Why is it when we taste something new, instead of searching for the words or flavoring, we simply say “It tastes like chicken”? BTW I heard humans tastes like stringy turkey!
Chicken has a fairly bland flavour, and the phrase “tastes like chicken” is used to describe things that taste fairly bland.
My you have a lot of questions. This one is more suited for GQ though. [At least it’s not another sex question thread.]
Bear with me here…
A few years back I was travelling in China with some friends. We were “self-guided” tourists, not part of a tour group, which was still unusual at the time. And the fact that we were 3 young american women made it even more so.
Anyway, to ge back OT:
As none of us spoke “Chinese” (any of them), we had a phrase book that contained phrases in english, the chinese characters, and an english phonetic pronunciation of the mandarin. The book was divided up into sections based on situations: at the hotel; at the train station; in a restaurant…
Under the restaurant section, in addition to the to-be-expected phrases:
More rice, please.
May I have a fork please.
Was this one:
Does it taste like chicken?
It became the catch-phrase of our trip, and we still use it from time to time.
And no, we didn’t use it when we went to the restaurant with dog stew on the menu.
There is a great comedian named Eddie Izzard and in one of his latest comedy skits he refers to human flesh as tasting of chicken. So in his logic human tastes of chicken then chicken therefore must taste of human. So whenever you eat chicken you can think “Oh my! this tastes very much like human flesh.” I don’t know exactly why everyone says everything that they can’t quite identify tastes like chicken. I believe that chicken has it’s own flavor and when people can’t make up a different analogy they’re taste buds aren’t fully developed.
Actually, we taste a bit like pork (from a trusted friend who has actually tasted cooked people…it was on a trip to the Carribean, IIRC)
The only thing that tastes like chicken is chicken. My dad assures me that dog, monkey, alligator, iguana tail, rat, and snake do not take like chicken. (alligator tastes like iguana tail, though) He was a Green Beret in 'Nam and was often invited to dinner with the locals (and Tabasco sauce makes anything taste better ;)).
I wonder if coprophages think everything tastes like chickenshit? 
People always try to tell me turkey tastes just like chicken, but I can’t stand it. Thanksgiving is the worst day of the year for me. I’m usually with family, who always “forget”, yet they never serve cranberries to mom or pumpkin pie to dad. They know better. But they always are after me to “just try the turkey - it tastes just like chicken”. Dopes! I know exactly what turkey tastes like, and that’s exactly why I know I hate it. Pass the ham and just stop bringing it up, ok?
I dunno. I bet gunslinger’s right and we taste like pork. Both mammels, both omnivores. Although with all the cigarettes, alcohol and preservative humans consume, a lot of us probably taste more like cured ham.
Where was this in the Carribean? I’d like to do something different for vacation this year.
Who else thought this was thread was going to be sex-related? (I’ll let your imagination run wild as to what I thought tasted like chicken…)
I know what my girlfriend tastes like and it ain’t chicken!
I heard a funny interview with Michael Caine on NPR where he remembers that his father automatically assumed that anyone who ate chicken was gay, since it wasn’t a “manly” meat. :rolleyes:
Btw, I’ve eaten monkey meat, and it definitely doesn’t taste like chicken.
In fact, we probably taste like monkey.That’s what some of the Vietnamese mountain tribes said the other tribes tasted like, anyway :eek:
People say something “tastes like chicken” as a common point of reference. How do you describe alligator to someone who has never had it? Pick something they are familiar with and say “It tastes like chicken, only saltier” or whatever. (No, I do not know what allgator tasts like, that was just an example.)
Think of it as giving directions. Your friend doesn’t know where the mall is, but he does know where the zoo is. So you say, “Go to the zoo, and then hang a left at the stoplight and it’s down about four blocks.” The zoo isn’t where your friend wanted to go, but it’s the closest thing you can think of to get your friend to the mall. So think of the new food as the mall and chicken as the zoo. It’s just a point of reference.
And User10K - I gotta agree turkey does not taste like chicken. Two definitely different flavors going on there.
Don’t frogs taste like chicken? 
It tasted about halfway between chicken and fish – even the texture was about halfway between them. And there were some feathery bones kind of like you have on turkey legs.
~~Baloo
YOU BASTARD!!!
User 10K:
I know what you mean. I’ve tried to eat turkey four times in the last ten years, thinking I would give it one more try. I still hate it, and it doesn’t taste like chicken. Give my a beef tenderlion. UMMMMMM!