Strangest chow you've eaten?

[anon646]

Okay, so I'm just trying to get a sense of the wackiest, most off beat chow anyone has eaten. I don't want to use the word "weird" because "weird" is subjective.

Mine actually was eel intestine, by accident when I was in Tokyo. Was not pleasant.

What about you guys?

[thew]

iin the hills of northern thailand living with the tribal chief they threw something on the fire they said was like a potato. and it was kinda like a dry flakey potato.

i asked him to show me an uncooked one

raw it was a stick

[LordOfTheGrill]

Most recently: chapuline -- roast grasshoppers.
All time: Thiet chanh viet (sp?) -- Vietnamese duck's blood pizza.

[jentami]

Grilled whale, reindeer, wild rabbit on a stick, gator tacos, ostrich.

[gratefulchow]

Baby camel heart

[KariAnneATL]

While in Finland, I had Reindeer Pizza with smoked reindeer on top of it. It was actually very good, very strong. We then went to Lapland and saw the reindeer in person, then bought lots of Poro snacks (reindeer jerky) that my youngest brother's friends still beg for.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Oh well, here we go again: balut, carabao knuckles, chicken feet, horse, dog, sparrows, ants, rice field rats, roasted whole cow head, grubs, deep fried adults (bugs) of white grubs, snake, sun dried pork fat, capybara, kudu, impala, wildebeeste, ostrich, dik dik, gnu, small live fish in the southern Philippines, pirania, smoked lung, dinaguan, assorted testicular matter, marinated but not cooked beef heart, live octopus, ...

[ekammin]

Seal flipper pie. It's a well-known delicacy in Newfoundland, although I found it a bit greasy.

[Kelli2006]

I love Durian fruit

spit roasted goat is amazing

I tried fried grasshoppers and ants on a taco.

we had to sample rocky mountain oysters in grade school. (rural kids will know what they are)

Elk or buffalo jerky is very good, but buffalo burgers are my favorite.

Ive had rattlesnake and turtle soup and fried gator.

[maplesugar]

I assume "rocky mountain oysters" are the same as prairie oysters? ie: Bull nuts? If so, you don't have to be rural to know what those are. Although I can't say they're on my top ten list of things to eat again- sober anyway ;)

[Kelli2006]

You are very correct. They are the testicles from castrated cattle.

[maplesugar]

lol They're a "delicacy" here in Calgary - particularly in bars during Stampede.

[Joobu]

Shirako at Tsukiji
白子, literally "white children", i.e. fish sperm. I'd do it again.

[Polecat]

My Korean trifecta: Dog (stringy grayish beef mixed with greens that are not unlike broccoli rabe in look and texture), live octopus (clingy and delicious) and a dixie cup full of brown worms that looked like Troglodytes.

Horse sashimi at an onsen hotel in Kitakatta, Japan. Without question, the one strange food that I've tried that truly turned my stomach was Motsu Nabe, a popular Japanese staple which I had one drunken night under an elevated train in the Ueno section of Tokyo. Perhaps, someday, I will aquire a taste for this brown, smelly stew, made out of cow intestines and various veggies, but I'll have to down quite a few glasses of sake beforehand. Impression upon first try: raw sewage in a bowl.

Right here in NYC: Cow Penis (Ushi no chin-chin) at Kenka in the East Village (nothing to write home about), Alligator at Shun Lee Dynasty, across from Lincoln Center, and some very tasty ram testicles at Rego Park's Cheburechnaya.

If there is such a thing as karmic justice, I will begin my next life charred and crispy, between two slices of bread.

[pikawicca]

Frogs' legs and kangaroo steak I love. I'm quite sure that I was served dog or cat in a Chinese restaurant in Bury St. Edmonds, England years ago -- it was supposed to be pork. The goat eyeball at a "goat grab" in the desert outside of Riyadh was pretty strange. Oddly, of all the foods mentioned here, the one I absolutely would not eat is raw chicken. Never!

[ML8000]

Musk Ox steak, not really strange but unusual. Gamey beef really.

[designerboy01]

Silk worm caccoons and worms baked in eggs. The latter one was pretty good.

[the_best_darn_cook]

I've had frog legs, which to me are the most disgusting thing I have EVER tasted. BLECH!

one of my freinds was on Fear Factor and she ate a whole bull nose. I can only imagine how NASTY that was.....

[Hapa Dude]

Beef Spleen Sandwich. Motivated by Anthony Bourdain, I had this delicacy at a Foccaciaria in Sicily. The thinly sliced, stewed pieces of spleen were a dark grey. The flavor was very beefy, but there were still some very chewey arteries/veins in it.

I've also eaten rattlesnake & alligator. Both taste like chicken!

^To the person way above who ate jellyfish - it's fairly common in Chinese cuisine and I think it is pretty good!

[welle]

Twizzlers and Hershey's kisses - neither taste anything like what they claim to be: strawberries or chocolate.

[serious]

In Djenne, Mali, had a dish that incorporated sand..

[StriperGuy]

I've been to Djenne... sand? I ate all sort of things in Mali, including a piece of delicious river fish, but sand.

[Daphna101]

I love sushi, however, after trying sea urchin..not under the influence...and under the influence..I still cant stomach it. I know it is a delicacy, but I think it resembles an oyster that sat in the sun for a long time, but instead of going hard from being cooked, it went nasty and slimy..sorry..

and cant stomach the raw egg yolk either.

[long_ballers]

tripe soup. disgusting.

[Will Owen]

One of our finest old recipes is Philadelphia Pepper Pot, a tripe soup, which I ate as a child and still love. And braised tripe, and fried tripe, and tripe sausage...

