Thread: What's the weirdest thing you have eaten?

hafta say ive tried woodchuck.didnt really get past swallowing it but ive tasted it and its what the amish call an acquired taste. so i dont think its a very popular barbeque item.

Birnando, how about a recipe?! That looks good.

i've had some odd stuff.. cobra, dog, roaches, other stuff..

the most out there for me was balut.. my filipino grandfather introduced me to it as a kid.. it's basically a rotting chicken embryo.. not really something i'll ever be having again.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Birnando, how about a recipe?! That looks good.

Sure thing buddy.
Try it, you'll be surprised. A real tasty dish to be honest!

Link to recipe (in English)

not really that weird, but i would never eat it again, and i had the chance several times....cervelles de veau au beurre noir, calve's brain in black butter sauce with capers at a joint in boston named dodin-bouffant in 1976.

afterwards we went to the bar at the ritz right around the corner for stingers and watched the snow drifting down over the public gardens. coincidence or not, could have been the flu, i spent the next week violently ill, with blood dripping from a certain part of my anatomy.

i spent a number of years cooking for a living and once prepared the same dish for a customer who drank diet coke while eating it, an action that speaks for itself.

brains have to be sort of pre-prepared before final cooking by soaking and peeling, and blanching. i once worked for a guy who took 5 lb semi frozen boxes of them, sliced them, breaded and fried the slices to serve as free appetizers at the bar. just gross.

Lets see...
puffin, sheepshead, rotten shark...Check lived in Iceland for two and a half years
Lutefisk...Check ate it while deployed to Andoya, Norway
Muktuk (whale blubber)...Check, Nome, Alaska circa 1989
Coot, Seagull, opossum, raccoon, gator, armadillo, snake (various survival treks in the mangroves of Florida. As a kid, my brother and I did this stuff for fun)
Banana slug, earthworms, woodgrubs, ants, crickets, (various Survival Schools in the military)

All of that said, the strangest thing I've ever ate is balut. This is a popular food in the Philippines that is basically an egg with a duck or chicken embryo (in various states of development) inside. This really isn't bad if you can get your brain past what it is that you're eating (large quantities of adult beverages, even for the locals, are often used to assist in this.) Basically, when you buy them they look just like a normal hard boiled egg. You peel off the shell just like a hard boiled egg but that's where the similarity ends. The white of the egg is about like biting into a racquetball, really rubbery, really chewy. The liquid inside tastes fairly close to like chicken broth or chicken noodle soup. Then comes the creature. Under developed embryos seem somehow easier to get down. Probably a function of visual psych out as well as texture. The underdeveloped embryos register in the brain like nothing more than a blob of meat and goes down fairly easily much like an oyster on the half shell only tasting very poultry like. The more developed embryos however are exponently harder to get down. The taste isn't markedly different but the texture is a complete freak out. I've seen duck embryos in balut that were about the size of a golf ball and had pin feathers, beaks, bones, etc. Extremely difficult to get down and the visual combined with the texture will really freak you out. Not something I'd want to eat every day, by a long shot but I would sooner eat balut or random insects than liver and onions.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

What is weird?

Well, it's what you'd consider weird to eat. Something outside your zone of comfort. What's weird to me may not be necessarily be weird to you.

Some people think brains are a delicacy, and I grew up eating that stuff in my (Italian) grandma's house, but I know others cringe at the thought. I love blood sausage but you don't want to know the reaction it elicits on my better half.

I should have named the thread "What's the weirdest stuff (to you in your opinion) you have eaten?", but it just doesn't roll of the tongue quite the same way.

Look at 1OldGI's post... he gets the idea! So... what's the weirdest thing you've eaten, nun?

I think the old GI has me beat in a couple of places, not that I wouldnt at least try it if the opportunity popped up, I would try everything at least once.

Here's some common fare where I grew up, that may be weird to some.

First pic, Chinculines... cow's small intestines, grilled.
Second pic, Morcilla... blood sausage.
Third pic, Choto (and a very happy guy)... cow's thick intestine wrapped in small intestines.

I'll find more later.

Haggis. Never again.

I would definitely give balut a try. A Filipino friend of mine says it is absolutely delightful.

Anybody try sannakji? That's something on my list.