Wackiest thing you've ever eaten

[beans]

YUK!

I guess I'm not big on the adventurous side of eating. Mine is rather pedestrian with being durian.

This is *not* the thread to be reading while feeling under the weather.

[Pan]

Feel better, beans!

[chezlamere]

In front of each of us,placed through the holes in the table, were live monkeys. Following the lead of our hosts, we lifted the top half of the skulls and proceeded to eat the brains of the monkeys....

Maybe you could tell us how you lifted the top half of the skulls off the live monkeys.

What I found out later was that they get the monkeys drunk and when they pass out the chef slices through the skull basically using a bone saw. You then just lift the top off and there you go... To be honest it's not something I'm in a hurry to do or try again!!!

that's gotta be the most discusting thing i've ever heard How can anyone eat something that has been tortured like that ugggggggg. Sick It's going to take a long time to get that image out of my mind. My most adventurous thing is scallops and shrimp. And only after many bloody ceasars in a bar.

[AzRaeL]

i wonder if anyone here has drunk Kopi Luak?

Coffee beans harvested from Civet cat poop.

[AzRaeL]

that's gotta be the most discusting thing i've ever heard How can anyone eat something that has been tortured like that ugggggggg. Sick It's going to take a long time to get that image out of my mind. My most adventurous thing is scallops and shrimp. And only after many bloody ceasars in a bar.

scallops and shrimp would be my daily fare if i could help it.

[AzRaeL]

Mine...hmmm Horseshoe crab

[Pan]

i wonder if anyone here has drunk Kopi Luak?

Coffee beans harvested from Civet cat poop.

Gross! I hate civet cats because they used to walk and shit under my house in Terengganu, Malaysia every night, plus I was worried they would eat my chickens. And they left a horrible smell even if they didn't shit under the house. (Traditional Malay village houses, especially in a very flood-prone area like where I was living, were always on stilts, elevated some feet off the ground, so all manner of creatures could and did walk around under the house.) They were much worse than skunks, which only stink when they spray! Where did you have Kopi Luak?

[AzRaeL]

never had Kopi Luak before.

it is however a Sumatran delicacy

[tejon]

Feeling pretty tame here as well. The waskiest thing I've ever eaten was mountain lion (cougar) jerky. Someone at work brought it in. The mountain lion in question had been shot on his father's property and they didn't want the animal to go to waste. It had an odd flavor, very gamy and stringy.

[Mark Sommelier]

Well, I've eaten all manner of innards - bull's testicles in a Yemenite restaurant called Shaul's in Tel Aviv in 1977, pig's intenstines in various Chinese restaurants, calf brains, tripe, etc.

on Fear Factor they're paying people $$$ to do that!

i am a featherweight in this discussion, because the most "bizarre" thing i ate was calves' brains in brown butter.

Cervelles de Veau au Beurre Noir is a classic dish. Nothing weird about it.

[Mark Sommelier]

Some years ago I worked for Jean-Louis Palladin. One night, I walked into the kitchen and he stuck something in my mouth and said "Try ziss". Raw cockscomb. Yes, it was gross.

[AzRaeL]

Some years ago I worked for Jean-Louis Palladin. One night, I walked into the kitchen and he stuck something in my mouth and said "Try ziss". Raw cockscomb. Yes, it was gross.

yuck! people eat that!?

hmm how about the vomit of a Swallow boiled in rock sugar?

i ate that.

hahah except it's marketed under a more palatable "Bird's Nest"

[nessa]

I would like to heartily thank all of you who are helping my new "diet". I now have no appetite for breakfast and for that I am truely greatful.

The weirdest for me was sweetbread. I was 8. Wasn't bad until I found out what it was. I made a hard fast rule then and there that viscera of any sort would never again be a part of my diet. Nothing but muscle fiber thanks. I will on occasion stray from that path for some really good pate` however.

Oh ok another weird experience, tame in comparison to the rest of the posts, was chicken feet and fried baby squid. Both had a rather nice flavor but the texture... bleh. And I couldn't get past how the squid looked.

[Zingano]

Another odd thing I've tried is bear. This was in Finland - I was too keen on the musta makara (sp?) to order it myself, but my kindly neighbour passed me a few mouthfuls. Not recommended - chewy, slightly stringy and dry - of course it may have been cooked badly, I've eaten plenty of beef like that.

