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#1
8th April 2009, 04:31 PM
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oddest food/beverage you've ever tried
Doesn't matter if you loved or hated it, just as long as it's a product meant to be eaten or drunk.
mine was Grass Jelly Drink. it was given to me as a reward by a customer when I worked in a department store (she was a pain in the ass to wait on and I had a bit more patience with her than everyone else in my department). it was a nice, ice-cold can with what looked like a bowl of black diarrhea printed on the front, and she instructed me that you had to drink it with a straw. except for Grass Jelly Drink all the other writing on the can was in Chinese so I had no idea what the hell was in it. after a chorus of "you're not gonna drink that, are you?" from my coworkers I opened it up and took a test sip, and it tasted OK if way too sweet, mostly like honey. so I stuck in a straw and took a bigger drink... to discover that the fabled grass jelly had the texture of little chunks of hard-boiled egg white 
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#2
8th April 2009, 05:03 PM
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Skewered and deep-fried crickets and beetles.
Beetles - kind of sour, but not bad. Crickets - taste like chicken. Really crunchy chicken.
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#3
8th April 2009, 05:04 PM
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Mine was Chinese too. I vowed that while there I would refuse no food, no matter how weird. I would eat whatever was placed in front of me (or offered to me). I'd say 97% of what I had was great, a few items not so much, but I drew the line at the chicken feet. I took a nibble, but then I thought, Fuck, I don't know where those feet have been!
Apologies to any Chinese people here. I mean, I eat head cheese....
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#4
8th April 2009, 05:14 PM
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I ate a live whelk* once. Live as in still attached to the shell and flinching. It would have been extremelly rude to refuse, so I pretended I was a seagull and ate it. Decided it was within my rights to refuse a second one, however.
*A whelk is an ocean mollusk. Kind of like a giant snail.
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#5
8th April 2009, 05:18 PM
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I love jelly drinks, they're fairly popular in Japan, too. Mostly in the form of quick energy drinks (the jelly stuff being a good source of carbs as well as something to fill you up a bit).
I've eaten live fish, which isn't terribly odd, I suppose. They were fairly tasty.
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#7
8th April 2009, 05:26 PM
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Escargot, in a restaurant in Seattle. They were kinda rubbery, but the garlic butter was tasty.
That's not really very weird, is it? If it's on a menu somewhere, it doesn't qualify as weird.
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#8
8th April 2009, 05:30 PM
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Quote:
ETA: Also the much more likely reason we don't eat carnivores is not because of their flavor, but because of the prohibitive cost of farming them. Dogs that are raised for their meat are generally fed grain-based diets with maybe a few supplementary meat scraps.
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#10
8th April 2009, 07:08 PM
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Smoked eel and scrambled eggs by a client in Germany. Supposedly it was a local speciality. Followed by egg schnapps. Not my favorite meal is all I will say.
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#11
8th April 2009, 07:12 PM
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Hey, I had smoked eel in Lithuania, where it was definitely a local specialty. Tasty thing, if not pretty, but a mite too rich and greasy for my palate.
No, it did NOT taste like chicken.
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#12
8th April 2009, 07:13 PM
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I've had tripe stew and grilled tripe with kimchi. I agree that the taste is like a strong bacon. And I loves it.
 Oh, another somewhat odd meal I've had was raw, salted cow tongue. Just slice into wide, thin, tongue-shaped strips, lightly salted and served with onions. It was about a billion times better than I thought it would be and I'm now a fan.
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#13
8th April 2009, 07:43 PM
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After all this time, in so many threads of this nature and STILL the undisputed reigning chamion of "what the freaking $^#@! hell did I just put in my mouth" / ain't-never-gonna-forget-the-experience taste sensations wrought by a substance genuinely intended for human consumption:
 CelRaySoda
Last edited by AHunter3; 8th April 2009 at 07:46 PM.
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#14
8th April 2009, 07:46 PM
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Wow, I grew up eating smoked cow's tongue.. I wouldn't call that a strange thing.. I honestly felt like the concoction my hubby made alot when we were first married was weirder.. he would make americanized California rolls with canned tuna, American cheese, white rice and seaweed wraps.. I looked at him strangely, but I have to admit it was good.
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#17
8th April 2009, 09:13 PM
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I once ate road-killed snake.
That's also coincidentally the most 'Cleetus the slack-jawed yokel' thing I've ever done.
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#19
8th April 2009, 09:35 PM
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I grew up in a household where my mother would serve bowls of chili with a scoop of cottage cheese on top. If we were out of cheese, we'd use whole milk. Weekdays we ate hot cereal for breakfast, occasionally served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (goes great with wheat- and rice-based cereals).
