culinary adventures

Now, I like all kinds of foods from all over the world. There isn't much I won't try. Durian, balut, heart, blood, suckling pig face, whatever.

But I think I just met my match.

surströmming. oh my angry $deity.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!! This is the most unholy thing to ever touch my tastebuds.


What's the most fearful food you've run across?

coconut

Japanese fermented fish entrails. My sister-in-law and I tried it one year the weekend before thanksgiving at the Japanese place the wife and I go to when we want to live it up. Looked exactly like you would think it would, like a big blob of multicolored goo. Tasted really bad. SIL and I tried it "on the count of three" and washed it down with about a gallon of sapporo. At least I can say I tried it...

Loaded chicken colon, in a "hotpot" in central china.

Nothing in Japan compares the the horrors of chinese cuisine.

passedpawn said:

Loaded chicken colon, in a "hotpot" in central china.

Nothing in Japan compares the the horrors of chinese cuisine.

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"Loaded?" as in, not cleaned?

Id love to try the unholy trinity of foods people mention when talking about scary foods. Balut, lutefisk and hagus, but havent had occassion.

Since I like black and white puddings, I would think I would actually enjoy hagus.

I go out of my comfort zone now and then and get a McDonalds burger. Does that count as heinous?

Stewed Jellyfish makes me shudder.

I'm Filipino so I grew up around balut. Never liked it tho. Actually, I like everything about the balut except for the actual fetus.

I'll try anything once just to say I've tried it. So far I've tried donkey meat, cicada (bugs), raw horse meat, and dried durian chips.

There are some mild fermented fish dishes that I don't mind, but as a rule of thumb, I really hate fermented fish.

CreamyGoodness said:

"Loaded?" as in, not cleaned?

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Uh, they don't clean much in central china. It was stuffed like a cannoli. I tried to go vegan during my trip.

If you saw the incredibly dirty place I was eating, you'd know that it wasn't cleaned. I ate there every day for lunch. Nasty. I was in an industrial area 700 miles south of Beijing. Low rent, lowest wages in China, and that's saying a lot.

And yes, they did have dog on the "menu", which was written on a wall. 2 kinds as I was told.

I tried lutefisk once. Imagine fishy jello with a helping of raw chemicals. It wasn't very pleasing. I think the most disgusting (and I'll catch hell from some of you) thing I ever ate has to be a tie between a haggis that was improperly prepared or the northern Ohio version of scrapple. NEVER ever eat a haggis that was prepared by an American cook! The real deal isn't as displeasing as one might think. My aversions to certain foods doesn't come from taste mostly, it's definitely the texture. Example: I love the taste of most sashimi, but the texture makes me want to gag. Add to that boiled okra or raw oysters. Why not just swallow a glob of snot instead?

Holy hell all these things sound horrible... Um lets see.. You all got me beat by lightyears.. The "worst things" ive ever eaten were probly homemade frogs legs and raw qail egg.. Both of which I thought were delicious.

raw quail egg atop a nice tuna tartar is to die for.

CreamyGoodness said:

raw quail egg atop a nice tuna tartar is to die for.

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How's the okra mead coming along? :cross:

Whattawort said:

How's the okra mead coming along? :cross:

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My wife this morning: "Oh God what is floating in it?!"
Me: "Okra seeds, raisins for yeast food, and thats... thats... something brownish"
SWMBO: *gag*

passedpawn said:

Uh, they don't clean much in central china. It was stuffed like a cannoli. I tried to go vegan during my trip.

If you saw the incredibly dirty place I was eating, you'd know that it wasn't cleaned. I ate there every day for lunch. Nasty. I was in an industrial area 700 miles south of Beijing. Low rent, lowest wages in China, and that's saying a lot.

And yes, they did have dog on the "menu", which was written on a wall. 2 kinds as I was told.

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I was being delicate when I said "cleaned". "Loaded" made it sound like they hadnt bothered to remove waste matter.

What did they stuff it with? Ground pork? Chilis? I'm legitimately interested.

CreamyGoodness said:

I was being delicate when I said "cleaned". "Loaded" made it sound like they hadnt bothered to remove waste matter.

What did they stuff it with? Ground pork? Chilis? I'm legitimately interested.

