One food you have never had... but are curious

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Traditionally prepared lutefisk is usually something people either love or hate; very little middle ground. You can always jazz it up a bit with herbs & spices and that usually makes it a bit more appealing to the uninitiated.

It's basically just baked codfish with lots & lots of butter. Granted, it's been soaking in lye, and/or dried prior to preparation, but it's always soaked to both rehydrate & remove the lye; pretty much the same way you soak a salt cured ham before cooking it.

I like lutefisk, but I like it jazzed up a bit. I eat it with lefse & boiled & mashed potatoes & turnips, I mix the taters & turnips together. A little mustard and/or dill, a nice strong ale to wash it all down with; not a bad meal.

And FYI: without soaking food in lye, we wouldn't have olives or hominy. I'm sure there are other foods treated with lye as well.
Regards, GF.
 
gratus fermentatio said:
Traditionally prepared lutefisk is usually something people either love or hate; very little middle ground. You can always jazz it up a bit with herbs & spices and that usually makes it a bit more appealing to the uninitiated.

It's basically just baked codfish with lots & lots of butter. Granted, it's been soaking in lye, and/or dried prior to preparation, but it's always soaked to both rehydrate & remove the lye; pretty much the same way you soak a salt cured ham before cooking it.

I like lutefisk, but I like it jazzed up a bit. I eat it with lefse & boiled & mashed potatoes & turnips, I mix the taters & turnips together. A little mustard and/or dill, a nice strong ale to wash it all down with; not a bad meal.

And FYI: without soaking food in lye, we wouldn't have olives or hominy. I'm sure there are other foods treated with lye as well.
Regards, GF.
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I haven't had lefse in 20 years. I miss it. Previous generations of my family ate lutefisk but my parents hated it and so I've never gotten to try it. They made it sound pretty horrible but I am intrigued. I have no idea where to get it or how to prepare it though.
 
PRE66_6TART said:
I haven't had lefse in 20 years. I miss it. Previous generations of my family ate lutefisk but my parents hated it and so I've never gotten to try it. They made it sound pretty horrible but I am intrigued. I have no idea where to get it or how to prepare it though.
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If you can find an IKEA store near you, they carry Swedish and Norwegian foods, and often serve them in their food court.
 
PRE66_6TART said:
I haven't had lefse in 20 years. I miss it. Previous generations of my family ate lutefisk but my parents hated it and so I've never gotten to try it. They made it sound pretty horrible but I am intrigued. I have no idea where to get it or how to prepare it though.
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I can buy lutefisk at almost any grocery store in Missoula, but I like the lutefisk I get at (oddly enough) the butcher shop. They all have lefse & some type of smoked salmon too. It's all pretty seasonal though, usually you start seeing lutefisk about December in some places & should be around till March or so, but you should be able to find lefse pretty soon. I always get some to go with smoked salmon. Not sure what the major chain grocers are where you are, but I see lutefisk & lefse at Albertson's & Safeway every year. It helps if there is a large Nordic population in your town.

You can often get a taste of lutefisk without having to cook it yourself by going to a "Nordic Feast" at a Lutheran church. They often have these as fundraisers & the people of the parish do all the cooking. For about $10 you can have a tasty meal & sample various Nordic specialties.
Regards, GF. :mug:
 
Starlings...There has to be zillions of those little birds across the USA. I was watching a flock(about 300) flying around a field near my work and I thought hmmm, I wonder what they taste like. Other song birds as well :D
 
Cyclman said:
Durian.
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When I lived in Taiwan I tried a lot of things that are weird by American standards:
stinky tofu
pigs blood
pig ear
durian

The only one of these that I could not finish was the durian. It has the texture of an avocado and the aroma of horribly rotten cheese. After a few bites I had to stop. Hours later I burped and when the odor came back into my mouth I almost threw up. Not recommended.