[mielimato]

i love tripe. they make great mondongo at the Cafe Internacional which is dominican restaraunt in the Upper West Side. dim sum tripe with ginger and black bean sauce. pho with thin slices of tripe. callos madrilenos with spicy chorizo and blood sausage. mmmmmmm. i've never had fried tripe but that sounds good too.

[chef poncho]

I'm also a tripe lover. Childhood memory. I still love slow roasted goat head with lots of garlic and crusty bread. Told the story of eating these at a holy communion while in cooking school and nearly had the instructor pass out.

I used to make a pig face butter to finish some pasta dishes (not vegetarians)as they went to the dining room. It was delicious. Especially with braised duck tongues.

[mielimato]

wow, pig face butter. what is that exactly?

[designerboy01]

Pig face butter...please tell us more!

[LT from LF]

Ooooo...I'd love a big dish o'tripe right now....

[catfood]

Giraffe and zebra at a Kenyan version of a Brazilian steakhouse. The giraffe was a bit stringy and tough, but the zebra was surprisingly good. That meal also included wildebeast (gamey), ostrich and crocodile (tastes like alligator) among some other things.

[ML in Naperville IL]

Sounds like The Carnivore, where my wife dined once in Nairobi. She ate gazelle ("Tasted like chicken"). Drew the line at giraffe.

I savor chow as much as the next hound, but I'm not Fear Factor material. I'm still reeling from back in '99 at Yankee Stadium when some dummy served me sauerkraut, along with the peppers and onions on my italian sausage ...

[mielimato]

sheep's head, in the cross-section so you could see the teeth and eye sockets.

obviously there is not a lot of meat. you eat the tongue, brain and the cheek.

it was ok, not great.

[chaz]

How 'bout unborn calf? Thank God only served but not actually eaten. Fortuneately asked what it was before digging in.

[AquaW]

Personally - probably chicken beans/testicles (as noted above) and no, I didn't figure out what they were till later (and have ceased eating them since.)

But I had a co-worker who said "squirrel brains" (and he had to think a while about it... which makes me wonder what other oddities he's consumed before.)

And I also had a friend's dad who mistakenly consumed Beggin Strips (much like this guy: http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/... ) -- "Dogs don't know it's not bacon" ... and apparently dads don't know it's a dog treat.

[Robert Lauriston]

The New Yorker had a long article about squirrel brains a while back. Apparently they're a traditional dish in Kentucky and thereabouts.

[PicklingJessica]

Most of the weirdest stuff I've eaten has been in Asia. Dog meat, fermented beans, sea urchins. For the most part I have simply closed my eyes and chewed. I quickly realised, especially after eating dog meat, that what you can and can't eat is really about cultural values. Now I gobble just about anything, with the exception of offal, particularly tripe. One day I hope to be able to eat my way through the inner regions of China bordering Tibet and in Tibet itself. Until then I will occasionally snack on bbq:ed chicken feet.

[Leper]

I was stationed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey for six months. One evening mess hall meal, served on a stainless steel 5 compartment tray, was so weird looking I ran back and got my camera. That was 30 years ago. Since then, other than the slice of bread on the tray, absolutely no one has been able to identify the 5 other items on the tray--including me after I ate it. Now, every time I watch "Eating Raoul", I get really nervous.

[JMF]

Can you post that photo online for us?

[Midlife]

Very old, tiny sushi bar.... in Osaka. Taken there by a business associate who was also a local restaurant critic. This was supposedly the oldest such establishment in the city.

Chef's wife brings live prawn from an aquarium and chef beheads, shells, butterflys, then places prawn on top of rice pad for me. Sounds normal so far.

I dip prawn in wasabi, then place whole thing in mouth.... up to the tail joint. H-m-m-m-m. As my teeth sever the tail, the tail proceeds to 'convulse'involuntarily. I guess the prawn was indeed fresh.

[ricepad]

That's called "odori" (lit. 'dance'), for the way the prawn dances in your mouth. If you had waited a few more seconds (10-15), the effect would have been lost, and it would have been nothing more than a plain ol' raw shrimp.

[kimmer1850]

Fried muskrat at Faidley's Seafood in Lexington market in Baltimore, MD. I kid you not...it's a huge seller.

[Zengarden]

While travelling through Queensland, I had kangaroo. It might not be exotic to the locals but I thought that this would be the only place in the world where I could have it, so I did.

It tastes like a high grade steak. The smell of it cooking is apparently not great but yum, this was a lovely meal.

[jesi1882]

I made ricotta cheese out of the milk that I used to leech the blood and impurities out of a lobe of foie gras. it was pretty bad. i tried to order ducks feet in thailand but they were out, so i had a raw fermented pork sausage(i got trichinosis from it, for real)

[frankiii]

Ponce, which is kind of like Cajub haggis, is pretty off-putting but then again maybe heavly salted pig stomach appeals to some people

[frankiii]

i had a newspaper funnel of curried grasshoppers in Oaxaca. Not too bad, not too good either. The goat head soup i had there too was pretty interesting, but i guess not that strange in comparison. I say the grasshopper were curred but it was more like paprika was sprinkled on them after they were cooked (fried i think). The wings had a strange texture.

[Robert Lauriston]

The Oaxacan fried grasshoppers I had in Guadalajara were great, vaguely like crayfish. I'd go out of my way to eat those again.

Ant eggs at the same joint were significantly weirder.

[YYZSolly]

Dog in Shanghai (lots of it, in a special dog restaurant...it was remarkably fatty, actually) AND grasshoper fajitas at a pretty mainstream place in Mexico City. Tasty, but the grasshopper exoskeletons DO NOT digest...makes for a rough next morning.