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They didn't clean them. They didn't stuff them. They were au natural. My chinese driver chewed it right up. We are not talking some kind of delicacy here. The hotpot is filled with all the chewy gristley bits that you'd never find in food. I suspect it is a better dish in the bigger metropolitan areas of China, but not in the nether-regions.

Not only was the hotpot generally nasty, but anything that looks "deep-fried" or battered should be avoided. The breading ALWAYS hid pieces of meat that were undigestable and full of pieces of bone. My chinese colleages just spit the bad parts right onto the table, but I stuck with things that had the appearance of vegatable. You can be fooled though since the nasty meat bits can take all sorts of appearances. Something that I thought was a bean was a beef artery. That was nasty too. Hollow, you could pass a pencil through it.

To be fair, the food in Beijing was far, far better.

CreamyGoodness said:

raw quail egg atop a nice tuna tartar is to die for.

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Its a really nice finisher after a couple rolls of sushi. I get it at this really nice japanese restaurant called nagato sukiyaki

Used to make what I called a cannibal sandwich:
2 slices of bread, raw hamburger mixed with an egg, salt, pepper and a few dashes of hot sauce and worcestshire sauce.

I miss those sometimes.

Hehe I love tartar. But whats one thing you just cant stand to eat, sailor? Something you had once or twice and couldnt choke it down.

Balut when I was in PI in the very early 80's. Even drunk I just couldn't do it.

Also in 81, in Korea, It was oppressively hot and I refused water that a wonderful old grandmother type offered me because of the things floating/swimming in it. I did accept the beer she offered.

You know surstromming is truly awful stuff when it is recommended you eat it with a shot of 100 proof liquor. Has to be one of the top 3 worst foods ever.

The worst tasting thing I ever ate was a pistachio that was so rotten, the center of the nut had turned into an inky black liquid that could best be described as tasting like a concentrated moldy pimple. After biting down on it, I had a knee-jerk, projectile vomit reaction... right in the front seat of my old car. It was among a pack of mixed nuts I had bought at a convenience store. That was the last time I've eaten a pistachio.

Tempeh. I just can't stomach it.

bierhaus15 said:

You know surstromming is truly awful stuff when it is recommended you eat it with a shot of 100 proof liquor. Has to be one of the top 3 worst foods ever.

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No idea what that stuff is, so I googled and watched this. I like stinky fish stuff, and these guys make it look like a really appealing snack. Funny.

tripe

i know it's a delicacy to some but I couldn't get over the texture

was ridic hungover at a nice restaurant in Florence and didn't fully realize what I was ordering at the time - made my nausea much worse

There are three ways of preparing tripe. Crispy on a sandwich with a nice hot-sauce, braised for ages with spices and things like hominy and corn (or, similarly, in a nice menudo), and the way it is usually prepared... flabby, smelly, tough threads of slimy horrible.

The experience of eating tripe is a lot like being single, and waking to see a back of someone else lying next to you. You'll either be REALLY glad you did, or REALLY wish you hadn't.

CreamyGoodness said:

There are three ways of preparing tripe. Crispy on a sandwich with a nice hot-sauce, braised for ages with spices and things like hominy and corn (or, similarly, in a nice menudo), and the way it is usually prepared... flabby, smelly, tough threads of slimy horrible.

The experience of eating tripe is a lot like being single, and waking to see a back of someone else lying next to you. You'll either be REALLY glad you did, or REALLY wish you hadn't.

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Hahaha!

Don't forget Chitlins! I've had them good and bad, prefer them good. Oh and, mmmmm Menudo!

I haven´t found something that I wouldn´t eat. I had all kind of tripes cooked in anyway possible, I had camel, monkey, horse, armadillo, I just love them all. I yet have to try a lot of stuff but I´m willing

Obliviousbrew said:

I haven´t found something that I wouldn´t eat. I had all kind of tripes cooked in anyway possible, I had camel, monkey, horse, armadillo, I just love them all. I yet have to try a lot of stuff but I´m willing

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I've never had camel, what did you think of it?

Subsailor said:

I've never had camel, what did you think of it?

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chewy if just grilled. I had it in several ways in Morocco. Grilled haves a lot of flavour but very hard texture, I had it minced in a pita (like a kebab or gyro) and it was very good, camel burgers were decent too. But the best way was in a really spicy stew. Yummy

As a home cook, I have come to the realization that if you braise any tough meat long enough it will be wonderful.

