Most exotic food you've ever eaten

[LynneSin]

I was watching the episode of Top Chef Duels where the final challenge was to create a 3 course meal using some exotic ingredients. And even though the 2 chefs in question were pretty experienced neither had used the following ingredients - sea squirts, armadillo and some strange fruit that looked like chocolate pudding inside. (hey who wouldn't want a chocolate pudding tree!)

Anyhow the question of the day is this - what is the most exotic food you have eaten? I'd like to see how adventurous the taste buds of DUers really are!

As for me

I've had frog legs (my father actually had a license to hunt frogs in Pennsylvania). I've had goat and I have also had a variety of small game that can be hunted in Pennsylvania like rabbit, squirrel, etc etc.

So in a nutshell I'm pretty boring.

So what about the rest of you!

[hollysmom]

1. mine isnot too exotic but people always seem surprised when I mention it

Alligator.

[KamaAina]

3. Yeah you rite, chere!

The day after I had it (in NOLA, of course), Mom and I went uptown to the Audubon Zoo. She swears the gators were giving us the side-eye.

[woodsprite]

2. I loved rabbit and squirrel growing up!

My grandfather was a butcher, and he raised rabbits. For squirrel, he would hunt them on his property in Lewisville, PA. I also used to love it when my grandmother fixed guinea hen, usually in guinea pot pie.

I've had have been alligator when we were in Louisiana (very chewy, but tastes like chicken!).

We went to UD's Ag Day a few years ago where my daughter challenged me to try the Entomology Departments' mealworm stir-fry and cricket-chip cookies. I earned a badge that said "I ate bugs!". They put a lot of garlic in the mealworm stir-fry. I kept telling my daughter it was to kill germs The cricket chip cookies just looked weird. You could see the cricket parts, they didn't really have a taste, just a crunch!

Never have tasted frogs legs.

[LynneSin]

4. I had chocolate fudge with some sort of bug in it

It came from the Philly Museum and was solid in conjuction with the Dali exhibit. You know how Dali loved using bugs in his paintings.

[Aerows]

85. Oh damn

I may have eaten some of that, too, at the St. Petersburg Dali Museum. I think it was chocolate covered bees or something like that.

Oh god, I HAVE eaten insects. :shudder:

[Ineeda]

69. You made me remember

my late Italian MIL's stewed rabbit. One of the best things I've ever eaten. I've had frog legs. escargot, shark, and alligator and a 'hunt stew' that had a variety of wild game. No bugs though. But, boy -- that rabbit! Yum.

[Aristus]

5. Escargot.

Not bad with plenty of garlic and butter.

[LynneSin]

9. I've had those

tasty

[Ron Obvious]

6. I once ate haggis

I'm a culinary coward and didn't know. It was alright, really.

[LynneSin]

8. sorry it's Hog Maw my mother makes

and I still won't touch that

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



Haggis is something similiar where it's cooked in the animals stomach. Again it's not the stomach that freaks me out - I just don't like what's in it.

[RebelOne]

22. I had that when I was in Scotland.

I went to Inverness and then on to a tour to Loch Ness. Our tour guide gave it to the group when we were at Loch Ness. I am a vegetarian now, but I will admit that it was quite tasty.

[Avalux]

7. I've eaten deep fried crickets on purpose. They were tasty.

By accident - ants and worms (different occasions, ants in peanut butter and worms in raisins). Threw up after the worms.

[geardaddy]

10. I lived the PRC for a year

and in Taiwan for four, so I've had many an exotic food.

Sea cucumber (sea slug)
pickled chicken intestines
duck tongues
Something that I think might have been sea worms
Probably dog when I was in southern China
pickled jellyfish
thousand-year old eggs
and many more

[LynneSin]

14. thousand-year old eggs frighten me

It's like eating eggs left in the fridge of some food hoarder

[Kali]

26. sea cucumber in Taiwan

me too. some kind of shark soup that I am pretty sure was just oil and guts. a fried whole fish that looked like it had died and mummified on shore somewhere.

memorable

[greatauntoftriplets]

42. Sea cucumbers are gross, had the consistency (and likely taste) of rubbers bands.

This was in China.