[nicki]

I was offered rat fire-roasted on a stick in a remote village of Chiang mai, Thailand. I declined,though..

[KTFoley]

I imagine that most folks who fish might like to land a couple pan-sized ones and grill 'em up for lunch that day.

When it's piranha in the Amazonian jungle, and the tackle of choice is bits of raw chicken stuck on a safety pin, somehow that is a little less lyrical than Brad Pitt flyfishing for trout in "A River Runs Through It."

I imagine that most folks who try new food might like to sample it several different ways and see which one pleases them the most.

When it's a seven-foot rattlesnake that was trapped on the grounds of your basecamp and, since no herpetologists were answering their phones, had to be destroyed by chopping off the head with a machete -- and then it STILL wouldn't die -- then the prospect of baked broiled bbq'd and fried is slightly less delectable.

I imagine that most folks who care about food might like to see themselves as sympathetically aligned with the goodness of slow-food movements, authentic cuisines, heritage ingredients and the like.

When the authentic presentation of earth-roasted cuy (guinea pig) is to serve it whole, featuring shriveled legs ending in curved sharp nails plus the unmistakeably rhodent-like teeth, the fact that it wins the local/organic/traditional trifecta is completely overshadowed by its kinship with a rat.

[limster]

I think there was a New Yorker aritcle that once described a restaurant in Guangzhou that specialized in rat dishes.

[KTFoley]

Yaaagghh.

Got to confess, I had to give the dish to my dining companion. He cut off a piece of meat and handed me it to me on a fork while I faced in a totally different direction. Got that out of the way, and then contented myself with corn and various potatoes that were roasted in the same earthen pit. George enjoyed his two-for-one.

It did not taste like chicken. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[steinpilz]

Hahaha. BTW, that bat dish just above sounds mighty tasty.

[Robert Lauriston]

I remember that New Yorker article. I think there were two competing rat specialty restaurants across the street from one another.

[eastvillagegirl]

I had a baked bat dish in Sulawaysi, Indonesia.
Fried grub patties and different fried waterbugs and insects in Northen Thailand.
Yak, made any and every way you can think of, when I drove from Lhasa, Tibet to Khatmandu, Nepal. Trust me--I never want to taste yak again!

[j2brady]

This might not have the same 'ugh'-factor as chicken sashimi but some of the stranger (clearly from a ethnocentric perspective) items I have had are:

Marinated beef hearts (from a great Peruvian in TO)
Jellied Eel from the Thames in London, England
Pickled pigs feet

and I enjoyed them all!

[Wineman]

Though not really "strange" (as most of the above) I had nuoc mam in Vietnam. With rice. It looked like thin soy sauce but with strings and/or bits of fish floating in it. It was very stong smelling and would almost take your breath away. I don't see how it could be served in a restaurant. Nothing like the mild versions of fish sauce we see here.

[gsw]

when I was a kid the neighbor kid next door routinely ate dog biscuits.

I thought I was an adventurous eater, but after reading you guys, I feel very sheltered.

[fara]

Syre, Can you elaborate? I thought chicken sashimi was fairly common in Japan.

[Syre]

Chicken sashimi in a restaurant in Tokyo that served a particular famous variety of chicken in a banquet of about 30 different preparations.

Even my Japanese hosts looked shocked and sceptical when it was brought to our table.

[steinpilz]

My experience isn't nearly as fun as what I've read here (I've got to get to Asia):

cow brains in germany
random fish innards by morimoto (tastes like cat food?)
those tiny sushi crabs (crunchy)
horsemeat in europe
polish blood soup (tastes like a penny)
haggis in Wales
raw shad roe sashimi
pigs feet (not too exotic but I didn't like the texture)

I knew a guy in middle school who would eat a green inchworm for 50c and a black one for $1, he did a good business on the bus to school until his family moved to Algeria (he probably had some real fun there).

[ML8000]

I knew a guy in college who would eat live cockroachs for $20+ bucks. Part of the "show" was watching them crawl around in his mouth before the crunching began. It was sort of parlor trick but I suspect when he needed quick cash the trick would be dusted off.

[kerwintoronto]

I've run thru the typical Asian foods but I was wondering if anyone in this thread knew the proper name for those grubs that come out of the rice paddies in SE Asia? They look like a centipede (lots of legs) and it I believe they come out on a full moon or something like that. In Cantonese I think they are alled 'Waugh Chung'...'Rice Paddy/Field' 'Insects' or a translation close to that.

I've had them in a Chinese quiche and also stir-fried.

[toodie jane]

only offbeat to my gringo palate, but cueritos (pickled pigs skin) in a tostada--it was all I could do to choke it down, as I'm not a fan of vinegary things and the visual texture was very odd to me.

Had a horsemeat burger in Morocco and it was strong but OK.

Sort of a gelatinous, oozy soybean preparation at a sushi bar. very salty, and texture of snot. ugh.

You guys are brave eating the live seafood!

[Robert Lauriston]

cold natto

dried horsemeat salad

frozen beef salad with pears

spleen sandwich

tacos de asinos

tacos de excamoles (Oaxacan ant eggs)

stew of cockscombs, sweetbreads, boned duck's tongues, & blood sausag

dried lamb testicle hotpot

garlic ice cream

suet pudding with chocolate pork blood gelato

bacon ice cream

[Robert Lauriston]

Thinking more about this, cold natto's in a class by itself. Everything else was good enough to eat again.

