Unique eats

[karen w]

Ok, I have a new question! Seeing the post on the bulletin board regarding ostrich fillets got me thinking. Wow somebody buys ostrich for dinner. I would not even know where to buy it, or how to begin to even prepare it! Don't get me wrong, I was most impressed. Sometimes I wish I were a little more adventurous about new or different foods. As a kid I was "little miss picky."I think I drove my mother nuts-picking onions out of this, not eating that etc... As an adult(with a little help from my husband, too!) I have become a much more adventurous eater. Which leads me to my question....What is the most unique food you've ever tried? I would have to say it was turtle for me, and it was very delicious. My husband and I had it in the Grand Cayman's during our honeymoon. Only it was hard to scuba dive next to those beautiful tortugas the next day knowing I had cousin "Billy" or whoever for dinner the night before. Anyway I'm getting longwinded. I'm sure there are alot more adventurous eaters than me-so what's your most unique eats!?

[lorilei]

Good question -- I'm trying to think of something really odd.

I've eaten alligator - but (nasty brain images aside) it wasn't really all that different from anything I've had before.

Probably the most unique thing I've eaten is a pizza in Tunisia (I spent most of a month there studying ruins in college). It was fairly ordinary, as pizzas go, except that it had a big fried egg plopped right in the middle of it. I don't think any American would think to eat egg pizza, but it's very popular there... and surprisingly good too!

[MrsReber]

My husband tried alligator stew when we were in the Caribbean. He said it tastes rubbery. He'll try anything. I believe he's eaten squirrel as well, but he does hunt. The wildest thing I've probably tried is the venison from the deer he hunts. Not too much of a stretch, bu I'm an Italian girl by heritage and in my heart. I'd eat pasta dishes every day if I didn't have a man to cook for. Venison chopmeat does make awesome meatloaf and meatballs, though. Much better than the chopmeat in the stores, too- no hormones and very little fat.

[Laura B]

I have not eaten very much strange food. Probably the most unusual was fried rattlesnake. Nothing to rush out and try, let me assure you. It tasted fine, maybe a bit like chicken (it has been at least 10 years so I cannot remember very vivdly). However, there was so little meat hiding in between all of those little bones that it was incredibly hard to enjoy eating it.

I just spent a month in Australia and somehow managed not to eat any Crocodile, Kangaroo or Emu. I was not afraid to try it, but just didn't get around to ordering it. Kangaroos are too cute to eat anyway.

My husband has eaten some very interesting things. He has had alligator, which he merely describes as chewy. Last summer he spent 11 weeks in Beijing, China, and had some incredibly scary sounding stuff there: duck brain, fried scorpions, congealed blood soup. That's all I can remember. I'll ask him if there were any other wierd things he ate there.

MrsReber - I love venison. I grew up in the deep south and our family lived on the deer that my brother killed in the winter. It is very lean meat. Mom made hamburgers, stew, chili, cube steak, you name it from venison meat. I could always tell when we had run out of venison and changed back to beef. I didn't like venison sausage plain, but Mom makes a killer cheese and sausage dip that tastes fabulous with the deer sausage. My brother has eaten squirrels, rabbits, all manner of birds, frogs legs etc., from his hunting expeditions.

[BethH]

I'll try just about anything once (except any organ meats or veal *see Aversions thread).

I've tried turtle in Grand Cayman, aligator in New Orleans, and frog legs here at home. Most of these taste just like familar meat you've had already--chicken, pork, etc.

I also regularly order the eel at my favorite sushi restaraunt (its cooked--I'm not that crazy!) Its excellent! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

Don't gross out anyone!

[lorilei]

Originally posted by BethH:

I also regularly order the eel at my favorite sushi restaraunt (its cooked--I'm not that crazy!) Its excellent! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

Don't gross out anyone!

Oh, Beth, the eel is the best! I never order sushi w/out it!

[karen w]

Hey Laura B. Did you try Vegemite when you were in Australia? Its yeast extract sold in little jars. The stuff smells nasty, and personally I think it tastes the same. But they love it down under on toast in the morning like we use jelly. I had a roommate in college who spent a semester there, and brought a case back to give to people as gifts!

[Laura B]

Originally posted by karen w:
Hey Laura B. Did you try Vegemite when you were in Australia?

I avoided it like the plague! My mom is British and eats a very similar product called Marmite on toast every morning. I tried it once as a little girl and have never tried it again. The smell alone knocks me over. The hostel where I stayed in Sydney provided breakfast and dinner, and there was a huge greasy tub of vegemite there every AM beside all of the other toast condiments.

As far as dinner at the hostel, that alone was a "unique eat." Sydney has too many great restaurants to limit myself to eating what was essentially bad cafeteria food with a bunch of loud/drunk/smelly backpackers. I ate there maybe four times and then fled to greener pastures!

[ellielk]

I've eaten alligator - but (nasty brain images aside) it wasn't really all that different from anything I've had before.

