Bizarre Foods You've Eaten

[Mary Ann]

I've seen snail served quite often, but I never hated myself so much to try them.

(More seriously, it's one of the few stuff that I can't imagine eating.)

I'm not a picky eater when it comes to fresh food, as you can probably tell. The texture of snails may not appeal to everyone, but if you're as much a garlic fan as I am you'll like the taste.

 

[iguana_tonante]

^ I like garlic, but not an overabundance of it. Still, snails... I dunno.

I have eaten the following (none of which I consider to be bizarre) (cut)

This one takes the cake.

I don't want to know what the cake is made of.

 

[thestrangequark]

Goat meat is bizarre? I'm pretty sure it's the most commonly eaten meat on the planet!

I've had snake and crocodile, which are probably the least common meats I've had. Other than that, I can't really think of anything I've eaten that's very unusual.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Goat meat is bizarre? I'm pretty sure it's the most commonly eaten meat on the planet!

Well, that I know it's not particularly common in Western countries. As I said, it's not uncommon here in Italy (even if it's not something you eat every day).

 

[Robert D. Robot]

Durian... Indonesian Stink Fruit! The King of Fruits!

I tried it, but it was pretty hard for me to stomach. Like yellowish-green custard flavored with old, half-rotten onions & garlic & leeks. It is a very neat (and dangerous!) looking fruit.

I am hoping to have another go at it sometime, but I'd like to try it fresh in Indonesia and not thawed after being frozen & flown to NYC! This might make a difference, but the thought of it still gives me a queasy feeling. I refuse to give up on it, though!

 

[Miss Chicken]

I have eaten the following (none of which I consider to be bizarre)

emu (once)
kangaroo (often)
crocodile (once)
rabbit (often as a child)
canned snails (once)
lamb's fry (liver) (often)
abalone (a couple of times)
mutton bird (mainly only eaten by New Zealanders and Tasmanians) (often as a child, couple of times as an adult)
alpaca (only a sample once)
Balmain bugs (a couple of times)
Cow tongue (as a child)
tripe (as a child)

This one takes the cake.

Not that odd if you are Australian. Kangaroo and lamb's fry are sold in supermarkets here. Kangaroo, emu and crocodile are sold at Australian-themed restaurants.

Tasmania has the largest mutton bird harvest in the world, and also harvest 25% of the world's abalone.

Balmain bugs are eaten more on the Mainland than they are in Tasmania.

I tasted alpaca at the Taste of Tasmania Festival.

 

[BillJ]

My stepmother would make me eat squirrel brains when I was a kid. Nasty.

 

[Kemaiku]

Pigeon, ostrich and rabbit.

 

[SmoothieX]

Hakarl - putrescent Icelandic shark

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Alligator, once. It was deep fried, so very tough & rubbery and tasted like a suitcase.

And Indian food, particularly a good vindaloo

 

[Gryffindorian]

The bagna cauda sounds yummy to me. I wonder if they serve it at Italian restaurants here in the States?

I forgot to mention fried or adobo frog (tastes like chicken!), snail, and chicken innards, like the gizzard and liver (neither of which I consider strange). When I was growing up abroad, and it was farming season, I always liked to eat snails cooked in coconut milk. Mmmm! Very tasty! Snail has a distinct texture similar to some shellfish (like mussels), sort of rubbery, but easy to chew on.

 

[T'Preea]

I know it's not bizarre to anyone else, but it is to me....sushi. I quite honestly don't see the appeal. I love frog legs, though. Delish.

 

[Miss Chicken]

in case anyone is interested I will tell you what the things I listed taste like

emu - lean beef
kangaroo - lean beef
abalone - like squid but sweeter
crocodile - like chicken
mutton birds - in between lamb and beef but with a hint of seafood taste. Very oily. They smell awful when being cook so I will only eat them if I buy them already cooked.
Alpaca - beef
Balmain bugs - crayfish/lobster

 

[Jono]

I've had a lot of things that would be considered unusual in Australia given I spent my youth elsewhere. I guess the most "bizarre" food I know I've eaten would be sea turtle and sea turtle eggs when I was young, though where I was it wasn't considered at all bizarre.

I've had a number of fruit and veg that isn't typical of where I live, but I guess the oddest is Betel nut...don't try it, it is terrible. That said it is sad how homogenised our fruit and veg is because I miss things like rambutan, Taro and cassava, which are very, very hard to get a hold of here.

I've had kangaroo before and I'm surprised to see bugs listed as "bizarre". I haven't had Balmain bugs because I live where our bugs are prefaced with "Moreton Bay".

 

[Roger Wilco]

Btw. I've long thought shrimps are one of the strangest food items on the planet - those tiny legs, the scales, the head full of shit. They are basically disgusting sea insects. (but yes, I do eat them too).

 

[Gov Kodos]

Btw. I've long thought shrimps are one of the strangest food items on the planet - those tiny legs, the scales, the head full of shit. They are basically disgusting sea insects. (but yes, I do eat them too).

Delicious, had them live once in Seoul, that was funky.

 

[Skellington]

I'm a pretty conservative eater. As a kid I once couldn't finish a sandwich after someone told me it was made with margarine and not butter. As it turned out, that had been a fib for the benefit of other kids who were eating the same thing and preferred margarine.

I once ate periwinkles, which I liked. That's about it. No live animals, no sweetbreads, no prairie oysters and no bushmeat.

BTW, does anyone else keep reading the thread title as "Bizarre Fools You've Eaten"?

 

[iguana_tonante]

The bagna cauda sounds yummy to me. I wonder if they serve it at Italian restaurants here in the States?

You would be better just making it yourself. It's not difficult. Sure, the smell won't get away from your walls and clothes for at least three weeks, but trust me, it's worth it.

Btw. I've long thought shrimps are one of the strangest food items on the planet - those tiny legs, the scales, the head full of shit. They are basically disgusting sea insects. (but yes, I do eat them too).

I basically agree, and yeah, I do eat them too.

 

[Shaytan]

Since it's a typical dish of Piedmont, I'm not surprised to find it has some equivalents in French and Provençal cuisine. Still... cold bagna cauda (which means "hot soup" in Piedmontese) is a contraddiction in terms.

That's why it's not called like that over here (anchoïade = a preparation made with anchovies). I'm not impressed by Italian food

I love snails in garlic butter. I used to be able to find them in a few restaurants in Toronto but have never come across them since moving to England. Judging from the reactions of people when I mention this dish it's not exactly well known here.

I don't eat snails, never wanted to, but I'm, of course, not chocked by it.
My father often kept snails in a cage to prepare them with garlic and parsley. Snails in a cage are something funny to observe.

Just to point it out, pesca (pr. peska) doesn't mean "fish". That would be pesce (pr. peshe). Pesca means either "fishing" (the activity) or, funnily enough, "peach". So, who knows what you actually ordered to the waiter.

Seafoods certainly.

I like shimps too but I'm shit at removing all the things you don't eat so I don't eat them unless I have someone good enough to prepare them forme (or someone nice enough to let me steal the one they prepared ).

Mussels have eyes and they look at me, I won't eat them

 

[trekkiedane]

The absolutely most truly bizarre things I've ever had are chicken nuggets, that brownish patty-thing they put inside most burgers, that orange thing they put in burgers when they want to call them cheese-burgers (it's akin to that insulation stuff they sell as 'spray-on cheese'), caramel flavoured soda, popcorn with sugar, rice 'cakes' (I actually thought they were packaging material the first time I saw those!), fried pig skin...

I'm sure there are lots more; I just can't think of it atm.