I was standing in a SubWay (the restaurant, that is), waiting in line, and I was reading the indredients on the display bottles of their new special sauces. For some strange reason, they put anchovy paste in the Asiago Ceasar dressing. That’s not normal, is it?
What else can you think of that has a weird, unexpected ingredient?
Actually, the very definition of Caeser dressing is that it’s made with anchovies. It’s perfectly normal. 
Uh, not unusual at all. True Caesar salad has anchovies in it. I’ve actaully had it at Caesar Cardini’s restaurant in Mexico where it originated.
Haj
Anchovies in Caeser Salad is normal. Anchovy paste is never, under any circumstance, normal.
I just checked it at home, and it does have anchovies. Weird, I learned something today.
I remember one time on a TV show they baked these pies, but adjusted the recipe to replace sugar with curry powder. Then they did a little taste test with unsuspecting victims…oh man, the looks on their faces.
I have a bottle of lotion that contains nonoxynol-9.
I’ve seen it in hair dye, too.
I guess it has uses… other… than what I associate it with, but seeing spermicide in my lotion for the first time was definately a “WTF??” moment
Does “Red Bull” (as in “Red Bull gives you wiiiings!”) really have as one ingredient something made from bull sperm? I heard that today at school…IS IT TRUE? Not that I drink it but I know I never will if it does.
I know, I know what you’re gonna say, you need to drink a 100 lbs of the stuff a day before you can become impregnated with a bull-calf, but still- (just kidding).
From http://www.redbull.com:
Lark’s Vomit.
Should have had a big red label that said “Warning: Contains Lark’s Vomit.”
Alfredo sauce usually contains nutmeg (or mace, its obscure cousin). I found that peculiar the first time I made it.
An acquaintance of mine was tired of people swiping snacks off his desk, so he whipped up a bowl of chocolate covered garlic cloves. Just peeled the garlic and dipped each clove in chocolate. Does that count?
A couple years back, flodjunior’s best buddy (who has since moved) was a little boy who was allergic to milk. I’d try to keep snacks on hand for when he came to play at our house, but you’d be amazed at how many times “skim milk powder” turned up on the ingredients list. His mother eventually wrote up a list for me of cookies and other snacks without milk, and we managed to have a milk-free birthday party for flodjunior - first time this little fellow had been able to eat everything on the table at a birthday party.
Similarly, skin care product manufacturers seem to put lanolin in everything. Lanolin gives me a rash. 
I’ve seen recipes for BBQ sauce call for chocolate. I’m not sure how unusual that is, but I was surprised the first time I saw it.
I believe Worcestershire sauce contains tamarind. You know, this sort of tamarind. And yeah, like AndYrAStar, I was surprised and amused to find N9 in my hair dye.
I had always wondered why the french toast at restaurants was SO different from the french toast I make. Why mine wasn’t as thick.
I asked a waitress and she said they added pancake mix to the batter.
It works. For each egg add a tablespoon of Bisquik.
I was rather surprised by a cupcake recipe I read that called for vinegar, but on reflection I suppose it just makes the batter more acidic and react with the baking soda more strongly, rather than adding flavor (vinegar cupcakes, ew).
Cincinnati Chili has dark unsweetened chocolate in it, as well as ground cinnamon, clove and cayenne. (It’s a variant of chili developed by Greeks–and served over spaghtetti, which is another discussion.)
Unusual but really, really good. It’s along the line of Mexican mole sauce which is flavored with unsweetened chocolate. Sounds distinctly weird but it’s great but the chocolate gives a dark, almost smoky depth.
Veb