[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!

[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!

[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.