Most Dangerous, Rare or Valuable Foods to Hunt or Harvest

[foodistcolony]

Investigating the most high stakes foods to hunt or harvest. Anybody have any ideas for interesting worlds I might look into?

Something like bluefin tuna or matsutake mushrooms would be amazing...

[beevod]

A properly prepared krait snake.

[adido]

Swallow nests for swallow nest soup. The nests are found in caves and made out of the swallows' saliva. This is a south east asia thing. In Yunnan province for example “Every year from August 8 to 10 during the famous "Bird's Nest Festival", some local people will climb up the dazzling 50-meter-high cliffs to fetch these nests.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible-nest_Swiftlet

http://www.chinauniquetour.com/html/Yunnan/2011316/arts-6870.html

http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2...

[mike0989]

Well matsutake mushrooms could certainly fill the bill. People tend to get very possesive of where they grow. You could get shot at if they catch you poaching "their" mushrooms.

[AngelaID]

Same up here with huckleberries and morel mushrooms. Dangerous business!

[JMF]

Durian, jackfruit, and coconuts. People die or are injured from walking under the trees and having the fruit fall on their heads.

[kseiverd]

Heard/saw/read somewhere that more people DIE from getting hit on the head by falling coconuts than shark attacks... significantly more??

[JMF]

that was disproved, but the rumor still makes the rounds.

[paulj]

Pecebres, gooseneck barnacles, from the Atlantic coast of Spain is the first thing that comes to mind.

Second thought would be swallows' nests from sea caves in Thailand.

I'm think more about the danger aspect than the value.

[ferret]

And if you act fast, you can get a pretty good deal on a tin of these (normally $80 for 5 ounces, but on sale for $50):

http://www.tienda.com/food/products/s...

[paulj]

On Bizarre Foods America, San Diego episode, Andrew found them on the shores there, in much less dangerous conditions than the Spanish episodes that I've seen. He seemed to like them as well. But there was no mention of collecting the California ones for sale.

[babette feasts]

Cordyceps. Good excuse for a trip to the Himalayas.

Otherwise, kind of depends on where you live. You can hunt for Italian white truffles in your back yard all you like, but if you don't live in Italy, your neighbors might start to wonder. :)