[geardaddy]

60. I agree.

I didn't care for them.

The other stuff on my list was ok, except for the sea worms or whatever they were.

[CBGLuthier]

11. Battered and fried Sheep testicles.

Chewy, very chewy.

[BlueJazz]

12. Alligator. Did-not-like-it. greasy, tough, stringy. yuck n/t

[GoCubsGo]

17. It wasn't cooked properly.

Alligator cooked the right way is nice tender, somewhat like chicken, and not greasy at all.

[BlueJazz]

30. Oh...didn't know that. Thanks for the info

[RebelOne]

70. Had it once at the Miccosukee reservation in South Florida.

It wasn't too bad. To me it tasted like cross between chicken and veal.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Rocky Mountain oysters.

Rubbery and tough.

[progressoid]

15. They need to be fresh and cooked right.

When I was a kid, we went to an annual Rocky Mountain oyster fry the teachers had in my home town. One of the teacher's husband was a farmer. And the "oysters" were always fresh.

Battered and deep fried. Mmmmm

[Raffi Ella]

16. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food.

I have a weak stomach, even reading about gross food can make me retch- I avoid a lot of the food threads here because of that, lol.

I think the most exotic thing I've ever eaten is octopus.

[Xyzse]

18. I'm an adventurous Asian in regards to food.

I have no idea what is the most exotic food I have ever had.

[srican69]

82. I am lifelong lacto-ovo-vegetarian

The most exotic stuff I have had is Camel milk Yogurt and Seaweed .. Hated Seaweed as it smelt of fish. Didn't care much for the Camel milk yogurt either..


I guess I am not a very adventurous eater

[Xyzse]

83. Thing is, I've eaten:

Snake
Duck Eggs w/ Fetus of Little Duck Formed already (Balut)
Frogs
--If I am to believe my father, I've eaten Dog. I don't believe him so it doesn't count

I had alligator, as a sausage so I don't count that either. Anything in sausage does not count in my point of view, since it could be anything.

[GoCubsGo]

19. Meal worms.

They were baked into oatmeal cookies. Nice and nutty!

I have also had alligator, squirrel, rabbit, turtle, whelk, baby octopus, caribou sausage, jungle fowl, dove, wood duck, frog legs, and ostrich. On the plant side, nothing that exotic: cherimoyas, rambutans, African horned cucumber, and tropical mamay.

I wonder if that fruit you had that looked like pudding was a paw paw, although I think their flesh might be pale. I have always wanted to try one, but they don't occur around here.

[bikebloke]

20. A few

Reindeer in Norway
Water buffalo in Thailand
Llama in Argentina
Ostrich and ostrich egg in South Africa

And haggis in Scotland, which I actually liked. It was the neeps I didn't care for.

[Le Taz Hot]

21. Fried rattle snake

This was years ago. We were camping and there was a rattle snake that was too close to the campsites so one of the guys shot it. It was weird because he cut off its head and the body moved for hours. They skinned it, coated it with egg and cornmeal and fried it up. Wasn't too bad, actually.

[RebelOne]

23. Fried grasshoppers.

I was told they were nuts until I looked at the jar. Even though they tasted like nuts I couldn't eat any more once I knew what they were.

[NV Whino]

24. Chicken feet

Didn't taste like chicken. Crunchy, though. And once was enough.

