Bizarre food

You should check out Good Eats, with Alton Brown. They're repeats, but still very very good/entertaining.

Unrelated...is Mythbusters on Discovery. I think that show is one of the reasons we keep cable!

I'll eat and LOVE cows heart. So so so so yummy. Most people look at me like I have six heads when I'm eating it.

I won't eat liver but I did have steak and kidney pie in the UK once, it wasn't half bad. I probably won't ever eat blood pudding or that Icelandic meal of shark skin soaked in urin. Yeah I'll pass on that one.

I likes me my liver bigtime, cow and chicken alike.

Some of us Sons of Suomi (i.e., Finnish-Americans) like our viili, too, which is a sort of stretchy Finnish fermented milk endlessly renewed from a starter culture, with a taste somewhere between plain yogurt and sour cream. My late grandmother Lahti used to send me a starter from her daily batch in a small empty plastic pill bottle. The first time I brought some back with me to Maine from Michigan's Upper Peninsula c. 1999, and gave some to my Borders colleague and fellow Finn-Am, the novelist Rick Hautala, he literally bowed at my feet as though I were a Finnish holy man - which I may turn out to be, now you mention it: over thirty years at family reunions and ethnic fests, Rick would ask around, in an almost narco-conspiratorial hand-shielding-mouth hush, after any viili cultures about, to no avail. Having scored this week, after thirty years, the DVD release of a favorite BBC series, The Glittering Prizes, I know now the Holy Grail awe Rick must have felt. Not to mention its opposite, when he'd email me, after apparent inattention rendered his daily batch of viili watery and unsusceptible to accustomed revival: "Help! I've lost my Finnish culture."

I won't eat chitterlings. My aunt loves them, but I swear they stink up the place. I won't eat scrapple. I've never tasted it, but it doesn't look appealing.
I will eat bunny rabbit, deer, buffalo, shark (depending on the dish), liver (pate), sweetbreads (brains, aka zombie food), alligator (depending on the dish), and if you serve it at a fancy restaurant and charge $35 for a tiny plate of it, beef tounge or anything else they serve at Chez Expensive..... with the exception of scrapple and chitterlings. I don't care if you lightly cook them in a saffron sauce or top them with white truffle shavings, I'm not eating that.

I will never again eat tripe. I was forced to as a child, and all the women in my family still cook it with frightening regularity, but I just will not do it now as an adult. The texture of it in my mouth and going down the throat is just.... disgusting. Getting nauseous just thinking about it, ugh!

On the other hand, coming from good seafaring stock as I do, there's not a bit of seafood I won't eat - in complete contrast to my husband, who grew up in the midwest, and whose only contact with "seafood" came via Red Lobster and a few servings of nasty lake water fish. Despite any attempts I make to expose him to the good stuff, he has formed his entire opinion of seafood based on those poor examples from his childhood. Long ago when we were dating, I took him to a little seafood shack near where I'm from and had to teach him how to crack open and eat a proper lobster; a process which gave him the dry heaves, and a queasy stomach for the rest of the day. Bah!

Enjoy your cable. Despite for years having a "kill your television" attitude, we do now pay for a very small "family package" on Dish Network just so I can get the Food Network, and my husband can get the Science Channel (ok, and all of the kids, and even us adults, enjoy Spongebob, and until the series just ended, Avatar, on Nick; guilty pleasures!). We keep threatening to cut it off one of these days, but I really do enjoy Good Eats and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Oh and Fine Living Network has recently started airing at 11pm the old, better, Japanese version of Iron Chef, which I just love! If you're selective in your viewing, and utilize the timer/controls on the TV, you can keep it from becoming a time sink/mind drain, and just a source of occasional entertainment. Easier said than done for us, sometimes. . .

For complicated reasons, cable TV has returned, probably temporarily, to our house.

I know Rod said don't ask, but I'm guessing to drown out the sound of the chickens.

I will eat anything. Really. Not so much for shock value, as curiosity. And I tolerate spicy foods well, but have no stomach for that macho thing some people do bragging about how spicy they can eat food. Well, I can as well. But why would I want to? I like the taste of the food. Besides, that's all about how often you eat spicy food, nothing else. People with a higher tolerance simply need more spice to enjoy the same effect.

Strange foods I've eaten and enjoyed? Monkfish liver was great, as are brain and hog's maw tacos. I really loved a beef tendon and tripe soup I had once in a Vietnamese restaurant. And the Malaysian fried pig intestine was good as well.

The only things thus far I didn't much care for are adult beef liver, and marmite. I really wanted to like marmite, too, but it wasn't to be. I think that's something you have to eat as a child to really like.

I've loved sea vegetables since my college days, but most of the people around me think they look and smell bizarre. Dulse, kelp, laver, hiziki, wakame, you name it! The salty, savory ocean flavor of sea vegetables keeps me coming back for more.

I recall a day in class back in grad school when I was snacking on a bag of dried laver, receiving disgusted and curious looks from my classmates. I can't really blame them -- who wouldn't stare if they saw someone wolfing down a shriveled, papery, purplish-black substance?

