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Jean's pig head thread has me wondering....

 

what's the weirdest thing you've ever knowingly eaten? I say knowingly because I truly don't know what we've eaten when we've travelled out of the country. China is my biggest question. Right around the corner of where I was staying in Guanzhou (sp?) I saw bugs for sale, including scorpions, and snakes.

 

I've had sweet breads, escargot is a favorite among our entire family, tripe, sushi of all types. I just found out our local authentic Chinese restaurant has pig intestines and beef and pork tripe. I plan to try them all.

 

I'm DYING to try brain.

 

I'm not interested in trying bugs of any kind.

 

I had curried goat this year.

 

I've had Rocky Mountain Oysters, boar, ostrich, alligator, eel, snake, oysters.

 

I think I'll try just about anything that doesn't smell completely and totally foul.

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I've had crocodile. That was pretty boring, we thought. I see nothing wrong with either octopus or Vegemite, as long as they aren't served together ;) I remember eating chocolate crackles with tomato sauce once when I was a kid, and was most surprised about how well they went together. I doubt my adult self will ever need to repeat the experience, however.

 

Rosie

 

Edit: Fermented seal flipper wins.

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I've had crocodile. That was pretty boring, we thought. I see nothing wrong with either octopus or Vegemite, as long as they aren't served together ;) I remember eating chocolate crackles with tomato sauce once when I was a kid, and was most surprised about how well they went together. I doubt my adult self will ever need to repeat the experience, however.

 

Rosie

 

Edit: Fermented seal flipper wins.

 

What are chocolate crackles?

 

:-)

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I've had crocodile. That was pretty boring, we thought. I see nothing wrong with either octopus or Vegemite, as long as they aren't served together ;) I remember eating chocolate crackles with tomato sauce once when I was a kid, and was most surprised about how well they went together. I doubt my adult self will ever need to repeat the experience, however.

 

Rosie

 

Edit: Fermented seal flipper wins.

 

We tried Vegemite while studying Australia. Unfortunately it didn't have directions so we thought we should treat it like peanut butter rather than butter. We slathered a great heaping spoonful onto a tiny Ritz cracker and promptly gagged.

 

Once I tried it thinly applied, it wasn't so bad.

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What are chocolate crackles?

 

:-)

 

 

http://images.google.com/images?oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=chocolate+crackles&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=3sU6S5usHI3W7AOBiMH9BQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCIQsAQwAw

 

An essential at any children's party :)

 

And yes, Daisy, there ought to be instructions on the Vegemite jars for you poor Americans :tongue_smilie:

 

Rosie

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And yes, Daisy, there ought to be instructions on the Vegemite jars for you poor Americans

 

Actually my husband was convinced it was a cruel private joke enjoyed by Australians everywhere. Just laughing and laughing at those dumb Americans choking on their vegemite.

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What are chocolate crackles?

 

:-)

 

OMG, is that another one of our Australian oddities? Surely everyone knows what chocolate crackles are?

They are rice bubbles (surely you know what they are?) covered with copha and cocoa and icing sugar- so that they kind of glob together once set in the fridge, and you have these little mountains of chocolatey crunchy things that taste amazing. Every Australian child, probably with the exception of the many nowadays with crunchy parents who dont allow sugar, or those with certain allergies, grows up with chocolate crackles at birthday parties.

 

I can't think of anything that is especially wierd that i have eaten...maybe kangaroo meat? That tastes pretty good and its common in our supermarkets, understandably- there are lots of kangaroos and they compete with grazing land.

I am playing with eating raw and my diet is about 80-90% raw at the moment. I guess thats pretty wierd to most people. And no I am not eating raw meat with the exception of ocasional sushi. My family certainly think I am way out there, but actually, are adapting quite well.

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I grew up in HI where it was normal to eat raw fish, seaweed, dried cuttlefish, beef tripe. My mom loved tripe stew and MADE us eat it--gag! Have had octopus and squid--Hate. Not brave enough to try sea cucumber or anything like that. Tried fried rabbit and it *did* taste like fried chicken. Also tried snake--not a nice fat rattler, but a scrawny pine snake. ICK! Did not taste like chicken, it tasted like . . . SNAKE!