[Ellen]

1. Fermented mare's milk in a herder's tent in Outer Mongolia.
2. Ragout of duck testicles along with other duck offal at Laboratorio in DC. Quite yummy actually.
3. Alligator and rattlesnake.
4. And didn't everyone try dog food when they were a kid?

[Dommy]

I worked for a pet food company in my consulting days, and on occassion, we'd taste some of the food off the line, dry and wet. It's not so bad... a little bland, meaty and dense (especially the biscuits)

--Dommy!

[chefinthecity]

i love both alligator AND rattlesnake. Tough but great flavor.

[kare_raisu]

i think that calpico (japanese drink) is derived from that mongolian drink though not sure

[Hunicsz]

Also meant to mention it's called "cuy" locally & is quite the delicacy.

[Hunicsz]

Roast guinea pig, in the Andes in Ecuador. Actually quite tasty, although not a lot of meat.

[davinagr]

Ethiopian Food

[fara]

Yeah really. I don't understand that cuisine at all. Requires a completely different palate than mine (and I'm otherwise very open to anything).
And there's always one in every college town!

[janethepain]

Asian cuisine gets a bad rap for featuring "odd" ingredients, but I have to say, the Brits and Scots have their share of weird s#*t. Haggis? Mashed up organ meats in an organ pouch? Jellied eels?? I love eel, but not when it's cold and in gelatinous ooze.

[melly]

fried bull balls...but that seems very tame compared to all of the above!

i ate a cigarette butt when I was a kid..does that count?

[wayne keyser]

Asian/Hispanic market...

Frozen bull penis, Canned Iguana.

[Low Country Jon]

Not the strangest thing I've ever eaten, but since it hasn't been mentioned yet: kangaroo. It pretty much tasted like beef.

[Snackish]

Why are the weirdest foods uniformly animal products?

I ate an Odwalla bar that was certainly the most unpleasant thing I have ever put in my mouth...spongy and the flavor of terrible chewable vitamins.

Also some leaves that the Chinese ladies at Farmer's market just described as "Spring Herb." Gave my mouth the oddest buzzy/numb sensation.

[jennjen18]

Whoa, be careful of what herbs you put in your mouth. Some can be potent. Some can have chemical reactions if taken together, or with certain foods. Ask before putting any herbs in your mouth!

[missclaudy]

Whale sperm at a slow food event in Genoa called Slow Fish. It was spongy and strange and sorta flavorless.

[Honeychan]

I shudder to think just HOW one procures whale sperm?! There's one job i'd refuse to do, no matter how much I was paid for the effort.

[beer786]

emu but i dont think its really that strange.

[swindledestron]

i just have to say this is like a sick episode of "fear factor".

[monday]

Cured horse meat from Switzerland. It was actually tasty, like very thin jerky or very gamey prosciutto, but I could not get over the National Velvet factor. So much of what we will eat is in our heads!

[Das Ubergeek]

Bresaola is traditionally air-dried horse meat, which is made in the same manner as prosciutto; since so many people have the same "National Velvet" reaction, most bresaola in Italy (and all bresaola imported commercially to the U.S.) is now made from beef.

[jennjen18]

Speaking of Fear Factor--I would seriously go, on one condition. Whatever they get me to eat, I won't mind. BUT, they have to get me soy sauce, and maybe chilli sauce. :)

[S_K]

On balut: just think of it as the original chicken soup.

One thing I really like is chicken feet at dim sum.

[scottso]

I was guest of honor at a banquet in Taegu Korea and was served silk worms. I swear, they looked like they were moving.

[Scagnetti]

Faux foie gras of parakeet in sweated yak's milk with wild forest nettles.

[isadorasmama]

Wow, where was that?? I love nettles:)

[steinpilz]

No way, really? Please do tell more.

[Scagnetti]

My tongue was firmly planted in cheek when I posted that. It was just an fun example of the over the top meal descriptions you see on high end restaurant menus.

[jenn]

I had Puffin in Iceland too but thought that it was just gamey in a very good way, especially with a nice red wine.

The strangest would have to be that fermented shark stuff that they make in Iceland. If I remember correctly, its called Harkarl or something like that. Rather nasty to be perfectly honest and I probably wouldn't have tried it only I was challenged by a friend. Of course when he ate his, he had lots of brenivin to wash it down with and I had SQUAT.

Not something I would hunt down for seconds. If I recall correctly, it resembled a washcloth soaked in urine.

And no, I didn't get a bad batch--I tried it in an open air market in Iceland and everyone else was tasting it and nodding approvingly.

I bow to those who have tried balut. The tasty soup part is attractive but I can't get past the beak/feet aspect.

[Das Ubergeek]

Oh God... I've eaten hákarl. One piece. On a dare. Even blind drunk on vodka, it was the nastiest thing I've ever eaten. They also made me try sild, which is dried fish that's beaten with a stick (I swear) to tenderise it, then smeared with butter and is supposed to be sweet!!

Other contenders: surströmming (spoiled herring); lutefisk (lye-treated reconstituted cod); fiskögon (fish eyes -- you spit out the hard bit); cho do fu (stinky tofu).

Why is it that everything except one of those is from Scandinavia? Oh, I forgot czernina, which is duck's blood soup... that's not Scandinavian.

[The Ranger]

My viking-esque friends feel very strongly about their national dishes. Don't ever make fun of lutefisk in front of a Swede or mämmi in front of a Finn. Gahds, can it be unpleasant...

[jenn]

Okay, to be honest, I"ve had the dried fish and found it to be rather tasty, particularly with butter. We even smuggled some home from the last trip. Don't know about the beating with stick part--I always thought it was just tossed over a stick to dry--sort of freeze dried. Hmm, now that you bring it up, I wish we could get some more.

