Wackiest thing you've ever eaten

[beans]

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.

ahem. Inuit!

At any rate, muktuk is black, thin layer of skin on white, pinkish blubber of whale. This is cut into small strips, salted and eaten. I've heard people tell me it tastes like coconut! I do also have a recipe for Muktuk Chowder should anyone be interested.

Mukluk is beareded seal that I also have a recipe for Mutkluk Meatloaf or burgers.

A few years ago now, someone brought seal to the gathering to share immediately following my dear Grandmother's funeral. I'm not sure what part of the seal was sitting within a large pool of rendered seal fat, but I nearly wretched. The day was stressful enough to consider some ill fated culinary adventure that would only place me into a more displeasing mood. But I did get quite a whiff of the delicacy.

Lynx, beaver, dall sheep, muskrat, porcupine or polar bear anyone? I've got preparations for all of the aforementioned!

Don't make me pull out my ancient copy of Out of Alaskan Kitchens wherein I have such goodies as Jellied Moose Nose!

[Mabelline]

beans, after reading yours and Mayhaw Man's posts, that reminded me that as a kid, I remember a lot of relatives on my dad's side considered muskrat a delicacy.

[chezlamere]

i remember one summer when I was about 10 or so I spent the summer with relatives that had a farm. Cows, chickens and lots of other things running around including cougars and bears as a matter of fact. But one night after a particularly delicious meal my aunt asks me how I liked the chicken and I was told that it was the one that I was chasing around the day before. That was the last time (to this day) that I eat any meat at her house and she doesn't even have animals anymore. So I can't see how any of you can eat the stuff that you do. What's the point exactly??? I want my meat on a foam tray wrapped in plastic wrap from the grocery store.

[Mayhaw Man]

I want my meat on a foam tray wrapped in plastic wrap from the grocery store.

I am not sure that I understand. Are you saying that you would rather have no clue where your food comes from or how it is handled? Or are you saying that you are crazy about foam?

I prefer to witness the entire trip down the line. I find it very comforting to know where something came from and how it got on my plate. Trust me, that chicken led a whole lot more satisfying life than the average fryer raised in a hen house (not to mention that it probably ate a much better diet than that poultry from Megelomart).

[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.

Well how was it?

Actually... both tasted quite disgusting. The brownies were most effective but the peyote milkshake was an exercise in futility. One out of two ain't bad.

[AzRaeL]

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.

Deepfried baby squid is DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!

so is thai chicken feet salad.

[fifi]

My great aunt used to use chicken feet in her chicken and dumplings to add the gelatin. She would take them out before serving. My sister has reminded me that she would take them out to cool and rinse them off, expose the tendons so I could pull on the tendons to make the feet twitch. I thought that was a great toy. How sick is that?

[AzRaeL]

Are you saying that you would rather have no clue where your food comes from or how it is handled?

how about some Soylent Green?

it's delicious it's nutritious, just don't ask where it comes from.

[chezlamere]

it means that I don't want to see it alive. I quess I'm just wierd that way. Bring it to me dead

[beans]

My sister has reminded me that she would take them out to cool and rinse them off, expose the tendons so I could pull on the tendons to make the feet twitch. I thought that was a great toy. How sick is that?

Aw, I look at it as a lesson on how something worked!

[tryska]

hmm...compared to y'all i'm fairly tame.

well other than the chocolate protein powder and lemon-lime gatorade shake i'm drinking right now.

[Mayhaw Man]

it means that I don't want to see it alive. I quess I'm just wierd that way. Bring it to me dead

Don't ever go to a crawfish boil. Thier screams of anguish as they are dunked into that hot spicy water would make your cry

[bergerka]

chocolate covered ants, I guess.

I mean, oysters, lobster (big red bug!)...those things are perfectly normal.

Oh--turkey fries.

Yup, you got it, deep-fried turkey testicles.

actually, they're not bad.

K

[Mayhaw Man]

Yup, you got it, deep-fried turkey testicles.

actually, they're not bad.

K

Turkey Tots?

[AzRaeL]

it means that I don't want to see it alive.  I quess I'm just wierd that way. Bring it to me dead

Don't ever go to a crawfish boil. Thier screams of anguish as they are dunked into that hot spicy water would make your cry

Drunken Prawn is YUMMY

just souse the live prawns in rice wine for a few minutes

then boil :) yUm!

[Eric_Malson]

chocolate covered ants, I guess.

I mean, oysters, lobster (big red bug!)...those things are perfectly normal.

Oh, normal are they? Even though you never ate a raw oyster in your whole life until a little over a month ago?

Nothing I've ever eaten can compete with the things previously mentioned here--just the usual offal and blood dishes.

