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I seem to remember shark in Aussie chip shops was referred to as 'flake'. I bet a lot of us are unaware of what we've eaten, eg donkey in salami. Horse steak in Portugal was nice if a bit big and marbled and hasn't horse reared its head in English supermarkets in recent times?
Rocky Mountain Oysters when I was living and working in Alberta for a couple of years.
100% cowboy country.
Spicy sheep brains in ****stan.
At one the owners of the cottage invited us to tea at their house one day, and we were served a small bird of some description, head and all, kind of just plonked on a plate. I think that meal turned my sister vegetarian
Possibly Ortolan. I'd probably eat it, but certainly wouldn't want it if you see what I mean. Nasty Frenchmen.
Oh yeah, I had Brawn once, that was nice. Was a long time ago, but I think it's some kind of pigs brain pate that's served in the head. edit - yep, I was right. Recipe
A chicken parmo from Middlesbrough! Only once and never again!
Crocodile, which was rubbish. Kind of like a greasy chicken thing.
That’s interesting, I had a couple of crocodile burgers in Northern Queensland and I found them quite good. Perhaps the addition of onion, spices and egg masked the texture a bit
I also had some kangaroo steaks which were great
Another shout for andouillette. Not weird, looks deceptively like a sausage. Tastes very much like farmyard sweepings. Utterly inedible.
Cafes in turkey have plates of rams' bollocks arranged conveniently in pairs on lettuce leaves, racked and displayed proudly in glass cabinets. Gray and undressed sheep brains similarly. Was never tempted, for some reason, but friends who tried these delicacies assure me they taste very much as you'd expect bollocks and brains to taste.
I lived in France for a while and searched out and ate lots of classic french dishes so things like veal head, calves brains, sweet breads etc.
I can eat anything but andouillette
assure me they taste very much as you’d expect bollocks and brains to taste.
Nutty?
Insects on a stick in honey in China (fine)
Bullfrog in China (fine, like chicken)
Andoulette in France (foul, absolutely foul)
A burger from a roadside van on the A5 in Capel Curig which gave me the worst smash hits of my life for a week. Never, ever again.
Rigatoni con la pajata in Rome. The la pajata bit is the intestines of suckling calf that has only had its mothers milk. The milk cooks into a ricotta/ cottage cheese consistency. So basically a ricotta sausage in tomato sauce. It's a classic Roman dish, and is lovely.
Vegan 'bacon'. I mean, wtf?
I can only trump some of these bizarre dishes with nothing as strange as chicken. Chicken in the US of A. My kind host was so pleased to have got some really great 'super tender' chicken.
In all honestly, it was like flavour free blanc mange. Soft, no identifiable texture, and with the taste of whatever sauce was added to it.
LSD
Bury black pudding.
Tastes like I imagine a poultice would.
I can't remember what it's called but it was a Norwegian thing.. Basically fermented pickled cabbage and some other veg with a liberal amount of very small fermented pickled crabs.
Didn't taste bad to be fair but smelled a bit funky.
Oh and kopi luak coffee.
The fresh beans are eaten by civets (kinda like a weasel type creature). And shat out.
They are then collected and made into coffee... Was actually very good coffee.
About the strangest I’ve had are traditional French - frog’s legs and snails. And traditional Scottish - deep fried Mars bar. Both delicious!
The weirdest for me is Jellyfish in Singapore. Nothing to enjoy really. Pretty tasteless and a strange texture...kind of soft and crunchy at the same time.
[New militant vegeterian]
Another previously sentient creature
[/New militant vegeterian]
More seriously, my Romanian housemate prepared a massive bowl (a huge kitchen mizing bowl) of some sort of mayonnaise salad for the house with chopped peppers, eggs, onions and pickled veg.
I tried to be polite but don't think I covered it very well 🤢
More seriously, my Romanian housemate prepared a massive bowl (a huge kitchen mizing bowl) of some sort of mayonnaise salad for the house with chopped peppers, eggs, onions and pickled veg.
