# Things your family ate that aren't common? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 10, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777 "2014-04-10T03:58:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/61 "2014-04-10T20:31:19Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > We four children would spend an afternoon catching catfish and a couple if buckets of frogs. When we got back my Gran would pan fry them up fresh–yummy! > > (I admit part of the allure of the froglegs was getting to drop them into the hot pan and watch them kick and ‘swim’ across the pan!) > > I’d trade a year of my life to sit down for such a meal with my Gran, just one more time! That’s scary. Some young mothers with children gave me “the look” in the library desk line for talking about my grandma chopping the heads off live chickens. Gruesome grandmas. We ate lutefisk and lefse rutabaga and parsnips radish and onion sandwiches gooseberries. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/62 "2014-04-10T20:37:08Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > That would inspire some people to smear Jell-o on the kitchen floor and set the sofa on fire. I don’t have anything to add to the thread…I just wanted \*\*Doug \*\*to know that someone else got his joke 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/63 "2014-04-10T20:44:42Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I don’t have anything to add to the thread…I just wanted \*\*Doug \*\*to know that someone else got his joke 🙂 Two elses 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/64 "2014-04-10T21:39:13Z")
[Spam and cabbage.](http://www.food.com/recipe/hawaiian-spam-and-cabbage-229515) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/65 "2014-04-10T22:01:21Z")
Wait, **Tethered Kite** , you say you actually _ate_ lutefisk? As in, you put it in your mouth and swallowed? Voluntarily? Were your grandmothers also getting you drunk first? ---
**Author:** ![Petrichord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Petrichord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrichord)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/66 "2014-04-10T22:06:19Z")
Ladies and gentlemen, allow my family’s cultural food weirdness to amuse and entertain you. I present, as the tip of the iceberg: Various chicken parts, both inside and on the surface of the chicken – we kids fought over the heart, clearly the best bit. Also very popular in my family is chicken feet. (I avoid them, not because they taste bad, but because they look like hands; I can’t eat one without feeling like I’m chewing on a [shrunken bony human hand](http://hollywoodhatesme.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/chicken-feet-whyyyyy.jpg). I’d rather eat chicken necks, though not being such a big cultural delicacy they’re never prepared as deliciously.) Pig feet are good, but [pig ears](http://ecofrenfood.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/pig20ear20for20real1.jpg) are better. Marinated and sliced – yum! Pleasant cartilage-y crunch. We also ate a lot of unusual vegetables like bitter melon ([this weird lumpy thing](http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/images/20100702asian-raw.jpg), and indeed bitter), scrambled eggs with [shiso leaves](http://shizuokagourmet.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/shiso-41.jpg) (which my mother picked wild until we convinced her that it was best not to eat plants growing by the side of the highway), and fungus of various sizes and textures (like [this stuff](http://0.tqn.com/d/gourmetfood/1/0/t/G/woodears_rehydrated.jpg)!) Lots of seafood, too. Fish, steamed or fried whole, including the head. The first time I introduced my (Irish-Italian, and very much American) boyfriend to my mother for dinner, I absentmindedly offered him a fish eye – now that’s love. He didn’t accept, but he also didn’t run out the door (also love). If you can get over the visual and textural similarity to rubber bands, [jellyfish](http://blogs.citypages.com/food/jellyfish.jpg) is fun to chew, though not very flavorful without a good dipping sauce. Snails, still in the shell, stir-fried with black bean sauce: heaven. [Blood clams](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Btzcv83FT5U/UyjDFAx79zI/AAAAAAAABeQ/sfLDsXoBJ84/s1600/BloodClams-4.jpg) look a little scary and can actually be dangerous to eat (they’re banned in places due to the risk of hepatitis, as I understand), but they’re also delicious. On super-special home meal occasions we had things like [geoduck](https://www.google.com/search?q=blood+clams&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_RNHU73yBrOksQSp74FA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1440&bih=731#q=geoduck&tbm=isch) (I saw a whole geoduck for the first time as an adolescent and reacted in the expected immature fashion) and hair vegetable (yes, [this is food](http://www.trippyfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/61-Chinese-menu-03.jpg)). If none of that fazed you, I also grew up loving peanut butter and bologna sandwiches. Even better when accompanied by a mug of hot water. Never met anyone else who would give that the time of day. Damn, now I miss my mother’s cooking. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/67 "2014-04-10T22:31:31Z")
My mother would put a stick of butter on a plate, dump on twice that volume of sorghum molasses and mash the two together into a paste (?)–it looked like baby-shit–and eat it, either plain, or smeared onto cornbread. Or crumble the cornbread into a glass and add milk then eat THAT mixture. Or both, together. I’m gonna be sick; 'scuse me… ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/68 "2014-04-10T22:52:51Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > My mother would put a stick of butter on a plate, dump on twice that volume of sorghum molasses and mash the two together into a paste (?)–it looked like baby-shit–and eat it, either plain, or smeared onto cornbread. Or crumble the cornbread into a glass and add milk then eat THAT mixture. Or both, together. I’m gonna be sick; 'scuse me… OMG, sorghum mashed with butter on a hot biscuit is heaven on earth. My Mom ate cornbread crumbled into buttermilk of course she also liked sugar on her white gravy. My Dad ate mayonaisse sandwiches which were white bread with mayonaisse sometime a litlle parmasan cheese. Blech. we ate the mackeral croquettes, i was not fond of them. Dandilion greens along with polk, and other greens. I also didn’t like. the only think I can remember that “I” ate that is odd is pickled polk stalks, My Granny had afriend who put them up each year and Gran and i were the only ones who liked them. I did like broccolli, brussel sprouts and lima beans as a kid which is pretty odd. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/69 "2014-04-10T22:55:09Z")
