# Food That You (Normally) Wouldn't Eat. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2009, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545 "2009-11-06T09:26:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![frootle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frootle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frootle)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/1 "2009-11-06T09:26:11Z")
Durion fruit… I was in Thailand last year and in Bangkok there was a low-level and lingering smell of what I ‘thought’ was sewerage in the part of town I stayed in. After a couple of days I came to realise that the STENCH was, in fact, Durion Fruit. Apparently massively popular and tasty - but even if the critics all agree, there’s NO WAY I’ll eat it, it just reeks. :eek: Sadly this may have robbed me of an experience that I should have had… and so be it, but my question is this… What food can you just Not Attempt To Eat, even though by all reliable sources it’s **DELICIOUS** (I must point out that I am not a culinary fascist… I regularly, and willingly, eat some pretty odd and weird food) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/2 "2009-11-06T11:07:59Z")
I tried to eat durian, I couldn’t get it close to my mouth. Bugs. Other than accidental bug parts that get processed into food. I will not willingly eat bugs. I know it is cultural conditioning, but there is nothing I get horrified more by than maggoty squirmy bugs so witchety grubs are right out. Regular bugs are right out. I can barely eat lobster and shrimp, it took me years before I could eat a shrimp or lobster that didnt arrive meat only and ready to eat. But I still refuse to suck out the heads of crawdads. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/3 "2009-11-06T14:16:59Z")
I’m a vegetarian, but even before I was I would not eat fish, particularly shellfish. To me it tastes like something gone bad. When I was in the hospital, I had this exchange while another patient and I were exchaning our meals–she had eggplant, I had fish: Her: I’m a vegetarian too, but I’ll eat fish before I’d eat eggplant. Me: I’d eat a pork chop stuffed with ham, wrapped in bacon and cooked in bacon grease before I’d touch fish. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/4 "2009-11-06T14:20:19Z")
Never seen durion, so I can’t comment on that. My world, my rules: no recognizable organs. No snouts, no feet, no brains, no tongues, no livers, hearts, etc. Sausage is OK, 'long as I manage to convince myself it’s just undifferentiated bits of meatlike stuff. No bugs. Shrimp are OK, lobster marginal. Although I like eggs otherwise, the particular way McDonalds does them in Egg McMuffins grosses me right out. Pretty much everything else is OK by me, except eggplant, the liver of the vegetable world. That particular combination of taste, texture and color puts me right off. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/5 "2009-11-06T14:26:48Z")
Open a can of this stuff when sober-I guaratee you will be grossed out-the stuff smells like Alpo dog food. I ate a can of it once (cold)-I had been smoking a bit of weed. It tasted great-at the time. The thought of eating it now makes me ill. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/6 "2009-11-06T14:54:54Z")
I’ve tried durian. Couldn’t get past the rancid dirty sweatsock smell… it’s not as pronounced in the edible parts of the fruit, but it’s most definitely still there. Ick. There aren’t too many things I outright refuse to eat even once. Bugs in any form is definitely one… other than that, I’d have to say cat (because I love my little fuzzbutts too much to think of them as “food”) and anything that’s still alive (raw is fine… still moving, not so much). ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/7 "2009-11-06T17:19:22Z")
I’d eat durian if I had the chance. You only live once. However, I will not ever _ever_ eat organ meats. It could be prepared by a 5-star chef with the freshest, top-of-the-line seasonal ingredients; I still won’t go near it. Further, I don’t like fish at all. Especially freshwater fish. Blergh. I’ll eat shellfish all day long, but I can’t stand the taste of, you know, _fish_. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/8 "2009-11-06T21:04:48Z")
There are very few things I won’t eat. I’ve never met a piece of offal I didn’t like: Liver, kidney, brain, tripe, chitterlings… You name it and if it’s cooked right, I love it. I’m perfectly willing to give Durian a shot if I’m ever someplace where it’s local. I won’t eat eggplant again. I like it, but it doesn’t like me, and no one I’m around within 8 hours of eating it likes me either. I won’t eat “pet” animals, such as rabbit, horse or dog, as opposed to livestock, but that’s just because I like the animals themselves and don’t want to eat them. I actually like some of my Western prejudices, thank you very much. I also try not to eat anything that’s of a protected sustainability status. I’ve eaten several types of bugs, from sauteed grasshopper-like bugs in Honduras to maggoty Italian cheese. They were tasty. Anything else I don’t or refuse to eat is due to allergies. I’m down for pretty much anything. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/9 "2009-11-06T21:07:57Z")
I’ve had a durian milkshake. It tasted faintly of onions. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/10 "2009-11-06T21:36:16Z")
