Posted on 11/24/2021 3:27:04 PM PST by nickcarraway
Surströmming
Some can't bring themselves to take a single bite. Due to the putrid stench, manufacturers advise that cans of Surströmming should only be opened underwater. The stinking Swedish fish ferments for weeks — a process that continues in the can, which bulges noticeably on the supermarket shelve. Allegedly, some airlines even prohibit the rotten fish on planes due to the risk of explosion.
Hákarl
The Greenland shark can grow up to 400 years old. Unless it ends up as hákarl on a plate. While the shark's meat is actually poisonous when fresh, it becomes edible if you bury it or let it rot in a box for weeks. Dubbed by some the worst tasting food in the world, hákarl has a rubbery consistency and an ammonia-like flavor. It's a traditional specialty in Iceland.
Bull testicles
Once they were a delicacy in Central Europe, but today bull testicles are only savored by experimental gourmands and very rarely appear on menus — or as in this photo, hidden in a salad. Which might be a pity, as connoisseurs describe the dish's very delicate consistency and a subtle nutty taste. In addition, bull testicles (known as Rocky Mountain oysters in the US) are rumored to boost libido.
Labskaus
The ingredients of this mariner's dish from Northern Germany are harmless: potatoes, beetroot, meat and fish. But after they are put through a meat grinder, it comes out looking like someone has just been sick. Labskaus is therefore often hidden under a fried egg. The specialty was born out of necessity — as sailors once lost their teeth due to vitamin deficiencies, their food had to be pureed.
Maggots cheese
A specialty on the Italian island of Sardinia, where it's known as Casu Marzu or "rotten cheese," flies lay eggs in the immature sheep's cheese before it becomes infested with live larvae, or maggots — which gives the cheese its incomparable taste. Though the delicacy is officially banned in the EU, many Sardinians do not want to give up this uniquely putrid pecorino cheese.
“I’ll stick with Spam”.
Add me to that list.😉
Today is Turkey Day,
Happy Thanksgiving FRee Republic!
Haggis.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I love anchovies. But they have to be cooked to a crisp.
Rocky Mountian Oyster
“nutty taste”
I had hakarl in Reykjavik, it is disgusting.
You chase it with Brennivin, also nasty.
Then you play trivia with Icelandic lesbians in the Big Lebowski Bar...
I love anchovies! (must have Roman genes).
My wife makes sure to get the anchovies on the side whenever we order pizza...
Yuck...lol
Grew up in Yorktown on the water, kept a minnow trap in the water to keep bait, and twice or so a week eels would be in it..
So we had fried eel links with roe and eggs for Sunday morning breakfast..
A bit greasy, but quite good...
Now blow toads are the best fish ever.
It’s only unusual when you don’t grow up with it or when as an adult ease you way into a food (one food leads to another). I’m currently on a big fermented food and beverage kick, and it is leading me to try new things with fish being on that list. For Thanksgiving however, I have a home cured salmon (gravlax) and pickled herring for appetizers. I am mindful of the folks I am having over. The idea of fermenting herring sounds really good, although I would do it in a fermentation vessel with an airlock. I think that would probably cut down on the stench a little.
No head cheese? My German great grandmother asked me when I was about 10 years old if I wanted some head cheese...then she told me what it was
Try a durian slurpy drink in Houston. Guaranteed you go back for seconds in spite of the unwelcome aroma.
“I get the sense that people ate such things when the only other choice was starvation”.
When they ran out of the starvation food they developed suicide food, rotting Greenland shark.
I have tasted it
Charging inconvenience/time the main reason mentioned for going back to gas. EVs have a market, but it has its limits for now.
Oops, I don’t know how the above comment ended up here.
That was a fun album.
I heard that in the last month or so on Deep Tracks.
Thank goodness it did, I needed a break from the gnarly food.
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