Surstromming I was going to mention but its my husband who has eatten it, not I. I can't get past the descriptin and his claim that it is illegal to open a can indoors. . . according to him, its not bad if you have crisp bread, sliced onions and some booze.

And watch it with the lutefisk---Description of manufacture aside, it doesn't have that much taste and in our household, is just considered an excuse to eat butter. Besides, is it that much wackier than bacalao? hunk o' fish soaked in salt?

[Das Ubergeek]

I just wasn't into the fish. I don't like dried fish anyway (even the little tiny ones you get in Filipino restaurants). It is illegal in some towns to open the surströmming indoors because if you have an open flame it can catch (theoretically... I think this is like the exploding toilet myth).

Bacallà (bacalao, bacalhau, whatever) is more "normal" to me because salt isn't poisonous -- lye is. I just can't get around the production process... to me it's a filler for lefse, potatoes and peas.

[Biggie]

It's tough to get my hands on anything too weird as a white boy in Massachusetts...

I enjoy beef and chicken heart, pickled pig's feet, any and all seafood. I'll try anything once, so I wish I had more opportunities to sample culinary oddities

[Velma]

Jellied moose nose in Alaska when I was a kid and Puffin in Iceland. To me, the Puffin was like eating liver.

[Pat Hammond]

At a place in the Bronx a sign proclaimed they had "cow skin". I asked for a taste and was given a styrofoam bowl with a small flap of gelatinous skin inside. I ate it. It was good.

[Pat Hammond]

Mustn't forget camel! And I prefer the cow skin!

[Steve Green]

Dehydrated flavored cow-hoof derivative (reconstituted).

[Brian S]

I think Jell-O comes from cow and pig bones as well as hooves.

[geekgirl]

I served my fiance a dish of scrambled cow brains. He ate them but complained there was something crunchy in his eggs. When I explained that it was brains, he replied " It must be a piece of skull." With that sense of humor, I knew then that he was a keeper!

[okk]

got to be bbq pig fallopian tubes.

[Pamela]

I really enjoyed reading about all your unusual eating experiences. You guys are all so brave! Me? I'm a big wimp. I stay away from the more exotic stuff, and try to stay away from most meats usually.

Years and years ago, I recall seeing in the freezer section of an Asian grocery store a packaged meat labeled "beef pizzles." Well, I didn't know what a "pizzle" was, because I hadn't heard of the term before. In hindsight, I suppose I should have known what it was, based on the appearance. Well, a "pizzle" is a penis. I don't know if any of you have cooked and eaten one; if so, perhaps you can enlighten us about your experience.

In the meat section of the same store, they had assorted meat parts. They had the usual meat parts, but also some rather unusual parts, including pig uteri (uterus plural). Needless to say, I learned quite a bit that day about the reproductive anatomy of animals.

[modernist]

im chinese so i feel like i can pretty much eat anything (including most organ meats from most mammals - or animals for that matter)
i've eaten canned horse meat from mongolia (it was braised in a soy sauce so it just tasted like tough salty meat)
i've eaten dog at one of those traditional places up in a mountain near seoul korea. with the ajashi's playing that card game and drinking soju.
i've had bear steak (the most expensive thing on the menu) and lots of other game meats (reindeer, rabbit etc) at a russian restaurant in helsinki called shashlik.
i've had deep fried whale at an izakaya and raw chicken sashimi at a hipster futura 2000 designed cafe under a train station in tokyo. (natto, raw squid guts, live octopus, or live/raw any seafood i simply dont consider that weird)
i've had balut in las vegas.
i've had fried scorpions in china
i'm sure i consumed some crazy shit in china that i didnt realize i was eating, the year that i lived there.
all manner of insects in asia.
cow brains and heart in germany and france (honestly not that weird, but european people seem to freak out with asian foods, but come on, foie gras is pretty weird and cruel food too, whats up brigitte bardot!)
sea squirt in korean seafood restaurants in LA is actually quite odd, especially when eaten raw and it squirts the flavor of the ocean into your mouth.
that reminds me of eating these crazy crawfish/shrimp looking things with chinese locals in beidaihe (where the great wall meets the sea) who i think were cooking them with straight up sea water (i had the single and worst case of projectile diarrhea in my life - and i have an iron stomache - i had to clench my butt cheeks together with my hands as i waddled to the bathroom in what resembled a fetal position - sorry if this is out of line, but the smell was: oceanic)
in vietnam i was riding a bike in hue and it started pouring. i ducked into this little wooden shack and made the international sign for "i want to eat" they served me a little banh beo pancake sized dish of bright red jelly. i kind of slowly tasted it, as they all looked at me, smiling. and it tasted tangy and tart. i made the international sign for "what is this": eyebrows arched up, palms up pointing to food. and the guy made the international sign for "chicken": thumbs in armpits waving the elbows. i think it was chicken/duck blood jelly. to this day i really dont know what it was.
i rode my bike out of the tourist area of hoi an vietnam and ended up eating dinner with a local family that spoke no english. it was a typical asian/chinese style dinner. but the fish they served were tiny, silvery and flat. more like something you'd see in a freshwater fish tank than eat. it was almost all bones, but they picked at it lovingly.
burmese fermented shrimp paste flavored curries served room temperature are an acquired taste.
hmm, there must be more, but i just dont remember right now.

[jamie]

Probably candied cricket, during a "taste of the world" dinner at an international residence on my university campus. I will fess up to merely swallowing the cricket.

