Hubby’s step-dad is Jamaican, and he makes a ton of dishes from that country, most of which I have at least gotten used to, a few I actually enjoy, but one which I cannot bring myself to even try after all these years, and that is curried goat. I mean, you know, goats are cute.
On the other side, for one holiday meal at my in-laws (they’re Costa Rican/Jamaican), I brought a mincemeat pie. Not only had they never even heard of such a pie, but after I explained to them what it was, well, they exhibited that same attitude of, I’ll-be-polite-but-I’m-only-taking-small-bites-of-this.
The list of a couple hundred food items and commentary which follows is worth browsing. Some of them (Lutefisk) I can verify as truly disgusting from personal experience. Others require no verification (maggot cheese). Yet others (chicken fried steak, menudo) are instances where he is slandering a fine dish …
I’m swedish and we eat a whole bunch of stuff that most foreigners I’ve met think are anywhere from weird to disgusting. In the northern part of Sweden they eat fermented/rotten fish called “surströmming”. This particular dish is known more for its foul stench than the surprisingly bland taste.
Down here in the southern part we eat eel of all kinds (smoked, fried, stewed, pickled - you name it). Its very fatty, but delicious. In the fall we also celebrate “Mårten Gås”, eating goose with the traditional entreé soup “svartsoppa”, made from blood (yes, honestly). With the spices and a hefty dose of cognac it tastes a lot like gingerbread. Other popular dishes which include blood are “blodkorv” (sausage) and “blodpudding”, preferably served with bacon and lingonberryjam.
I beg to differ a bit. Fermented: yes, rotten: definitely no, and the taste might seem bland compared to the smell (not stench!) but it’s rather spicy in my opinion.
Dog: a bit stringy, but not all that bad.
Insects: not terrible, and more protein than beef!
Monkey: not bad, if you put enough Tabasco on it.
–my dad, ex-Green Beret. He got invited to dinner with the locals quite often while in Vietnam.
While I worked in the Bahamas I got introduced to and ate a great deal of conch which Bahamians pronounce as “conk”.
I ate it steamed, in chowder, fried (with or without batter) and served raw in salads. Pizza Hut there even sells a conch pizza.
If you have seen those pretty pink shells in the islands you are looking at the former home of a conch (a type of mollusc). They are like a snail on steroids and although not pretty to look at they’re extremely tasty.
Curried goat is delicious as are fish cheeks.
Greeks do this thing with sheep intestines which rates as one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. This is coming from a guy who has no problem with haggis.
Throughout Asia each Asian country has it’s own version of fish sauce.
I first became familiar with the stuff from Viet Nam, called nuoc mam. This stuff is so vile the smell alone will leave you gaggin for weeks. They dump the dead fish into a barrel with some salt and let it rot for a while. Then when it is nothing but a stanky mush, it is ready to eat.
In the country areas, they will pour the sauce as is, chunks and all, over the plain white rice.
In the more citified areas, they strain out all of the chunky stuff and are left with a brown liquid. Sometimes, they will clarify the liquid, too. This liquid is then used in food preparation similar to Soy sauce.
Also, in the Phillipines, they have the rotten duck egg.
It is prepared by allowing a duck egg to mature almost to the point of hatching. Then they somehow kill the embryonic egg. Then they let it rot for about a month. Then you eat it.
I have been able to learn to eat nuoc mam, but usually in a watered down version called nuoc cham.
Otherwise, glad to see another person who’s more open-minded than the typical American. Must be because you’re half furriner.
At the risk of sounding too politically correct, compared to Americans, Chinese these days are pretty broad-minded. Instead of finding American food weird, they think it’s boring or tasteless.
“Ray’s List of Weird and Disgusting Foods” seems to mean disgusting to Ray. And the idea that people invent weird stuff just to gross out others is just plain ridiculous. And some of his choices? I suppose even if okra is widely available in the US, it’s still weird. But cheese, iceberg lettuce, yoghurt?
Also, some of the Chinese/Hong Kong stuff he mentions is exceedingly rare, but he’s right about some. Beef tendons are common–usually cooked until they’re gelatinous. In fact, the Chinese I know prefer beef that is marbled not with fat but with transparent connective tissue.
I had dog in China. It wasn’t tough, but it was fatty.
Here’s another one: I don’t think it’s very popular, but on a program about Korea, I saw people eating live octopus legs (arms?). Now I’m politically incorrect, again.
I heard that since it’s virtually impossible to get rid of all contaminants out of food, everybody regularly eats various bugs & bug parts (too small to see).
They told me that if you could get past the smell, it was really rather tasty. I couldn’t.
Thanks, I’d like to think that as well.
Although you may be quite right on this topic, I would also venture that many Chinese do not have the chance to sample true American cuisine. If one was to judge American cooking against the fast food that is served here, then yes, it would definitely seem rather bland. However, good American food can be anything but bland. A good pepper steak or a cheesesteak sandwich would put to rest such notions.
Ray quite obviously has his head up his @ss. Once you have ever tried real yoghurt (called Kefir Cheese or Lebne) the ordinary semi-solid garbage they foist upon the public as yoghurt is just that. Real yoghurt has the texture of sour cream and a delightful tang to it as well. I think the problem most people have with okra is that they are foolish enough to eat the large pods (besides capers, okra is one of the few flower pods that is routinely eaten). Small okra rarely assumes the overly gelatinous texture that so many find revolting.
I have also sampled beef tendon soup and there is nothing gross about it. When cooked briefly it will have a mildly crunchy texture, but usually the meat is thinly sliced and there is no overly chewy aspect to it. In dishes that have a longer cooking time the collagen rich connective tissues contribute a silky texture that is unobtainable by any other method. My taco meat recipes rely upon this feature.
Again, quite right. So many people are squeamish about food types that they unintentionally ingest on a routine basis that I find it rather amusing (if not narrow minded) at times.
Here’s one: Sago. You won’t find it outside PNG (that I know of). I had some when I visisted a village there. It’s got a really long and involved method of making it that takes months. The end result looks, and tastes, something like wallpaper paste.
Sago is in many supermarkets in Sydney. Easy to find, but may be altered from the original PNG stuff… Any Aussies know how our sago is made ?
Apart from several things mentioned here (I’ve spent over a year in Asia) I want the Dutch to step forward with an explanation, please. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Dutch, they’re my favourite European culture/group, I’m even married to a half-Dutch, but why did you go and do what you did to chocolate ?
I’m not sure of the spelling (but to my ears it sounds like chocolada huckleshcluck) but it’s been translated as chocolate hail, and all that sweet, melt in your mouth yummy chocolate has been turned bitter ! It’s like tasting sour lemon when you were expecting juicy sweet strawberries !
Now that’s a weird food ! Shame on you Nederlanders !
Goo, it’s “hagel” (ha-chh-ul), and I was suprised to find it in an ‘Indo-China’ grocery store here in BFE, California this morning (they had a bunch of Dutch stuff-- threw me off, but it makes sense with Indonesia and all). You butter a piece of bread and pour it on.
Nothing strange about the chocolate “hail” at all. The Danes also have extremely thin wafers of chocolate that are specifically designed for sandwiches. I ate many of them as a child and every few years get an intense craving for one. Fortunately, The Nordic House in Oakland, CA carries both the milk chocolate and dark varieties.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Mudshark *
**Waht country besides America would eat corn? **
And er…Sweden? Iceberg lettuce, cheese and youghurt are also food items you would commonly find in a Swedish kitchen. I was kinda surprised to see someone thought of them as weird? Or maybe I misunderstood that bit…