[Katherine]

Feeling pretty tame here as well. The waskiest thing I've ever eaten was mountain lion (cougar) jerky. Someone at work brought it in. The mountain lion in question had been shot on his father's property and they didn't want the animal to go to waste. It had an odd flavor, very gamy and stringy.

I read about a group of hunters who made and ate cougar jerky from an animal they shot, not wanting to waste the meat. Eleven of them went to the hospital with trichinosis. The doctor who wrote it up and published got an Ig-Nobel award (for research that cannot be reproduced, or should not).

[Mayhaw Man]

I have tried this little critter on a number of occasions, as our Dept. of Agriculture keeps trying to entice consumers into eating the rats that are eating our coastline. Sadly, it just doesn't hold a candle to pork or shrimp , but they keep trying.

Several years ago there was a public cookoff with several of our better known chefs (Paul Prudhomme, Jamie Shannon, John Folse, Emeril Legasse, Susan Spicer, Frank Brigsten, etc.) and these people were charged with trying to make this foodstuff palatable. Failure abounded. No matter what kind of sauce you put on it "a rat by any other name still tastes like a rat".

In fairness I will say that it does not taste bad. A bit like squirrel or wild swamp hare, but with all of the choices in the meat cooler, it is going to be a pretty hard sell to get people to buy this stuff.

[Mabelline]

Those crispy little crickets or grasshoppers in Mexico. They were good, but did not inspire to start catching and doing my own.

[beans]

[Huevos del Toro]

Raw Beluga whale flipper. We (two Eskimos and I) harpooned one in the ice pack outside of Kotzebue AK, roped it to the side of the boat and headed back to land. We were about 20 miles out. One reached over the side, whacked off a chunk of flipper, cut it into bite-sized pieces and passed them out. It tasted, as far as I can describe it, like a rich nut-meat and had the consistancy of a rubber tire. Chew the flavor out, spit it overboard and go on to the next piece.

[Katherine]

Click me.

And scroll down a page to see the Eskimo food pyramid.

[Huevos del Toro]

Whale blubber.......disgusting. Also, Eskimo "ice cream" which is beaten seal fat (looks like Crisco) with sugar, berries and boiled fish. Even more disgusting!

I've had those too but the kicker was the Eskimo Ice Cream. There was no fish in the stuff I ate. What made it doubly disgusting was the seal oil. It was extremely rancid. The Eskimos loved it but I had a hard time getting it past my nose. The blubber (muktuk?) wasn't nearly as bad.

[Nick]

Another odd thing I've tried is bear. This was in Finland - I was too keen on the musta makara (sp?) to order it myself, but my kindly neighbour passed me a few mouthfuls. Not recommended - chewy, slightly stringy and dry - of course it may have been cooked badly, I've eaten plenty of beef like that.

It must have not been cooked well, or was a poor cut. Years ago a friend gave me a piece of a black bear he'd shot. I put it in a marinade of wine vinegar, olive oil, onion, garlic, and S&P. Roasted it the next night and it was tender and DELICIOUS! One of the best meats I've ever had.

[phaelon56]

Another dish I forgot to mention was homemade brownies that were heavily laced with ground morning glory seeds. Really quite disgusting and barely palatable but as was the case with the rotting fresh peyote button chocolate milkshakes we had the month before... all was consumed in the spirit of... uhhhh... scientific inquiry rather than culinary adventure. Yes, it was in a previous lifetime in case you shuld be wondering.

[Mayhaw Man]

... all was consumed in the spirit of... uhhhh... scientific inquiry rather than culinary adventure.

Yes. Of course. No doubt about it.

Anything for the benefit of science and mankind.

Nice work says I. Thanks for the sacrifice. We are all the better for it

[Al_Dente]

Another dish I forgot to mention was homemade brownies that were heavily laced with ground morning glory seeds. Really quite disgusting and barely palatable but as was the case with the rotting fresh peyote button chocolate milkshakes we had the month before... all was consumed in the spirit of... uhhhh... scientific inquiry rather than culinary adventure. Yes, it was in a previous lifetime in case you shuld be wondering.

Well how was it?