There’s one in every thread, isn’t there?
SONIC???
I used to eat Sonic twice a day when I was working for Dell (one right across the street…mmm…SuperSonic Cheeseburger, Chili Cheese Tots, Route 44 Cherry Limeade and a Hot Fudge Cake Sundae…a week’s calories in one convenient meal! Somehow eating stuff like that and sitting in front of a computer for 10 hrs/day led to some weight gain…)
ahem
I did see an episode of Nat’l Geographic Channel’s “Taboo” on food, which had a segment on durian (and, incidentally featured some very hip Londoners eating their friend’s (and, in of their cases, her own) placenta – stir fry, I believe) and it seemed to garner support for one of the nastier edible foods to Western palates.
As far as animal flesh is concerned, somehow I want to believe that carrion eaters have the worst tasting insides. Vulture drumsticks, opossum ribs (i have seen possum in a can before in an Arkansas grocery store, but dared it not). But then again, some of my favorite foods are carrion eaters: crustaceans. Maybe if you’re a vertebrate it’s different. Anyone tried hyena or the like?
The Turtle Moves
ps Terry Pratchett, who’s that? :rolleyes:
You saying Divine wasn’t normal?!?!
Transvesto-coprophago-phobe!
I know a lot of Americans who would freak out at the very thought of eating anything as bitter as the Asian bitter gourd. Believe me, it is truly very bitter. But you know what? It actually tastes pretty good if you slice it and pan-fry it crispy with garlic and ginger, and serve over rice.
I second the liking of raw thingys. Tasty they are. I have only recently tried sashimi and I enjoyed most kinds that I had, (by far maguro was my favorite), but it is the raw ground beef that is my favorite. In the holiday season my family has always served raw beef with deli rye bread and thin sliced onions. It is actually one of my favorite holiday treats. I think it might be a local thing, perhaps Polish or German. (My locality is heavy with Polish and German immigrants). Any other Milwaukee WI area dopers wanna chime in? We also eat siltz (headcheese) as part of our holiday tradition. It, along with the pickled herring rewards you with luck in the new year.
As I think about it though I would venture a guess that carnivores are generally not eaten. Omnivores and Herbivores are eaten across the globe, and as to be sure there are exceptions, but is there an area where carnivourous animals are routinely eaten?
Lotsa places… but only in the fish/shellfish group I believe - not many predatory mammals or birds.
Blackthorn or Sloe (Prunus spinosa). The berries are pretty nasty tasting, really bitter and your entire mouth feels funny afterwards.
That is when they are raw. If you make lemonade or liqeur with it it can be fairly good.
WTF? Irn Bru, spotted dick and flavoured crisps are all listed? I can see how black pudding may be classified as weird, but how on Earth can anyone class those three?
As usual that list of ( at least British foods ) is inaccurate. There is no such thing as kidney pie . It is steak and kidney . Warm beer is actually celler temperature. We don’t call it blood pudding , it is black pudding. And what is wrong with spotted dick?. It is one of the best puddings around. I am willing to bet that the writer of that piece has never tasted most of those foods and is getting a cheap laugh because of the unusual names of some of them.
I remember, when I was younger, eating raw wild chokecherries when I’d vacation to my grandparents’ home in Montana. Astringent is the term for their particular property: They dry the mouth, producing a rather interesting sensation on the palate which goes beyond the actual flavor. I know you can make things out of chokecherries, but I’ve only had them raw.
Huckleberries, however, get made into everything. Soap, ice cream, jam, milkshakes, everything. Especially if everything' is a code word for tourist trap.’ 
I dont know if such a think exists but you could make a case for a chilli so hot that nobody would be able to eat it. I doubt such a thing exists since there would be no market demand for it but it would certainly be a universally bad tasting food.
But probably not for the reasons you want.
Well, I think a better definition is in order. Becuase if it is so unpalatable that no one will eat it, well then, it is no longer considered food, is it?
I was really excited last summer (on my first trip to England) to discover that they had fire-grilled steak flavored crisps. Probably the best thing I ever had on that trip (besides those chips and gravy), because I wasn’t really interested in eating much of my full English breakfast. The egg yolks were quite a bit oranger than I’m used to, and something on my plate smelled really bad. Can anyone tell me what the half-bacon-half-ham meat was?
I know this isn’t going to count, because those wacky asian folks eat this often enough, but sea cucumber is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had in my life!!!
Imagine one of those jelly candies that are round and flat and covered with sugar.
Now imagine that it has that texture on the outside but tastes like old seawater. Now imagine you bite into it and it is the texture of OLD STALE JELLO with short dog hairs all throughout it. EEEEESSSSSHHH!!! Shudders Why oh Why would anyone voluntarily eat that?
If you are in the us, try
Squirrel (inc. brains)
Opossum
Beaver
Neutria
Good eatin’
That guy in Derleth’s link seems amazingly small-minded. There are some wonderful foods on that list – sashimi, unagi, grits (real, coarse-ground grits, not instant grits). Gum and peanut butter? Those are weird, wacky foods? I have to admit to being a teetotaller, but … beer is a weird food? Is this just a list of foods he doesn’t personally like?
You should have read the beginning of the page where the author answer your questions and explain how he choose the food items he listed. They aren’t necessarily weird or disgusting (by the way, you said that there are some wonderful foods on this list, but they’re all wonderful for some, or many people, actually). Roughly, he explains that these foods are “cultural markers”, which may be considered weird/disgusting in other cultures. And gum and peanut butter are definitely american cultural markers, indeed. Peanut butter is certainly weirder than blood sausage on this side of the Atlantic.
Then it’s too bad that in the commentary section below, some of my favourite foods get nothing but slanderous reviews – Cincinnati chili, fried pickles, haggis.
And he also says that Gandhi drank his own urine. I’ve never heard that he did so. Morarji Desai, who was prime minister in the late 1970s, was the one that drank his own urine. I think it’s unfair to classify the drinking of human urine as a marker for Indian culture. There are a few loonies like Desai who have done it, but it’s not part of Indian cuisine.
I recall reading somewhere that Koalas are totally inedible, their eucalyptus diet was the reason given. I also have a book that contains a recipe for cockatoo that basically involved boiling it with a rock for many hours, letting it cool, throwing out the bird and eating the rock.
Re: Placenta Eating
I saw an episode of HBO’s Shock Video that included a British woman having a “bit of a fry-up” with her placenta. Even a vegan was inticed into trying it, because nothing really died to produce the meat.
Weird stuff that I’d try: Placenta (nobody seemed to dislike it), sashimi, horse sashimi
Weird stuff that I wouldn’t try: Maggot cheese. We desperately need a puking smiley. I’d eat certain grubs, but maggots…eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeugh.