What is on your personal checklist of culinary discoveries?

Absolutely! Haggis, black pudding, and white pudding. I prefer the black pudding over the white

Also, fried smelt... with ketchup. My husband cooked them for me, it was evidently something he ate up in Maine frequently. His niece (age 8) loves them, too - she calls them 'the bony things'

eye of newt isn't that bad really if you add catsup.

I've had giraffe, zebra, crocodile, alligator, hartebeast. Actually the giraffe was very good, but I felt bad about eating it.

hi katie,

not sure what counts as "strange", but here goes:

weird things eaten abroad:

chicken gizzard salad in the pyrenees,

pickled sea-urchin in northen spain

weird things we eat at home in cornwall:

samphire [a sort of sea-weed, grows in brackish water, nice in buttter with fish]

hog's pudding - a sort of white black-pudding, popular in the west of england.

braised lambs hearts.

regards, ann

Snakeskin fruit (salak?) while in Bali. Peels easily, looks like garlic cloves and has a sweet, crisp pineapple like flavor. I was addicted.

Does Marmite count?

Lee Ann

We ate a lot the "fifth quarter" items while we were in Rome.

Zampino are veal hoves braised and served in a warm salad of beans, carrots and celery. "B"

Pajata is the instestine of a suckling calf. There is milk in the intestine which when cooked turns into a sort of ricotta-like substance. The Pajata is served over Rigatoni. "A+"

Coda all Vaccinara is brasied oxtail cooked and served in a complex and delicious sauce that includes chocolate I think. "A"

Braised lamb heart. "B"

Other things I ate in Rome that I normally wouldn't eat around home.

Deep fried anchiovies. "A"

Deep Fried baby (they were about two inches long) octopus.

Baccala - fried salt cod

Well, mine is pretty boring after some of these. Muskrat.

I don't know... Muskrat sounds kind of crazy to me. It all is really relative to your experience--- my mother was floored when she visited me here in New York and we ordered rabbit ravioli out at dinner one night for an appetizer. It was delicious but she kept making references to Thumper--and felt really bad eating it (like you loru).

Andouillete - definitely an acquired taste

Ira, I'll second that on andouillette. DH and I assumed it was related to andouille sausage, which we had loved in New Orleans. It is not. It is made of tripe. Lesson learned.

Hi again Katie,

here's another "local" [well, north Devon, and wales i think] delicacy -"laverbread".

it's another seaweed, this time boiled for many hours to make it edible, supposedly. strangely it's sold mostly in butchers' shops.

IMO it's vile.

no-one's mentioned tripe - the stomach lining of a lamb or a pig. it used to be very popular in the UK - my mum made it for my dad by cooking it gently in an onion sauce. again, IMO it's pretty horrible. there might be better ways of cooking it!

iamq - talking of octopus, on our last night in Rome we had the seafood antipasti - which turned out to be 6 different ways of cooking baby octopus, all of them delicious.

regards, ann

Hi Ann--- I think weindell above you mentioned tripe... it's definitely not a favorite of mine. I have tried it though..just once.

Has anyone had bone marrow?

hi again, Katie,

yep - officially in soup in germany where they use it as a garnish for consome or when I''ve been lucky enough to cook/order osso buco or oxtail stew.

unofficially when there's a particularly juicy bit in a lamb chop!

waste not, want not.

it has a subtle sweet meaty flavour.

anybody else eat dripping?

regards, ann

I grew up in Chinese culture where we pretty much eat anything and everything...

Tripe, organ meat, chicken feet, duck tongue, oxtail etc.

So, very few food items on my travels scare me.

Not so much of a fan of sweatbread - I don't usually order it.

I do LOVE tripe and oxtail. DH never had tripe before he met me. Now we have to fight over it!

I had tried haggis in Scotland, not something I would want to eat again.

One food item I absolutely love now is spargel (german term for white asparagus). I am not a fan of its green cousin, but after the first time I've had it (in Salzburg May 2003), I always order it when I'm in that part of Europe during harvest season (mid-April to mid-June I believe).