[WinkyDink]

25. Reindeer in Norway (*waves to bikebloke). Lambs' brains. Eel.

[Chan790]

27. Lots of stuff.

I went to culinary school, grew up in restaurants and have always been an adventurous eater (more so prior to becoming a vegetarian)

A list:
Chapulines (Grasshoppers)
Huitlacoche (Corn Smut)
Kopi Luwak (Coffee)
Actually a lot of rare or exotic coffee and tea.
Frog legs
Escargot
Fried whole sardines
Tempeh (Fermented bean cakes)
A few different gastriques made from vinegars of exotic fruits and flowers.
Cibreo (A tangy sauce made with the combs of roosters)
A few different kinds of snakes. (Some dishes potentially Poisonous.)
Raccoon
Elk
Sweetbreads (The thymus of veal calves)
Fiddleheads (young shoots of Bracken fern. Poisonous if prepared wrong.)
All sorts of greens. (mustard, dandelion, swamp (aka. skunk) cabbage, amaranth, charlock, borage, pokeweed (aka poke salad. Raw pokeweed and potliquor of Pokeweed are Poisonous), and more.)
haloumi (A type of cheese, it's usually grilled as it does not melt.)
doner (Arabic roasted meat dish)
shwarma (Another Arabic roasted meat dish)
kefta (Yet another Arabic roasted meat dish, this one is different in that it's basically Arabic meatloaf.)
ackee (A Jamaican fruit. Also, highly Poisonous if prepared wrong.)

I'll update this list as more things come to mind.

[Art_from_Ark]

28. Shiokara-- salted squid guts

Ugh-- that was nasty

I've also had:

Octopus (not too bad, actually)
Sea urchin (particularly tasty as a paste that is spread on rice. And there are sea urchin-flavored rice snacks that are sold in Japan that are quite yummy)
Supon (turtle soup)
Fried locusts
Fried honeybees
Fresh bamboo shoots

[blogslut]

29. Kind of boring stuff.

Prairie Oysters, Rattlesnake and Buffalo Burger - when I worked at the Big Texan. Both the Prairie Oysters and Rattlesnake had the consistency of chicken and were fairly meh. The Buffalo Burger was very tasty.

Baby Octopus - when I worked at this restaurant run by a Chinese family. It was mixed in with a bunch of other steam-cooked stuff on one of the big plates that was in the middle of the table. If I didn't stay for the meal and eat a little bit of everything after my shift I was being a bad person. I can handle sliced up squid but prefer it done Calimari-style. The Baby Octopus squicked me out.

I've had Escargot but I don't think it was prepared well because the texture was rubbery.

[elleng]

31. Got it, tried to recall name all day yesterday,

PERIWINKLE!

The others: Escargot

Frogs legs
rabbit stew

Bon apetit!

[bobthedrummer]

32. Chitterlings-once!

[LeftinOH]

33. Orejas de Cerdo (Pig ears):

It tastes like bacon, but with crunchy cartilage.

[Islandurp]

34. tim hortons

[Tuesday Afternoon]

35. chittlins and poke.

[Raine1967]

36. Pig tongue Tacos

It was meh to me.

I've had Alligator and Snails. again, meh. My favorite is Steak Tartare -- YUM!

[littlemissmartypants]

37. Does squirrel count?

Eel, conch, turtle, frog legs, beef tongue, catfish, venison jerky and Turkish coffee which is my favorite exotic food stuff.

[Raffi Ella]

38. I just remembered I've had Crawfish and also Venison.

I don't know if they're considered exotic, but I've only eaten those things a few times so they are to me.

[lame54]

39. Nothing beats this...

[underpants]

41. Ooh she's got The Hunger!

[Wait Wut]

40. I loved frogs legs when I was little.

Until my sister told me they came from real frogs. I love froggies. It made me sad (I was probably 6-7).

She tried to ruin duck and lamb, too, but I rebelled. Not giving up gyros or pressed duck...ever.

[840high]

43. Tongue, scrambled eggs and brains.

[Baitball Blogger]

44. Two that come to mind.

A razor-like clam and capybara meat.

[MADem]

45. Fugu.

I wasn't being bold or reckless, I just didn't realize what I was eating.

I got lots of "props" for bravery, though. I coasted off an undeserved rep for quite a while!

