I don't think I've ever mentioned here that the first date A. and I ever went on was to the Ostrich Festival in Chandler, AZ. Appropriate, considering the wide variety of festivals and fairs A. has hauled me to over the years since. Also appropriate because it was there that I ate ostrich, which is on my list of Odd Foods I Have Eaten.
It is no coincidence that all my Odd Foods have been courtesy of A. I wasn't a very adventurous eater; I'm still not, actually, when left to my own devices. But A. delights in the strange and faintly gross. As you might remember. Anything meat-related, he's down for. It is due to A.'s fascination with trying what Anthony Bourdain termed "the nasty bits" that I have eaten lamb tongue, deer heart, octopus, squirrel, and liver*.
ANYWAY.
You've been missing your Audience Participation Days, haven't you? You feel the need to talk to me, don't you? I thought so. So tell me, duckies: What's the weirdest food you've ever eaten?
* Okay, so liver's not really weird, but I do count it in the Gross category.
25 comments:
Rattlesnake & bear (not at the same time).
I commend you for eating octopus. I can do sashimi, but whenever I see the octopus with the little suckers still attached...*shudder*
Brain tacos. In Mexico. Once.
Dried and crinkle cut smoked squid on a stick in Thailand. Street food at its best (not really)!
-Bear, Elk, Venison, Rabbit, Moose, etc.
-Escargot
-Kopi Luwac coffee
-Head Cheese
-Eel
-Sea Urchin
Most of those are pretty common now, though. I don't feel quite so adventurous anymore. I liked all of them except the urchin. Looked like dog poo.
I eat so many things average folks consider weird. The only thing that I think of as really odd is still my mother's pickled pigs feet I first tried when I when I was a kid.
I'm with jiveturkey on the octopus but not because of the suckers; I'm very nervous about eating anything that might very well be smarter than I am. I've seen that Nature program where the little octopus learns to open the jar the get the sea urchin by watching the octopus in the next tank.
Woodchuck.... don't bother, it's pretty bad. At least the one I tried 35 yrs ago. I bet they still taste just as bad today. They smell pretty disgusting cooking too.
Squirrel, venison, rabbit, pheasant, wild turkey, all good. Woodchuck, bad. Really, really bad.
I'm looking for spring and dandelion greens and wild leeks. Those sound pretty good right now.
Octopus is the strangest for me. I will leave the nasty bits for A.
Nothing really odd, but I would say that the most nasty thing I ever tasted was steamed okra. But I was a child, and the memory has haunted me ever since.
I can count ostrich and octopus on the list. Uni is also up there as a pretty weird experience! I love that he took you to an Ostrich festival- that is classic =).
Buffalo
Bear, beaver, wild boar, deer, squirrel, possum, turtle ... and pie. All at one event.
Word verification: ungons -- the sound I made when I tried to stand up after that meal.
Duck blood soup (90% straight duck blood)
All sorts of unidentified meat in Asia, God only knows...
Rattlesnake
Gooeyduck
Placenta (ha! just kidding)
Octopus is not weird -- calamari is yummmmers!
My recollection of duck blood soup is that I didn't really like it much. Woodchuck can be a problem because of the grease. The hot fat literally drips out of the meat. Maybe grilling woodchuck over charcoal would help, but that is an experiment best left for A. The small snake that my brother pulled out a hay bale after we baled it up proved quite full of little bones after he fried it up but otherwise was palatable.
I couldn't think of anything till someone mentioned pickled pigs feet. Yes, when I was a child , I too tried those. Beth
word verification nonesse
what the tourists said after looking out over Loch Ness.
"Hundred year old" duck eggs--actually only a few months old. Very salty, sorta greenish. Not terrible. A lot of unidentifiable things in Indonesia.
(word verification: actoxis...a condition caused by eating many of the things mentioned here.)
We grilled a woodchuck once at summer camp. It tasted like something the dog dragged in. I expect that marinating woodchuck in an acidic brine would improve it. I believe one should soak the bejesus out of it, in fact. Better yet, take the plastic and go out for dinner. A's rabbits, on the other hand, are very nice indeed. The dogs aren't quick to eat woodchuck. Rabbit they wolf down. Tells you something!
squirrel and wild rabbits and pheasants all caught fresh and cooked the same day i a pot of beans with flitters on the side - i grew up with those - but the STRANGEST thing I ever ate (that I can remember) was a turtle sandwich. White bread - greasy slices of turtle meat - 100 degree day.
Not recommended :) Just sayin'.
Strangest thing i ever ate is escargot, and rabbit soup. Calamari isn't so strange since it's fried. *grin*
No, wierd foods to report, Kristin, I'm just concerned about you guys with a newborn and now this nasty storm is coming. Stay safe!
I agree with sweetbird; a lot of the things that would have been considered "exotic" or weird when I was a kid are fairly commonplace now... probably mostly because sushi is so commonplace now. Octopus, squid, rattlesnake, buffalo, various roes, alligator...all things I once would have classified as weird.
However... when my daughter and I were in China a couple of years ago, we were served this odd, gray, slimy...stuff. When we asked the waitress (who only spoke about 5 words of English, and we only spoke about 5 words of Chinese) what it was, she SAID it was fish skin. We each took one piece to be polite and a couple of us actually put the pieces in our mouths, but I don't think any of us managed to chew and swallow it. I still shudder thinking about it.
I ate alligator at a cajun restaurant one time. Seriously, it's so chewy it took me 10 minutes to get one bite down.
p.s. was in upstate NY this weekend (around the Chatham area) and it was super cold! Got back to Texas and it was 70. Now we're under a freeze watch. :/
Seal oil.
Cow intestine was the grossest. Blood Sausage (or morcilla) was the weirdest. I didn't categorize it as gross because it is absolutely delicious. I ate them both while visiting my bf's family in Argentina. Beautiful. :)
Congrats on the Cub! Glad to read you are all doing well!
Aunt Krissy's seal oil reminded me that I have eaten muktuk (bowhead whale skin and blubber) tidbits served as appetizers.
Oh,duck's blood soup! I graduated from a small college run by a Polish order of nuns who cooked our food. They couldn't resist throwing in some Polish delicacies every now and then. DBS was one of them and I got the recipe too! Cut the head off a duck and hold it upside down over the pan....
The memory lasted longer than the meal.
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