Every year when I go to New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival, I look forward to having the alligator po' boy at the fairgrounds and blackened alligator at Ralph and Kakoo's restaurant. Although it's not considered odd food down there, boiled crawfish gets a loud 'ewwwww' from my friends (in Ohio) who haven't tried it.

[Gail]

Originally posted by lorilei:
...in Tunisia (I spent most of a month there studying ruins in college)...

This has absolutely nothing to do with cooking, but as an erstwhile student of mesoamerican archaeology (also studied Egypt a bit, too) I'm dying to know, where did you go? What did you see? (I only took four or five classes at the graduate level and never went on, but why do you figure I went to Greece or Yucatán? Ruins...) You can e-mail me directly on this one... http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif


[This message has been edited by Gail (edited 07-13-2000).]

[Angelina]

Thanks to my husband, I have become an even more adventurous diner than before. Besides the run of the mill frogs, snails and alligator, I've had horse meat (very common in Italy and quite delicious) and fried jellyfish (it really didn't taste like much). One of my favourite treats when I was little, was going to the seashore with my father. We would look for fishermen that had just caught octopus. They would usually slam them on the rocks for a while to tenderize the meat, and then sell it. My father would buy a piece of the smooth flesh for me(I didn't want the tentacles), and I would eat it right then and there, raw and still smelling of the Mediterranean..

[lorilei]

Happy to share my adventures, Gail.
Check your email, as I've sent a summary http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[lindrusso]

Boy you all have tried some really amazing things! I guess I'm totally unadventurous because nothing I've tried comes close. Maybe that's why I stopped eating meat for 9 years - I guess like to keep it simple and identifiable.

I eat meat now (which my vegetarian sister-in-law says is worse than people who NEVER go vegetarian!), but I don't stray far from the ordinary! I nearly passed out when I spied a naked rabbit carcass in the grocery store the other day - and it was right next to the pigs ears and pigs feet! Yuck.

I must say that fried jellyfish wins for most unusual and congealed blood soup for most unappealing! Sorry, but that just sounds extremely unappetizing - what is it? Or do I even want to know???

[karen w]

Lindrusso, blood soup is a polish delicacy. I only know this because as a kid my mother used to go to a Polish poultry farmer to get all her chicken. In the store they sold big jugs of duck blood to make this soup. I agree with you though. This is one I've never tried, and I'm not planning on trying. The thought of it then and now is disgusting. It just goes to show how people view foods and their tastes differ from country to country, and sometimes even in the same country. I guess we just have to respect everybodies differences. I guess that's what makes us all unique. I'll get off my soap box now.

[JeanneW]

Also, in the "olden days" if you bought a chicken you used all the parts. People couldn't afford to waste like we do today. I remember my grandpa eating pigs feet and pigs knuckles. Ugh! I would have been a vegetarian for sure. Sometimes a little waste is not a bad thing.

[BarbaraL]

Laura B, rattlesnake sounds pretty unusual to me. Did it taste like chicken?
I love sushi, including "dragon rolls" with eel; I've never had eel any other way though. Had frogs legs once; like mushrooms, they taste like whatever sauce they're in. I had abalone in California; it was wonderful; tasted like veal! The yecchiest(spelling?) thing I ever had in my mouth was sea cucumber, a Chinese delicacy. Yech!
My high school boyfriend (there's going back a ways) used to hunt; he cooked me pheasant -- it was good! They had ostrich burgers at a BBQ this summer, but they were gone before I got to them, so have't tried that yet.

[lorilei]

Mmmm, Barbara, pheasant is good. My father hunted when we were children, and it was always a lucky day when he could bring back a pheasant or two. There isn't much meat on one bird, but what IS there is the most tender, wonderful meat...

[MrsReber]

laura, my husband hunts all kinds of game, but he eats most of it. I can't bring myself to try the rabbit or the pheasant. He did have a goose that his sister cooked, but they tend to taste funny because of the eel grass that they eat. He loves venison stew. I cook it for him, but it's still a little too gamey for me in big chunks. The chili is very good, too! We haven't tried the sausage yet, but I'm dying to. Maybe this year, since we have a very long hunting season and he'll get enough deer (more than 7 or 8) to have some sausage made up. We did make our own summer sausage, but it tasted more like bologna and it came out a little dry. My husband likes to butcher his own deer so he knows what meat is being used. I think for the sausage, next time we'll let the butcher make it. That cheese and sausage dip sounds awesome. The jerky is also very very good!

[food girl]

He He. When I was in 1st or 2nd grade my mom became a complete no-snacking fanatic. (I have always been a snacker) I had this gerbil...no,I did not eat the gerbil, but he did have these tasty, pretzel-ish bacon- flavored treats. I still hold a special place in my heart for Hartz.

