Strange Foods

[isshinryu5toforever]

Ok, so we have a thread dedicated to strange combinations, but how about the strange foods we've eaten?

My list, in no particular order:

Lutefisk: Any Swede would likely be able to tell you about this. It's white fish, soaked in lye until it flakes, then the lye is drained, the fish is boiled, mixed with a white sauce, and served on it's own or with potatoes.

Balut: A Filipino dish. It's a partially developed duck egg. You eat the partially formed chick. The bones are soft and cartilage-y. It tastes fine as long as you don't look at what you're eating too long.

Bundaegi: Silk worm larvae, nuff said.

Mice Wine: Yeah, yeah, it happened. An old guy wanted one of us to have a drink with him, I got volunteered, drank it, then saw the little baby mice in the liquor. Not my proudest moment.

Stinky Tofu: Not that strange to me, but worth a mention. It's fermented tofu that's been fried in most cases. The pungent smell can be offputting, but overall, it's not a bad thing. I recommend giving it a shot.

Uh, I'm sure I've eaten a lot of other strange stuff traveling, but that's what sticks out in my mind right at this moment.

[sensei8]

Not me. If I can't pronounce it and/or if I don't know the english translation of what it is...I just won't eat it. I learnt that the hard way, so, I'm stubborn that way. I may not know what I'm missing and it's probably quite tasty, but, I'll just miss out on a good meal.

To each their own!

[twistkick kid]

My weird food combinations-

SPAM and rice- not as strange as I thought

octopus sushi- slimy

raw quail egg- yuck

fried tofu (not the stinky stuff)- too salty and definitely a bizarre texture

Weird stuff I've seen other people eat-

UNI- sea urchin sushi eyyyyeeew!!!

deep fried butter- can you say "heart attack waiting to happen???"

[isshinryu5toforever]

In Korea, Spam is like its own food group. They put it in so many things haha.

I thought of another one:

live octopus: You wrap it around a chopstick, kind of tie it so it can't squirm away, dip it in sauce and then chew vigorously so it doesn't try to crawl anywhere. It tastes like octopus tastes, but it tries to actively escape at first. Don't swallow too soon, or it'll use its tentacles to stick itself inside your throat.

I guess I'm kind of like Andrew Zimmerman. I'll try just about anything once, as long as I'm pretty sure it won't kill me.

[DWx]

Heh I guess a lot of what I eat is weird food. Mainly because my family's from all over the place. I'm 3rd generation Chinese but my mum grew up in Guyana so that means South American/Caribbean food and the other half of the family is German. Plus I always try things at least once.

I guess most of it is weird meat: eaten goat, pig's ears, feet, tail, beef tongue, gravlax (Swedish raw salmon), eel.. trying to think what else.

Cassava is pretty good, its a root plant, toxic if you don't cook it properly.

Anyone eaten any Indian sweets? Jalebi is really good, deep fried batter in syrup.

[twistkick kid]

Don't swallow too soon, or it'll use its tentacles to stick itself inside your throat.

How do you get it out of your throat?

[isshinryu5toforever]

Don't swallow too soon, or it'll use its tentacles to stick itself inside your throat.

How do you get it out of your throat?

Luck, some skill, often times they don't. It depends on how far down it gets stuck. That's why you need to make sure it's very well-chewed before you try to swallow it.

[Patrick]

Nice thread idea, isshinryu5toforever.

Yeah, I have to say that I have pretty much avoided "strange" foods (or the foods we'd consider strange here at KF). I can't really even think of anything.

Patrick

[JohnASE]

I don't know what weird stuff I've eaten. The one time I went to Japan, I had all kinds of weird things, but there were so many, I didn't bother asking what most of them were! I know one was a whole (dead!) baby octopus. Didn't particularly care for it, but it wasn't too creepy. Most of what I had was pretty good, but I might not have enjoyed it as much if I knew what it was.

I've never had sea urchin, but I've developed a taste for salmon egg sushi. Mostly, I eat the typical sushi-tuna, yellowtail, salmon.

I was no stranger to Spam growing up-Spam and eggs, Spam fried rice, Spam musubi (Spam sushi), Spam sandwiches. I think it's a Japanese-American thing. Not sure if it's because so many Japanese-Americans came from Hawaii (Spam is big in HI), or if it has anything to do with Japanese-Americans going to "Camp" during WWII. I still have a Spam musubi every once in a while.

As a city boy, game is strange to me. I've had elk and venison. Had to go to a fancy restaurant to get it! Not many places around here serve it. Oh, I had ostrich there, too!

I'm sure there's weirder stuff, but I can't think of anything right now.