The most unconventional thing you've eaten?

The Velvet Curtain said:
The food in Iceland is excellent, their white fish and lamb is about the best in the World. Puffin in season is nice and is now harvested sustainably, but please don't try the Whale, there is no justified reason for slaughtering Whales.
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I am eager to try all of their foods but yeah, I don't eat endangered species. I did at one point eat toro (bluefin belly) but around 12-15 years ago I stopped once I learned about the status of bluefin tuna.

I can understand those Inuit who live the life of their ancestors going out to harvest (by the original methods) a whale. That few won't depopulate the whales - but the rest of us - nope.
 
Another food I wouldn't eat today: I was somewhere between 7 and 13 (based upon where we were living at the time), I have a vague memory that we had seal meat. I really remember nothing about it other than where we were eating it, although I imagine it was oily. No idea what type of seal or anything like that. I also remember being given a paperweight in the shape of a seal, with seal fur on top, at about the same time. It is no longer in my possession (I would have noticed during my final furies of moving last summer when I sorted things).
 
MypinchofItaly said:
Eh....the particularity of this Sardinia cheese are worms (maggots) to eat in it.... :chicken:
Casu marzu - Wikipedia
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Because the larvae in the cheese can launch themselves for distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in) when disturbed,[2][8] diners hold their hands above the sandwich to prevent the maggots from leaping. Some who eat the cheese prefer not to ingest the maggots. Those who do not wish to eat them place the cheese in a sealed paper bag. The maggots, starved for oxygen, writhe and jump in the bag, creating a "pitter-patter" sound. When the sounds subside, the maggots are dead and the cheese can be eaten.[9]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu#cite_note-world's_worst-9

:hyper: :eek:
 
Mountain Cat said:
Okay, something not endangered that I'd have NO problems turning down!
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Don't go to dinner with our "first son," Don JR. This past summer, he shot an endangered Mongolian sheep -- at night, with a laser scope. The Mongolian government gave him special permission to kill it... three days after he killed it.

We call that "poaching" in Texas.

CD
 
Mountain Cat said:
No idea about with wine or cheese, but with tequila, if you get far enough down to find the worm, you probably won't care...
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I'm not sure of the current status, but I don't think you can get tequila/mezcal with the worm in the US.

CD
 
Maybe we could include this?
(I’m a bit disappointed: no coffee??)

35754
 
What is the definition of unusual?

Growing up I ate many foods that others would consider unusual. Start with crawfish. Now a delicacy. At the time they were sneered at and called "mud bugs".

Squirrel, wild rabbit. opossum, raccoon, alligator, gar fish, wild fowl, mule deer, white tail deer, elk, bison, wild pig, nilgai, ostrich, rattlesnake, Boudin, cracklins, hog head cheese, pig and cow brain, tongue, heart, thymus, kidney, liver and intestines (chitlins), stomach Two weeks ago G killed a spike buck. I made sure he kept the heart for me.

Live termites in Belize. Tasted like carrots.

Give snails a fancy name and they become escargot.

A large variety of sea and fresh water creatures. Uni and Abalone are on my bucket list. So are Mountain Oysters and Lamb fries.

I am willing to try almost anything. I would probably draw the line at cheese with maggots that jump out at me. :yuck:I have eaten the worm in Mezcal. As Mountain Cat pointed out by the time you get to the worm you don't care.

So the question remains - what defines unusual? I think unusual is the opposite of familiar.
 
Give snails a fancy name and they become escargot.

A large variety of sea and fresh water creatures. Uni and Abalone are on my bucket list. So are Mountain Oysters and Lamb fries.

I like snails. Abalone aka Paua here, mountain oysters and lambs fry and bacon I can provide for you should you ever travel to nz. :). :)

Russ
 
ElizabethB said:
So the question remains - what defines unusual? I think unusual is the opposite of familiar.
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Its culturally defined of course. And as you point out, what may be familiar to one person may be unusual or even disgusting to another.

I've always thought it amusing that in a Western culture its perfectly acceptable to eat prawns (shrimp) which, lets face it, are rather multi-legged and do resemble insects - yet the idea of eating insects is repulsive to many people. But people will happily shell and tear the legs off of prawns (shrimp) in order to eat them.

I'm guilty of the same contradiction.
 
EB, I don't think of crawfish as "unusual" anymore, although I did when I first moved to Port Arthur. Boudin is not all that unusual anymore. It is made with pretty ordinary cuts of pork these days. I love when people from up North try gator tail for the first time. Their first words are almost always, "tastes like chicken."

I have had escargot twice. The first time, it was wonderful. The second time, not so much. I guess it takes a good cook.

CD
 
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