[pinboy3niner]

48. Alerted

That was raw and uncalled for!


(And you must not have pissed off your Sushi Girl. )

[MADem]

49. Ha ha ha!

It was raw....and bland...but pretty good!

The chef did it in the shape of a crane or some flipping bird, the plate was a work of art and MASSIVE...and I felt guilty eating so much of it. Everyone took a little, and the plate ended up in front of me, so I kept picking away, chatting like a fool!!!

I musta looked like Gutsy McNoFear, or something...in truth, it was rank cluelessness!

[Blue_In_AK]

46. Probably muktuk,

which didn't taste too bad but had a gritty texture that I didn't really care for.

And, yes, I've also eaten frog legs, squirrel, rabbit, goat, moose, caribou, and reindeer sausage.

[raven mad]

55. Black bear, fresh (or recently frozen) - I'm adding to your list, Blue!

I didn't care for muktuk, either - the taste was blah, and the texture was icky. I've had deep-fried ants once, but that was an uncle's fault, he didn't tell me what they were!

I guess we can't (as Alaskans) count ptarmigan, grouse, etc. Birds, what the hey............

[kwassa]

47. Ostrich.

like a finely-grained roast beef.

Did not taste like chicken.

[greendog]

50. Kitfo

An Ethiopian dish involving raw beef and a special type of chili powder.

[hunter]

51. Live grubs, I don't know what species, but I'll eat anything, sometimes just to be polite.

But my favorite memory is when my kid, who was grade school age, and I were visiting San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, sitting on a bench where the tour buses unload. I was eating something boring. But my kid, chopsticks in hand, was slurping down tentacles and mussels and who knows what from a large clear plastic cup.

A bus of older retired Midwesterners unloaded and they were taking pictures of my kid eating. This is my drama kid so the crowd got quite a show.

[d_r]

52. we used to go frog gigging

all the time when I was growing up. My grandmother would have the grease hot in the skillet when we got back from the pond and fry them right up. Rabbit with gravy and biscuits is my favorite.

I've had possum, ground hog and bear. Those are probably the weirdest.

One night in Okinawa a bunch of us were kind of daring each other to eat stuff. I remember the chicken heart yakatori as being hardest to get down.

[LiberalElite]

53. Sea Urchin

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

54. Tongue, frog legs, beef brain tacos, chicken feet plus every part of the pig

we've figured out how to cook in PR.

[dixiegrrrrl]

56. Way back in my young adult phase

I did the tourist thing in Hawaii and ate poi.
Was NOT impressed.

for many years, made my own tofu. No one else in the house liked it.

Had head cheese sandwiches and other piggy stuff as a kid, my Grandmother made those kind of things.

had ostrich at a Chinese restaurant in SF on Portero hill.

Learned to love oxtails, served Southern style.
and grits were very strange to me when I first moved down here.

i had heard of Brunswick stew, got my first taste down here. Once is enough for me. Maybe it is made differently in other places.

[Raffi Ella]

72. I thought about mentioning grits!

They're so NOT exotic Down South but yeah I love a good bowl of grits with salt and lotsa butter and crumbled bacon ~ MMM!



*I don't like Brunswick stew either.

[dixiegrrrrl]

73. *crumbled bacon*...hmmmmmmmmmm

drooling now.

[Raffi Ella]

81. BACON.

[kairos12]

57. Boiled rattlesnake.

[seaglass]

58. I ate dirt once on a bet. That's about as exotic as I get, I would try any exotic fruit or vegetable

but no exotic meats/animal parts/bugs.

[alarimer]

59. Uni (sea urchin roe)

Tasted (not surprisingly) like the sea. And then, to wash it down, a raw quail egg. No idea why.

[In_The_Wind]

61. Back in the early '70s: fried alligator as I was crossing the Tamiami Trail.

I ate frog legs when I was 9.

