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Strangest commercialy prepared food

post #1 of 31
1/10/08 at 2:42pm
Thread Starter 
I was just reminiscing over some of my travels and remembered when I was in traveling through North Africa. I was introduced to a canned product called Mopane which was mopani worms (larvae of a moth) in a tomato and chili (achtar) sauce. Once I got over the stigma of what I was about to eat it turned out to be really good both in taste and nutrition.

I was wondering if anyone else had any experiences similar to mine.
"Ye can lead a man up to the university, but ye can't make him think."

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post #2 of 31
1/10/08 at 3:27pm
It's not ready to eat like your larvae, but mine would be dried salted jellyfish available at your local Asian grocer in sealed plastic pouches.

Phil
more than taste fine
me eat it all the time
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post #3 of 31
1/10/08 at 4:01pm
Thread Starter 
I had jelly fish one day for dim sum with an asian friend of mine. It was sliced like linguine noodles and finished with sesame oil and chopped garlic. I actually thought it was really al dente linguine until he 'educated' me. I really enjoyed that too. Up here in alberta there is a place called T&T market place which has a shop of everything dried, actually, it has everthing period. I even bought a live king crab there once which is amazing considering my location.
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post #4 of 31
1/10/08 at 4:20pm
Grasshoppers ...
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post #5 of 31
1/10/08 at 7:47pm
I'd have to say shrimp chips- the ones you buy in a box ready-to-cook. They look like day-glow colored guitar picks or poker chips before you throw them in hot oil; then they puff up. I amused myself with several boxes of those after I was introduced to them!

The first beef jerky I ever ate was part of a care package received by my college roomate, sent by her aunt back home in Hong Kong. It was slightly sweet and delicous.
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post #6 of 31
1/27/08 at 9:32pm
They sell Balut (Hardboiled egg with baby chicken fetus) in packages at some speciality filipino markets. Balut is a Filipino delicacy. I'm Filipino myself, but I never got into that particular meal.
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post #7 of 31
1/28/08 at 12:11am

weirdest commercially prepared food??

i was in a local market in marin (just north of san francisco)
when i came across a can of "pig brains in white sauce".
i should have taken a pix of that one (or bought a can) but
the pix on the label looked kinda disgusting. really.
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post #8 of 31
1/28/08 at 6:19am
Nothing, and I mean Nothing beats what I saw in a gas station 7-11 in Pennsyltucky......

a cheeseburger hotdog.

yes....it was a cheeseburger, in the shape of a hotdog......in those rollers..for days........and days...



Cheeseburger Big Bite™ Hot Dog
Easy to eat perfection! It looks like a hot dog, but it tastes like a cheeseburger! Fresh from the 7-Eleven grill, beef and cheese combine to create the easy-to-eat one-third-pound Cheeseburger Big Bite Hot Dog. Add your favorite condiments or toppings! Yummy!
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post #9 of 31
1/28/08 at 9:54am
In a small bar/deli/grocer in Alaska in the freezer section there was Muktuk and Akutak. Mmmmmm good :o

Akutaq – Eskimo Ice Cream
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post #10 of 31
1/28/08 at 10:07am
Blue Diamond Almonds...leftover on a plane back from a trip to Japan. The bag was filled with Blue Diamond Almonds and little whole dried fish, eyes and everything!

I still got the box somewhere, I never opened it. Figured it would make a great conversation piece!

doc
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post #11 of 31
1/28/08 at 10:35am
I've got some rice crackers with those fish mixed in. My sister sent them to me from japan with a sticky note saying, "Do you dare?"

Phil
more than taste fine
me eat it all the time
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post #12 of 31
1/28/08 at 11:41am

Cuttlefish Flakes

Right, that's got my vote. While in Japan, I remember seeing shakers filled with dried cuttlefish. They sprinkled dried cuttlefish on pizza like it was oregano or red-pepper flakes. It tasted ok but I couldn't get past the fact that the thin fish flakes looked like they where twitching when they hit the top of the hot pizza. Yuck yuck yuck!
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post #13 of 31
1/28/08 at 1:03pm
red herring - - I think it's a standard cusine for ice fishermen. Tried it once. The operative word here is "once".
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post #14 of 31
1/31/08 at 3:16pm
This is a really funny site I ran across a few years ago. I dug it back up just for you guys!

The author has a blog where he gets weird commercially prepared foods and eats them, then writes about it.

The Sneeze - Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.
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post #15 of 31
1/31/08 at 3:24pm
Icelandic hakarl- dried unsmoked basking shark. Smells like feet and tastes like...er... I imagine feet taste.:eek:
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post #16 of 31
2/1/08 at 4:33am
I find Spam a strange tinned product.

I find it even stranger that people would consider eating it.....
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post #17 of 31
2/3/08 at 10:47am

egg salad anyone?

in some commercial kitchens, such as airline kitchens, they use long salami looking rolls called 'chubs' of hardboil eggs..just lay on the counter and slice away..not as bad as canned pig brains, but just too weird!

food is like love...it should be entered into with abandon or not at all        Harriet Van Horne

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post #18 of 31
2/3/08 at 11:11am
I think head cheese is pretty darn weird.
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post #19 of 31
2/3/08 at 11:42am
I've seen the 5 gallon buckets if hard cooked eggs and of the poached ones. I think that why I don't like the little poaching pans with the cups, they look like those. A poached egg isn't supposed to be that perfect, and it's not that hard to do.