Nepalese yak's milk cheese perhaps, courtesy of Ellen Shapiro?

[mysticonnie]

i wonder if anyone here has drunk Kopi Luak?

Coffee beans harvested from Civet cat poop.

I've had Kopi Luwat coffee... it's actually the best coffee I've ever had... but still not worth the price tag. I think it worked out to something like $12 per cup. Other than that, the most exotic thing I've had is snake.

[AzRaeL]

i wonder if anyone here has drunk Kopi Luak?

Coffee beans harvested from Civet cat poop.

I've had Kopi Luwat coffee... it's actually the best coffee I've ever had... but still not worth the price tag. I think it worked out to something like $12 per cup. Other than that, the most exotic thing I've had is snake.

ewww...Poop Coffee!

how did it taste like anyway?

[curlywurlyfi]

Whataburger.

oooh, Raynickben, is this actually a real burger, or just the tennis tournament sponsor in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest?? (which I am currently re-reading for the third time, mainly to improve my bicep definition.)

Fi

[bergerka]

chocolate covered ants, I guess.

I mean, oysters, lobster (big red bug!)...those things are perfectly normal.

Oh, normal are they? Even though you never ate a raw oyster in your whole life until a little over a month ago?

Nothing I've ever eaten can compete with the things previously mentioned here--just the usual offal and blood dishes.

Nepalese yak's milk cheese perhaps, courtesy of Ellen Shapiro?

Hey! They're normal! I just wasn't!

I can think of some things you've, er, eaten, that are kinda wacky...but they aren't suitable for discussion in mixed company, either! *ducks and runs*

K

[Chloe]

Nothing I've ever eaten can compete with the things previously mentioned here--just the usual offal and blood dishes

I can't really compete either, except that I eat Eric's blood dishes pretty often as I live in one of the Blood Dish Capitals of the World!

And lots of lovely pig's ear!

I have had cockscomb grilled on the hotplate of a solid fuel cooker. It was yummy!

Apart from that, almost all parts of most common meat and fish.

And my 6-year old now helps me chop up the whole kids and lambs that we get given regularly, and she and little brother admire the live chickens/cocks that are going to become their favorite chicken soup.

abraço

Chloe

north Portugal

[stephenc]

coagulated blood jelly.

[PopsicleToze]

it means that I don't want to see it alive.  I quess I'm just wierd that way. Bring it to me dead

Don't ever go to a crawfish boil. Thier screams of anguish as they are dunked into that hot spicy water would make your cry

Aw, Mayhaw. Don't scare the people. The crawfish are alive, but I haven't heard one scream yet. Lobsters make noises, and I'm guessing the crawfish are screaming when they're about to be boiled alive, but their little voices are just inaudible.

Weirdest for me? Chicken feet in Chicago's China Town. Means I'm a lightfoot -- bigtime -- in this thread.

So far my vote is for the monkey brains! But there are some close runner-ups...

[can't find the smilie on the left who is throwing up, but that's the one I'd like to use]

[wesza]

coagulated blood jelly.

It's not a jelly. It's just the way the Blood Coagulates. Sort of like a Blobby Shakey Gloop, but very tasty.

What's your favorite ?

Pork Blood

Chicken Blood

Duck Blood

Goose Blood

Beef Blood

Lamb Blood

Generally there are several varieties available at the "Ranch 99 Market" or other Asian Groceries.

This was a product that i'm pretty sure hasn't been available at Seattle Markets more then 2 or 3 years but was a specialty at Hong Kong Restaurants especially served with Sliced Goose with Garlic Sauce.

I didn't realize what I had been eating the first few times I tried the Goose Blood. Thought it was some kind of special pudding served with the Goose.

After doing a double take just accepted that it tasted okay and tried not to look back. Learned to become adaptable to foods that I wasn't familiar with but behaved with more caution in the future.

Irwin

[Callipygos]

We were in an auditorium with hundreds of other people and one of the dishes looked like fried meatballs. It wasn't. It was just plain cubes of fat that had been deep fried.

But how does the fat not...I mean, adding fat to fat, doesn't it just...I mean, wouldn't it liquefy, so wouldn't it...huh?

I'm reminded of the time that a bunch of visiting Irish folk (a friend's brother, his wife, and another couple that were their friends) visited NYC and we hung out for the day. We got dim sum in Chinatown, and one thing we ordered was a plate of duck tongue. It was a little pile of small fried bits of matter -- but what confused us was, there was some sort of BONE in them.

The concept of a tongue having a bone in it just baffled us. The two of us that were brave enough to try it only kept nibbling because we were trying to figure out whether it really was a bone, cartilage, or some especially tough and chewy part of the meat. The puzzled squints we gave as we ate kept everyone else from trying any, though.