Russian salad, large Tupperware tubs of it are much loved all over eastern europe and central Asia lol
I see all your delicacies from far flung places and raise you a deep fried Mars bar from Edinburgh!
I have had many of those listed, fermented mares milk, yak butter tea, crickets, tarantulas, snake, roaches of some kind,tripe, brawn, eyes, balls, goats head,little squirrels bone in,frogs, most I have been fairly indifferent to but some kind of fried cocoon in china was unpleasant, a duck sausage from a chinese supermarket that was just like coating your mouth with pure grease and some weird Korean blood jelly, I think its generally the texture's that are worse than the flavours
Hostess Twinkie
Cheese from a bergerie in Corsica
Whilst walking in Corsica we were convinced the chef was having a competition to see what shite he could serve guests, a sort of rice pudding omelette and some of the rankest cheese known to mankind was put on our plates
In terms of recognisable things a few things spring to mind
Grilled Chicked Arseholes (Taiwan - my local windsurfing mates thought it was hilarious to feed me these then tell me later. They're very tasty though so I just kept on eating them)
Frozen raw ostrich (Japan) - not so great if you chew slowly and it melts in the mouth)
Various forms of intestines (China) - mostly nice but I struggle with stomach lining when the texture is very obvious
Pigs ears and Chicken feet (Taiwan) - taste is OK, texture rubbish, lots of effort little nutrition - struggled to see the point
But the reality is the worst, nastiest things are probably whatever is in Sainsburys/Tesco etc sausages. It's just hidden. I much prefer the Asian approach were at least you know what you're eating.
£2.46 in various loose change.. It was slightly metallic and not at all like chicken
By the stadards of this thread my most unusual food is almost everyday, guga.
A local favourite in Ness, Lewis where my mum is from. Salted flegling gannet.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/scotland-blog/2014/jan/27/scotland-conservation-gugahunt
Surstromming in Sweden. Baltic herring fermented in a barrel then canned, where it ferments again. The stench is beyond description.
Snake wine in Vietnam, got served a shot of it from a massive jar full of snakes infused in alcohol.
Apparently good for virility…no effect apart from feeling a bit hissed.
Hippo - tasted like tough pork
Sea cucumber - vilest thing I've ever put in my mouth
Whale - like beef
Alligator - like chicken
Shark - can't tell it from swordfish
Andouillette - it's a sausage
EDIT - more or less anything in Norway.
Cheese. Absolutely disgusting. Smells like sweaty feet and tastes awful. I won't touch any food with cheese in/on. Yes, that includes pizza.
Seafood. All kinds. The smell alone makes me want to throw up.
I’ve had seal, shark and whale compliments of the Icelandics - whale blubber may as well have been a piece of well worn neoprene wetsuit, a bit salty and chewy. Bad experience once with l’escargot in France and frog’s legs were just too fiddly to eat. Steak tartare is a bit odd - just raw minced steak.
I was doing some business stuff in Thailand and got invited to a traditional meal. The head honcho decides to appoint me guest of honour and his oppo brings out a Tupperware box with ‘local delicacies’ and gives me a very yellow and very old looking egg - the shell was crazed and it wasn’t very bird egg shaped. Doing the honourable thing, I cut it in 2 and gave half to my colleague. It was bright yellow inside and a very, pungent cloying taste. I’m assuming it was some sort of reptilian egg pickled in urine. Funnily enough, never seen anything on a Thai restaurant menu.
Dogfood, cat biscuits, Squirrel... I am so glad I gave up alcohol years ago
Cigarette butt for losing a bet of some sort many years ago.
Naturally I puked quite unnaturally.
A long time ago I worked on a farm alongside some Thais who ran the dairy herd bit. After the cows had calved we'd all sit around after work eating the still warm raw afterbirth from a bucket with a sort of sweet chilli dipping sauce on the side.
Felt like scrambled eggs, tasted iron-ey. Wasn't a one off though so can't have been that bad but I'd have to pluck up my courage to do it now.