More recently, I have been into Sushi at a local supermarket. And some time back, I finally got the courage to try the eel. And you know, it really isn’t that bad. It has these spiny fibers in it, that may get lodged in my intestines. But what are you going to do?
My mother was Polish, and she got me started on a lot of Polish food. They have this soup called czardnina, which is basically duck blood soup. I was grossed out by it as a child. But as I got older, I realized, it really isn’t that bad.
Do any of the rest of you have examples of foods that sound gross, but are really not that bad?
Hog jowls and pig’s feet used to get grossness laughs on The Beverly Hillbillies, but they are actually scrumptious fatty goodness. Chicken foot stew is good too, but you have to beware of tiny bones as you eat. Spit those out like watermelon seeds.
Oh wait, I usually eat the watermelon seeds…when I can find any. Damned seedless melons, damned peaches without fuzz…grumble, grumble…
Czarnina or czernina (without the “d”) is something that never quite did it for me. I never did really glom to the sweet & sour nature of it.
That said, I did like Polish kiszka/kaszanka, which is a blood sausage–similar to black pudding. Most of my American friends think it’s pretty gross, but I love it.
Yeah, blood sausage can be excellent. A friend of mine was having trouble getting through her first experience with it, until I told her to think of turkey stuffing (cumin).
Squid in ink. Really tasty with rice. I think people react better nowadays to squid and octupus, but the ink might be too much for some.
Grilled pork ears. An odd sensation at first, for sure. Gelatinous on the outside and the cartilage on the inside crunches as you crush it between your molars.
A couple weeks ago I made Hapukapsasupp, an Estonian pork, sauerkraut, and barley soup. Beef and kimchee stew is also something that sounds weird but is very good.
In much of Africa, the basics that go into a sauce are peanuts, bananas and unsweetened cocoa. Wonderful with chicken stewed into it, on rice of other staple. Think banana split, without the icecream
Speaking of eel, there’s unagi pie, which is a specialty mainly of Hamamatsu in Japan, which produces a lot of unagi eel.
The unagi pies aren’t like British eel pies, but are more like fried sugar cookies made with powdered eel mixed into the flour. There isn’t any particularly fishy taste, or anything to suggest you’re eating eel (which makes me wonder what the point even is?)
Anyway, they’re yummy, and you can scroll down a bit on this page for a photo.
I’m another haggis lover. Also white pudding…but not black. Don’t really care for food made out of blood.
I like innards, especially sweetbreads and grilled kidney. And I’m HUGE on tripe, which you can get stewed with chiles in dim sum houses and braised in garlicky marinara in some Italian places. But the best thing is mitteleuropa tripe soup, which I first tried in a Polish diner in Brooklyn. Here’s my favorite home method:
Local Dominicans also make a tripe soup, but those Polacks have the magic hands…
