What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten?

[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.

[Guest Lorna]

haggis, blood sausage, monk fish

 

:001_huh:

 

Hey, this is our regular diet in Scotland!

[MomofSeven]

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.

[Guest 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.

[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:

[Storm Bay]

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. :)

Edited May 14, 2009 by Natalieclare

[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.

Edited May 14, 2009 by LizzyBee

[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 ;)