I went to a party once put on by a vendor whose theme was exploring. They had alligator and rattlesnake. I had both - not bad - and didn’t have to wait on line to get some.
I had chocolate covered ants once. I’ve had both ostrich and emu, but that’s hardly weird. Had some goat in Mexico, also good.
When we lived in NJ and were able to go the Mennonite markets, we had pig stomach all the time, a recipe from my wife’s family. Excellent, but you can’t get it in California.
I’ve eaten some of the slightly less exotic things that have already been listed (shark, gator, eels, ostrich), but probably the weirdest thing I ever ate was a sea cucumber in West Africa. It was very rubbery, like eating an oblong superball.
I feel a bit pedestrian, as the most unusual meats I’ve eaten are antelope, bison, and eel. I cut myself a little slack, though – I was vegetarian from the ages of 19 to 33. I’m still repulsed by most pork products.
Hmmm. I’ve eaten Sweet Gelatinous Mutant Coconut, which isn’t nearly as disgusting as it sounds. I still eat a fair amount of “Black Fungus.” (A type of wood-ear mushroom.) I’ve eaten my share of puff-balls. (Those fungi that produce clouds of spore “smoke” when you kick them.)
I’ve eaten durian, which smells exactly like your grocer’s dumpster during the dog-days of summer, but tastes… uh… exactly like your grocer’s dumpster during the dog-days of summer. Why the hell are these things cultivated?
I’ve eaten plenty of kimchi, too – which might sound weird if you’re unfamiliar with it. (I’m sure capybara isn’t, since we’re neighbors.) Kimchi is cabbage, peppers, garlic, and onions that’ve been fermented with the same bacteria used to make yoghurt. It smells exactly like a Korean grocer’s dumpster during the dog-days of summer, but tastes… uh… rather good, actually.
Oh, and dessicated seahorse and human placenta in a Jack Daniels tincture. That tasted pretty much like you’d expect.
They’re not, on the whole. They’re mostly harvested from wild trees in rainforests, because it takes a loooooong time for the massive trees to bear fruit. Hence their expense.
Who told you this? Durian is certainly cultivated, and most (all?) commercially available durian is orchard-grown.
Maybe someone has become confused because Durian is rarely grown from seed because it’s notoriously difficult? (They’re similar to bananas in this regard.) They’re propagated by inducing individual branches to form roots and then removing them from the main body of the tree for planting, or by grafting cuttings into the root systems of related plants.
I’ve had duck feet, chicken feet, dog, fertilised chicken egg, and live crab. All in China. Snake in Vietnam (very disappointing). Cocolate-covered ants and grashoppers in the Caribbean. And an ostrich burger in the UK.
Does mystery meat in the high school cafeteria count?
I have had horsemeat (quite good, sorry Seabiscuit).
I had a Chinese teacher from Taiwan tell me about her experiences eating raw gall from a rattlesnake brought to her table, slit open, and then eating the gall right there.
My mother, back in the days that you bought Coke in a bottle in a movie theater, was on a date with my father. She took a drink and it tasted odd. She held the bottle to the light and saw a dead mouse in the bottle…mom was always squeamish about mice after that.