You Ate What?! You Sick Bastard...

[Guest Lord Havoc]

I've been a lot of places and eaten a lot of really exotic/weird/terrible things. Hell, I ate a ceramic tile on a dare once...

Twice, actually, but my darling wife put a stop to that behaviour...

Anyhoo, here's a quick list. I just wanna see if anyone else has eaten anything this dumb:

- Hakarl - Natioonal dish of Iceland. Take a perfectly good shark, stick it in a wooden barrel and then bury it in the sand for six to eight months. The resulting dish looks smells and taste like Mrs Paul's Dumpster Delights. No wonder the race is dying out. I tried it once when I was in the Canadian army and doing some training in Reykjavik. Ugh... never do that again...

- Tiger Penis Soup - Forget the ethical implications of destroying a rare species (the Chinese make George Bush look like Captain Planet where enviromentalism is concerned), this is just plain hideous. It's supposed to be a virility enhancer, along with its cousin, powdered tiger's penis.

- Three Penis Wine - Words fail me. I was so damned drunk when I tried this, that's my excuse for doing anything this stupid. Ferment the penises of a pig, dog and deer... make wine that's meant to enhance virility. It tastes like warm, rancid water with a hint of penis.

If they Chinese are so obsessed with dick , why are there so many of them?

- Cobra Whiskey - Vietnam's contribution to the world of stupid drinks. Their whiskey tastes like formaldahyde to begin with, THEN they go and stick a damned cobra in the bottle, pickling it. Hopefully someone remembered to remove the venom glands before they did this. If anything could make Three Penis Wine taste wonderful, this was it, forget the unavoidable terror of possibly poisoning yourself.

- Thousand Year Eggs - Yet another Chinese contribution to odd cuisine, I actually like these. Take a couple of raw duck eggs and bury them in a mixture of clay, lime and ash. Leave them for around 6-8 months (not a thousand years). When you dig them up, the shell has gone a glossy black. The yolk has solidified, taking on a glossy greenish-black hue. Cut it into quarters and eat as an appitizer. It smells faintly fishy and tastes like blue cheese. Yum...

- Warm Lamb Brain Salad - From France, who refused to be left out of the 'WTF?' category of food. Lamb brains are tiny and heat quickly in the oven. Spear 'em and serve over a salad with endive, so the bitterness counteracts the tastelessness of the brains. Not all that bad if you can get past the fact that you're eating what a lamb thinks with...

- Natto - Essentially slightly rotted bean curd. A Japanese delicacy, I've always wondered who first went into their storage huy, found slimy, rotten bean curds and took a bite. The smell is foul and the taste is even worse.

- Lutvisk - From Sweden and Norway. Lye fish. Steep your fish in lye, which for most intents and purposes, is a toxic substance. If you've got lye sitting around that you don't want to make soap out of, doesn't it make perfect sense to steep your family's fish in it? Sounds tasty, Sven, way to go...

- Bud/Bud Light - I've said it before and I'll say it again... you Americans are good at a lot of things, but beer ain't one of them. This is quite possibly the king of all bee piss. I'd rather lick broken glass of Richard Simmons' chest than drink this crap.

Like I said, this is a partial list. There's also been bull balls, honeycomb soup, tripe, chicken heads, chicken feet and pig's ear, to name a few. But this post'd be going on forever if I recounted all of my culinary follies.

If you've tried any of these, let me know, let's see if you concur. If you haven't, consider yourself warned...

[Guest Rani]

What about Pickled Pigs Feet? I heard about how someone found it in the fridge at their friend's house, or theirs, I can't remember which. Anyways, this person ate one on a dare.

Oh they payed for later, by tossing their lunch and then some.

Aside from the usual list of gross cuisine, like Haggis, Frogs legs, Escargot, and the eating of cat, dog and rat meat, this is the first time I've ever heard of what you listed.

Oh yeah, you might want to add bear bile(that's right, BILE) to your list.

[Nanaea]

Well, I've only had experience with the Bud. It's alright when you're 17 and can't afford anything else but I much prefer dark German beers.

Am I the only one who's eaten fried dandelions? (You coat them with egg, dip them in seasoned flour, and then fry them in butter. My husband and his friend from work both actually liked them until they found out what they were - then I was accused of trying to kill them.)

[Guest Serenanna]

Scrapple - everything but the oink, I think, the original mystery meat with 11 herbs and spices.

And in the disgustingly sweet catagory . . .

Shoo Fly Pie - Cavities in a tender flaky crust. This pie, known to the Pennsylvania Deutche, is all four, butter, brown sugar, and molassass with a crumble topping. That's it, no fruit filling, no chocolate, just baked till the bottom is a congealed mass of pure surcrose goodness. So syrpy sweet that my teeth shiver thinking about it. And it's suppose to be a breakfast pie, a breakfast pie I tell you! I've have one bite of it my whole life, and afterwards I ran for my toothbrush.

