Tasty Weird Foods

Self | November 6, 2001 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

Just to take a break from politics for a bit, I was wondering if there are others out there who also have a taste for weird exotic foods. I thought I was one of a kind in this regard until I read a newspaper article that said that there are many folks who have a hankering for exotic foods that others may find yucky.

I've eaten sea urchin eggs directly from sea urchins, cooked ox tails (or "tako" as it is called in the Phillipines), raw quail eggs, all manner of spicy European sausages such as the very garlicky Kabanosi, blood sausages in Argentina, alligator meat, and I don't even have to be drunk to eat the worm in the Mezcal bottle (although I usually am since I have to drink my way to reach it).

So what are your favorite "yucky" foods? I am always on the lookout for new exotic foods so I will be most interested in reading your comments and food suggestions.

[rockfish59]

BARF ALERT!

ate my boogers when i was a kid.
saw a guy driving on the freeway picking his nose and munching away.
i almost did barf when i saw that!

[MadIvan]

I've had Zebra steaks whilst in Kenya. A bit stringy but OK. Barbequed Warthog with South African BBQ sauce is absolutely delicious.

Regards, Ivan

FreeBritannia.co.uk

[Vicki]

I like peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches.
Fried beef liver and onions
Dried Seaweed
Kimchee
Kolhrabi
Apple Cider Vinegar and water to drink
Beef Tongue
Chicken Gizzards
Octopus salad and
SALSA is my favorite condiment

[RightField]

In fact, the actual status of Durian is "THE GOD OF ALL FRUIT!

Omigosh. Who knew? The street behind me is named Durian. All this time I figured it was named after a person. I am ALWAYS learning new stuff on FR. Kewl.

[nopardons]

That sounds interesting. Thanks.

If you have a taste for authentic Hungarian food, you might enjoy a brunch dish that my grandfather really loved. The English translation , of the name , is " dirty noodles." Boil up some large, flat egg noodles ( yes, my grandmother made these ) , drain, place on a large plate and slather with lekvar ( prune butter ) , cinnamon , and add lots of broken up walnuts.

[Maven]

So what are your favorite "yucky" foods? I am always on the lookout for new exotic foods so I will be most interested in reading your comments and food suggestions.

I'm Jewish with an Eastern European heritage, so here are some of my favorite "hamish" (homey) dishes that may seem weird to other people:

Kishka - known as "stuffed derma" on the east coast. Authentic kishka is made from matzoh meal, suet or chicken fat, paprika, and other spices, stuffed into a cow's intestine (hence the name, as "kishka" is Yiddish for "guts"). Bake it in the oven with a roast and serve with gravy. Heavenly!

Helzel - same concept as kishka, only stuffed in the skin from a chicken, turkey or goose neck.

Pickled herring in sour cream.

Pickled cow's tongue sandwiches.

Gehakte laber - chopped liver made with lots of browned onions, chopped eggs, black pepper and chicken fat to bind it. My mother makes the best gehakte laber in the world.

Lungen (lung). You can't find this in markets anymore. Not even the local Asian supermarket has it (but it has a lot of other very strange things, like pig uterus and beef pizzle).

Chopped sandwich - this is a sandwich made out of egg bread (challah), with a filling made out of various chopped items like mushrooms, eggs and onions, with a bit of fat (not mayonnaise) to hold it together.

Griebenes - these are the crunchy bits left over when you render chicken, duck or goose fat. Guess you could call them Jewish pork rinds.

Challah smeared with chicken fat with kosher salt sprinkled on top.

Schav - sorrel soup.

Borscht - cold with sour cream or hot with a boiled potato.

Gefilte fish - I prefer homemade with freshly ground "chrain" (horseradish).

My mother is fond of chicken soup with what I called "unlaid eggs" cooked in it. These are the egg yolks found inside a hen after it's slaughtered.

My father likes petcha - which is a calves' foot jelly with lots of garlic and hard boiled eggs in it.

Maven
Darn it - I'm hungry now! LOL!