[Science Chick]

Cured reindeer....my Swedish friend let me try some of hers. Sort of a "reindeer jerky". Real tasty....Sorry Rudolph!!!

[jenn]

We bought reindeer on a trip to Stockholm once and it was very tasty indeed. I think it was smoked. We had a big chunk, sliced it very thin and ate it on crisp bread with a bit of butter. I didn't think about Rudolph once.

[cipsi]

What's balut?

[Brian S]

Fertilized duck eggs with a partly grown fetus-duck inside. I heard about those when a kid and always wanted to try one but never have. Here is a long article on the social and semiotic signifigance of balut in Filipino culture http://www.findarticles.com/p/article...

[Rubee]

An Asian delicacy - here's more info with pictures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut

[cipsi]

Thanks for filling me in, Rubee and Brian S.

Now I know.

Well, I guess I'm not as adventurous an eater as I thought I was, because those descriptions kinda turned my stomach.

[Akatonbo]

Cod fish testicles at the late lamented Benkay in Chicago. They were served in a broth of dashi, and looked like ribbons. More recently, at Matsumoto, we were served baby squid in a sauce of squid intestines, but I guess that doesn't count, since I refused to eat it.

[S_K]

I tried a cow placenta soup. (Didn't enjoy it since my mom kept commenting that it smelled like baby.)

I like balut (in my language it is called kai louk). I agree with a previous poster that is the best broth. Duck eggs, chicken eggs, they're so good! And I agree that they are best young enough that the chicken doesn't have hard bits.

Yep, "strange can be relative". I love nectar regurgitated by insects in tea sometimes and so does my mom. :D

There are lots of other "strange" things I've eaten, but I want to hear more from other people.

[The Ranger]

As a teenangster, I was once served a lamb brains taco by my Gpa's neighbor. Gpa loved'em and cojoled me into giving it a taste. I shrugged and gave it a try. There wasn't anything -- no texture or taste -- beyond the onions and cilantro. I decided that I was missing something and allowed him to finish off the batch.

When I was just out of college, I was part of an international team of engineers. My culinary experiences really opened. We hit this sushi place in Cupertino and two of the team ordered uni (sea urchin) for everyone. I took a bite and didn't taste a thing. I popped the rest in my mouth and my look sent everyone into hysterics. It's indescribable; the entire lack of texture was very off-putting.

Recently I was served natto at a Japanese banquet. It was the guest of honor's favorite snacking item. All I can say is that I ate what I was served and tried to drown the remaining tastes and smells away with the free-flowing sake (which was also the GoH's only choice of refreshment.) It's an "acquired" taste.

[Patches]

Pigs blood which is firmed to the texture of jello. Not too much taste, but when I was a kid, I just thought it was jello!

[IHTJ]

Live whole baby octopus in Korea.
Was just texture, almost no taste except the sesame oil and raw garlic served with it.
The strange sensation was when it didn't want to be swallowed and used its suction cups and beak to actively object. I like it better when they cut it up first. Far less dangerous

[JMF]

Do you know that scientists just released research that Octopi are as intelligent as cats?

[LizATL]

Hmmm, are you exaggerating about the suction cups and the beak? It is pretty hard to believe that something could still object after you chewed it...

[The Ranger]

I saw this very scene in some travel show's episode on traveling through Korea on one's stomach. One of the locals (Korean) showed the proper way to eat live octopus and then asked the two college-aged hosts to follow suit. The resultant acts of survival from the live octopi had me rolling on the floor with laughter. The chutni or relish made one kid huff and puff it was so spicy-hot.

A Korean friend I described the scene to afterwards said the secret lay in how fluid the diner's motion was with how "resilient" the octopi were. He said it was not unusual to hear of someone choking because the octopi had tried to escape back out the diner's mouth.

The idea behind the dish is to squeegee the live octopus with your chopsticks from the tip of the head down to its tentacles. Holding the base of the body (where the tentacle and torso join), slap a generous portion of relish on all sides of the bulbous body. Then one gulps the critter down whole.

I like octopus but that is something I just couldn't do. Thoughts of "Alien" aside...

[LizATL]

Ok then, that is officially the weirdest I've heard. And I thought balut was challenging. About the most challenging thing I've eaten are duck tounges and congealed blood cubes - child's play compared to a snack that is resisting. Seriously, why would you want to experience that sort of struggle? Especially if there is no real taste involved.

[The Ranger]

I remember the guide from that episode explaining it as the octopi were the "freshest" and the sauce made one feel "alive." Personally, I think it's simple machismo. Sort of like eating blowfish.

[IHTJ]

I was with a group of Korean friends in Seoul and would have looked like an wimp if I didn't eat it. Yes it was just another case of useless male bonding. Rather expensive too for nothing but a very very chewy texture and lots of fighting.
I also did the Anthony B. thing in Changsha China(capitol of Hunan provence) and ate the beating heart of a snake. Once again just texture and no real flavor. Though the warm blood mixed with beer was really silky and nice.

[missykins]

WHAT?? Picturing that literally made me lose my appetite. I hate to judge but that's just nuts.

[Omnivore]

My husband had baby octopus in Korea. They did cut it first, but it was still wriggling and the tentacles would wrap around and suction onto the chopsticks. I'll have to tell him he got off easy, given the descriptions of the alternative.

[Davwud]

Pickled Seal

As strange as it sounds, it's fantastic. It has the consistancy of brisket or some sort of beef cut like that (Stringy) and had a taste that would be like what you expect if you fed cattle nothing but fish. Fishy beef.

Try it, you'll like it.