 

 

Cinder

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I can't believe I'm putting this on a public forum, but...

I have an uncle...we don't talk much about him...and once...he ran over a...snapping turtle...so we had...

Turtle Booyah. That's right - I popped my "b" as I pronounced it. That's "soup" for all you folk who don't know what booyah is. Cooked in a burning barrel. Stirred with a broken boat paddle. Can you say "YeeHaw"?

Tasted a lot like chicken, though. :D

 

Had a similar incident with snake and another uncle that we don't talk much about (they are brothers, you know)...

Edited by LauraGB
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I had frog legs as a kid. Some restaurant buffet thing, I just remember them being coated - like deep fried maybe?

 

Periwinkles years back, at the beach. My mother's boyfriend's father would boil 'em up and we'd pick the tiny bit out with a stick.

 

Clover plants. Or whatever they were. The purple things you can suck "honey" out of... ? We called them clovers, but I'm thinking they might be something else..

 

Tree sap - don't listen to your brother who tells you "the Indians chewed it because they didn't have gum" (don't anyone go getting offended, we were kids and that's pretty much an exact quote)

 

Dandelion soup - this is another that falls under don't, but this one applies to reading something in a book and thinking you can just boil them in salted water and eat them. YUCK. [i was 9?]

 

Dulse - now this, I love. Not so strange to east coasters, but I get some strange looks out here when I mention loving it. [from people who eat buffalo, I might add!]

 

Outside of those, my 'weird food' stays mainly in the area of I put ketchup on everything. Parsnips, asparagus, popcorn, pretzels, pizza, brussels sprouts. If it's food, it tends to get ketchuped. Yes, it's a verb in my house. ;)

 

Hubby's weirdest was cow tongue.

 

My mother's CL hubby is fond of this ~ I will never forget the morning I was rummaging through her fridge, not long after he moved in, and opened an innocent looking plastic container. GAH!!! Way to traumatize your new stepdaughter. :ack2:

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Oh hey, I grew up on frog legs. I don't even consider that weird. We used to go gigging and get ourselves a mess of frogs for breakfast.

My sister made them..... we watched in amazement as they danced around the frying pan. They tasted like rubber and my dad ended up making them can-can across the table (and off into the trash) so my sister wouldn't feel so terrible. I don't know what she was thinking, she was just a teen and it was definitely ambitious.

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I think I'll try just about anything that doesn't smell completely and totally foul.

 

:ack2: You've gone and lost your mind. Quick! Go look for it.

 

I don't eat weird foods as a rule, knowingly that is.

 

:iagree:

 

I'm well-known among my friends for my pickiness and lack of culinary risk taking.

 

I tried caviar when I was a teen, which is probably the weirdest thing I've tried. Calamarie is strange to some people but we like it. I've eaten, and puked, on stuffed grape leaves...again as a teen.

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We tried Vegemite while studying Australia. Unfortunately it didn't have directions so we thought we should treat it like peanut butter rather than butter. We slathered a great heaping spoonful onto a tiny Ritz cracker and promptly gagged.

 

Once I tried it thinly applied, it wasn't so bad.

 

:lol:

 

 

I'm not an Aussie, but I love me some Vegemite. :D

 

[and Marmite ~ but dare I mention both in the same post?]

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I can't believe I'm putting this on a public forum, but...

I have an uncle...we don't talk much about him...and once...he ran over a...snapping turtle...so we had...

Turtle Booyah. That's right - I popped my "b" as I pronounced it. That's "soup" for all you folk who don't know what booyah is. Cooked in a burning barrel. Stirred with a broken boat paddle. Can you say "YeeHaw"?

Tasted a lot like chicken, though. :D

 

Had a similar incident with snake and another uncle that we don't talk much about (they are brothers, you know)...

 

ROFLOL.....sorry that your uncle got ran over and eaten LOL....I can see why you don't talk about it LOL

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Mince Meat Pie (I know that's debatable, but I think it's wierd, even if I did enjoy it)

 

You know, thats another Australian icon- the mince meat pie- smothered in tomato sauce, which is what we call ketchup. Most of us grew up on them, and many people live on them even today. Amazing but true. They are available in every corner store. You dont want to think too deeply though about what's actually inside them.