1) Buy cheap anything
2) Braise the hell out of it with spices
3)???
4) Profit!

Definitely braising, herbs and spices but not to overpower the flavor of the meat, of course.

Hearing about camel and other meats and how to prepare them... and drooling.... then wondering if it's normal to drool over cooked animals of odd variety... made me think of a funny thing Homer Simpson said:


Mmmm, meat...

Yep the problem is they are tasty, sometimes I witnessed some terrible things, well anyone that have seen a pig slaughter can have an idea...(I´ve seen a few myself but never participated to much) I don´t enjoy hunting or killing things... and I have to admit that sometimes I felt moraly challenged For instance when I was like 15 yo or so I went to a friends "estancia" to spend the weekend, they had a lot of animals but I noticed one put aside: a cow that was pregnant and I told it was ready to deliver so they ask us if we wanted to watch, of course I said yes and we stood aside watching, it was shorter then I expected one of the guys had to stick his hands in to help the veal out -that was kind of disgusting- the thing is that inmediatly they take the just born veal to a corner and slaughter him... I wasn´t expecting that and I was kind of shocked. I was told that it was dinner "no-nato" they called it and it that translates litterally to "unborn". I wasn´t sure to have it or not at dinner but I suposed to be an absolute delicacy that you can´t buy at any place, so I tried it and I got to tell you guys, the first bite was a piece of heaven mealting in my mouth, that was the tenderest, best wood fire grilled meat that I ever had. After that I only had "no-nato" one more time over 10 years ago, I don´t know if this is exotic or a common practice for farmers in the US, it was quite an experience for me.. and I´ve try a lot of stuff.

Sea Urchin (uni). It wasn't so much the taste as the consistency and texture. It filled my mouth immediately upon insertion, and just overpowered my senses. I almost didn't keep it down.

Obliviousbrew said:

(I´ve seen a few myself but never participated to much) I don´t enjoy hunting or killing things...

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Wait a minute, you'll eat a damn monkey and you've never slaughtered your own meat?

I'm obviuosly in the rookie league of gross foods. I used to enjoy eel intestines at a Japanese restaurant I went to a lot. Definitely 'stuffed' as it were, but pretty tasty and the owner/chef would almost always make time to bring them out to the the table and pretend to whisper very loudly 'Japanese Viagra!' Had some fish gut/brain/assorted left over bit soup there once, too. Worst thing I ever tried to eat were these slimy, stinky fermented soybeans. I think it's called Natto. Not to my liking in the slightest.

oi. natto......

that is also a supremely wrong food. I have problems keeping that one down.

I said didn´t enjoy it it´s messy and you have to do it rigth, I can´t kill a cow or a pig but I did kill a few chickens and armadillos. Killing an animal it´s harder than you may think if you don´t know a thing about it. I don´t enjoy hunting or slaughtering I do love the meat and I´m willing to help but I´m not skilled enough to do more than the little I have done when it´s slaughter time: help preparing and mixing the blood for blood sausage, packing sausages and salting hams, and moving things around, the job is not nice specialy the blood sausage: it smells horrible and disgusting when you are making it but tastes like heaven.

neosapien said:

Now, I like all kinds of foods from all over the world. There isn't much I won't try. Durian, balut, heart, blood, suckling pig face, whatever.

But I think I just met my match.

surströmming. oh my angry $deity.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!! This is the most unholy thing to ever touch my tastebuds.


What's the most fearful food you've run across?

Click to expand...

I'm curious to know where you found susstroming in the USA, I'd like to get some. Regards, GF.

Obliviousbrew said:

I said didn´t enjoy it it´s messy and you have to do it rigth, I can´t kill a cow or a pig but I did kill a few chickens and armadillos. Killing an animal it´s harder than you may think if you don´t know a thing about it. I don´t enjoy hunting or slaughtering I do love the meat and I´m willing to help but I´m not skilled enough to do more than the little I have done when it´s slaughter time: help preparing and mixing the blood for blood sausage, packing sausages and salting hams, and moving things around, the job is not nice specialy the blood sausage: it smells horrible and disgusting when you are making it but tastes like heaven.

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We've raised broilers twice now - after months of the little bastards waking me up, the killing wasn't so unpleasant. Now the plucking is another matter.