I'm chicken are you?

[Alacrity59]

I have to admit that sometimes I'm chicken to try certain dishes as certain ingredients just do me in psychologically. For instance Vietnamese Pho and sandworms. Beef Hart, Prairie Oyster, things looking back at me. For 3 years as a kid I loved beef tongue but then I saw one at the butcher shop and have not had it for the last 30 years or so. Then again I've never been squeamish about common cuts of beef, pork, etc. no matter how cute they look living. (My wife prefers chicken "cause they are ugly enough to eat")

So how do you get over it . . . or are you chicken like me?

[Ruth Lafler]

I'm a bit of a chicken, too. I had the same experience with tongue: my mom cooked it occasionally and I ate it until I saw a whole one sitting on the neighbor's (big family) kitchen counter. I had trouble with heart the first time I ate it, and I'd probably still have trouble facing a big slab of it -- I've only had it in the form of Peruvian anticuchos (smallish pieces on a skewer). I'll try most organ meats (although I usually don't like them), but I draw the line at eyes and brains.

I sometimes envy the hounds I've chowed with who will happily eat almost anything, but then again, I'm not lacking in delicious foods to eat even eschewing the "icky" parts.

[lynnlato]

Tongue, to me, is vile. The one and only time I've had it was at Per Se in NYC and it was served as carpaccio - yea, raw. Feeling those rough taste buds on my taste buds was just way too weird for me. As you both said too, I remember seeing those huge tongues in the butcher's case as a kid and it always shocked me.

[dolores]

As long as it wasn't alive or a former friend of my Ricky, I would be game to try anything. Once.

[Kagey]

I feel exactly the same way. Will try lots of things, although I suspect I'd balk if offered an eyeball. I have enough trouble with liver, and I'm still trying to figure out if it's because I'm grossed out or because I really don't like the taste of it. I think it's the latter because I can eat chicken liver, but couldn't eat the lamb liver I tried making about a year ago. Still working up the nerve to try beef liver.

I also won't eat bugs.

I wish I were more adventurous, but like Ruth, I'm not losing sleep over it because there's still plenty of un-creepy deliciousness to be eaten (and discovered).

[Carrie 218]

The only thing I won't try is balut. Other than that, I've been willing to try anything and have eaten insects and every part of a mammal available and edible. I haven't necessarily enjoyed it all, but I was at least willing!

[HSBSteveM]

I will address the Pho. I learned from experience that you can get pretty turned off by all the rubbery and slimy things that go into this wonderful bowl of soup. I tried the tendons and fat a few times in the interest of authenticiy, then just gave up and stuck with the lean brisket, which I beleive is commonly known as "Chin".

[grayelf]

What HSBSM said -- I'm willing to try most anything once, but I've got nothing to prove by repeated tries if I don't like it! After some "adventures" I now go for the Pho Thai which around here at least is raw lean beef very thinly sliced that quickly cooks in the steaming broth.

[Boccone Dolce]

i feel so sad. I thought I ate Pho made the Pho way by this sweet Viet family that ran the Pho Noodle a few towns over- they have since closed. But I don't recall anything remotely tendon-like or wormy. curious now wth i ate? (sigh) it doesn't matter. i loved it. i'll live to Pho again.

[grayelf]

Getting OT here but I don't think you need worry, B_D. You probably had a pho that was merely "tamer" by western standards -- doesn't make it less a pho. There is pho with chicken and pho with meatballs too that can be very good. I say, eat the pho you like and let the tendons take care of themselves :-).

[Boccone Dolce]

didn't answer this o.p.
..I kind of don't force myself if I'm close to actually throwing up. If someone I really care about is dangling a bite, urging me and wanting badly for me to try it, I sure will. Case in point- squid jerky just the other day. It smelled like low tide at the dump, and tasted quite like it smelled. But she liked it and wanted me to, too. And I tried but spit it right out (which she totally understood) but I was game. If I didn't try stuff over & over I would have given up on sushi years ago- I *HATED* it the first 3 tries. Now it's something I adore.
(but keep tongue away from my dish)

[kobetobiko]

I am actually fine with most organ meat or offals, because at least they are natural.

