Exotic foods, have you ever eaten any?

Well, Francis, you should go out more often ... :wink:

mcdonalds french salad menu looks rather appetizing and interesting -
even i might consider it .

pls see link :

MCDONALDS FRANCE

that would be my specialty. Morocco, Turkey, India, Cambodia... from samosas, noodles, harare soup, ginger tofu pudding... you name it. If locals can eat it, so can i.
I ate raw sea urchin (if you know what bile tastes like, you don't ever have to try a sea urchin), escargots (not my thing), horse, dog, (both only to find out later what they were. they were unfortunately good), pig brain, steak tartar, blood sausage... there are very few things i won't try at least once.
Two things I haven't tried and will not: fried tarantulas and 10 days old ducklings (still in eggs) - they sell those on the streets in Cambodia. no pressing desire to go that route.

The thought of eating spiders is repellent, tho I suppose they're not all that far away from crab and the like.

Sea urchin is repellent -- like cold snot. Worse, like somebody else's cold snot.

Not a lot of play on here for gators and crocs. Not at all exotic if you're in the southern US, but rarely seen elsewhere here. Damn tasty, if you ask me.

Went to a gator farm in Louisiana and I can tell you I don't have the least compunction about eating those critters.

I think some of it is personality. I am pretty middle of the road - a little scared of exotic cuisine. My husband on the other hand will eat whatever you put in front of him. Alligator, rattle snake, ox tail, crickets..you name it he will probably eat it. He makes me take bites of whatever he orders just to get me out of my "rut" but - I like what I like. Chicken may get old to some folks but not to me!

another interesting, though not repellent, street food item is the paan in india. It's essentially stuff wrapped in a betel leaf. Most commonly it involves betel nut (highly carcinogenic and addictive), tobacco, and some spices. Another kind is with betel nut, coconut, sugar, spices (cardamom, cloves...). Sweet paan comes without the betel nut - just coconut, preserves, spices...
I don't like them, since they're huge and to chew on them is hard work, plus something about the taste of the betel nut, it's an acquired taste. the tobacco one requires constant spitting and stains people's teeth brownish red. That used to be considered beautiful (brown teeth), but no longer so. they're trying to curb spitting in cities. hallelujah.

I think it is amazing the difference from country to country. I guess most things are acquired tastes...

dagmaraka - I cannot imagine getting that off the street. It is very interesting but I cannot imagine being adventurous enough to eat it. I guess that is my gain in some cases..but certainly a loss in others.

yes squid in its own ink...imagine black

at night

on the far side of the moon

it was like a black hole in my dish.

(was delicious, but tongue and teeth black for several weeks...hours really)

Well Steve, aside from the ordinary fish and chips, is English cuisine quite exotic - you never know what you get! To be fair, one should exchange
exotic for unpalatable

mismi wrote :



oxtail , slowly simmered is indeed wonderful !
also great for making soupstock , superb flavour !
the meat is just sooo tender - oxtails are certainly not exactly cheap around here .
hbg

roasting some up right now - the dogs are tap-dancing in anticipation of their share

just had "dutch gouda with caraway" on a buttered slice of pumpkinseed bread - how much more exotic can it get ?

In Europe, I had: Escargot, Truffles, fondue, pate, Weißwurst, and yummy swiss chocolate

In the states, I had: Pork hock, tripe, ox tail, cow intestines, pig's blood, chicken gizzard, chicken feet, venison, rabbit, quail, all types of seafood imaginable (i.e. sushi, mussels, oysters, sea urchin, eel, jellyfish, squid, octopus, sea cucumber, crawfish, shark fin, cuttlefish, sea snails, sea urchin, etc. ), natto (fermented soybeans--very slimy, sticky, and stinky), kimchi (mmm....yummie~), live abalone, live clam, chicken liver, coagulated ox blood, pork spine, and the list goes on...

In Asia, I had: Rare horse meat, fugu (poisonous blowfish), geoduck, fried silkworm larvae, this weird cold, slimy, flat, and clear dessert I had in Japan (it looks like noodle, but it's not), so far...

i forgot to add filipino food.. balut. will i ever eat it again? NO WAY!!!

That's a good list, koreangel. And welcome to A2K.

does "herring salad" count as exotic food ?
i usually make it two or three times a year - definetely for christmas when ehbeth is coming .
hbg

Northern Europe definitely produces some of the most, um, exotic food around...

mmmhhh, I love herring salad - that's not exotic though.

No offense to your heritage and all, but it looks like it's already been eaten.

(dunno, something about cold whitefish...)

pd wrote :



of course , we north-germans think that herring salad , pickled and salted herring , smoked makerel , smoked and jellied eel , LABSKAUS(a mix of potatoes , corned beef , beets and salt herring with dill pickles and a fried egg on top) are completely NORMAL foods and that anyone would want to give their eyetooth to partake of such delicacies :wink:
hbg(salivating while visualizing LABSKAUS and a cool - but NOT (!) cold DUCKSTEINER - a beer with a slight reddish tinge)

LABSKAUS



DUCKSTEINER