# Animals nobody eats **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162 "2008-04-28T01:18:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/61 "2008-04-28T21:22:23Z")
Apparently porcupine is popular in the Ivory Coast, although the locals call it “rat”. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/62 "2008-04-28T22:03:59Z")
[QUOTE=RoOsh] I don’t think anyone eats armadillos. [The Master Speaketh](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990219.html) [/QUOTE] [Armadillo Recipes](http://www.huntingsociety.org/ArmadilloRecipes.html)😛 (Useful tip: “Always marinate armadillo in buttermilk for one day”) My dad used to jokingly refer to armadillos as “'possum on the half shell.” ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/63 "2008-04-29T03:08:09Z")
[QUOTE=jackelope] There’s probably no animal that no one has _ever_ eaten [/QUOTE] What about [undersea tube worms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_tube_worm)? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/64 "2008-04-29T03:11:30Z")
I know of at least one restaurant in Bangkok that serves crocodile. It’s a fancy place, too, The Blue Elephant, on Sathon Road. (Unless they’ve taken it off the menu. We went there one time when it first opened, decided that although the place looked great, it was crap prices for small portions and never returned. No, we did not order the crocodile.) ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/65 "2008-04-29T03:19:13Z")
Poisonous Tree Frogs and Panda Bears. Although I’m sure panda is or was considered a delicacy in China at one time? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/66 "2008-04-29T10:24:37Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I’m only familiar with “bear claws” as a pastry. Is that a whoosh, or do some people eat the actual paws of bears? [/QUOTE] Bear hands are said to be quite sweet, although lacking in the pineapple filling so prized in the pastry variety. (We had a family butcher who would handle game carcasses. He refused to do bear. When you take the skin off a bear and let it hang, it looks just like a person. Creeped him out.) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/67 "2008-04-29T11:46:35Z")
Some of the smaller birds don’t seem to have a lot of meat. Things like parakeets, canaries, wrens, etc. Seems like plucking and cleaning them would consume more energy than the bird would provide. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/68 "2008-04-29T11:55:02Z")
[QUOTE=BobLibDem] Seems like plucking and cleaning them would consume more energy than the bird would provide. [/QUOTE] The French eat a small bird (bunting?), it’s no bigger than a canary. Catch em live, feed up on corn, drown in cognac, roast, consume everything but the feathers under a towel in one bite. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/69 "2008-04-29T12:05:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Tadpoles - although frog legs are a delicacy in many cuisines, and I’ve read that toad soup is popular in some SE Asian countries, I’ve never heard of anyone cooking the young of either critter. > > Along a similar line, I never heard tell of anyone eating other amphibians: salamanders, newts or mud dogs. I’ll bet that tadpoles get eaten, though. When I was raising them I noticed that their tails are all pure muscle, no fat or bone. They’d be eaasy to harvest and cook. And it would probably be worth the effort. That’s probably the reason that many of these things aren’t eaten – too much trouble to make it worthwhile. But if you have few resources, it’ll become worthwhile. Or if you’ve a need for it. Farley Mowat ate field mice in **Never Cry Wolf** (depicting on-screen in the movie version), to prove a large carnivore could subsist on them. As for salamanders, the Chinese eat them – especially large ones, in line with the above. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/70 "2008-04-29T13:30:53Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] As for salamanders, the Chinese eat them – especially large ones, in line with the above. [/QUOTE] Geez, how are there any wild animals left in China _at all_? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/71 "2008-04-29T13:56:54Z")
What about a Man O’ War jellyfish? Even if you could avoid the stings there’s really not enough there to make it worthwhile. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/72 "2008-04-29T14:35:59Z")
If you were really starving - I mean about to die of hunger - wouldn’t you eat hyena or any of the animals mentioned in this thread ? I think I would. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/73 "2008-04-29T15:19:19Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] I know of at least one restaurant in Bangkok that serves crocodile. It’s a fancy place, too, The Blue Elephant, on Sathon Road. (Unless they’ve taken it off the menu. We went there one time when it first opened, decided that although the place looked great, it was crap prices for small portions and never returned. No, we did not order the crocodile.) [/QUOTE] As I mentioned above, alligator is readily available in Louisiana and is even farmed as food. It isn’t even considered especially exotic and it is a healthy meat. Men’s health recommended it highly in their last issue. It takes very well to spices. They sell tons of it at festivals in the New Orleans area. I have even seen alligator for sale in at least one supermarket here in Massachusetts. I have to imagine that crocodile is very similar. Try it if you get another chance. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/74 "2008-04-29T15:37:36Z")
[QUOTE=Gymnopithys] If you were really starving - I mean about to die of hunger - wouldn’t you eat hyena or any of the animals mentioned in this thread ? I think I would. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but that’s not the question. The question is whether there are any animals completely outside any culture’s traditional fare. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/75 "2008-04-29T15:52:32Z")
Ever since cannibalism got a bad rap, there has been a prejudice against “Long Pig”. Anyone know the last recorded case of a human being the main course? Now, human brains-that sounds horrible. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/76 "2008-04-29T15:53:23Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Ever since cannibalism got a bad rap . . . [/QUOTE] :mad: Yeah, how did **that** happen?! ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/77 "2008-04-29T15:57:49Z")
[QUOTE=Gymnopithys] If you were really starving - I mean about to die of hunger - wouldn’t you eat hyena or any of the animals mentioned in this thread ? I think I would. [/QUOTE] People have eaten the bodies of other humans in that situation. That doesn’t mean they’re going to seek out human meat at other times, or that they should be willing to eat human meat when they’re not starving. > [@Cluricaun](#): > > What about a Man O’ War jellyfish? Even if you could avoid the stings there’s really not enough there to make it worthwhile. In _The Kitchen God’s Wife_, there is a scene in which some of the Chinese-American characters are eating jellyfish. It doesn’t specify what kind of jellyfish. I don’t know that there’d be a lot there on any jellyfish… ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/78 "2008-04-30T02:01:08Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] In _The Kitchen God’s Wife_, there is a scene in which some of the Chinese-American characters are eating jellyfish. It doesn’t specify what kind of jellyfish. I don’t know that there’d be a lot there on any jellyfish… [/QUOTE] The Portuguese Man O’ War isn’t really a jellyfish, though. [This page](http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/jellyfish) is about jellyfish you can eat. It doesn’t seem to name the jellyfish in the pictures, but the second picture looks a lot like moonlight jellyfish, not [the kind](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=active&resnum=0&q=Rhopilema%20esculenta&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) they say is most commonly eaten. ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/79 "2008-04-30T02:58:32Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > OTOH, alligator is excellent and I just read in Men’s Health that it is one of the healthiest meats around. Rattlesnake is good too. Smaller reptiles like lizards and garter snakes wouldn’t be worth it. Yes, alligator meat is very good. If I had to describe it, I’d say it has the taste of calamari, but the consistency of shrimp. I’d think that crocodile meat tastes very similar. However, given the region where alligators are found natively (the U.S.; although there is a Chinese alligator, it is critically endangered unlike its American cousin), I suspect that it will remain an “I dare you to try that” meat for quite some time to come, except in areas where it has long been used in local cuisine, such as the Mississippi delta region. As far as non-eaten species go…what about wading birds such as herons, ibis, storks, etc.? Are they considered worth the trouble if smaller, less flight-ready species of fowl can be caught and/or domesticated? ETA: and does ANYone actually eat “ **chilled monkey brains**!”? ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/80 "2008-04-30T03:07:08Z")
What about seagulls? They’re common enough. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162.md?page=5)