If you are going out of your way for exotic Asian fruits lychee is much tastier (but even in Asia the fresh ones are hard to come by, maybe available for a couple of weeks out of the year).
 
Hippopotamus. I wonder if they taste like pond/river water the way turtles & frogs do? I've never heard of anybody eating armadillo, is there a reason for this? Might be something I'd try once.
Regards, GF.
 
gratus fermentatio said:
Hippopotamus. I wonder if they taste like pond/river water the way turtles & frogs do? I've never heard of anybody eating armadillo, is there a reason for this? Might be something I'd try once.
Regards, GF.
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Andrew Zimmern ate one on Bizzare Foods. I think they were in Mexico, the lady cooked it a long time. He said it was pretty good. I have no problems trying it if I get the chance. I keep imagining it tasting like armored opossum or racoon, both of which I have enjoyed in the past.
 
Subsailor said:
Andrew Zimmern ate one on Bizzare Foods. I think they were in Mexico, the lady cooked it a long time. He said it was pretty good. I have no problems trying it if I get the chance. I keep imagining it tasting like armored opossum or racoon, both of which I have enjoyed in the past.
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Fun fact: armadillos can carry human leprosy! MMMMMMMM!
 
Interesting about the armadillos & leprosy thing. Where the heck would an armadillo pick up leprosy anyway? I've hunted, raised & eaten rabbits for decades & haven't gotten sick once. Though I don't hunt bunnies in summer cuz that's when tularemia is at it's annual peak in the wild bunny population.

Never ate a raccoon, wouldn't mind giving it a try though; old timers down south used to eat 'em all the time. Opossums look like big, crosseyed rats, with fliptop heads; nasty creatures. I'd eat one to avoid starving, but that's about it. Don't know if I could bring myself to eat a real rat either, hunger is a strong motivator though. I'd rather eat a 'possum than a rat if it came down to it.
Regards, GF.
 
My mom had an old cook book with opossum in it. I don't remember the whole recipe but I do remember that you are supposed to feed it nothing but persimmons for a week, then butcher it.
 
Yea, ive skinned a few coons. You have to get every musk gland out or its ruined.

How about snail eggs? Anyone? I saw a show about them and totally want some.
 
this thread is staring to bring to mind the best song lyric ever from the simpson's:
Some folk'll never eat a skunk but then again some folk'll,
like Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel
 
I've eaten red squirrel, pretty lean in summer & the flavour can vary quite a bit; not exactly sure as to why, but I'm guessing it has something to do with what they've been eating. A couple of 'em with some greens & taters is a good meal.

Had marmot once (rockchuck/woodchuck), not bad, but in autumn they're a bit greasy as they fatten up before hibernation.

FYI: the trick for bagging red squirrel is to kiss the back of your hand loudly a couple times & shake a bush; most of the squirrels will poptheir heads out & bark at you, which gives you a shot. If you want to nail those in your backyard, bait 'em with peanuts (unsalted) for a few days; won't be long till every squirrel in the neighborhood comes by for a peanut...
And pellet guns are quiet. ;)
Regards, GF.
 
gratus fermentatio said:
I've eaten red squirrel, pretty lean in summer & the flavour can vary quite a bit; not exactly sure as to why, but I'm guessing it has something to do with what they've been eating. A couple of 'em with some greens & taters is a good meal.
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Yeah, it's probably the diet. I've heard the same thing about eating wild vs. domesticated rabbit.
 
gratus fermentatio said:
I've eaten red squirrel, pretty lean in summer & the flavour can vary quite a bit; not exactly sure as to why, but I'm guessing it has something to do with what they've been eating. A couple of 'em with some greens & taters is a good meal.

Had marmot once (rockchuck/woodchuck), not bad, but in autumn they're a bit greasy as they fatten up before hibernation.

