or urchin-flavored rice crackers, or small fish mixed with almonds, or pickled seaweed, or squid jerky, or dumplings with pieces of octopus inside. I've also tried squid entrails called "shiokara" (disgusting), deep-fried honeybees, roasted grasshoppers, turtle soup ("supon"), and who knows what else. I have never tried "basashi" (the raw horsemeat that Lydia mentioned), but I do have a can of Godzilla brand corned horse meat sitting on my desk.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

82. I love most Japanese food, but...

some of the things that turn up on the table (especially in seaside inns) are perfectly described by one of Jimmy Stewart's lines in Rear Window: "I've eaten things that I didn't want to look at when they were alive."

[creativelcro]

79. Natto.... I ate it once at this korean/japanese place...

Never again... It is a goo-like food, which stinks like crazy (it's fermented soy, I think), and taste like crap...

I love most japanese/korean food though...
I saw may people mention squid/calamari etc. THose are delicious, even raw. Octopus and jellyfish are delicious too...

[Art_from_Ark]

84. I've never understood why people think natto stinks

It has absolutely no undesirable smell to me. I think the problem stems from Japanese hosts who say "Hey, try this natto-- it's stinky, but it's good!" and that automatically makes non-Japanese think that it stinks. I had the good fortune of trying it before anyone told me it "stinks". It is a little gooey, but hey, so is cheese on pizza.

[Blue-Jay]

80. This thread is givin' me the jibblie-jabblies

/jibbly jibbly jibbly

[Beaker]

81. a bowl full of baby octopi

they're about the size of a small mushroom, and you just pop'em in your mouth. mmmmmmmmm- baby octopus...

[creativelcro]

83. baby octopus is awesome....

I love "octopus balls", little balls made up of octopus... Yummm!

[Sugarbleus]

85. LOL, SCS--->soylent green..

1) I like Phillipine Food EXCEPT for the "blood pudding" stuff.:puke:

2) Then there was the barbequed RATTLE SNAKE. It did taste a wee bit like chicken... lol :9

[GURUving]

86. I could never get used to Curry anything

just couldn't do it.