Stinky cheese. And I’m going to add Durion fruit here although I’ve never met one in person. If it smells bad, sorry, no. And Velveeta - because it looks like melted plastic. ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/11 "2009-11-07T00:30:43Z")
I won’t eat cute little woodland creatures, like bunnies, or squirrels, or deer. I tried venison, when a friend gave us some, and I couldn’t quite choke it down because of the smell. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/12 "2009-11-07T02:00:07Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m a vegetarian, but even before I was I would not eat fish, particularly shellfish. To me it tastes like something gone bad. The taste/smell that most people associate with fish is, in fact, a sign that it’s starting to go bad. Really fresh fish, like you’d get at a good sushi place, doesn’t have that characteristic smell at all. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/13 "2009-11-07T02:09:21Z")
I’ve posted on the foulness of durian elsewhere here. Evil fruit indeed. I maintain that farangs (Westerners) who claim to enjoy it are mere poseurs trying to brown-nose their way into acceptance by the locals. EDIT: [My thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=523603&highlight=durian) on durian, with personal anecdote in the OP. But to the OP here: That could very well have been the sewer you were smelling here, too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/14 "2009-11-07T05:58:28Z")
I’ve had durian and I think it is a genetic thing, it just didn’t taste sweet to me. It must be like how cilantro tastes to soap to some people. The thing I had the hardest time eating was guinea pig, just a big rat on a stick. ---
**Author:** ![frootle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frootle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frootle)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/15 "2009-11-07T06:26:42Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Although I like eggs otherwise, the particular way McDonalds does them in Egg McMuffins grosses me right out. You mean that white stuff is EGG?? :dubious: Learn something new every day.. I’m adding SPAM to my list., not that I _can’t_ eat it due to any innate repulsion, I just think, really, if I looked hard enough at the dog/catfood aisle long enough there would be a better contender… ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/16 "2009-11-07T12:30:41Z")
I was at this restaurant in Hong Kong, [Yung Kee](http://www.yungkee.com.hk/). They have a Michelin Star. The waiter said we should try the preserved egg. Normally, I wouldn’t, but what the hell, why not… Sometimes I should listen to my intuition. Nasty. Otherwise, I’d recommend going there, just don’t have the egg. ---
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/17 "2009-11-08T02:10:59Z")
I think that the worst things that I have had (albeit for a short time) in my mouth are cheeses[1]. I am not a big fan of bugs, but termites are WONDERFUL. In 2011 the brood in my area is coming out and I am steeling myself up for eating cicadas. Guinea pig is okay, rabbit is better and squirrel has better flavor. I like some organs, but not others. Brains are no-no, I have a fear of kuru. When I started eating SE Asian food, the decay smell got to me, but I now associate it with Yum. Durian? Who knows - I am an adventurous eater, but am a Westerner. [1] I am allergic to penicillin and that’s closely related to some of the blue cheese molds. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/18 "2009-11-08T04:35:38Z")
I guess I am picky, I would not eat most of the things mentioned here - Durian, organ meats, bugs, “pet” animals and most wild game (unless I had to)… I am going to add Balut - no way, no how ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/19 "2009-11-08T04:54:07Z")
> [@MissGypsy](#): > > I won’t eat cute little woodland creatures, like bunnies, or squirrels, or deer. I own a root canal and a gold crown (total: about two grand AFTER my “insurance” helped out because I said, “It was a farmfed bunny. I do not need to observe the same chewing protocols (incisors only because they present the least surface area) I would had this hasenpfeffer been prepared at home and not at a junior college cafeteria.” Yeah, Thumper tasted great but later I kicked the fender of some asshole who didn’t yield the right of way because half a molar was resting in my hand. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545/20 "2009-11-08T04:54:44Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > I am going to add Balut - no way, no how Balut = egg with fetal chick inside. My 13-year-old daughter decided she wanted to try these in honor of her Philippine heritage and her admiration of Andrew Zimern. We bought a dozen. She cooked and ate most of them. She said they were pretty good, but she didn’t ever want any again. I couldn’t manage more than a taste of the egg white. They need to be hardboiled, which she, unbeknownst to me, tried to do with one of them in the microwave without poking a vent hole in one end. While sitting in the living room, I heard a loud “BANG!” and a few seconds later, “What happened to the head? It disappeared!” And indeed, it had. The rest of it was glued in bits and pieces to the walls of the microwave. It was horrific. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-that-you-normally-wouldnt-eat/516545.md?page=2)