I went to Iceland a few years ago. Some hotels had tasters menu featuring foods Icelanders rarely eat since they taste awful — fermented shark and puffin.
In Canada, moose burgers and screech (rum so foul it makes Jamaicans scowl) are generally left to tourists. Are there other examples of this in other countries — “local” foods that locals eschew instead of chew?
The Swiss love their cheese, especially melted in fondue and raclette.
However, summer is not the time for fondue. Only tourists eat fondue when it’s warm enough for t-shirts and shorts (20 C / 68 F). So it’s not really eschewing, but giving the locals yet another reason to look at the tourists askew.
Not so much eschew, but to keep this thread going, while Chicago is associated with deep dish pizza, I feel safe in saying that Chicagoans generally eat thin crust pizza, particularly a somewhat local style that has become known as “tavern style.” Crispy crust, cut into in squares. So while it wouldn’t be true to say that Chicagoans don’t eat deep dish and only leave it to the tourists, it’s more of a special occasion pizza than anything else, in my experience, and it seems to be the only pizza the tourists know about. Our more commonly eaten pizza locally is our version of thin crust. (I was born and raised here, in the city, and I didn’t even have my first slice of deep dish until I was a teenager.)
I think Rocky Mountain Oysters fit this bill.
I’m convinced sheep eyeballs are a “delicacy” offered to “honored” guests just to see if they’ll actually eat the bloody things. Notice they only offer this dish to people not of the faith. Ditto surströmming.
This is true of salt water taffy everywhere. It’s more of a souvenir than a food.
I recall seeing a food story about lefse and lutefisk not part of normal Norwegian offerings but now for tourists only. It’s a big deal here in Minnesota, especially during Christmas time, from the Norwegian heritage in the state. The documentary made a point that it was “poor people” food, and those were the ones who emigrated and retained their fondness for the dishes.
Locals know better than to buy unsterilized nuts and raw snacks from vendors around Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Only uninformed tourists eat those. They run off to a toilet not long afterward.
If the OP allows for “chug” rather than “chew” …
Apparently UK tourists are the prime market domestically.
That this “eau de Yarra” apparently actually sells well in the UK is an affront to the POMs long and noble history of brewing.
Not a tourist situation, but once when I went to Chinese restaurant and we were served soup, found something in my bowl that no one else had. I asked what it was and my ex’s Mom insisted it was good. My ex kept shaking her head saying “Don’t eat it!”. I bowed to Mom’s insistence and ate it. A bit rubbery and tasteless. Having satisfied Mom, I once again asked what it was and Mom said “Fish bladder! Wasn’t it good?”. Later that day I got some mild hives and a slightly upset stomach. Looking back that day, I thought I caught Mom giving giving the waitress a nod in my direction as she was serving the soup! :smack:
Another not tourist situation, but I suspect was a let’s see if this guy will eat it moment.
I was called to sing karaoke with my Korean friend. It was her, her friend visiting from Korea and some guy her friend just met. After a while my friend ordered soup that was supposed to give you energy (no, there was no after karaoke activity planned or expected). My friend gave the other guy and me a big bowl of the soup and gave themselves a much smaller portion. The soup was good, but the meat was oddly stringy and a bit gamey. The other guy didn’t finish his bowl. When I asked my friend what kind of soup it was, she just gave me the Korean name and said it was very special kind of soup. Later when I went out to the bathroom, I saw the owners shredding some kind of meat, just like was in my soup. I asked them what kind of meat it was and they said “Goat, this is what was in your soup!”. I thanked them for making such a delicious soup (it was really good other than the stringy meat) and they just smiled and laughed.
What’s the matter with goat? Many Caribbean restaurants in Brooklyn serve stewed or curried goat, and it’s delicious. I prepare it myself, and I’m not Caribbean. Or Korean.
I worked in food service and one place I worked, the kitchen shared an area with a very high-end steak house.
One of the prep cooks there was making up escargot, and I was wandering around, and he bet me $5 I wouldn’t eat one, ‘raw’.
We’ll I grew up eating these things, and knew they were ‘cooked’ before being canned.
I took that bet, and got paid $5 to eat $2 worth of escargot! 
The best restaurant in my neighborhood is a place that specializes in goat. (in the style of Jalisco, Mexico). They basically serve two things there: goat and quesadillas (made with corn masa.) Oh, there’s also tripe on the menu. And handmade tortillas. That’s it as far as food goes. And god damn if that goat isn’t one of the most delicious things I have tasted (as well as their tortillas). Fairly mild in flavor, not at all stringy, just tasty through and through. There are a number of Mexican goat places throughout the Chicago area, but that’s my favorite.
You obviously have no hunters in your family.
Steaks, roasts, burgers, stew meat…you bag a moose, you’ll turn it into all of them.
I was on a flight from Perth to Sydney. The flight attendant asked if I’d like anything to drink. Having just spent some good amount of time in Western Australia, and enjoyed many Swan Lagers while I was there, I asked for a Swan. She said she wasn’t sure if they had it, but since we took off from WA, it might have been included when they loaded food and beverage in Perth. She would check and get back to me.
She returned a few minutes later, and apologetically said, “I’m sorry sir, but it seems all we have is Foster’s.” And here’s the hell of it–she sounded as if she was truly sorry that all they could offer was Foster’s, nothing better.
I said, what the heck; I’ll have a Foster’s. When she brought it, I offered $2, which was the cost of a beer on Qantas domestic flights at the time. “No, sir, that Foster’s is complimentary. We didn’t have your choice of Swan, and it’s hard enough to give Foster’s away.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the following two Foster’s I had were complimentary too.
Was she pawning off the unwanted Foster’s on an unsuspecting tourist? Perhaps. But hey–it was free beer!
Nothing wrong with goat. As I said the soup was tasty, but the meat was a bit stringy and gamey which lead me to suspect it wasn’t pork.
My post was in the spirit of this thread. Being given and eating something that’s not everyday fare. I’m sure my ex’s Mom and my friend don’t eat fish bladder and goat every day. I’m waiting for someone to post: “What wrong with fish bladders, they’re delicious!”. 
Mateus and Lancers wines in Portugal. I never saw any locals drink that crap in the two years I lived there. Portugal produces some truly excellent red wines along with their more famous Port wines, but Mateus and Lancers are pretty much for export. I did visit the Mateus Palace in Vila Real, however.
I spend an lot of time in France, and you very rarely see snails on a menu. I always assumed that when you did see them it was pretty much a “dare” menu item* for tourists. It would be interesting to have one of our French dopers’ views on this.
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One must concentrate on the important things in life.