[goodieD]

LOL! now now, I can also whip up a butternut squash and bacon bisque that would break your heart. I have a split personality when it comes to food. I can appreciate both a good bowl of mashed potato comfort food as well as a 200 dollar dinner at the Ritz. I am as well versed in chili cheese fries as I am potatoes dauphinoise. Spam glazed with mustard and brown sugar? No problem. Pasta with chevre and crab? also no problem. Actually there is one problem...that kind of repetoire tends to expand one's horizons beyond one's seams.

[Mr. Mulliner]

Borscht - cold with sour cream or hot with a boiled potato.

I had borscht many times in Ukraine 3 years ago. Mmmmmm, that stuff is good, especially hot with potatoes -- and sour cream!

[buckman10_2000]

i ate a moth...... once!

[dennisw]

Oye and from Sherman Oaks? Just give me some high quality Jewish rye bread......."Corn" bread to be exact. 

Toasted with some butter.....olive oil is OK too.

[heleny]

Rose petal jam or osmanthus jam. They're sweet and fragrant. The rose jam was in a rose-flavored Chinese mooncake I had two months ago from Orange, CA.
Fresh water chestnuts are sweet and crisp, even after blanching them. Canned ones are bland and used for cooking.
Fermented black-colored soybeans: left over from the manufacture of soy sauce and used to flavor some Chinese dishes.
Deep fried wheat gluten: the gluten comes from kneading pieces of wheat-flour dough in water until the starch dissolves and washes into the water, which is discarded. The remaining gluten is flavored with soy sauce and other stuff, and it's deep fried and canned.
Day Lilies, Tiger Lilies: pick them a day or so before they bloom; use as a vegetable in stir-fry. I don't recall much flavor. We prefer to see the occasional bloom when the deer haven't mowed down all our day-lilies, including the leaves. (Anyone know an effective deer repellant? Does Ivory soap really work?)

Alligator -- like chicken or hard fish. not particularly special. had it in Brazil.
pig uterus/uteri? I saw these in the meat department at the local Asian supermarket, but I don't know how they taste.
Sea cucumber, shark's fin (poor shark!), fish heads -- supposed to be delicacies, but I don't like them.
Pork Sung, aka Deep-fried shredded pork; also similarly processed fish -- dry, loose golden-brown shreds, flavored with soy sauce, sugar, and sometimes sesame seeds and seaweed strips, available in 1-lb. jars and smaller tubs in Chinese supermarkets. I only eat the type with no MSG. Served with rice porride, but can also be eaten with regular cooked rice, in a sandwich, or in a mung bean mooncake.
furikake -- Japanese dry flaky topping for rice. Consists of some of the following: sesame seeds, seaweed, bonito(fish) flakes, dessicated egg, puffed rice, dried salmon roe, salt, sugar, and other potential ingredients.
[unknown name] Japanese snack of 3/4" chewy white rice-flour-dough balls skewered on wooden sticks and heated by pushcart vendors who glaze the dough balls with a shiny golden-brown sauce of sugar and soy sauce.

Fruits:
loquats -- 1"-2" round-oval, yellowish, soft, with smooth brown seeds. Wear gloves to avoid staining fingertips and fingernails.
kumquats -- 1" round-oval, tart/sour mini oranges with sweet edible peels and a very sour interior.
longans; lychees; rambutans -- round, white super-sweet slightly slippery flesh enclosed inside an inedible peel (brown and dusty; red and pebbly/rough; reddish or yellowish with sparse hairy koosh ball appearance) with a single large smooth dark-colored seed inside. Seen in Canada.
star fruit -- 5" long green to yellow crisp, somewhat sweet fruit with a 5-point-star-shaped cross section.
kiwano -- 4" long football-shaped orange-yellow peel with horn-like irregular protrusions with light green fruit. Seen in Ralph's (and other) supermarkets and marketed as an ornamental fruit.
durian -- 10"-12" smooth pale yellow interior texture between over-ripe avocados and ripened mangos. Stinky and repulsive to me; even when unopened, from 30 feet away in the fruit section of Asian supermarkets. (Supposedly an acquired taste.)