Oh, there are a few food items I didn't grow up eating but I love them now - acquired taste I guess:

Sushi/sashimi - I like raw fish but I haven't mastered the texture/taste of raw shellfish. So no raw clam or oysters for me

Foie Gras

I ate jellyfish in a Chinese restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. It was served in a sort of julienne and when I chewed it sort of reminded me of chewing on rubber bands. Not much flavor. I ordered it the low-risk way, as an appetizer. The chef came out of the kitchen and said he wanted to meet the person who had ordered the jellyfish!

< I ate jellyfish in a Chinese restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. It was served in a sort of julienne and when I chewed it sort of reminded me of chewing on rubber bands. >

The jellyfish is considered a "delicacy" in Chinese meals - it is usually served on the side at banquets. When I was a kid, me and my brother/cousins always called it "rubber band" because that's what it looks like.

Let me just say it, it is an "acquired taste." I introduced it to my husband and he doesn't mind eating it these days.

Low risk is how I tried the haggis - as an appetizer before my smoked salmon. It was served in a small dish, rather than it's traditional sausage casing, and with oat crackers to spread it on. Sort of like spicy sausage - I rather liked it.

Geoduc is probably the most revolting-looking thing I have tried but I had to do it. Cannot say I love it, though.

Durian (smelliest fruit on the planet) tastes lovely but the smell is so bad the fruit is not allowed on public transport.

Have had foie gras several times but have not eaten it for awhile as I do not agree with the process.

Oh, I love Geoduck too! We watched an episode of Dirty Jobs where the host went to a geoduck farm, and I was salivating the whole episode. DH never had it, so when we were in Hong Kong for vacation, we had some.

I do admit I'm not a fan of durian. DH was brave enough to try durian ice cream while we were in Macau. I tried one small spoonful - tasted salty. Very strange.

Hi Katie, I guess I like food that some would consider "strange".

Oxtail
Bone Marrow
Rabbit
Snails
Frog Legs
Venison
Raw Oysters
Raw Mussels
Buffalo Meat

That is all I can think of right now.

Budapest held the strangest food items I've tried/eaten. The fried pork marrow at Mensa (very nice restarurant by the way) and in a keller whose name I don't recall the house specialty was - cocks testicles. I tried one - my partner had the plate full - I have the picture.

Locally we have fish and brewis (salt cod with hard tack - really hard bisquit soaked in water), figgy duff (sort of a boiled dessert), jiggs dinner (like corned beef and cabbage but much fattier and saltier or heart attack on a plate as I call it) and last but not least seal flipper pie (tried once awful but a favourite here in Newfoundland).

I've had deer and moose meat chili my husband made, and it was delicious!

My husband is big on game meats, venison, elk, boar, you get the picture.but me..now that's another story..I'd be SOL if I had to eat anything on your lists above...man, if it looks weird, sounds weird or I know it's gross, fuhgedaboudit!

"anybody else eat dripping?"

Oh, Ann, that brings back childhood memories. Nice Sunday roast, then in the evening, supper of bread and dripping. Yum. I wonder if I could get my mouth around it now. Maybe--if we could get decent bread here.

Guinea pig in Peru - actually quite tasty but the presentation left something to be desired. It is served whole, head and all, then splayed and deep-fried.

Here in North Carolina we don't get much stranger than grits and collard greens.

thanks for reviving this thread, kfoster.

may I add something i attempted to eat in rome last week?

it's called carciofi alla guida, and is simply deep-fried artichoke.

it looks like a pixy-hat up-ended on the plate.

I didn't really get the point!

Bison, venison and wild pig are all part of our regular diet. I didn't much care for the alligator I've tasted but I find that rattlesnake tastes like chicken.

I had camel about 20 minutes after getting off of a camel ride. I don't remember how it tasted so much as remembering that it was an awkward situation. The servers didn't tell my group what the appetizers were until after we had eaten.

I apparently ate mutton thinking it was beef at a buffet line. It was really pretty good!

Haggis wasn't bad at all, a bit like hash.

Seal flipper pie in Newfoundland- delicious!

