What are the three strangest things you've eaten in your lifetime?

[brreynolds]

after you've had horse sashimi and a fish soup in which the eyeballs are considered the delicacy.

[chiffonade]

Our parents exposed us to all kinds of delicacies...

Italian...
Brains
Squid with Cuttlefish Ink
Sanguinaccio (St. Joseph's Day Blood Pudding)
Tripe
Sofrito (now illegal...windpipe and esophagus of cow)
Snails
Pig's Feet
Pig's Skin

Chinese...
Chicken feet
Tripe

Middle Eastern...
Lamb spinal cord
Brains

French...
Kidneys

[Vegetable Man]

Sorry to bring this up to the top, but what a great thread.

Weirdest food for me, while living in Santa Barbara:

Cow Tongue(shredded) Burrito(wonderful food)
Cow Brain Burrito(which I couldn't keep down)

[Suzanne]

Don't apologize; that's one reason we love new members.

But since when is tongue weird??? Well, maybe if you didn't grow up eating "delicatessen" -- but to some of us, it's as usual as salami. Mmm, time to go to the 2nd Avenue Deli for a tongue sandwich.

And brains are not necessarily weird; just hard to get nowadays. What do you think of sweetbreads? (another YUM to me )

[chefboy2160]

suzanne , enjoy the sandwich . I must admit to having a taste for the lesser cuts of meat as some would say . Chitlins rock !
And so do kidneys , liver , heart and yes braines . Boudins was a mountain man favorite in the early west . As we say in the western U.S . meat is meat . And rocky mountain oysters are pretty darn good . Traditionally the offal meats were eaten first while the butchering was going on or otherwise they were incorperated into sausages . If we take an animals life for food should we not enjoy what it gives us? Menudo , a very old soup made by the mexicans has the great incorperation of tripe . All I can say is YUM .
3 things I have eaten and would not go there again .
1. Raw octupus sushi ... To rubbery .
2. Fish on monday ... Yeah I was young
3. Mary Lou , she wanted to get
married!
Peace friends , Doug.....................

[Vegetable Man]

Suzanne, I'm not sure I've had sweetbreads. Unless I'm over complicating what you mean.

Funny story about cow brain. I was visiting my brother up in Allentown, PA and we stopped by the farmers market for a bit. I made a stop by the first butcher I saw and asked if he had any cow tongue. His eyes lit up, and his excitement was palpable with someone there to experiment his less purchased goods. He had me sample some of his cow tongue and when I didn't flinch, he offered me to try something else. When I asked about cow brain, both he and his high school aged helpers kind of recoiled at the question.

Until this day, I carried with me a little bit of pride in that I made a butcher recoil. However, this thread has humbled me, and I will have to seek out new adventures.

[Mezzaluna]

If we take an animals life for food should we not enjoy what it gives us?

Maybe so, just not the blood sausage or blood soup! That's the one kosher law I follow faithfully.

[hexnymph]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Lutefisk, but for me, that has to be one of the strangest.... I'd eat it again... but never order it again.

While camping in a remote area we decided to harvest freshwater clams(Which I believe are protected)... I will never eat them again! (We will eat anything we can catch at least once)

From the PA dutch... pork pudding... or pudding meat.... and scrapple/pawnhoss(sp?)

Hex

[soussweets]

i will eat anything three times,,, and chances are that if it takes three times for me to decide if i like it,,,, it sucks. pardon my spelling,,, but i think one of the nastiest things i have ever eaten is gafelta fish from the jar on a cracker. one of my teachers made us eat this in high school on a saltine so we could"expand our cultural horizons" ,,, frankly i would have prefered some potato pancake with apple sauce!

[Mezzaluna]

Gefilte fish is definitely an acquired taste- just like lutefisk. However, the homemade stuff (for which there are infinite recipes) is far superior to the jelly-laden jarred stuff. Think "quenelle du brochet" (pike dumplings) enjoyed by the French. Those can be absolutely delicious.

Having helped make gefilte fish from buffalo and carp, I can attest that the pike version is far tastier than the version made with either of those trash fish!

[Pongi]

This is the first time I explore this thread (perhaps it was too huge for me ) and I'm pretty amused at the fact that most of your "strangest things" are perfectly normal for Italians (except for my hubby )

I mean:

-Tongue
-Tripe
-Kidneys
-Brains and spinal cord
-Lamb head
-Blood
-Urchins
-Snails
-Frogs
-Pig's feet and skin
-Chicken combs
-Raw horse meat

But we are wild people, you know...and I'm the Queen of wild people

I LOVE all those things, especially kidneys, tongue and snails.

I can also add something more to the list: SQUID EGGS. They look - and taste- about like octopus meat, but are softer. Imagine 1-2 inch white, soft balls, made of octopus meat. Weird, huh?

Pongi

[RitaFajita]

Crawdads - freshly caught from a creek in Oak Ridge, TN (think Manhattan Project ). I was eight years old. Still in my memory, it seems like one of them was as big as a lobster, but maybe that was a dream. I hope so, anyway, otherwise I probably glow in the dark!
RF

[Nick.Shu]

3 things, ehh?, well ok here goes:

1) Witchetty grub - soft texture, very nutty flavour

2) Salt water crocodile - texture like chicken, with a very washed out fish flavoured overtones

3) Kangaroo - very gamey, dark meat not unlike a strong flavoured beef fillet

[gilbear]

1) Pickled pigs foot, from a jar, in a bar in Barstow, Ca. on a hot August day.
2)Various things from various carts at various Fleet Landings along the Atlantic Coast(both sides) and the Med.
3) Green Jell-o

[chef from va]

WOW this is the best thread i have come across so far! i have a few things to contribute.
when i lived in Panama (as an army brat living right on the canal)
- iguana, and no it doesnt taste like chicken it tasted kinda like duck
- camen, similar to aligator quite tasty
- day old siveche NEVER TO BE EXPERIENCED AGAIN!!!!!!!!

here in Virginia
- squirrel of course and its realy good
- raw oysters of questionable origin ALSO ONE OF THOSE NEVER AGAIN THINGS
- sweedish caviar past that my norna used to shove down my throat
- a shot of oyster sauce.... what can i say i commute to school and i needed gas money

there are a ton more but this wilol have to do