[StoryJunkie]

I think I ate a worm once...maybe a beetle, but its wiggly legs made me spit it into my hand for closer examination.

[Guest Agaib]

I've had all kinds of things in Mexico. Some of them quite common to eat.

Pidgeon Stew

Armadillo (My dad loves this)

Fried Grasshoppers

Cow Brains

Rat

Iguana (Freshly Shot)

And some more that I haven't thought of...

[Guest Big Samurai]

This is what happens when you let the Fanboys run about the world. They eat strange things.

[Guest Rockin]

Havoc! We're good at nearly everything! Even beer! *shot down* XDD. You know, you would make the best canidate for fear factor. ^^

Guy: Alright, I want you all to eat this Bull pelvis. Whoever eats them the fas-

Havoc: *quickly eats his* Done!

Guy: O.O................well...fuck. You won.

XD

As you know, black americans (Mostly the American New Yorkers) like to 'improvise' on stuff we lack (despite that we have money and such to buy the thing we're missing). Me and my father is one of them.

It's not a 'WTF' compared to Havoc's menu, but it still a bit gross. He boils up some noodles. Then, after he's done, he puts some mayo on the noodles and mixed it up. It tasted awkward, but he says he likes it.

[Guest Melody Fate]

It's not a 'WTF' compared to Havoc's menu, but it still a bit gross. He boils up some noodles. Then, after he's done, he puts some mayo on the noodles and mixed it up. It tasted awkward, but he says he likes it.

Actually, that sounds like a blander version of macaroni salad.

My parents are the product of Midwestern Farm Stock. My grandparents could boil the life out of anything you'd care to name.

Its a wonder I didn't grow up afraid of anything with too much flavor. But, I did. For exotic stuff, I've eaten raw sea muscles (they don't tast bad if you can get over the idea that they have the texture and consistance of snot) venison, and a few other things, so even my "exotic" is pretty tame.

I've eaten authentic chinese food from Chinatown in Boston. I have no clue what was in it, my husband likes to make various dog and cat noises whenever we talk about going there. I do know that it looked absolutely horrible, but tasted delicious.

Our Cambodian neighbors have an expression, "Americans eat with their eyes." Which I can see, we do seem to place a lot of importance on how a dish looks as well as how it tastes. They eat some pretty weird things, but everything I've tried of theirs has been pretty tasty.

[Guest .:Deathbringer:.]

Balut - A delicacy of Asia and especially the Philippines, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam, a balut (or Hột vịt lộn in Vietnamese) is a fertilized duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell.

Balut are most often eaten with a pinch of salt, though some balut-eaters prefer chili and vinegar to complement their egg. The eggs are savored for their harmony of textures and flavors; the broth surrounding the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled and the yolk and young chick inside can be eaten. All of the contents of the egg are consumed. Balut have recently entered higher cuisine by being served as appetizers in restaurants: cooked adobo style, fried in omelettes or even used as filling in baked pastries.

Here's what Balut looks like:

[ Balut ]

And no, I don't eat this... It's just that that's where my mom's from and yea, she told me about it and she doesn't even like it. But yea, I also saw this in National Geographic... Grosses me out. XP

[NinjaGaijin]

Well, from where I'm at, we have all sorts of food nonlocals would call bizarre...

Goat testicle satay

Bat kebab

Just about anything edible inside a cow can be put in various soups here.

Roast dog

Chicken feet... nah, not strange enough.

Crispy fried chicken guts

Crispy fried snails

Palm maggots

----Now try and beat my local fares.

[Guest Ertia]

That's okay.

I'm gonna stick to plain white toast and a fried chicken.

[Guest Rani]

Here's what Balut looks like:

[ Balut ]

That looks like the Ts'pa that the Cardassians eat, and consider a delicacy in their society.

I watch too much Star Trek.

[Guest lightgoddess]

I can honestly say that I've never eaten anything weirder than turtle soup, which was quite tasty, and the shell made a lovely clock to hang on the wall.

But, then, living in the South, I've seen people fight over the last bucket of chitlins, the last package of pigs feet or ears, and worked with a guy who ate pig ears for breakfast. *vomits* Apparently, everything on the hog can be eaten from the jowls and liver to the feet and the little curly tail.

[Guest Agaib]

I have a few new things to add. These are just a few things I got to try at a fair recently.

Rocky Mountain Oysters (breaded and deep fat fried bull testicles)

Gator on a Stick (exactly what it sounds like)

Plain Gator

and

Rattle Snake

[englishwitch]

It wasn't what i ate...but i did snort some tomato juice once. A bet is a bet and i won. although it looked like my nose was bleeding for the rest of the night. i must have blown my nose a dozen times and it just kept dripping out.

for the record, dont do it, it burns.