I've tried achar--- pickled melon rinds--- and didn't care for it. My cousin's wife, a Vietnamese native, made kimchi at home and it was delicious! I used to store it in a gallon-size jar in my fridge, and piss off my roomies. I've sampled grasshoppers, alligator, rattlesnake, and bbq'd squirrel. Ate live grubs as part of a wilderness survival training. And bear jerky. And then there's this. (No, I've not sampled this.)
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#20
8th April 2009, 09:38 PM
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Quote:
My brain hurts.
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#21
8th April 2009, 09:40 PM
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On a somewhat related note: This is an old video, but it's still funny.
Last edited by Zeener Diode; 8th April 2009 at 09:40 PM. Reason: Loaded with WIN
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#22
8th April 2009, 09:41 PM
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Funny you should ask this...
I was SO gonna ask this question too after my experience tonight... I used to say haggis (which I found delicious..I felt it was my duty having Scottish blood to try it and I adored it! I made everyone go to the restaurant twice so I could have it again). But I just got in from having sushi with a friend tonight and I had urchin. Thing is, it was kind of a lot. It was in a roll (nori, not a dinner roll) on top of rice. And way too much of it. It was like two tablespoons. In strips. Shaped kind of like a brain. Pretty much tasted like if I went snorkeling in the Narragansett Bay and licked some sludge off of a granite slab in the inter-tidal zone. It probably would've been more palatable if it had been a smaller portion. Definitely had that fresh seawater taste. Kind of like if you went snorkeling or diving and that raw, salty taste that lingers in your mouth until you neutralize it with beer. Last edited by SharkB8; 8th April 2009 at 09:46 PM.
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#23
8th April 2009, 09:42 PM
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#24
9th April 2009, 12:44 AM
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SharkB8, you find yourself in the presence of an uni fanatic. I'd buy the stuff by the kilo if it weren't so perishable and so expensive. It's an acquired taste, I'll admit, but I think what you said about licking sludge off a rock is almost right. Uni, to me, tastes like the sea itself. It's a good thing.
The kind of roll it's served in is usually referred to as a gunkanmaki, often translated literally to "battleship/warship roll," named such for the shape. Some sushi chefs like to include a bit of egg yolk and a strip or two of cucumber for garnish, but I suspect that is more to mask the flavor of slightly off urchin roe (all you eat of the urchin in sushi are the gonads). Uni is like oysters in that, if eaten raw, it must be as fresh as humanly possible, else the flavor quickly deteriorates. I know a few people who like to go to the beach, dig around for urchins, and pluck the roe out themselves with a knife. I must say that I am not quite so proactive when it comes to my food, but I love it all the same.
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#25
9th April 2009, 02:54 AM
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I was coerced into trying it by my oyster farmer buddy...I supposed sucking a live mollusk from it's home was something that took me about 3 years to muster the moxie to experience and about another 2 to enjoy. I told my buddy, "It wasn't horrible, but probably something I won't be doing again." I'm not sure if that's true.
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#26
9th April 2009, 03:26 AM
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"Fish Assholes."
Okay, so in reality it was just a can of Spaghettios with the real labeled removed by a very eccentric artist friend with way too much time on his hands, and replaced with an authentic looking label that said, well, it said "Fish Assholes." The fake label was complete with a UPC, as well as nutritional and ingredient boxes that made perfect sense if, in fact, one was about to ingest ichthyological anal sphincters. But this post doesn't count because I never opened the can and therefore never put the innards in my mouth. I know him well, and I know his pantry is stocked with disgusting canned pasta brought to us by Franco-American and Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, so it was a good guess that it was a can of pasta butts. Frankly, the smell of Spaghettios and Beefaroni is so nauseating to me that I'd probably have preferred to actually taste the seafood anuses. Damn clever, though.
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#27
9th April 2009, 03:41 AM
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Menudo. I love hominy (posole), but tripe tastes just like you'd think a cow stomach tastes - nasty.
A Finnish friend mentioned blood pancakes last night when we started talking about food. Her words were, "they're made like regular pancakes but you use reindeer blood instead of water." I'd try 'em if opportunity arose.
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#28
9th April 2009, 05:29 AM
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His mom already cooks mostly American food now. I made her happy when I was more than happy to have Skioki (probably badly misspelled) instead of turkey for Christmas dinner.
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#30
9th April 2009, 05:38 AM
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YAY! yup, that is it! That is one of my favorite foods. Hubby's aunt made it on the last full day of my one and only trip to Japan. *drools*
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#31
9th April 2009, 05:42 AM
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It is definitely all kinds of tasty times. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my new apartment came pre-equipped with a nice-sized sukinabe. Better believe it's seen a lot of action this past winter.