FYI: the trick for bagging red squirrel is to kiss the back of your hand loudly a couple times & shake a bush; most of the squirrels will poptheir heads out & bark at you, which gives you a shot. If you want to nail those in your backyard, bait 'em with peanuts (unsalted) for a few days; won't be long till every squirrel in the neighborhood comes by for a peanut...
And pellet guns are quiet. ;)
Regards, GF.
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Squirrel and dumpling stew! I love tree rats! Yep, kissing the back of the hand and shaking a branch, works very well - taught it to my Wife and Kids. When we was kids we got pretty good at picking them off with our wrist rocket sling shots, same with bunnies in the garden.
 
CreamyGoodness said:
Because of the large Indian population in Queens we have it in the local supermarket.

You REALLY have to like bitter flavors to like it!! Pickled, however, it is pretty friendly, and makes a killer dirty martini.
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I'll have to check out Chinatown in Boston, might be able to score some there.
 
Thunder_Chicken said:
I'd like to try bitter melon, don't know if it is available in the U.S. or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momordica_charantia
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I've had it quite a few times. At its best, I don't care for it much. At its worst, it tastes like bile. In the States, I've seen it at farmers markets in areas with a large Asian population.

I just found this thread, it's a lot of fun reading through it to see the different things people have and haven't eaten. Seeing ikura come up was fun because I used to make the stuff at a salmon cannery. I also used to live across the street from an ostrich farm (I think it was/is the biggest in the US) so their meat and eggs aren't all that unusual to me.

I've eaten a lot of unusual foods here in China as well. Dog, rabbit, donkey, hedgehog, congealed duck and pork blood (amazing stuff), thousand year eggs, salted duck eggs, durian, most internal organs of various animals, jellyfish, scorpion, mantis shrimp, and many more. The last notable one was wild-caught cobra, which was as delicious as it was illegal (hey, I was a guest! :eek:). I guess balut would be one I'd like to try, just to say I did.

Also, a favorite if you're ever in Thailand: giant king prawns - they're shrimp that weigh 200-300 grams each. Eating one is like eating a steak made out of top-quality prawn meat. :rockin:
 
BeerGrylls said:
Wow. I'm pretty jealous of your experiences.
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It's a trade-off. While there are advantages and disadvantages of living overseas, the opportunity to try adventurous food is a definite plus. Half the things I eat on a regular basis would probably qualify as unusual for most westerners, but I don't even realize it anymore.

A couple that I should definitely have mentioned above are stinky tofu, which smells awful but can taste pretty good when done right, and furry tofu (look up 毛豆腐 on an image search and check out the pre-cooked photos where it's got inches-long fur).
 
Today I was able to try fried tarantula; yes, really. The abdomen was removed, then the hair was singed off with a Bic lighter, it was breaded & fries in vegetable oil. After it was sprinkled with paprika. I tried a leg segment. Not my fav, a wee touch bitter & a very odd flavour. I'll post a link as soon as it's uploaded.
Regards, GF.

EDIT: They finally posted the video. I'm not in the video, as I do not appear on camera, but you can see Rob eat a leg & Justine try. I ate a piece of fried tarantula leg during the commercial break.
Regards, GF.
http://www.kpax.com/player/?video_id=43162
 
gratus fermentatio said:
Today I was able to try fried tarantula; yes, really. The abdomen was removed, then the hair was singed off with a Bic lighter, it was breaded & fries in vegetable oil. After it was sprinkled with paprika. I tried a leg segment. Not my fav, a wee touch bitter & a very odd flavour. I'll post a link as soon as it's uploaded.
Regards, GF.
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please do. i think.
 
Actually, dinnerstick, I think I need to add your av (the romanescu) to my list... even if it winds up just tasting like cauliflower.
 
ChefRex said:
Which it pretty much does, I saw it and had to buy it, very cool to look at, I would love to see it growing.
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it does indeed. it's cool for fans of phyllotaxis, fibonacci, fractals. i use it in a few regular recipes, one is a simple indian curry with fresh cheese curd 'clouds' and it's very nice. but, if you close your eyes it could be cauliflower.
 

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