Llama stew in Peru. I felt terrible because my mother loves llamas. But then I returned to the restaurant and had it again because it was really good, so I guess I got over it!

Geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck".)The extremely long siphons or the "neck" can be 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length. I ate them cut in small marinated strips and fried on a grill at a dim sum place in Vancouver. This dish was so delicious that I have since, made it at home. (My husband harvested some Geoduck when he was harvesting regular clams.

Sea Asparagus is also, a wonderful green "vegetable" from the sea. I have prepared it in salads, fresh pickled, and stir fried.

fried pickles with jicama ketchup in Nashville....it took me a while to convince my daughter to eat them, but we both loved them!

oh, and maybe it's not terribly exotic, but a deep-fried softshell crab in New Orleans........it looked like a tarantula on my plate, but it was so tasty.

Condu, what is the texture of the geoduc? Rubbery like calamari? I've seen them laying on the beach in Puget Sound, but they are not something I'd think about eating!

tenthumbs: Geoduck prepared with a Chinese marinade and quickly stir fried is tender & delicious! It tastes like clams.

Squid cooked very quickly is also, tender and delicious. I make a Thai squid salad. I cook the squid rings and leg for 20 SECONDS in boiling water to prepare it for the salad.

tenthumbs: I would love to try soft shell crab! We eat a lot of dungeness crab from my kitchen. My husband goes down to the bay and catches them. I love to make Singapore crab with them. YUM!

I've eaten some interesting stuff, but "live" octopus stands out. Tasty, but the suckers feel funny in the mouth.

Tried durian and almost threw up in my mouth. Absolutely vile. Beyond grotesque.

Didn't particularly care for shark's fin soup. Not bad, per se, but just not interesting enough.

I've eaten all manner of game and variety meats. Quite liked lamb fritters (lamb testicles). Love bone marrow. Chicken feet is good with hot sauce. Ditto for duck tongue. Plenty of organ meats, too. Agree with others that haggis is quite good.

Still deciding if I like sea urchin. Great flavor, but the texture is a bit...

travelgourmet,

we had pickled sea urchin in spain once.

it may be an acquired taste; it's one I'm destined not to acquire.

Yuck.

warthog carpaccio at a French restaurant in the wine country north of Cape Town

delicate, a soft dusty pink color, and absolutely delicious

A friend of mine who is from Vietnam made me blood once. It looked like jello o' blood. It was okay, I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it. That was probably the strangest thing I've ever eaten. I think it was stranger than rattlesnake, the blood didn't taste like chicken.


There are things I'm not sure I want to eat, but if it ends up on a plate in front of me, I'm willing.

Wisconsin Cheese dipped in batter and deep fried. It's a heart attack on a stick, but delicious paired with a huge salty pickle.

Mushy peas. My husband made me put the menu up between us so he didn't have to look at them.

OK, this is not strange like some of the animal parts listed earlier. Actually it's really not strange at all if you have a daily chocolate need.

I love Hagelslag, the chocolate sprinkles the Dutch spread on buttered bread. They're available in any Dutch grocery store and come in milk, dark and white chocolate (sometimes in mixed pink and white - don't know if they taste different); sprinkles or shavings. Sold in a shaker box near the jams. Think Nutella in shakeable form. I get really excited when I can find mini-boxes on a hotel breakfast buffet.

Makes a good souvenir treat to bring home - lightweight, non-breakable, inexpensive and enjoyed by everyone.

Some odd foods that I've eaten on various vacations:
escargot
foie gras
buffalo
barracuda
johnny cakes
frogs legs

I had salsa with eggs for the first time in Cancun. Now I never eat scrambled eggs without salsa.

johnny cakes?

i've heard of all and eaten most of the rest, but johnny cakes??

Annhig - I had Johnny Cakes in St Martin. They are similar to the fried dough that my Italian aunts always made for Christmas. The best thing that I could compare them to are unsweetened doughnuts. I had heard people talking about them and was disappointed that they weren't more exotic since I like trying new food on vacation.

Another odd item I've eaten on vacation but forget to list is goat.