DT

[fara]

sounds like the whale I had in Norway. filet mignon texture w/an iron fish taste, they served it with some kind of light gravy and ligonberry jam.excellent.

[MEalcentric]

dog...vietnam...the neighbors dogs have never looked at me the same since...

[Pei]

My aunt's dog loves everyone except my dad, the only person we know who's eaten dog. I swear the dog knows. He won't go near my dad, even though other (less discerning?) dogs love Dad.

[tuqueboy]

i had a brochette of some kind of meat at a road-side stand in the middle of a jungle in cameroon. i was so hungry that i didn't stop to consider until afterwards it may not actually have been beef as the nice vendor assured me. my first clue should have been the complete lack of grazing room for cattle. in retrospect, it was in all likelihood some kind of primate.

[fara]

deep fried chicken intestine that was extremely hard and chewy and flavored w/rosemary in a northern chinese restaurant.

[Pei]

Dried seahorse.

[limster]

By itself? One classical pairing is with duck, typically in a soup.

[Pei]

My dear mother hid it in the soup, and didn't reveal it until the end.

[Phoo D]

I have consumed the mammary secretions of bovines (both fresh and sometimes aged for years when it can get real smelly), the ovums of birds, and the blood, fat, and flesh of porcine creatures preserved with salt and chemicals.

Strange can be relative.

But I do love good shiokara - described on the menu of my favorite Japanese Izakaya as "salted squid guts."

ed (old handle: e.d.)

[sunsuze]

Wow, you folks have had some strange chow! Down here in the deep south we eat cooter. Go ahead and laugh cause that is what it's called. Men, women, and children alike eat cooter and it is dee-lish-ous! For those of you that have your minds in the gutter let me set you straight! Cooter is fresh water turtle. And it can be served in soups, stews, grilled but I must admit - being a true southern girl I love it fried! My friends get a good laugh whenever I, a middle aged woman who looks like a Sunday school teacher,asks complete strangers in rural areas "Yall know where I can get me some Cooter?" But I love the stuff!

[Will Owen]

Otherwise known as the snapping turtle. And if you ever find yourself in the San Gabriel Valley part of Los Angeles County, just go to any of the many Asian supermarkets and you'll see tanks of live "cooter" for sale in the seafood department. The fish guys will even butcher it out for you.

[JMF]

I don't think Cooter is synonomous with snapping turtle.

Cooter is a turtle species name for certain types of river turtle from the south and east US.

P. alabamensis - Alabama Redbelly Turtle
P. concinna - Eastern River Cooter
P. floridana - Florida Cooter
P. gorzugi - Western River Cooter
P. nelsoni - Florida Redbelly Turtle
P. peninsularis - Peninsula Cooter
P. rubriventris - Eastern Redbelly Turtle
P. suwanniensis - Suwannee River Cooter
P. texana - Texas River Cooter

Two African tribes have similar words for turtle. The Mandingo word is Kuta and the Tshiluba word is Nkudu, and they possibly became the word Cooter.

One definition of Cooter is: In South Carolina, Georgia, and the Gulf states Cooter means the edible freshwater turtle of the genus Chrysemys (Painted Turtles) and, by extension, other turtles and tortoises.

[Jim Washburn]

I grew up in the swamps of South Carolina, where "cooter" did not include the snapping turtle. To most folks "cooter" meant the common mud turtle, but some also called sliders by that name. However, the term did not include all freshwater turtles other than snappers. E.g., I never heard anyone call a soft-shelled turtle a cooter.

Jim

[Will Owen]

I was taking my clues from the first "White Trash Cookbook", which defines cooter as I did. If this book is in error, then so am I, and I will apologize for my own lack of understanding. The guys that wrote the book can By God fend for themselves...

[JMF]

Assorted insects prepared various ways. I have had these fresh in SE Asia and canned. Fried baby bees, fried grasshopers, assorted fried grubs and such which are ok, and sauteed ground worm patties (nasty!!!, a practice session during survival courses.)

The nastiest stuff I have ever eaten is the glop that remains in the bottom of a food pack at the end of month long wilderness expeditions when I was working as an Instructor for Outward Bound. Students usually gorged on the food at the begining of a course and ate too much. They also never listened when warned to be careful with food packs, to not drop them or sit on them, and never let them fall into water (which always happens at least once on a canoe expedition.)

This stuff in the packs near course end was the remains of all the broken bags of powdered foodstuffs such as cocoa, assorted spices and garlic, biscuit mix, granola, oatmeal, jerky, powdered cheese, powdered milk, etc. Usually the last few days of a expedition it was either dump a few handfuls of this into boiling water and eat as a gruel or forage for something edible. I always ended up sneaking off to forage and privately eat some of my personal stash of emergency supplies and MRE's. I wuld still end up 10 lbs. thinner after each course.

[Humbucker]

This reminds me of some of the things I ate during an Outward Bound-ish youth wilderness camp. On the first night, I bet some of my fellow campers that I could drink the salty, urine-colored water that they had boiled the hot dogs in in under 10 seconds (probably about a quart or two). I failed, having taken about 12 seconds, but still got points for completing the task. I remember that there were a dozen ants and some dirt that had fallen into the water that I ended up swallowing with the rest of the broth.

At another point during the trip, a friend and I set out to finish a two foot long stick of pepperoni in one sitting. I ended up having to pick up the slack when the other guy got a little sick of the bright orange sausage.

Another time we were camped out by a high-altitude lake and used the water to make macaroni and cheese. The water looked mostly clear when we collected it, but as the macaroni was cooking we noticed small pink particles floating towards the top of the pot. The millimeter long bits were actually tiny prawn-like crustaceans that made their home in the lake; their shells were turning pink as they cooked just like their larger cousins. We ended up getting some unexpected seafood mixed in with the mac n cheese.

