What is the most exotic food you have eaten?
Breadfruit. It was in Puerto Rico and it’s served with other boiled root vegetables, a little salt and olive oil, and its really quite tasty. Unfortunately, you can’t bring it here, and it doesn’t grow here (I’m in Chicago), and apparently it doesn’t can or freeze well.
darn.
Exotic? Hmmm…I don’t eat very many exotic things, seeing as how A. they’re scarce around here and B. I couldn’t afford them even if they weren’t.
I suppose the most exotic thing I’ve ever eaten was caviar. Yeah, I know that’s not very exotic, but I’d never had it before, and haven’t had it again. It was Beluga, if that makes a difference.
Oh yeah, and it tasted horrible. If you have to develop a taste for caviar, then I am outta the running. Salty snot on a cracker is the only thing I can compare it to. Only not that good.
I had aligator sausage when I visited New Orleans. It’s tasted like pork.
I believe that’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten.
Hmm…I don’t know if this counts as exotic, but it’s certainly out of the ordinary for most folks on this board.
Live waxworms.
They’re quite tasty, actually. Think milky grape-nuts. And if they’re lightly pan-fried, they taste like hazelnut- or almond-flavored shrimp. Great with pasta in a light white wine basil sauce.
I’ve also had mopane, which is (are? I have no idea if “mopane” is a collective noun) dried silkworm larvae. Mopane tastes like dried wood. Supposedly these things are Chinese delicacies, but I really didn’t see the appeal. Perhaps they need to be steamed, or infused, or ground up and mixed with other things as a spice. I have no idea. All I know is that, straight out of the bag, the flavor leaves much to be desired.
Shark and chips (fries to you 'merkins) - well it was exotic to me
Warthog (in Zimbabwe - thought it was just tough pork at first…)
various small creatures in Zambia (as “relish” to go with mealy meal)
(plus home-made beer, first you drink it, then you chew…)
Turned down the offer of rabbit brains in France…
Something I think was called a “pie floater” in Oz - oh and Lamingtons! (yum!)
Fried ants.
Fried grasshoppers.
Goat testicles.
BBQ beef heart.
Intestines.
Fried gator tail.
Durian ice cream.
Blood sausage.
Haggis. (okay, I know, UKDopers, but it’s exotic here)
Eye of newt. (not really)
Take your pick of any of the above (save the newts).
Yes. That counts as exotic in my book. Plus it made me nearly vomit just reading the words “food” and “worms” in the same context. Actually, exotic wouldn’t be the word I’d use…
Now I know how another poster felt when he found out what black sausage was in another thread. Not. So. Good.
Heh, back in the town where I grew up, everyone thought it was so exotic that I got to eat all these Asian foods my Dad acquired a taste for from overseas trips: Korean, specifically.
Just for me to move to a big city, and find out that Kimchi, Bi Bim Bop, and Bugogi (sp? for all) are everyday fast food take-out!
Rat and Bat stew. with the mountain people in Taiwan.
Ooh…T. Slothrop–I know that this is a hijack, but could you tell us how you ended up with mountain people in Taiwan, eating rat and bat stew?
ShibbOleth–So you ate fried grasshoppers, too, huh? We have a great store on the west side (the area that has a pretty sizeable–for a town of the size of the one I live in–Mexican population) that has chapulines in the summer. They were pretty scrumptious, I thought.
Sylkyn–Sorry to gross you out. That really wasn’t my intent. Please trust me when I say that the waxworms were really pretty yummy. Most of the non-vegetarians on this board wouldn’t find eating shrimp disgusting; why should we automatically grimace at waxworms?
Alligator bites
Rattlesnake sausage (on a pizza)
Ostrich (also on a pizza)
The first thing that came to mind was carpaccio (thinly sliced raw beef) I had in Italy. Raw anything is exotic in my book.
I vomited up some balut once. Of course I ate balut first so it still counts. Balut is a duck egg — but not any duck egg – it’s a fertilized egg that has been placed in a hole in the ground to keep it warm which allows the duckling inside to develop. The trick with balut is to not look at the partially developed duckling after de-shelling and before sticking the thing in your mouth and cracking down.
When I had enough money that I could afford to eat out on a regular basis, I ate ostrich burgers at a nearby bar quite often. It’s actally quite tasty, comparable to beef. You want it a little on the rare side, though. Ostrich is very low in fat, and if cooked well-done, can be a bit dry.
Had fried alligator tail once. Didn’t like it much. Too greasy.
I love, absolutely love, calamari. Tentacles and all. Well, the tentacles from the bigger ones. The small tentacles can be a bit tough. I have my own recipie for cooking it.
Not much. I’ve had dog stew, which I didn’t care for, and silkworm larvae, which I luuuurved.
Does that mean you liked it or is that some new slang for blowing chunks?
Does an Exotic Dancer count?
I had meatloaf once. Hey, exoticism is relative. I’d certainly never had it when I was growing up in the Philippines, and I believe the last time I ate it was a couple of years ago.
Oh, and haggis goes surprisingly well with rice.
PS
Tigers2B1, I suppose you’re aware of the game that Filipinos play with foreigners, the “let’s see how he’ll react to balut” one. And that stuff is so popular there that travelling vendors go around selling it, kind of like ice cream. I like it, I think it goes well with rock salt.
My stepmother is Filipino, and she used to make seaweed. She would boil this black slimy stuff in a big pot on the stove. Needless to say, my sisters and I were all very thin growing up.