After I watched some shows on TV on how these factories process different meat - or piles of meat-look-alike stuff to make sausages and ham, I have real problem about eating sausages and ham from unknown source.

I also can't get myself to get worms, esp. the slimy ones. I just can't get the image of them swirling in mud and soil out of my head (and I can't image what is inside their bodies...)

[ArikaDawn]

My phobia is relatively boring compared to some, but I can't suck the heads of crawfish. I live in MS, love going to big boils and eating the meat, but I can't do the heads Flips me out.

[thew]

when i used to travel around asia more my policy was not to ask what a food was until AFTER i tasted it....

would have missed some great food otherwise. of course may have avoided some disgusting ones too.....

[moh]

"would have missed some great food otherwise. of course may have avoided some disgusting ones too....."

Your policy is very sound. I think it is worth the odd stinker to find that wonderful dish that changes your culinary life. So far, the plus side is way longer than the minus side, so it has been worthwhile.

I also find that due to language barriers, it is often hard to really know what you are eating sometimes. So that makes it easier to be adventurous. They might tell you it's chicken, but mean "it tastes like chicken".

Still, it seems that if I were confronted with something like balut, it would be hard to eat it even if I avoided asking what it was. It is kind of self-evident, and hard to get my little mind around it to try it. I find it easier to eat unusual things in the context of soups and stews and curries.

[Carrie 218]

A wise, foreign policy. I discovered duck tongues and testicles by eating them first and then asking what they were later. The balut thing is exactly what Moh said; I can eat something if I don't know what it is -- with balut, there is too much too see what it is before eating...

[grayelf]

I find this is particularly true when ordering in mom-and-pop ethno-restos. I remember years ago ordering something called "pork skin meat" at a Vietnamese place in Toronto just to see what it was -- the staff didn't speak much English. Despite the somewhat unappetizing (at least to me) name, it was delicious -- kind of a lightly cured minced sausage. I would order it again if I could figure out what it was really called :-).

[Passadumkeg]

Sorry, you're too late to eat c-rations & spam in the military in Viet Nam. ANYTHING tastes better afterward, even VC pho!

[Carrie 218]

Gosh, I was the child of a Korean and Vietnam-war vet and as a kid, when I went camping with my Dad, there was this odd sense of great adventure at bringing along and eating C-rations! I sorta liked 'em....

[Scargod]

I am not chicken like you but I have not chosen to cook certain things (or thought of cooking them), till I had them in a restaurant.
So my suggestion is to be adventurous, especially if you are in a good restaurant or one known for a specialty. French restaurants are a good place to look! I'm a lot less likely to be squeamish if I know that it's on a high-class menu....

I love beef tongue tacos! "Lingua tacos", as they are called. You would never know what it was if someone didn't tell you. The way things are prepared can make all the difference in the world, too. If you bought a tongue and just pan fried it, that would be wrong.
Once I caught a huge carp. I looked for recipes and found that the French fix it with onions and red wine. I did it that way (whole fish) and found it disgusting. I'm sure I didn't prepare it correctly. On the other hand, few people eat carp. Perhaps it could be the next "sea bass"?

[grayelf]

"If you bought a tongue and just pan fried it, that would be wrong."

How about if you baked it whole in the oven and served it, lolling? That is why I don't fancy tongue anymore -- still scarred from offal-happy parental units (heart, liver, kidneys, giblets all).

[Scargod]

No, you chop it up or shred it (till it looks like any other meat), and tell everyone (if they ask what it is), that it's beef anus... or testicles. Then they'll say, "you're kidding, right? You can say, "yes", with a clear conscience and a straight face and change the subject. If they persist, you can say it's the "antithesis muscle" and even if they really have to know, they may sigh, in relief.