Backyard weeds are also a treat, and many people don't realize just how many common weeds are edible. Wood sorrel, broad-leaf plantain, lamb's quarters, and clover are plentiful in my area, and I eat them with relish during the summer.

The Food Network is great. I love Giada. I would eat anything of hers.

But I too cannot stomach tripe. Nor have I the guts to try chitterlings. I'd rather die than eat liver. I'll slug the host who serves escargot. Show me a plate of frogs' legs and I'll croak.

Ah, but Giada! Viva l'Italia!

I would never eat brain b/c mad-cow disease & related diseases may be spread through ingestion of brain.

Living in Monroe, LA, many moons ago, I heard of someone who contracted a strange illness w/ mad-cow-like symptoms after eating squirrel brains. That was way before the days when mad-cow disease hit the MSM, so doctors were mystified & I heard tell that few wanted to try to treat him for fear of contagion.

There is also a similar disease suffered by a certain tribal group in New Guinea who eat the brains of their deceased relatives. The name of the disease, as well as of the tribe people, escapes me.

So no brains for me. Sweetbreads don't sound very appealing. My mother once tried to fix kidney stew. It smelled like urine &, even frozen, the smell didn't disappear.

I'll try anything you put in front of me. Though I may have to draw the line at insects, or things not quite dead yet. I like to ask the waiter or host at any new place to recommend something, and when they gleefully present something a bit off beat, I'll be a good sport and try it.

Weirdest thing I ever had? I ate a bowl of tripe in Italy without knowing what it was. I've had oxtail soup, you could still see the vertebrae. I ate escargot when I was four, but I don't think I really remember it. I might remember it, but I don't know if this is a real memory or one I made up (I can remember a few events as far back as my third birthday.) It was rubbery and oniony and I didn't like it, if it is as true memory.

Never mind the food question. I'm alarmed about the cable tv. Dude, you just went into an abandoned collapsing house and put a spike in your arm. Get out before it's too late. Like it is for me.

Well, of the sorts of foods you seen on regular tables, not a lot that I won't eat. Liver is about it, and even there I will eat pate, if its done well.

Odd foods? Yep, anything soaked in urine makes my list. But for one I can find right in the area? Lutefisk.

Ugh. Cod soaked in lye. Has the consistency of fish jello and smells like a particularly harsh laundry detergent. Makes me wanna have dinner..

I knew (being pregnant) I shouldn't have read these comments, but now that I have, I have to ask a question. Has anyone tried headcheese? Every time I read that description in the book Farmer Boy, I think "meat-flavored jello". Ugh.

I, too, will eat all manner of seaweed. I can eat hijiki by the bowlful, but not sushi. I tried it once and it tasted kind of antiseptic, like a band-aid. Not that I eat band-aids...

I don't even like lobster. I had it once, and it looked like a big bug on my plate. So I traded meals with my "eat-anything" son who had some kind of fish.

mmmmmmkimchi! I love hot and spicy Korean kimchi-absolutely incredible. Now I grow my own napa cabbage and make it by the gallon load.

Love chicken heart, gizzards,livers, beef liver and heart. Scrapple is a favorite- especially sliced real thin and fried til it gets crispy. Liverwurst on rye or pumpernickel with onion and mustard-now that's a sandwich!

Escargot was like crunchy slime with lots of garlic and butter-of course with enough garlic and butter I'd eat just about anything...

I still haven't worked up the guts to try chicken feet, but they are supposed to be great in a spicy sauce cooked on the grill. Being that I butcher my own chickens I have lots of chicken feet hanging around.

Drinks: Kefir smoothies (made from little living grains and milk) and kamboucha tea (made from a mushroom -really a liken- the size of a plate.

Dave Chirico
West Liberty Farm

This should be divided into "tried it once, will never eat it again (another vote against/for lutefisk), and "I couldn't possibly even try it one time" (uni looks awful to me, although I'll eat most other sushi choices).

My Mother-in-Law is Thai, so I get to eat "interesting" things on a regular basis. There's a Thai Buddhist temple in Dallas near the corner of Forest Lane and TI Blvd just east of Hwy75 that has "street food" vendors every weekend. When I go, I like to get a spicy, slightly sweet noodle soup called (Anglicized) "Goy Jup", that has various porky bits in it. I think it has stomach, intestine, liver, and those gelatinized pork blood cubes like you can get at a real Chinese restaurant. So good.

My grandfather had a word for "bizarre food." He called it vegetables.

I cannot tolerate celery in any form. I'll eat calf fries and chicken livers and squid. I'd probably try haggis. But don't make me eat celery.

I've never eaten stuff way out on the fringe like Rod reports. The closest thing to "cannot eat it" is raw oysters. I like them breaded and fried; I like them in an alternative dressing at Thanksgiving or Christmas. But something about raw - the texture, I think - is a huge turnoff.

Darn straight, Church Lahti.

Let me poll the room: what are some foods that you absolutely positively won't eat?

Macaroni and cheese.

I'm not kidding; I'd rather eat something fresh out of a cat's litter box.

