Flying Fox
Sea Ray, (yeah, that kind, but a small one.)
Snake
All caught (before my eyes), cleaned, cooked (over an open fire) and consumed right smartly!
Of the three, I recommend the snake.
Witchetty grub, crocodile, chicken brains, possum, dog, duck foetus. Oh, and another thing I don’t think anyone’s mentioned: silkworm larvae. They’re a nice snack. Westerners can’t seem to get past the fact that they’re SILKWORM LARVAE, though. Shame.
I wonder how many people will answer “Yes” to this question. (Oh, you didn’t mean “pole!”) :smack:
I guess the strangest I’ve eaten is bear, fixed in a vegetable soup. It was YUMMY, very tender, hard to describe.
I have also eaten alligator, croocodile, rabbit, squirrel, bison, ostrich, deer… hmmm… am I forgetting anything? I think that’s it.
Well, it certainly counts as cannibalism.
When I was in Cuba with a tour group from my college, we visited a crocodile farm and had lunch. The guide told us we were eating crocodile meat, but then “assured” some squeamish people that the entree was actually pork. Sure didn’t taste like any pig flesh I’d ever eaten, though – it was sweeter, for one thing, and generally more flavorful.
The most exotic meats I’ve definitely eaten would be venison and goose. Had I been a bit more adventuresome on a trip to Orlando last winter, I’d have ordered a combination plate that featured alligator (described as “a bit chewy, but OH SO GOOD!”) and frog’s legs at the decidedly non-touristy “Florida Cracker” restaurant to which Long Time First Time and I hope to return when the next North American Veterinary Conference rolls around.
Tell me honestly, what did you think of it?
It wasn’t near Kenansville/Yeehaw Junction by any chance was it? I had frog’s legs for the first time at a place near there, which were expensive but not as overpriced as the $3 for a glass of milk for my brother (what, did they have to milk the cow every time someone ordered?)
I was very disappointed the first time I had frog legs. They were…steamed, boiled…one of the two but either way had been way overcooked and had really no flavor at all. It’s been a good 15 years and I don’t recall the prep method.
Hey, don’t look at me. They told me it was just a Brownie.
And here I thought I’d be the only one to have had umingmak (musk ox). Too rich for me, thanks. Have you had muktuk?
Like several other people in this thread, I’ve eaten cuy. I thought it was awful. And I tried it a few times, made by different people each time. Either I really got unlucky in my Andean chefs, or I just don’t like cuy. I’m thinking that I just don’t like cuy.
I’ve had peccary, which can be pretty good. But I had some peccary which was pretty awful, too.
I’ve eaten giant barking razor-finned Amazonian catfish. Yes, some of those suckers really are huge–we caught one that barely fit in the canoe–and they really do bark when you haul them into the boat. And, yes, they really do have razor-sharp fins. Razor-sharp serrated fins that, when they cut you, they give you some nasty infections, to boot. There was a lot of meat on those fish, and I’m sure they would have had tasted good, if they hadn’t had all flavor boiled out of them in unsafe, not totally clear Amazonian water to make a sort of lumpy tasteless stew.
I have eaten live ants. Specifically, I’ve tried some of the species most often seen hanging around new leaves and shoots on a plant called greenbriar. (Greenbriar is a plant typically found in forests in the north/central eastern US. New greenbriar leaves and shoots are really wonderful and buttery–better than regular lettuce for salads, etc. Sometimes there are very sweet regions of the plant right near where a new leaf grows out of the stem. Areas of new growth on the plant are often patrolled by ants, and the sweeter the plant is, the more ants there are hanging around. I think that the plant is providing the ants with sugar, and the ants are controlling the populations of insects that would like to chow down on plant tissue. But I digress…) Some ants are really delicious–very tangy, almost lemony. Some, probably with a lower formic acid content, are kinda icky. The thing to remember when eating a live ant, though, is that you really ought to crush its head before putting it in your mouth. If you don’t, the ants might bite the inside of your mouth. And, trust me–that can really hurt.