[politicat]

62. Durian, probably.

I don't do squirmy, so that right there eliminates a lot. I don't mind eating things that were alive, but I have real issues eating things that are 1) complicated enough to have neurons and b) might have a perception of pain in the eating. It's a body horror thing.

If you can get past the cheesy foot odor, durian is brilliant. Though I think I prefer jackfruit just for ease of prep. Getting through the durian shell is complicated.

[azurnoir]

63. chicken feet in red curry sauce w/noodles, baby jelly fish soup

sea urchin, alligator brats

[wendylaroux]

64. Don't know about the exoctic part,

squirrel brains with scrambled eggs.--(these were horrible,I gag thinking about them)

[Callmecrazy]

65. Nobody's gonna believe me but...

I ate an extraterrestrial once. I ran it over in the desert near Las Vegas. Middle of the night. I was drunk.
I didn't want a DUI so we had to get rid of the evidence. Nice big bonfire out in the desert did the trick. The guy I was driving with said it tasted like goat. But he was pretty wasted too.

What?

[LynneSin]

67. I see how you picked your screen name

[pinboy3niner]

68. I've had Tribbles, but they were nothing but trouble

You wouldn't believe the backlash you get from People for the Ethical Treatment of Aliens!

[RushIsRot]

66. I've had beaver meat in Louisiana and spider monkey in Peru.

The beaver was tasty and highly spiced. I felt almost cannibalistic eating the monkey and didn't eat very much.

[JCMach1]

71. Yak cheese- deep in the Himalayas

Sweet, creamy... yummy

[TK421]

74. Shark ( not very exotic, but better than ramen noodles )

[LadyHawkAZ]

75. I had scorpion today

So did my friend. We got I ATE THE BUG! stickers for it. That probably tops my list.

Hmm. Alligator. Elk. Bison. Frog legs. Abalone. Sea urchin. Caviar. Beef brain. I'm pretty conventional, I guess.

[Aerows]

77. See, that's where I draw the line

Everything else except bugs is fair game.

Sea Urchin, Bison, Alligator, Snake ... Nothing phases me, but I don't do insects. No.

[LadyHawkAZ]

79. We were at the fair and basically dared each other to eat the scorpion

I'd love to try rattlesnake.

[Aerows]

86. I lived in Tuscon AZ

briefly as a child and rattlesnakes abounded. Dad shot one that was six feet long. Quite delicious when diced up and fried (leave the head alone, though, because they can still bite you for a while).

[Aerows]

76. Alligator bites?

Not really exotic in New Orleans, but I guess probably not what everyone eats.

Squirrel, frog legs and such are pretty normal fare.

I don't know, if it creeps, crawls swims or flies I'm probably going to eat it provided it isn't a bug. I draw the line at bugs. I'd rather eat snails, snakes and frogs before bugs. Too much icky factor for me.

[undeterred]

78. Poached elephant and pineapple

The elephant was the victim of poachers, so the meat was consumed.

[sir pball]

80. Probably balut

It's kind of the stuff of nightmares - quoth the Wiki: "A balut (spelled standardized as balot) is a developing duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines." Pictures can be found over there, if you aren't squeamish.

I will say though...it's very, very good. Like the absolute richest chicken stew you've ever had. Takes quite a bit of (liquid) courage the first time, though..

[Aerows]

84. Well, there is that stuff that is

eaten in Iceland that is a shark that is buried until it putrifies so it isn't poison enough anymore ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl

I might eat a bug first.

[LynneSin]

87. Probably?

I would think you would know if you ate a partial duck embryo!

[B Calm]

88. Raccoon, Muskrat, Snapping Turtle

and a (garbage eating) Black Bear roast.

[Nevada Blue]

89. rabbit, squirrel, calamari, elk

All of which were pretty nasty, except the elk. Maybe it was that we'd been on the road a couple of days and were pretty hungry when we had the elk. Maybe it was because it was in Montana and they knew how to cook it well. But the elk was great. The other things, meh.