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#32
9th April 2009, 05:47 AM
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Lutefisk, I actually thought was interesting. We had it once at a memorial for a friend. Putting dinner together, a friend of his INSISTED we needed the stuff. We searched high and low, and was about to mail order it, when his ex said"I think he still has some in the freezer". Sure enough. I was finally done with putting together the memorial, and was really starting to mourn. You can say I wasn't in my right mind when I tried it, if it makes you feel better.
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#33
9th April 2009, 05:55 AM
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Lutefisk is another tasty time for me. Fish can be served to me any weird ol way you like: live, fermented, pickled, jellied... I've room in my tummy for them all!
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#34
9th April 2009, 06:14 AM
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You just brought up another "weird" food that I grew up with, and don't find all that strange. Pickled herring. Tradition around here to eat on New Years eve at midnight. YUM.
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#35
9th April 2009, 07:04 AM
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When I was in college one of the local diners had calf's brain sandwiches on the menu. It became a running joke to dare someone to order it, so of course one day I did. Unfortunately, I can no longer remember anything particular about the taste or texture so I can't comment on that, but I know I did finish it so it couldn't have been too bad. It was strange to find something like that at a place which was otherwise not exactly known for gourmet food; their hamburgers were commonly called "greaseburgers" by my group of friends, and I remember someone once picking up a handful of fries, squeezing them, and watching the grease dripping onto his plate.
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#36
9th April 2009, 07:25 AM
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Quote:
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#37
9th April 2009, 01:04 PM
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#38
10th April 2009, 01:45 PM
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#39
10th April 2009, 01:59 PM
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#41
10th April 2009, 03:44 PM
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Some of the oddest things I've eaten were intentionally made to be odd.
Right now, there's a dish of Jelly Belly's "Bean Boozled" jellybeans on the kitchen counter. These little delights harbor flavors such as Pencil Shavings, Ear Wax, Baby Wipe and Skunk Spray. Pencil Shavings don't taste like much, but the Skunk Spray is icky. It hits you upside the head with a blast of sulfur and tastes like stinky.
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#42
10th April 2009, 08:49 PM
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Quote:
Speaking of other weird Finnish foods, I've also had smoked lamprey (very, very greasy; you're better off with eel). And then there's surmjolk ("sour milk"); imagine a cross between drinkable yogurt and sour cream, that--depending on how long you let it culture--can end up with the texture of glue. Years back, I was visiting relatives and they had use a pair of scissors to cut the stream between pitcher and glass.
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#44
11th April 2009, 09:36 AM
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My dad used to serve us brains and eggs for supper every so often when I was little. Later, he quit serving them, what with his diabetes diagnosis. He called then brains and eggs, so he never lied to me about what they were, but it honestly never occurred to me that they were actually brains until I was in college. My then-fiance and I were in Kroger and I saw the jar of brains and said, "Hey, my daddy used to make these with eggs. Wait a minute, these are actual pig brains!"
Truthfully, though, that revelation wasn't nearly as startling as the nutrition information--over 1000% of the USRDA of cholesterol. I called Daddy and demanded to know a) why he didn't place stronger emphasis on the fact that I was eating actual brains, and b) why we weren't all dead from coronary disease.
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#45
11th April 2009, 12:57 PM
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Frog legs. I don't especially have exotic tastes, so that's about as daring as I ever got.
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#46
11th April 2009, 05:37 PM
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I'm still trying to get my hands on some salted licorice. My friend lamented that her local Ikea doesn't sell it anymore (she's married to an American and lives in the US).
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#47
11th April 2009, 05:51 PM
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Just thought of another food that I eat regularly that most everyone else things is weird/nasty/not food. Good ol' shiokara, little bits of seafood (most commonly squid/cuttlefish) fermented good'n'long in salt, rice mash, and entrails.
Sounds gross, but a little bowl of shiokara, perhaps mixed with some daikon, makes for about the best pairing for sake one can imagine. ETA: Lazlo, the first time I tried salmiakki, I nearly gagged, but only because I don't really care for licorice. It grew on me after a few more attempts. However, shortly after that I was introduced to salmiakki's greatest aspiration: salmiakki kossu. Now I cannot have salmiakki without thinking that it would be put to so much better use dissolved in a bottle or two.
Last edited by takowasakun; 11th April 2009 at 05:54 PM.
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#48
11th April 2009, 08:08 PM
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#49
12th April 2009, 09:37 PM
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#50
12th April 2009, 11:32 PM
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If you're not from New Zealand, the UK, or Australia, then Marmite would have to qualify, I think.
I've had Kangaroo as well (you can buy it in the supermarket here). Don't like the taste at all- it makes me retch. However, it's very low cholesterol so heaps of the (non-vegan) health freaks like it. FWIW, I always thought Irn Bru was slightly reminiscent of Lucozade (that's a good thing, incidentally.)
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