Vegemite. Ugh.
Oyster shooter made with tequila. It was at Raw Bar in Chicago during the 2003 Cubs playoffs. It was the only place left within miles of the stadium with both a television and seats was the above mentioned place. After a few drinks I decided that I would enjoy an oyster shot, never having had oysters before. Really more just to show off to the table.
What came was a rocks glass with two fingers of tequila, an oyster, and long strands of fresh shredded horseradish. It’s almost as if they tried to make the most difficult to consume drink on the planet. It took three tries. First try got all the booze and half the horseradish. Second try got the oyster in the mouth, but right back out it went. Third try finished it off.
Never again.
Live octopus.
I like sushi, but that was a little extreme, even for me.
If you think psilocybin mushrooms taste bad, you should try peyote sometime. I think you are pretty much expected to barf it up.
Well, you got me beat. I’ve had dog prepared in three different ways. Not bad, but I don’t think I’ll try it again. You wash it down with rice whiskey which makes it go down easier.
I’ve had Rocky Mountain Oysters which are bull testicles. They’re really quite tasty. I have them every time I’m at Coors Field. I’ve had tripe and haggis. I’ve had guinea pig in Ecuador. That was also quite good, although they serve you the whole carcass with its little feet and all. I’m pretty sure I’ve had cow brain tacos by mistake once. They were also pretty good, but I don’t think I’ll have them again.
I’ll pretty much try anything once. I chickened out on the scorpions in China, but I ate what I thought was some sort of centipede but it turned out to be some kind of multilegged sea creature. The next time I get a chance to eat scorpion though, I’m going to go for it.
Kejang - raw crab fermented in soy sauce. It’s a lot worse than it sounds, though I’ve heard that the spicy variant is more palatable.
Menudo - self explanatory. A step down from kejang but still atrocious.
I’m the only white person I know who actually likes natto.
Trust me, I’d still try it, regardless of the taste. Only reason I haven’t is I’ve no idea how to get my hands on it. (Plus, um, the whole legal thing and all.) But from what I’ve heard and read about it, it’d so be worth it!
I’d eat nearly anything, really. I’m brave like that. 
The grossest thing I’ve eaten isn’t a WHAT so much as a WHO. Sorry, I had to go there.
Okay fine, how about C-rations? Have any of you guys been subjected to the ‘Ham and Lima Beans’? Moose nose sound pretty good, all things being equal.
The above poster ‘Attack from the third dimension’ has e-mailed me and insisted that I tell a certain story on this thread. He is distantly related to me (we have the same mother and father) so I will. In 1976 I was hiking in the mountains of Taiwan with my girlfriend (later to be my ex-wife) when we came upon a family of Taiwanese mountain people beside a stream. These folks are not Chinese, but are more likely related to Indonesians. We communicated in Chinese. They had been foraging and invited us to eat lunch with them. They made a meat stew. The matriarch of the family told me that we were eating rat and bat stew. But she used euphamisms, like flying mouse and mountain cat. Later, the matriarch realized that my girlfriend’s Chinese was not as good as mine and therefore G/F didn’t know what we were eating. So th matriarch reached into the bag beside her and pulled out another rat and bat in each hand and shook them in front of my G/F and said: “this is what we’re eating.” The bat was one of those “flying foxes”, about the size of a small dog.
During the meal, they continually tried to give me the innards of the animals. I told them that according to American custom, we don’t eat the inside parts of rats and bats. They accepted that and so I ended up with quite a few feet and wing parts.
Later we went back to their village and for dinner had the ones that had been in the matriarch’s bag. A neighbor came to visit them with a large cooked fish and loudly declared: “this house has no fish !” Being the guest of honor, they gave me the head of the fish. At that time, I did not know how to eat the head of a fish (eyeballs,cheeks,brain) so I kept scooping up the rice under the fish head with my chopsticks. They kept looking into my bowl and seeing a complete fish head would say: “oh, you’re not finished.” So I didn’t get any more because I hadn’t finished my fish head.
They were very hospitable and friendly people who didn’t have much, but what they had they were happy to share.
An interesting side story. Most of the adults had been laborers for the Japanese Army during the second world war. They were still in awe of the destructive power of the B-29 bomber and told me about it. I of course told them about the B-52 bomber. They found it difficult to believe that anything under the sun could be badder than a B-29. During this conversation they continually reassured me “that war is over now, you know.” From this I can only assume that they knew people farther back in the mountains who either didn’t know that war was over, or didn’t believe that war was over.
In conclusion, I think that cod tongue, which I ate in my brother’s house, is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten.
Good story, T!
Cisco, thanks.
I told it because “attack from the third dimension” demanded it.
cod tongue is nasty.
I think for tongue, it makes a HUUUGE difference how it’s prepared. I’ve never had it boiled, for instance-- only sliced paper-thin (frozen first) and prepared Korean BBQ-style on a sizzling hot grill, with yummy dipping sauces (of which the best is simply sesame oil and sea salt). It was awesome. But I think that if I had to take the whole lumpy thing and prepare it starting from that, I’d have a problem.
(Missed edit window…)
I’ve also had duck’s tongue (once), from a roast duck I was enjoying with a bunch of people. It was pretty darn tasty, if not very substantial. The most surprising part was the bone/cartilage running through it.
The weirdest thing I’ve eaten was probably shiokara in Japan. More specifically, what I had was konowata – sea cucumber fermented in its own guts. This was at a restaurant in Kyoto at which my husband and I were enjoying a meal that might have been served in the Heian period (about 1000 years ago), although konowata is still a delicacy today. It had a very strong, salty, fishy taste…kinda like if you took everything in a tide pool and pureed it. It wasn’t actually all that unpleasant, especially with a lot of rice (and rice wine), but it’s not something I’d order again.
I had stewed porcupine in Dushanbe. It tasted pretty much like the other stewed things that were served along with it. The only odd thing was the tiny ribs. I also had various horse tartar in Astana. It wasn’t bad. I ate a lot of stuff most folks would consider revolting when I lived in Korea – various live sea creatures, assorted pickled entrails, and also various types of grass and weeds, which are staples at Buddhist vegetarian places. I had a pretty revolting casserole in Bangalore, which I had to at least try so as not to offend my host. I had some pretty rough compacted, sausage-like meat things when I lived in the Czech Republic, also because I couldn’t refuse.
Have it every day. (Vegemite).
I have eaten turtle in the Torres Strait often. These were green turtles so quite large and no bones. If you can get over the fat and meat havinng a green tinge it was fine.
Probably a piece of dead skin that I picked from the sole of my foot.
I absolutely must know the story behind this!!
grabs popcorn, checks for icky stuff, starts eating
Squirrel brains cooked inside their natural habitat. Oh, and goat meat marinated in sperm (gutting accident - boy those fellas have lots of spunk!)
I have had chicha, which is made by chewing manioc root, spitting into a bucket, and letting it sit for a week or so. Only afterwards did the guide tell us this procedure. Luckily, I only had a few small sips to show my gratitude for their hospitality.
Also, fried sheep brain in Marrakech. I’d say it was like warmed snot.
It actually didn’t taste that bad, but…it’s just not worth it.
Forgot about the Kyrgyz kymyz - fermented mare’s milk. It is often served lukewarm, and though my girlfriend compared it to drinking vomit, it is actually quite good.