But I was surpirsed at the Sysco Food Show in Seattle last spring--I do believe you could do my job using totally prepared foods.

A Capt. wandered over from one of the other vessels in port and was talking about the neat pot roast they had --already cooked. For crying out loud, season it brown it, toss in a roasting pan with some aeromatics, wine, cover and roast. You have a lovely piece of meat with the good stuff to make gravy!!!

I do keep a supply of frozen pastas, puff pastry, and a few other things for panics. I love the IQF berries and fruits.

There are pages of frozen soups, every Mexican entree you can think of, frozen cookies and buckets of cookie and muffin dough. Premade desserts that are very expensive and I when I have had left from another cook, some aren't very good.

I'll pass on the pig brains too!! Check out canned cheeseburger on the Late Night Forum?

O.K. nuff,

Nan
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post #20 of 31
2/3/08 at 12:11pm

one size fits all sandwich!

hi nan,
reminds me of a sandwich i saw once..everything was on the sandwich(think it was a ckix parm or something)...including the fries!..all tucked inside the roll.. my take is that the deli owner was trying to come up with the next 'new' sandwich trend.i admit i like potato chips on my tuna salad sandwich occasionally, but the fries was a bit over the top for me, and i'm fairly liberal minded where food is concerned..what next? also saw a guy eat a creamed corn on wonder bread sandwich..that was truly disgusting..the creamed corn kept dripping out all over the place and the bread got real soggy half way through..he was an aussie though, so that may explain a few things!

food is like love...it should be entered into with abandon or not at all        Harriet Van Horne

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post #21 of 31
2/3/08 at 4:40pm

them aussies ... !!!!

yeah, them aussies ... don't they know creamed corn goes in a
hollowed out sweet french roll??
take a sweet french roll, use a long fillet knife to core out the bread
from one end (being careful not to pierce the other end through!!)
add the creamed corn, then there is no dripping soggy mess to worry
about!!
when will they ever learn???
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post #22 of 31
2/3/08 at 4:52pm

good use for spam!!

true story ....

my wife worked for major oil company in the liabilities department and her
boss had to go to new guinea for an on-site inspection.

the site has always had a tenuous relationship with the natives that live
in the area. i suggested to him that he should bring some spam with him
and he should give it to the chief as a gift to improve relations.

when he got there, he did as i suggested and the chief's eyes got THIS BIG
when the boss offered him the spam. the chief welcomed him into the
village, asked how long he was going to stay, and then offered the
"services" of his two daughters if the boss was to feel "lonely" for
female companionship!

reason why this happened?? i had learned from missionary friends that
the people in new guinea were some of the last people to practice
cannabalism, and for the elders, spam is the one thing that reminds them
the most of human flesh!

weird, huh??
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post #23 of 31
2/3/08 at 5:04pm
HAH

Spam is popular in Hawaii, but not for the same reasons. They just really like it.
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post #24 of 31
2/3/08 at 5:25pm

hawaiian spam

now .... there is a spam that used to be able to be bought only in hawaii
and some other assorted places ... called "hot 'n' spicy spam", it is spam
with tabasco sauce already mixed into the meat! yum!

i had to have friends send me some from the islands until some other
friends were able to find some here on the mainland. it is spicy without
being too spicy and it does taste different than getting spam and pouring
tabasco on it.

i love dicing it and adding it to my fried rice, then tossing a couple of
eggs over easy on top. garnish with a little oyster sauce and YEEOOOOW!!
da kine be da best, bro!!
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post #25 of 31
2/3/08 at 5:56pm
Oh I bet that is with medium-grain rice cooked to perfection, sticky on the outside with an al-dente texture in the middle.

I wish I could get Lau-Lau here.
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post #26 of 31
2/3/08 at 7:08pm
hey crisomnist...
no harm intended if you are an aussie..some of my best friends are aussies!..just good fun here..we were all sailing around the caribbean back then...lots of rum and whatever!...good day mate!!

food is like love...it should be entered into with abandon or not at all        Harriet Van Horne

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post #27 of 31
2/3/08 at 7:10pm
===== OMG ... you know about the medium-grain rice for fried rice!
it is sooooooo much better than using long-grained rice!

gonna have to open me up another can of hot 'n' spicy spam!!
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post #28 of 31
2/3/08 at 7:17pm

creamed corn sandwich

no, i am not an aussie, but a native born chinese american who knows
how to make a neat creamed corn sandwich!

other things i have made ... fried rice burritos, burritos with chow mein,
(i think now-a-days people just call them wraps), and also cooked sushi.
i would take pulled pork (with bbq sauce!!) and put it in rice and roll in
nori like a regular sushi. sometimes i would take the whole roll and
dip in tempura batter and deep fry before slicing ... yum!!
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post #29 of 31
2/3/08 at 7:27pm
ah ha, then you might also consider pakoras, sort of an Indian potato tempura dish.

Or South Indian-style dosas

By the way I love broiled eel sushi
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post #30 of 31
2/3/08 at 7:31pm
Oh now I see what you're getting at.

A sushi burrito :D
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