Exotic Foods

[cyalexa]

Beef tendon puffs.

 

They may not seem exotic to many here, but they were unusual, delicious (salty, beefy, crisp, light yet decadent), and something I've never seen in Oklahoma (or anywhere else for that matter). I rarely go someplace I have already been when I travel to San Francisco, but I will go back for these. Here's a link to a pic:

 

http://www.foodspotting.com/places/857038-alta-ca-san-francisco-/items/1544324-beef-tendon-puffs

 

[Tri2Cook]

Sea cucumbers

I tried sea cucumber at a Korean restaurant many years ago. The flavor of the dish was nice. The texture, not so much. It was reminiscent of what I would imagine eating chunks of tire in a nice sauce would be like. I'm fully willing to believe that it was just improperly prepared but I've never tried it again to find out.

I had pretty much the same experience with menudo. The soup/sauce part was tasty but I didn't enjoy the tripe at all. There's not a single nice thing I can say about the chitlins I tried except the collard greens and corn bread that accompanied them were good. I swear I tasted those chitlins for two days after I ate them. They'll never get a second chance to win me over.

 

[gfron1]

Okay, how about cow udder? I had street tacos of udder. In Spanish the woman kept saying it was placenta but I'm sure that's not the case, and I know it wasn't just stomach.  When I eat street tacos and don't know some of the words (after many years of Spanish study and use) I order anything I don't know.

[chefmd]

I remember my grandmother cooking cow udder when I was little.  I ate it without a moment of hesitation.  Texture was nice.  Taste was so so.  She also cooked tripe.  And brains.  And whatever else we could get forty some years ago in the Soviet Union.  We were not starving by any means but filet mignon was never on our table.  I am not sure if everyone cooked offal or if it was just my grandmother.   When we went to visit people, we were served some "normal" food.  We also raised rabbits during the summer and ate them without pretending that they went to "rabbit farm". 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

cyalexa,

 

Those beef tendons look like good pork rinds. I would SO try them.

 

Tri2Cook,

 

With chittlins, it's all about the prep. As I said upthread, I would not prepare these myself after hearing descriptions of the smell during the cooking, but I'd eat them if someone I trusted their cooking offered them again. The only reason I ate such a small serving at the holiday potluck dinner was that there was so much other absolutely delicious food that I almost ate myself into a food coma. There were literally 300 different dishes, and I tried a little bit of everything I could.

 

This is the same family that served me a sit-down seafood dinner (not allowing me to lift a finger) better than any I have ever had at any restaurant. I think it was in return for throwing their son a birthday party at my house for their family and mine with rib eye steak I cut myself from a couple primes and grilled will all the fixins. I had to rent tables and chairs and put them in the yard to accommodate everyone. He got a lot of nice presents. Too bad the relationship didn't work out, because I really, really miss the culinary side of it.

 

If I were to find myself in a situation where I needed to cook chittlins, I'd find a way to do it outdoors, but the ones I ate were very tasty, clean, and tasted and smelled of nothing but good porkiness.

 

Ooh! chefmd,

 

I LOVE rabbit. My grandparents used to fry it up for breakfast, and it was wonderful. It used to be a lot easier to find in the fifties and sixties, even into the seventies, but it's pretty much gone from the mainstream by now. One of my aunts and uncle used to raise them en masse, and the whole family shared the bounty. I wish I could find it easily now. I would have to go on a quest and pay a ridiculous price in my location. I have searched for it.

 

ETA: bold the names of those to whom I was replying. 

Edited March 27, 2015 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[CatPoet]

gfron. had udder too as  a child, it used to be part of pölsa.

[djyee100]

...Also monkfish liver, veal head, pig ear and foot, beef muzzle salad, lamb testicle...

 

The worst out of those was the liver- it has the texture of foie gras and the flavour of mackerel.  Really offputting.

 

I've eaten monkfish liver at a sushi restaurant. The chef steams it and serves slices with ponzu sauce and grated daikon. Sorta like this:

http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/Liver-of-the-monkfish-a-controversial-delicacy-2689335.php

Monkfish liver is like a lighter version of foie gras, with a delicate flavor--not fishy to me, and certainly not like mackerel. I wonder if your dish was not well-prepared, or simply not fresh.  If you come across monkfish liver again, it might be worth another go.

 

...Can't think of the Italian wormy cheese name.

 

 

dcarch

 

This is it. http://culturecheesemag.com/cheese-bites/casu-marzu-aka-maggot-cheese

A friend and I were talking about it one day. We were both grossed out at the concept. He was sure it was all clever marketing to sell rotten cheese. "Call it a delicacy," he said. "And sell it to those stupid Americans."

 

My most "exotic" --I prefer to say "unusual" by Western standards--fried frog skins and fried bamboo worms in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Posted here on Egullet, post #7:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/121025-thailand-north-to-south/

[kwankapang]

Durian is one of the candidates as exotic food. I grow up in Malaysia and durian is termed as the king of fruit. However, the strong flavor of durian still put me off

[suzilightning]

Rabbit, squirrel, beef tongue all were things we ate growing up that might be considered "exotic" by some.  For us "exotic" was Parmesan cheese that DIDN'T come from a can!

[CatPoet]

Oh Kalles Kaviar  ( a mixed fish roe spread for sandwiches)  and salty liquorice is seen as exotic by none Swedes and  for me it is just breakfast or a treat. 

[Allen89]

I will treat the terms exotic food as something edible which I not used to eat. By that, my answer is berries like blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, blackberry, lingonberry and etc