Yes, our planet is filled with wonderful cultural diversity which should be celebrated as we unify for our great common goal…whatever, um, that exactly is…but back to my point!..ah yes, despite the differences in our species’ eating habits, what foods are out there, flora and fauna, that are genuinely considered revolting to the human palate? Food that, no matter how fresh or how prepared, no reasonable human could ever find appealing…so, for example, “moldy old sheep’s milk” wouldn’t count…especially if you like Roquefort cheese.
How about human placenta? Some die-hard vegans eat this because it is a meat that is not killed, but I would have to think that most folks would rather pass - almost akin to cannibalism. Other foods I can think of off the top of my head would be limburger cheese (I am a cheeseaholic, and Dear God!! that’s just rank), persimmons, and maybe fried caterpillars.
Every single one of those fails, because there is some segment of the human population that eats them. The OP seems to be looking for things that we could eat (that is, they wouldn’t kill us), but no one does because it’s too nasty-tasting. I reallly can’t think of a single thing. Anything that no human eats is generally not eaten because it’s either lethal or has little or no nutritional value. I read somewhere that taste aversions are learned in childhood, and aren’t innate. If that’s true, then surely anything we can eat and live on is eaten by some group of people.
Err, there’s a bit of wiggle room in the question I think. Are you talking about unpalatable until one aquires the taste? Most alcoholic drinks may fall under this category, since relatively few people take their first sip of beer at 12 y.o. and don’t pucker up or make gastly faces. However a very good chunk of the human population gets over the strong taste pretty quick. Then again do they really like it or do they just put up with it for the numbing effect it subsequently brings? There’s not much vodka-flavoured candy or koolaid out there for people not already accustomed to alcohol, but there are constantly new booze-drinks coming out that taste like koolaid or something more pleasant.
Also most anything non-toxic is eaten somewhere, but what is the motivation? East Indian peasants comb through garbage dumps for food, and other street people will eat rotten food under starvation conditions… but I doubt they like the taste. So just because it’s eaten doesn’t mean it tastes good. So under this category I’d place rotten fruits, vegetables, and meats.
As far as unspoiled food products… maybe some of the many insects or berries that birds don’t eat due to their bad taste, or perhaps skunk asses with a side order of fresh garden slugs :D… oh yes animal crap too… dogs will eat it but I’ve never seen a (normal) human do it.
granted, there is a bit of wiggle room in the question, so let me clarify. I’m looking for naturally occuring stuff here in an unspoiled state – i guess alcohol is a byproduct of “spoiled” plant matter when you come down to it. And motivation for eating shouldn’t be a factor either. Yes there are starving people who will eat things that we lucky computer owners would never dream of ingesting.
So let me take way too much time and phrase the question this way:
If everyone in the world was moderately hungry and went to a restaurant whose menu included every non-lethal fruit, root, seed, leaf, flower and stem from every plant in the world as well as every organ, egg, muscle, and bit of fat from every animal in the world, what would be among the least ordered items?
And yes, everyone could have fries with that.
The Turtle Moves
mods – i realize this question calls for a bit of subjectivity and speculation, but i am trying to see if there ARE any absolutes here
No matter how bad the ingredient tastes, I think there’s always a way to prepare it so that it becomes palatable. Even if it means completely overwhelming the taste with seasoning. For example, I’ve had locust. It’s quite good once it’s boiled in soy sauce and sugar for a couple of hours.
The whole world? I’m with Q.E.D. on this one. I don’t think there is anything. Now if you narrowed it down to say just the USA or Europe you might find a few things. Even that may be difficult though as there are people from just about every country in the world in either of those places. Hell, the asian stores in town sell pig uterus and cubes of blood for cripes sake (actually blood is not that bad if served properly).
In some places they even eat stuff that, if not prepared properly, can kill you. Fugu anyone?
There are many who believe that a food’s taste is a good indicator of how dangerous it is. The universal disdain for eating human feces is because it’s very bad for you, we have evolved that disdain. If you believe in this theory, then the question becomes circular again. Foods taste universally bad because they are very bad for you. There is some grey area with foods that may be very bad for you, but not actually lethal. FWIW, I first saw this theory in Steven Pinker’s books. A watered-down theory is also used to explain preganant womens sudden issues with many previously safe foods: They are dangerous to the foetus, therefore the mother suddenly can’t eat them.
I don’t know if this fits, seeing as it’s a staple in Korea, but Kimchee or pickled cabbage is quite possibly the worst taste I’ve had in my mouth, and I’ve eaten monkey.
What exactly is the difference between kimchee and sauerkraut? I’ve never had kimchee, though I like sauerkraut (well, the Bavarian sauerkraut with the little seed things).
I love kimchee. It’s spicy and it tingles and it’s crunchy!
I also enjoy raw fish and raw fish eggs and raw ground beef. But I only ate that last in an expensive restaurant well before the current disease risks came around.
As for the OP, well… I can’t think of anything. People eat maggots. People drink coffee that’s been picked out of animal shit (look for kopi luwak). Some people like rotten, maggoty cheese enough to risk jail time to buy and eat it. And those are just the things Europeans consume, and Europeans are rather picky in comparison to the rest of the world. (Partly because they can afford to be, partly from cultural reasons.)
Sauerkraut is just pickled cabbage. Kimchee is mildly fermented (hence the tingle) and it’s heavily spiced (hence the intense pain on my tongue the last time I ate the good stuff ;)).
Weird and wonderful foods. I don’t vouch for the accuracy of this list, but it’s interesting to start off with.
As far as I know all acidification (or whatever it should be called in English, it’s syrning in Swedish) food preservation processes involve fermentation.
That said, I’m amazed that no-one has mentioned durian. I haven’t tried it myself, but a friend has descbrided it as “eating a pineapple in a public toilet that hasn’t been cleaned for the last ten years”.
Durian shouldn’t be on the list of bad tasting foods. It’s just very very rich, and depending how ripe it is it can have a very ripe/almost rotten smell - but a fruity one… not the usual bacteria-mold smell of truely rotten fruit. Really it’s far less offensive than even some supermarket cheeses. They are sold in markets in Asia, and imported to many places including here.
It’s usually just people who aren’t used to exotic fruits that don’t like them - it can be a rather unexpected taste if you grew up eating apples and oranges. But it’s not unpleasant at all… I haven’t tried this comparison but it might be like eating thick, mild sourdough starter. Strong but very sweet and tasty.
ok this is a slight hijack, I apologize. But I’m on a mission to consume every type of meat that is edible and is eaten in some part of the world (the grosser the better). I just don’t know them all, there’s quite a few. I’ve got a list and I’m slowly crossing things off. I’ve had head cheese, conch, alligator, beef tongue, liverwurst, and scrapple, among others. I’ll be eating scrambled pigs brains soon (there’s a local restaurant that serves them, but they’re only open from like 5Am to noon or something). So any suggestions?
Oh and I will never eat conch again. I wanted to puke, and I’ve eaten some really gross stuff.