An anecdote:

When I was about 6, my Mom went back to work. So my little brother and I went to a day nursery ("Aunt Betty's Nursery" -- the name sticks in my head like "grassy knoll" or "Pearl Harbor".)

One day "Aunt Betty" (or Nurse Ratchitt, I'm not sure) and the other blue-haired ladies called us in from playing to sit down for lunch. There were about 9 or 10 other kids, all of us sitting around a big table, when they started bringing out lunch: big steaming plates of macaroni and cheese. (Ugh - I can still smell it from here -- 30 years later.)

So I told Aunt Betty -- "I can't eat macaroni and cheese."

"Sure you can, sweetie. Just try it", she said.

"No. I don't like macaroni and cheese. It makes me sick."

"Well you're going to have eat it. So take a bite."

Being obedient, I did. Warily, I took a forkful and lifted it to my mouth. The smell of the cheese (or cheese-like substance) was overpowering. I retched.

"LOOK HERE" she said. "You are going to EAT THAT, or else!"

By now tears are forming and spilling out over my cheeks. I was trapped in every way. My back was against the dining room wall and I was surrounded by the other kids, smacking and munching away at their macaroni and cheese. The smell was horrible. Overpowering. And with the matronly "Betty Battle-axe" hanging threateningly over me, I did it. I took a bite of the orange stuff.

The forkful of orange tubes - like miniature sections of some midget's intestines - slid into my mouth and over my taste buds. I retched again, but this time forced my lips to stay sealed anyhow. Hot tears flowed over my scarlet cheeks. I retched a third time, but managed to swallow first. And then it happened.

This time there was no suppressing the retching reflex, and the small bite of macaroni and sleaze exploded out of my mouth -- pushed forward like the vanguard at the front of a huge army, only this army was not made of men but instead my breakfast, milk and snacks eaten earlier that day. Trying to keep my lips sealed only worsened the effect, like putting your finger over the end of a water hose. As a result, the contents of my stomach spewed over every single kid's half-eaten plates of macaroni and cheese, and their heads, hair and clothes.

Pandemonium ensued, of course.

But they didn't try to make me eat macaroni and cheese ever again.

Will not eat: Insects. Period. Or arachnids. Worms. Dolphin and Porpoise. Dogs. Cats. Eyes. Soylent green or orange. ;-).

Willing to try: whale meat & blubber (although it's illegal now), bear, kangaroo, hooves, brains, sweetbreads, kidneys, heart, feet... lutefisk, haggis. Crawfish.. they look so much like bugs, tho'. I have trouble looking at a lobster, too. It tastes delicious, but all I see is insect.

Have tried and don't like: wheatgrass-anything, escargot (boring, garlic and slime is exactly right).. meh.), calves & beef liver. (I'm fine with poultry liver, tho'. love chopped chicken livers). Paste (the kindrgarden kind.)

Have tried and the jury's still out: Horse. Rattlesnake. Alligator. Frog's Legs. Goat. I still feel deeply disturbed by the horse burger I ate once 20 years ago at one of those "try it" events in NYC.

Yes, I do eat: bunnies, duckies, Bambi & goose. Ostrich when I'm feeling extravagant.

Surprising likes: kimchi, natto, squid and octopus, calves' tongue, honey (the insect, especially stinging insect, phobia runs deep), raw oysters.

Stuff that makes my family think I'm weird: sushi, Indian food, West Indian food, corn fungus, beef tartar and carpaccio, the myriad blood sausages of the world, stinky cheeses, venison, goose, duck and other gamy food. Broccoli Rabe and other bitter greens. Some of my friends hate vegetables in general, but I love them. Tofu and seitan. Japanese curry topped with processed cheese at Go Go Curry in Manhattan (which is how I discovered natto), tapioca especially bubble tea, anchovies.

Kevin's reference to Terry Jones is remarkable, given the comment directly preceding his by fbc (A Family Phone Company - Ed.), whose macaroni-gone-projectile episode is the closest thing I've yet read to a real-life episode after Mr. Creosote,

tinyurl.com/6xvf2x

Terry Jones's most volcanic character ever, whose "outburst" was of a sort unseen since the time of the Roman gourmand, GLVTTONIVS MAXIMVS...

I would never eat squid. Squid is bait. Calamari, though, is delicious-fried or grilled, a little hot marinara, a bit o'heaven.Octopus-no good. Pulpo-tasty, little olive oil and garlic on the grill-outstanding. It's marketing to some degree.

How anyone could be repulsed by shellfish-clams, oysters, and especially shrimp and lobster-amazes me. They are all delicious.

I won't eat mussels, though. They taste great, but the problem is that they grow everywhere. You have no idea if they're fresh from the ocean or pulled off the storm drain runoff pipe.

Oh, and speaking of spicy food, Rod: Today I went to Martha's Vineyard with two friends. At lunch I had an extremely spicy cole slaw. Don't know what made it so spicy, but it was wonderful. Burned my mouth!

Oh, I am a huge Alton fan.

He combines geek (in a good way) with food science, with history and cooking tips. Including best tools to use, etc.