Later on, I ate part of a block of sharp cheddar that I had been carrying in my backback for the better part of a week. Judging by the way it smelled, the lack of refrigeration had clearly taken its toll on the cheese, but for some reason I decided to eat it anyway. Within 10 minutes of swallowing the cheese, my stomach turned and I felt the overwhelming urge to defecate. The problem was, our party had stopped for lunch on the top of a mountain ridge well above the tree line so there were no trees, shrubs or even large boulders that I could hide behind. Consequently, my fellow campers had me run along the ridge, my sphincter loosening with each passing second, back the way we came until they yelled that I was far enough away that they wouldn't be able resolve the explicit details of my crouching form. Even though I knew that the limits of human vision would deny them the nasty details, I knew that everyone could watch as a teensy-tiny figure relieved his bowels by the side of the trail. I'll always remember seeing orange clumps in my "leavings" that were undeniably cheddar and being amazed that something could make its way through my digestive tract in such a short amount of time.

And then of course there was tons of grey-water stew that we drank throughout the course of the trip so we could avoid washing our dishes.

[Will Owen]

Crane soup as part of the farewell feast on a food tour of Hong Kong led by Martin Yan. I was not nearly as put off by the crane skulls floating in the serving bowl as I was by the flavor, which was mostly ginseng, a taste I despise.

Everything else was splendid...

[Divamac]

Ice fish sashimi.

[Rubee]

Witchetty grubs in Australia. I have to say that I don't think I could ever try balut, so hats-off to TomSwift.

[RWCFoodie]

I totally agree with you - I'll pretty much eat just about anything but the idea of balut and large grubs is more than I can deal with...

[ipsedixit]

Big Mac.

[TomSwift]

I'd have to say balut. Definately the richest, most intensely flavored broth I've tasted. Perhaps a day or two younger would have been better as the crunchy beak and feet, while not offensive, is an aquired frame of mind.

[feelinpeckish]

In my exposure to balut in the Philipines, I never saw anyone even try it who was sober. PS I was always sober.

[Foodrat]

After YEARS of eating everything but the chick, I gave it a try about 3 years ago (sober). It was actually pretty good! But I probably will not eat it again unless I was trying to impress somebody!

As for my strange chow, it would have to be stir fried silk worms in China. Delish, but can only eat a few spoonfuls not the whole plate... with rice rice, of course.

[cheryl_h]

Chicken testicles which we were told were "chicken beans" by my parents. We loved these and fought over them - we were three kids and couldn't understand why there were only two beans.

[janethepain]

HAHA thanks for the laugh. I'm going to chime in, the strangest food I've had that can recall at the moment were turkey testicles at an izakaya near my apt. Didn't really like them. They also serve bull penis.

[RWCFoodie]

At a cooking class that was all about duck, we were served duck testicles - we were all surprised at their size - like Vienna sausages! I really don't remember much about what they actually tasted like or the texture, rather just the novelty is the only memory...

[OCElizabeth]

Lamb brains as part of the Moroccan experience in Marrakesh. It was intentional and voluntary, but still not something I would do again. The sauce was surprisingly tasty but the texture was revolting. Agh, I just gagged a little thinking about it :)

[OCAnn]

Horse sashimi, in Kyushu, Japan.

[missykins]

WHAT?

[lambretta76]

Yeah - I had lamb sashimi outside of Tokyo at a Okinawan restaurant. Meat tasted great, but the cartilege was weird. They have horser taretare at several places in Montreal.

[pinstripeprincess]

didn't have it as a tartare, but as a steak, oh yeah.

it's not written on the menus or widely advertised, but there are many places in toronto where you can get a good ol' horse steak. sometimes you can get the quack & track (feather & leather) meal... duck and horse together at last.

i recall enjoying it and being similar to beef but don't remember any distinct differences.

i wouldn't consider this my strangest food, but it hasn't been mentioned so i'll toss it out there: jellyfish. love the stuff.

[OCAnn]

I've had jellyfish salad; consistency was of a lively noodle with a very slight crunch.

I guess strange is relative, since I too think the "weirdest chow has been in Asia" like gourmaniac said below.

[jennjen18]

Where in Toronto would I be able to get a horse steak??

[pinstripeprincess]

la palette is most widely known for serving horse. however there are a number of restaurants who do so but don't have it written down for fear of the equestrians who might be offended.

many french restaurants would do it up.

[OCAnn]

20 years ago, as a teenager, we took a family holiday to Kyushu, Japan where basashi (raw horse meat) is considered a specialty/delicacy. Kindly refusing another country's delicacy wasn't acceptable behaviour, so I ate it...tasted a lot like beef sashimi.

Having National Velvet/Black Beauty as a teen wasn't a mental block as much as eating Donald Duck as an 8 year old was for me.

[gourmaniac]

The horses are especially raised for sashimi (like Kobe beef) and the one time I had horse sashimi (in Osaka) it was pretty good. Seems most of my weirdest chow has been in Asia. Fugu bones steeped in tea had a slight tetrodotoxin-laced buzz (Tokyo) and snake soup was pretty nondescript (Guangzhou). The latter reminds me of a funny incident when my host took me touring in the old Shanghai markets. He would stop occasionally and asked "You like snake?" to which i replied that I'm not partial to snake. After several similar requests and rebuffs, we finally stopped in a dumpling house for a snack, which he pronounced "snake". the dumplings were excellent and had not a whit of snake in them.