Fruits I've seen only in Asia
wax apple -- sweet and crisp, bell-shaped, with pink-red thin skin, 2.5" tall, available in Taiwan. My favorite fruit, perhaps because I .
fire-dragon -- 5" hot-pink soft peel (discarded) that surrounds a bland, somewhat sweet, white firm flesh with black seeds (exactly like kiwi seeds) scattered randomly throughout. Available in Taiwan.
mangosteen -- small white chestnut-sized sectioned fruit enclosed in a thick purple flesh (2") that is discarded
salak -- 2" hard white fruit with greenish peel. Harder than jicama; don't know how it compares to kohlrabi. Not particularly tasty. Seen in Bali, Indonesia.

Other
Black Forest (chocolate) cake with pureed green peas. My elementary school added the peas to make the cake healthier, I discovered several years later. No wonder that cake didn't taste so great.
Avocado Sandwiches -- I like Bran'nola bread with avocado slices. Sometimes I might add turkey slices. Oroweat Oatnut bread or Trader Joe's corn tortillas are nice substitutes for Bran'nola.
Sometimes I eat plain banana sandwiches. Or brie cheese sandwiches.
Chocolate-filled croissants in France.
Rice Krispies plus sweetened soy drink is disgusting. My dad tricked me into starting to eat that for breakfast once when I was little, because we happened to have run out of milk. I don't know whether I finished the bowl or not, but I still joke with him about that. Yuck!
Orange sugar is good. Our oranges are starting to ripen, so we sliced some peels and cooked them in sugar water. The result tasted like orange Skittles. Candied oranges are great, too.
Worm cookies -- are they real, or just from a children's book? (I think _Superfudge_ by Judy Blume/Bloom?)
Ai Yu jelly tastes like tea, and has a pale lemon-tea color. It's made by sqeezing Ai Yu seeds in unfiltered water through a cloth bag. The water solution then sets at room temperature. Commercially available Ai Yu, often canned in Chinese supermarkets, is sweetened, contains lemon flavoring and yellow coloring, and is firmer than the real thing.
Grass jelly (post #40) is made from some grassy plant, but it does not gel by itself and requires an external gelling agent.
Agar (made from seaweed) sets above room temperature and is less elastic than gelatin (made from cow bones). Almond extract, some milk, and a little sugar added to dissolved agar+water (simmering) makes Almond jelly, a Chinese/Asian dessert that I like. It can be cut in cubes or other shapes and served with canned or fresh fruit.
I've never had anything made with isinglas (made from fish swim bladders), although I've had a Chinese soup of the fish swim bladders.
Chicken feet at Dim Sum restaurants. They call the dish Phoenix Talons/Claws. My grandmother really likes them, but I'm afraid to try them. Duck feet can be used, too, but cost more than chicken feet.
Duck tongues and duck brains.
Skinky tofu (post #68). I can't stand being within 10 feet of it, so I have never eaten it. Some people really enjoy it.
Lotus root with glutinous rice stuffed through the holes, cooked, and doused with sweet syrup.
French Fries with mayonnaise and ketchup.

[MHGinTN]

No-fat cottage cheese with generous amount of salsa, dip it with restaurant style corn chip strips. You might want to add a few splashes of green 'hajapeno' tabasco sauce. Great diet food.

[Maven]

Oye and from Sherman Oaks? Just give me some high quality Jewish rye bread......."Corn" bread to be exact.

Toasted with some butter.....olive oil is OK too.

Are you now in a Jewish rye breadless area? I can probably dig up a recipe for you - an authentic Jewish round rye bread with the cornmeal on the bottom.

I've never done the olive oil variation, but butter or schmaltz is wonderful.

If you're familiar with Sherman Oaks/Encino/North Hollywood, you'll be saddened to know that Brown's Victory Bakery has gone out of business. Their onion pockets will be sorely missed!