In fact, it was very confusing to me that English mince pies had fruit in them.

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Actually my husband was convinced it was a cruel private joke enjoyed by Australians everywhere. Just laughing and laughing at those dumb Americans choking on their vegemite.

 

He was correct :rofl:

 

I am playing with eating raw and my diet is about 80-90% raw at the moment. I guess thats pretty wierd to most people. And no I am not eating raw meat with the exception of ocasional sushi. My family certainly think I am way out there, but actually, are adapting quite well.

I'd like to hear how you're doing with that, if you want to share.

 

Outside of those, my 'weird food' stays mainly in the area of I put ketchup on everything. Parsnips, asparagus, popcorn, pretzels, pizza, brussels sprouts. If it's food, it tends to get ketchuped. Yes, it's a verb in my house. ;)

 

I do not have words to describe how dreadful that is... :svengo: Except the brussel sprouts. That's the only way we could ever eat Mum's brussel sprouts as kids because she always over cooked them :ack2: You know, you are now below Aubrey on my foodie respect list. :tongue_smilie:

 

:lol:

I'm not an Aussie, but I love me some Vegemite. :D

[and Marmite ~ but dare I mention both in the same post?]

 

No you may not! Marmite is poisonous! Not like Vegemite, which is a good and wholesome food, providing you discount the salt and artificial colours...

 

Uh, what's wrong with putting mince in pies? I agree with Peela that Four 'n' Twenty pies (the ones she is talking about) are conceivably made from road kill, but in theory, what could be wrong with minced beef in pies? Mm. Now I fancy a Shepard's Pie. (Not made from shepards, just so you know ;) )

 

Rosie

Edited by Rosie_0801
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You know, thats another Australian icon- the mince meat pie- smothered in tomato sauce, which is what we call ketchup. Most of us grew up on them, and many people live on them even today. Amazing but true. They are available in every corner store. You dont want to think too deeply though about what's actually inside them.

In fact, it was very confusing to me that English mince pies had fruit in them.

 

 

My Canadian Husband, before I met him, just after he came to Australia, Walked by a corner shop and saw a sign for hot pies, he thought "apple pie", and bought one, he was very surprised when he bit into it.:lol::lol:

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I've eaten squirrel, rabbit, deer, elk, caribou, buffalo, and dandelion greens.

 

I found out on these boards that I may have eaten dog when I lived in Okinawa, but if so, that was accidental. There was a teriyaki stand just outside Kadena AB where apparently some of the beef was actually dog.

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When we were stationed in Scotland, I ate haggis, even knowing what it was. (Lungs, liver and other assorted organs minced with onions, spices and boiled in a sheep's stomach.) A Scottish friend's mother made it, and it was surprisingly tasty...it reminded me somewhat of breakfast sausage here in the states.

 

There's probably a reason for that. I mean, who knows what's really chopped up in sausage, ya know? LOL

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Let's see..

 

escargot

fried gator tail

caviar

shark

kimchi

seaweed

some sort of ball made from a gelatinous rice-flour mixture with something sweet in it (Korean)

 

I don't think calamari is weird; we eat it whenever we can, including usually on Christmas with lasagna.

 

Wendi

Edited by Wendi
accidentally posted before I finished
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I was just discussing this with dh and he reminded me that we also ate bear, ala another uncle. Then he proceeded to remind me that *I* (not him, because my family is wierd - not his :lol:) ate squirrel, rabbit, pheasant, goose, duck and either moose or elk - we forget which.

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:ack2: You've gone and lost your mind. Quick! Go look for it.

 

 

 

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

I'll add octopus, squid, sea cucumber, frog legs and caviar to my list of things I've had.

:D

 

oooh, and pheasant, dandelion greens, TONS of seaweed and many different varieties...

 

My mind? I haven't had that for a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. Food poisoning?

;)

Edited by Denisemomof4
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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've also eaten horse meat in Japan. It is called Sakura meat (cherry blossom meat) and it is served raw.

 

I've eaten dried squid and cuttle fish - yummy!

 

I've eaten raw octopus - I chewed for probably ten minutes before someone leaned over and told me to just swallow!