[Guest DarkVampWriter]

Ok so about two weeks ago my friend & I (www.myspace.com/nelia_chan) went to stop to get something to eat. We had took a long walk to the bank and we were hungry. Anyways so we go into this vietnamese resturaunt. I am thinking this stuff is good right? Wrong!! First I am a vegeterian so everything had meat except rice. So I order a bowl of rice. I reach over to put soy on my rice but it wasn't soy. It was this brown tea liquid. I knew something smelled funny..... so I said this shit smells like ass!! And I ate it! My friend Nelia said "No it doesn't you are such a liar." So I was like alright you do that. After she ate some with rice she said it was like unwashed vagina. WARNING dont ever use fish sauce it's nasty! It's good to cook with but nasty by itself.... that's all i gotta say

Has anyone here eaten something that smelled really scary? Just a thought!

[Guest Knorg]

Ok so about two weeks ago my friend & I (www.myspace.com/nelia_chan) went to stop to get something to eat. We had took a long walk to the bank and we were hungry. Anyways so we go into this vietnamese resturaunt. I am thinking this stuff is good right? Wrong!! First I am a vegeterian so everything had meat except rice. So I order a bowl of rice. I reach over to put soy on my rice but it wasn't soy. It was this brown tea liquid. I knew something smelled funny..... so I said this shit smells like ass!! And I ate it! My friend Nelia said "No it doesn't you are such a liar." So I was like alright you do that. After she ate some with rice she said it was like unwashed vagina. WARNING dont ever use fish sauce it's nasty! It's good to cook with but nasty by itself.... that's all i gotta say

Has anyone here eaten something that smelled really scary? Just a thought!

Resurrecting this thread as suggested, quoted DarkVampWriters post from the new thread for completeness' sake.

While I don't think I could (and wouldn't try) to top all of your weird and wonderful food sampling...

Pork Scratchings... I think they're sold in the United States as well. Basically pork rinds. Anyway, I've had packs of them where they were hairy. I'd say eaiting hairy pork scratchings falls heavily into the "You ate what?" catagory.

[Leonhart29]

Well, I can't really compete - but I can try.

Among the normal yucks, there's haggis, mountain oysters and sweetbreads (which I don't think has been mentioned yet and has been banned due to mad cow disease), but the last time I went deep sea fishing there was raw shark.

I don't recommend it, but it tasted pretty damn good, as long as you keep to the end that doesn't take your hand off. To tell the truth though - shark steak is better than any beef steak I have ever had and I will gladly bend over and grab my ankles for some. Who said that the stomach was the way to only a man's - ahem - heart?

I am definitely a southern girl, so rattle snake chili and opossum are on the menu along with fried pickles (yum). Then there's shark fin soup (the only problem with that one was they confused a dorsal fin with the clasper - penis for those who want to know).

But I have to think that the two worst things I have ever put in my mouth (besides my ex-husband) was toasted tarantula (common only at mating season) and bat wing soup (only because I was very hungry).

[StoryJunkie]

the weirdest I've heard of, and it sounds kinda ritualistic now that I'm recalling it...my grandmother told me the story of one of her neighbors whose kids would gather 'round when time came for the calf to be slaughtered. The calf would be hung upside-down, and its throat slit, and the kids would all have these cups in order to catch the blood and drink it. There's a family tradition that died out with the introduction of the abattoir

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

You know what tasted really yummy? Alligator. I'm not joking. I went to this one Japanese resturant somewhere in Greenwich Villiage when I first encountered it. AMAZING. I wonder if I can find another place that serves it...

[dazzledfirestar]

Oh, SJ, I'm with you on the Alligator. Yummy!

And, guys, just a few things I'd like to point out; Bull testicles are actually called Prairie Oysters (we have a festival to celebrate them every year here... I don't know why. ) and American (mainstream) beer... Yuck. Bud sucks. And I mean that with all the love in the world to my southern neighbors. That's all I've got, all my gross foods have been covered.

[Guest Knorg]

I've not had Alligator, I don't think*, but there's a Mongolian-style restuarant in one of the local towns that does Crocodile and Ostrich, both of which were very tasty. Ostrich is in supermarkets these days anyway though, so probably not worth mentioning.

Then again... so's Marmite, and many would hold that as utterly revolting. Not me though.

*I say 'I don't think,' because I didn't think I'd ever eaten squirrel either, and then I saw the health and safety report in the local paper.

[dazzledfirestar]

Oh no! not the Marmite!! *gagpukegaggag* Oh that brings back horrid memories of Australia! (Sorry, Knorg, I'm in the "utterly revolting" camp on this one!) But ostrich is very good, as is kangaroo actually. Wonderful BBQ'd!

[Keith Inc.]

When i was first stationed in Scotland, some of the old hands took me out on the town for a local meal.

After we finished eating what they ordered for me, they revealed the secret.

"That's haggis, dude! You know what's in haggis?"

"Guys. I'm fourth generation Scottish American. It's sheep's pluck and innards. You make it by boiling the lungs in salt water, with the windpipe draining over the side. When it's properly...."

It was so cool. _I_ was the one that was supposed to lose my cookies, but it backfired on them.