Oh, more Jewish dishes:

Cholent - a delectable stewy thing that cooks in the oven for about 27 hours - from Friday afternoon to Saturday night. Full of meat, carrots, potatoes, barley and onions - and everything comes out the same color! Very tasty with rye bread.

Tzimmes - a sweet casserole dish made with carrots and sometimes prunes. Not one of my favorites (I'm more of a Litvak than Galitzianer - I like my foods savory and not sweet).

Kugel - a pudding. Usually made with potatoes or noodles. The noodle kugels tend to be sweet (made with egg noodles, eggs, sugar, cottage cheese and raisins), although you can make one that's savory and spicy. Potato kugels are made with ground potatoes, onions, eggs and schmaltz. I don't do potatoes anymore, but I make a killer kugel with cauliflower (you really can't tell the difference).

Latkes - oh yummy, yummy latkes (pancakes)! A traditional food for Hanukkah, they're usually made out of potatoes (you can use potato kugel mixture for them), but one of my favorite variations are soup green latkes - made out of the vegetables used to flavor chicken soup. Zucchini latkes are also very good. Potato latkes are usually served with sour cream and applesauce.

Gedempte Fleischen - this is a stewed meat dish with lots and lots of paprika. Sort of a goulash, actually.

Matzoh Brei - fried matzoh. Crumbled pieces of matzoh soaked in water to soften, then mixed with beaten egg, a little grated onion, a bit of salt and a lot of black pepper. Then spread out in a frying pan like a huge pancake and cooked on both sides. Very good with sour cream.

Summer Salad - Take a boiled potato, some green onions, radishes and other summer vegetables, then mix with cottage cheese and sour cream. Very refreshing meal on a hot summer's evening.

Maven

[Xenalyte]

And, yes, rattlesnake does taste like chicken (white meat).

Someday on a vanity thread, I shall tell the story of Xena's Dad and the Chili Cookoff Team. For now, suffice to say that the chili included chocolate, snake, sugar and beer. Xena's Mom said it was toxic, and since we kids hadn't reached the age of reason and hence were incapable of conceiving what the chili might do to us, she wouldn't let us touch it.

[Maven]

I had borscht many times in Ukraine 3 years ago. Mmmmmm, that stuff is good, especially hot with potatoes -- and sour cream!

It's not as good as homemade, but you can usually find bottled borscht in the kosher section of most supermarkets. Eat it hot or cold.

BTW, "borscht" is the only word I can spell in cyrillics!

Maven

[Xenalyte]

peanut-butter-and-dried-onion samwich . . . cold spagetti-sauce samwich, cold meatloaf-horseradish-sauce samwich . . . hobo-gumbo samwich (meatloaf, peanut-butter, soynut, beansprout and mayonaisse) - which must be constructed at 2 AM or later to qualify as a true work of art.

Down here, some pronounce it "sammich." Or in extreme cases (as which the hobo definitely qualifies), "sammidge."

[maxwell]

Yeah.. them pickled baby octupi just can't be beat, dude.

[Frohickey]

Grass jelly drink. Bits of jelly like stuff with real grass mixed in. I don't know what the jelly stuff was. I tried to "drink" (eat?) it, but I couldn't go through with it. He slurped it down like it was coke.

Where have you been? Grass is good for you. Cows eat it all the time. ;)

Seriously though, haven't you been to Jamba Juice? There, they charge you 50cents for some wheat grass in your juice.

[JoeGar]

Pickled pigs' lips are quite tasty. They are best when coated in crushed potato chips. Buy a small bag of potato chips, crush them, put the pigs' lips in the bag, and shake the bag in order to coat the lips. Then the lips can be nibbled while quaffing your favorite brew. Hmmmmmmmm.

[Junior]

I love trying new stuff. I tried sea urchin sushi once on a bet -- and loved it (the texture was a little different, but nothing I couldn't handle).

I chalk up my cast-iron stomach to eating Navy food for several years ...