> [@Petrichord](#): > > Ladies and gentlemen, allow my family’s cultural food weirdness to amuse and entertain you. **Petrichord** , you may well be the only other person on this board who will know what [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LiWcHHlM3IA/TtBuYgmAuFI/AAAAAAAAAPA/kD1k1N2sRCU/s1600/DSC00628.JPG) is). I’ve posted pictures and descriptions of it several times on this board, to the wonder and disgust of everyone who views the pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/70 "2014-04-10T23:02:18Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Also, rice as a side dish with sugar and cinnamon. Yuck. We had a variation on that; rice with milk or cream and maple syrup. Don’t know where that came from, but it wasn’t yuck, more of a dessert or snack dish. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/71 "2014-04-10T23:02:43Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > **Petrichord** , you may well be the only other person on this board who will know what [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LiWcHHlM3IA/TtBuYgmAuFI/AAAAAAAAAPA/kD1k1N2sRCU/s1600/DSC00628.JPG) is). I’ve posted pictures and descriptions of it several times on this board, to the wonder and disgust of everyone who views the pictures. What is it? Looks like some kind of tasty fishy thingy. ---
**Author:** ![Petrichord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Petrichord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrichord)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/72 "2014-04-10T23:16:57Z")
That, good **pulykamell** , is my childhood in a tin. Dace, little fish smaller than your hand, prepared with salted black beans and crammed into a small oval tin can along with a week’s worth of sodium. Add a bowl of rice and you’ve got a perfectly tasty, if unhealthy, dinner. I always thought the canned eel was tastier, but it was also more expensive. We splurged on it occasionally. Ahh memories. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Petrichord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Petrichord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrichord)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/73 "2014-04-10T23:20:17Z")
Forgot to mention that the bones are edible too, I suspect due to the canning process, and are similarly tasty. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/74 "2014-04-11T00:06:59Z")
If we took the bones out, it wouldn’t be crunchy, would it? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/75 "2014-04-11T00:08:46Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > If we took the bones out, it wouldn’t be crunchy, would it? The bones? No, they’re soft, oily, and yet still chalky somehow. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/76 "2014-04-11T00:18:39Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > The bones? No, they’re soft, oily, and yet still chalky somehow. Well, that Monty Python reference fell flat on its ass! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Petrichord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Petrichord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrichord)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/77 "2014-04-11T00:19:09Z")
**burpo** , if you’ve had canned salmon, the bones are much like that, but even softer since they’re smaller, and much more flavorful. Thanks for the nostalgia, **DCnDC**. 🙂 Whoops, saw the whoosh after posting. ---
**Author:** ![delsina363](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@delsina363](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delsina363)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/78 "2014-04-11T00:46:15Z")
I grew up in a large, poor family. Hot white rice with milk and sugar is one of my favorite foods. We always had white bread with dinner. I guess it was a cheap filler. We would get things from the government: powdered eggs, peanut butter, butter, and cheese. We never would eat the powdered eggs, but the cheese was the best ever! To this day, we talk about that cheese lovingly. Mark Walburgh used to get it too, and in his restaurant they use the same kind of cheese. It really is the best. Mom would also try to make us drink powdered milk. It was gross. She tried everything, even trying to mix whole milk with powdered milk, like we would never know. Pasta with butter was always a favorite. When I was very young, we used to make sugar sandwiches, as well as sandwich spread sandwiches. ---
**Author:** ![delsina363](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@delsina363](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delsina363)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/79 "2014-04-11T00:55:13Z")
We also made fried bologna sandwiches, and my mom would make herself sardine sandwiches. She would also get things in bulk. Not like it is today. She would by a 5 pound can of ketchup, etc. Pretty gross. We always had a large meal every night. We would have meat, potatoes and veggies, along with the white bread. Cold cuts were a luxury. We were limited to certain amounts of cold cuts each. One other funny thing, we were never allowed to eat anything without permission, not even a piece of fruit. I still find it odd that my kids go into the fridge and cabinets and will eat things without asking. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777/80 "2014-04-11T03:32:18Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > That would inspire some people to smear Jell-o on the kitchen floor and set the sofa on fire. Just wanted to acknowledge the funny of this comment //thump-thump thump-thump OH NO ITS THE CHICKEN HEART! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-your-family-ate-that-arent-common/685777.md?page=5)