For me, chicken pate is as exotic as it gets, but I found it to be quite yummy. Any others?
Natto was one of the featured foods on Steve, Don’t eat it!, but I’ve always thought it tasted pretty good. Stinky and messy to eat, but tasty.
I really, really like Uni, which apparently is sort of unusual for non-Japnese. I expected to dislike it, but it tastes great.
Pickled Beef Tongue.
I’d like to try that fruit, the one that smells nasty but tastes great?
The first time I tried Kim Chee I accused my husband of trying to poison me. Now I love it! I can even tell the difference between good and bad kim chee!
Durien. I’ve never had the guts to try it. Once, as an impulse buy, I bought some durien creme wafer cookies at the Asian supermarket, but never dared to try them at home. I brought them to my workplace and put the package on the counter, where it’s common knowledge that any food left there is meant to be shared. When I returned during my mid-shift break, I saw the package was in the trash after someone had taken one cookie. I guess they didn’t like 'em!
And it’s durian, not durien. My mistake.
The durian? Okay.
Blachang is my answer to this one. Tiny shrimp mashed into a paste and buried for a few months to ferment. Sounds noxious, and it is the first few times, but surprisingly tasty once you’re used to it.
I recommend you try a durian milkshake. It cuts some of the rankness, and tastes great. Everyone I’ve recommended it to has loved it.
Anything involving raw fish. Maybe not exotic to most of you, but I’m from a really small town where we eat mostly meat or (cooked) fish and potatoes with other boiled vegetables, and I moved to Vancouver about a year and a half ago.
I never thought I’d like sushi. (I used to joke that if I ever went to Japan I’d have to bring lunches.) I tried it anyway for the sake of trying something new and thought it was okay, I continued to eat it and now I think it’s one of the most delicious things ever.
I like pretty much anything involving raw salmon and there is a place near me that does this awesome marinated raw tuna… I had it tonight. Oh man. Why did anyone ever bother cooking fish in the first place if it tastes like this raw?
I have always loved cheese but avoided all the smelly and mouldy ones (except parmesan) until about ten years ago. The first thing I tried was a blue brie and nowadays smelly and mouldy cheeses are my first choice.
Lutefisk.
I’m actually a pretty unchoosy eater, as long as the big three of horrible flavors aren’t involved (beer, coconut, or coffee)
Seal, sea lion, sea urchin, chiton, octopus, pickled salmon, dried salmon, salmon roe/milt.
I still will not eat shuzhuk or stink oil though, isheey yuck!!!
Second vote for kim chee. My freshman year of college, we had a Korean exchange student in the dorm and we all knew when he’d broken out the kim chee because the entire building stank something fierce. So I was surprised when I accepted his offer of a bite of the stuff and found it delicious.
I second this. It took a considerable amount of persistance on my boyfriend’s part, but now I’m addicted.
Raw Herring.
When I was in London, I tried crocodile steak (supposedly imported from Australia). It tasted like fish, though a little gamier and chewier.
I also tried haggis, which will **never **again pass these lips.
Sushi also for me, both on the good and bad ends of the spectrum. I thought raw fish would be – you know, fishy, but was so much the opposite that it’s not funny.
The seaweed most sushi is wrapped in, however, I thought would just taste like a normal greens vegetable. No. It tastes just like seaweed.
Ethiopian Food
Having grown up during Band Aid , etc. My first though was, “They have food?” But its really good. Injera (sourdough flatbread) potatoes and lentils. Yum!
I think I’ll go have some for lunch
Huh. I had haggis while visiting a friend in Glasgow, and was surprised to enjoy it. Of course, it has a strong taste of organ meat, which isn’t for everyone.