 

I've eaten stuff at my MILs that I still haven't asked the ingredients. . .

 

oh yeah - I recently ate a pig's head!

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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've also eaten horse meat in Japan. It is called Sakura meat (cherry blossom meat) and it is served raw.

 

I've eaten dried squid and cuttle fish - yummy!

 

I've eaten raw octopus - I chewed for probably ten minutes before someone leaned over and told me to just swallow!

 

I've eaten stuff at my MILs that I still haven't asked the ingredients. . .

 

oh yeah - I recently ate a pig's head!

 

 

where on earth do you buy balut? I've seen it and that's one thing I won't try.

 

You're pretty adventuresome, Jean! The pig's head should have been like eating a hot dog for you! :D

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where on earth do you buy balut? I've seen it and that's one thing I won't try.

 

 

 

We have a really active China town/ International District where you can get all sorts of weird stuff.

 

I went to a Vietnamese super market here to buy chicken's feet for a science experiment. They were located right next to the duck heads.:eek:

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We have a really active China town/ International District where you can get all sorts of weird stuff.

 

I went to a Vietnamese super market here to buy chicken's feet for a science experiment. They were located right next to the duck heads.:eek:

 

Did you buy 'em to eat the tongues? :tongue_smilie::lol:

 

I've had shark too. I remember it being really tasty. Sea urchin, not so much.

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when I was in China, one night the hotel had a "Western Buffet." I had been there for over a week and couldn't WAIT to eat some food from home!

 

There was this lovely buffet with salads, smoked salmon (so I thought, it was sushi) lots of desserts...... I couldn't wait to dig in. I opened the lid of the first chafing dish and what was inside? DUCK HEADS. LOTS of duck heads. I almost fainted.

 

Didn't try them. The shock of it all made me lose my appetite.

:lol:

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when I was in China, one night the hotel had a "Western Buffet." I had been there for over a week and couldn't WAIT to eat some food from home!

 

There was this lovely buffet with salads, smoked salmon (so I thought, it was sushi) lots of desserts...... I couldn't wait to dig in. I opened the lid of the first chafing dish and what was inside? DUCK HEADS. LOTS of duck heads. I almost fainted.

 

Didn't try them. The shock of it all made me lose my appetite.

:lol:

 

:lol::lol: Oh dear!! I'm glad I'm reading this at night and not with my morning coffee!! :lol::lol:

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Was it good? I love Vegemite, especially mixed with cream cheese. yum!

 

 

I would eat Vegemite ice cream before I'd eat duck heads, but really it was disgusting.

 

You're pretty adventuresome, Jean! The pig's head should have been like eating a hot dog for you! :D

 

Yeah! After the Vegemite ice cream, hot dogs are probably the weirdest things I've eaten. Ew. Who knows what they put in them!

 

:lol:

Rosie

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You're pretty adventuresome, Jean!

 

The thing is, I'm really not very adventuresome. I'm just too polite for my own good!:lol:

 

Like the time I went to a Chinese restaurant with two Chinese couples who wanted to support our ministry. They were so kind in ordering up all these specialties. Most were normal like cashew chicken. But they served bitter melon which is (as it sounds) soooooo bitter. I hate it! But no, I had to eat a bit out of politeness. They were so thrilled that I ate some that they ordered another dish of it!

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I don't think I've eaten anything weird. Although I'm rethinking my "weird" in light of the mention of mince pies and chocolate crackles (made them for Christmas) as weird. :rofl:

I'm sure I've eaten cat and dog in China and I know I've eaten frogs legs in Malaysia. Offal is normal at our house. I did use Kangaroo for a while there but the family moaned too much so it was back to beef.

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You know, thats another Australian icon- the mince meat pie- smothered in tomato sauce, which is what we call ketchup. Most of us grew up on them, and many people live on them even today. Amazing but true. They are available in every corner store. You dont want to think too deeply though about what's actually inside them.

In fact, it was very confusing to me that English mince pies had fruit in them.

I thought drowning things in ketchup/catsup was an American past time :p

 

I was speaking about the desert mince meat, the one with fruit... who'm I kidding? I have no idea what's in it, it came in a jar and I dumped it between some pie crusts. It was very flavorful :lol:

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