I could see using ants as a sort of condiment. A tuna steak coated in ants and grilled could be really lovely. The ants would add texture and a great lemony taste to the fish–kind of like a crunchy Bernaise.
I tried palm worms (actually beetle larvae, from the western part of the Amazon basin.) I can’t say I enjoyed them. Ah, well.
I bought a cup of little freshwater snails in lime juice from a food stall in the central market of Latacunga, Ecuador. I will never do that again. I ate one snail and chucked the rest. Ew!
I love waxworms, though. Live waxworms taste like slightly milky grape-nuts. When you sautee them (and you have to do it lightly if you want to keep them intact), they taste like slightly nut-flavored shrimp. It’s a really lovely, subtle flavor.
I’ve eaten mealworms in several different dishes. I’ve also had them in snack packs from Hot Lix. I’m not that big a fan of mealworms, since they really don’t have a lot of flavor to them. They’re good for texture, though. There are several recipes out there for mealworm oatmeal cookies. The thing is, you can’t really tell mealworm oatmeal cookies from regular old insect-free oatmeal cookies just by the taste.
Chapulines, a traditional food from Mexico, are delicious. Chapulines are roasted grasshoppers. When I can get them, I add them to marinara sauces and such instead of little dried shrimp or anchovies. They’re delicious straight up, too, but they’re very salty, so I can’t eat many of them at once. There’s a restaurant here that’ll sell them to you in little sandwich bags when the grasshoppers are in season.
If you like dried shrimp, I strongly suggest that you try some chapulines if you get the chance.
Nice.
Actually, of all of the local food that I’ve tried, I’ve enjoyed musk ox the most. The last time that I had it was a couple of months ago at a nice restaurant in Yellowknife. It was grilled with a peppercorn sauce. Fantastic - I didn’t find it too rich at all. I’ve had it freshly butchered from Cambridge Bay too - a little gamier than in the restaurant, but good texture and really nice flavour.
Muktuk - you mean whale flesh? I have had (raw) the 3 different types of arctic whales. I don’t really understand the appeal. It’s like eating fishy tasting hard rubber. I do enjoy raw caribou and arctic char.
The community has celebratory feasts every few months. It’s quite a production. I had a little old lady try to get me to taste pickled walrus. Apparently a delicacy. I declined. Little old lady laughed at the white guy.
Forgot to include barbcued beaver tail in my first post. Yuck. And boiled and barbcued seal - double yuck.
Actually, I’ve quite enjoyed ray and skate. Sections of wing can be stamped out and cooked like a scallop. Not the same thing, but still pretty tasty.
Rattlesnake, alligator, squirrel, rabbit, turtle, whatever my uncles shot last summer, that kind of thing. Also shark, which is delicious, especially grilled.
I have had “critter”, which is the unlabeled game from the bottom of the deep freeze that goes in the stew. You don’t ask what it is, you just eat it.
I haven’t had anything too exotic…
However, I have had Rocky Mountain Oysters in their original form… that is , cooked on a shovel stuck in a calf branding fire. I will never forget the 3 year old ranch foreman’s kid eating them like candy and calling them “easters” (???).
Not a big fan of those, but can stand them if they are battered and fried instead.
Other than that, I’ve had venison (yum) and elk (nasty, sick, disgusting- what’s the point?).
I like real oysters though… so I don’t feel I’m very picky (kim chee is pretty good in moderate doses as well).
eel, alligator, tongue
But the bad one was pork brains. Force fed – several times. They look, smell, and taste just like what you think a brain would be like. I still gag thinking about it fifty years later.
I think you mean long pig. 
And, no, not yet.
:smack: Dang it, I just realized that I actually have an answer here. :smack:
Chitterlings (Chitlins). I used to go with my maternal grandmother to clean those hog instestines in the creek. When she cooked 'em up, the whole BLOCK knew what Grandma was cooking!
Way she fixed them, they were too spicy for my 9-YO taste buds. And too pungent, but not gross or anything. Just a pungent meal.
I’m with you there. Battered and fried is much tastier.
There was something wrong with either the elk you had or the way it was prepared. I’d trade 10 pounds of venison for 5 pounds of the equivalent cut of elk any day.