[Gwenniver]

Hmmmm...I've tried octopus, squid (but only as calamari), rabbit (it was good, very tender), wild boar (kind of crunchy), and I was very proud of myself for finally recently trying escargot (it was actually very good but mostly tasted like garlic http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif). Oh, and my father in law makes a mean venison stew (the only thing he'll condescend to cook unless he's grilling). I'd like to try alligator sometime, and maybe rattlesnake, but I think I'll stay away from jellyfish. The idea of stepping in it makes me queasy, so I imagine eating it would be even worse.

foodgirl, my husband tells me Combos snacks were originally developed from dog snacks (and he tells me my father in law used to eat them when they were still dog snacks) http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/redface.gif.

[Maggie]

I've had grilled snake. My father killed a snake and somehow managed to remove the bones, then marinated it in Dale's marinade, wrapped it in bacon and grilled it. I have no idea what snake actually tastes like, but the Dale's and bacon were great on the grill. I've also eaten a rubberband and a matchbox car wheel but I was very young so it really was not an educated decision.

Would someone please explain what vegemite and marmite are. I've never seen either of them before and I can't find a description in my food dictionary. Must be horrible though, nobody who mentioned them seems to like'em.

[Laura B]

Originally posted by Maggie:
Would someone please explain what vegemite and marmite are. I've never seen either of them before and I can't find a description in my food dictionary. Must be horrible though, nobody who mentioned them seems to like'em.

From ethnicgrocer.com's description of Marmite:

"Marmite is a potent yeast extract, with a flavor reminiscent of concentrated beef bouillon. 100% vegetarian, Marmite is a low-calorie, no-fat source of B vitamins. Not for the faint of heart or mild of palate. Spread Marmite on crackers or bread; try it on a sandwich with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and sprouts."

Vegemite is essentially the same thing, although the Brits and the Aussies would probably point out some differences!

(oops. tried to post a picure of marmite. didn't work. tried to access the instructions that were posted but page wouldn't load. can someone refresh me?)


[This message has been edited by Laura B (edited 07-19-2000).]

[SueK]

I've had alligator and goat. They both tasted like chicken. (I know, that's what everyone says about "weird meats"!) I also have had venison, but living in PA, that's pretty common.
My husband travels to Japan on business quite a bit and he has many weird things. The worst thing was sparrow. He said it was grilled, but still had the bones and everything else in it!

[lorilei]

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif Oh, you guys... we've got to stop talking about vegemite!!

I can't get that song by Men at Work (Down Under) out of my head now!

_______________________________________
"...Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language"
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich ..."

[lorilei]

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif Oh, you guys... we've got to stop talking about vegemite!!

I can't get that song by Men at Work (Down Under) out of my head now!

_______________________________________
"...Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language"
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich ..."

[Beth Y]

Being southern, I have had rabbit, squirrel, deer, and most organ meats from poultry and beef at one time or another.
Being a sushi fan, I have tried almost everything they have raw (some, such as sea urchin, no more than once!) Do you believe my two year old eats sushi! She loves salmon and eel.
On our recent trip to Spain, we had some of the best octopus I have ever had. It melted in your mouth, if you can believe it. I also had snails for the first time...well, I have had escargot, but who can taste the snails like that....these were honest to God boiled snails. I would not rush out to get them again. BUT the WILDEST on this trip was BARNACLES!! Yes, they are a delicacy in Spain. THey are very expensive, since they are so hard to harvest (I kept telling them that they could come to the US and pull them off any pier or boat hull and not have to hang over those rocks!) Anyway, they looked pretty gross, but were actually quite good. Very much like a clam or mussel, were the main flavor you taste is that salty, just out of the sea taste.

I must admit, I have not had fried jellyfish, that wins.

On a recent trip to Japan, some friends were offered raw chicken. There are some things even I wouldn't try!

[Pat58]

Hi all,

I posted the request for Ostrich recipes - I'm sorry to say, I did not enjoy the Ostrich at all. Husband and son loved it.

I have, however, enjoyed buffalo, and I'm not a big meat eater. It was very tasty. Now to visit my childhood - has anyone else pulled the crusts off of white bread (Wonder Bread, in my case) and rolled it up in a ball in their palms and eaten "bread balls" as a snack? I thought I was a weird kid for doing that, but I've heard others have done it. I usually finished it off with a can of Del Monte green beans right out of the can. Oh, I'm much more mature now ... (pinky extended ...)

[Katrina]

You must all go directly to your favorite travel website and order airline tickets to Colorado Springs, CO. Just west of there (in Manitou Springs) is an intimate, romantic, gourmet restaurant, The Craftwood Inn, which specializes in exotic wild game. It is in this AWESOME place that I've tasted unique eats such as: caribou, elk, musk ox, New Zealand red stag, and a lentil soup with African Pheasant. My husband and I decided to go back to Colorado for vacation last year just so we could eat at the Craftwood Inn! I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Unique eats tasted elsewhere: wild boar quesadillas and buffalo (quite tasty).