# What is the most "transgressive" food you've eaten? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [October 21, 2020, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464 "2020-10-21T06:14:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/81 "2020-10-22T10:59:00Z")
No, it’s Miranda, calling from the Betty Crocker clinic. 😋 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1bqUIcv4M3w/hqdefault.jpg "Miranda's Chocolate Addiction") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bqUIcv4M3w) ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/82 "2020-10-22T12:48:33Z")
I’ ve eaten dog, once. Not good, but the cook was not really good at cooking. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/83 "2020-10-22T12:59:22Z")
I think the most transgressive thing I’ve ever eaten was baby lobster that had been illegally harvested off the Florida coast by SeaWorld employees. It’s illegal to harvest a lobster that’s under a certain size. But those tiny lobsters were super-tender and delicious. This happened a LONG time ago, the statute of limitations has long since expired. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/84 "2020-10-22T14:04:49Z")
I’ve raised and eaten rabbits, and can’t think of anyone whose opinion I care about who would think less of me for that. I’ve also had various game that I’m sure someone would consider not “fair game” for whatever reason. I’ve had horse. For one thing it’s one of the main ingredients in a popular Norwegian sandwich meat. I know a lot of people who find that upsetting. One of my female class mates in high school, who kept horses, was unaware of this and had it regularly for lunch until we told her. And I’ve had whale. As far as I can tell the Norwegian harvest is sustainable and minke whales are no more intelligent than moose, but I don’t like the taste and have moved on from the “Fuck the IWC” stance of my youth to a “Don’t waste my tax money on subsidizing this relic hunt!” stance. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/85 "2020-10-22T14:11:19Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > How about a transgressive drink? I like smoothies made with whatever fruit (bananas, blueberries) we have in the freezer along with yogurt, oat bran, soy milk, etc. It becomes possibly transgressive when I add a raw egg to the blender. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/86 "2020-10-22T14:50:59Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > There is a dish served in Japan called dancing squid. Oh my god, NO! I couldn’t even watch the whole video. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/87 "2020-10-22T14:54:39Z")
Don’t they call iguana “chicken of the trees” in the Caribbean? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/88 "2020-10-22T15:00:51Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Don’t they call iguana “chicken of the trees” in the Caribbean?- Heh. Not much meat on an iguana, plus the way they serve chicken or iguana is different from how “we” do it. If I take a whole chicken, I’ll cut off the wings, legs, thighs, breasts, and then deal with the “parts”. In the Caribbean, every chicken (iguana, goat) dish I’ve ever eaten, the cook has taken a cleaver to the animal and chopped it up into random pieces. Looking at a bowl of stewed chicken/goat/iguana they all look the same. 👨‍🍳 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/89 "2020-10-22T15:12:10Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > I think the most transgressive thing I’ve ever eaten was baby lobster that had been illegally harvested off the Florida coast by SeaWorld employees I couldn’t really think of a serious reply to this thread until your post reminded me that in my youth I poached lobster off of Catalina Island. We would anchor in a cove and free dive with a Hawaiian sling. Spear a usually undersized lobster. Rip the tail off and leave the rest for the moray eel that inevitably shared a hole with the lobster. Put the tail in an already boiling coffee pot full of water. And lastly eat the flesh after dragging it through a tub of margarine. We didn’t have fishing licenses (illegal). Lobster was not in season (illegal). They were usually undersized (illegal). We speared the lobster (illegal). We didn’t bring the whole lobster to the surface (illegal). But the most transgressive part was probably the margarine. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/90 "2020-10-22T15:20:02Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > But the most transgressive part was probably the margarine. I’ll say. I kind of muttered “WTF” to myself as I was reading and came to that part. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/91 "2020-10-22T15:27:46Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Not in my supermarkets. I’m NYC/NJ, we don’t get Bunny or Bambi here. I’ve heard of a [specialty meat supplier](https://www.dartagnan.com/) in Union, New Jersey that can provide all of this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/92 "2020-10-22T15:31:43Z")
I’m not looking for it or I wouldn’t have mention them. I had gator, it wasn’t bad at all. I think most anyone that spent more than a week in New Orleans has probably tried gator. I generally don’t eat cute animals. I’m one of those soft suburbanites. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/93 "2020-10-22T15:35:11Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My gf has a source for “ethically raised veal”, but I prefer the regular old veal (much cheaper, tastes the same). When I was in San Jose one of the big name chefs there had a tasting with his gourmand friends serving sauced dishes made with veal and chicken. Of the eight dishes, seven of them no one could tell the difference and the eighth, the chicken was deemed better. He declared no more veal in his restaurant. I suppose something like Wienerschnitzal where the veal is something more than just a vehicle for the sauce might be different. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/94 "2020-10-22T16:36:08Z")
Suckling pig. Seeing them roasted or raw in Chinatown never bothered me, then one day it hit me. Suckling? As in not old enough to be weaned? Still happily eat veal cutlets though! ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/95 "2020-10-22T17:51:27Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Kangaroos are basically considered pests in Australia. This is why I didn’t even list it. Nor did I list venison, which I’ve had in Pennsylvania and Switzerland. I prefer the red deer (Rothirsch) compared to the typical deer (Hirsch). This is actually the season for venison and boar, but this is something I would normally eat in a restaurant or the company canteen. I’ve also had ostrich, which I really enjoyed. I can get ostrich in my local grocery store, but I’ve never bought it as I have never cooked it before. ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/96 "2020-10-22T21:32:42Z")
As a child I ate rabbit often, in the post war years in the UK it was pretty commonplace. More recently I have had camel and kangaroo. One thing I did pass upon - in Cambodia a few years ago we visited a village that specialised in raising edible spiders. They were pretty large, some kind of tarantula I would assume. We were there on market day and there were stalls with large heaps of deep fried spiders to buy. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/97 "2020-10-23T00:27:44Z")
I have never been that hungry. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/98 "2020-10-23T01:07:57Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > A man I dated in college loved to tell the fish lips story. He was in a very genuine Chinese restaurant, and they had exactly that on the appetizer menu for 99 cents (this would have been in the late 1980s). They brought out a platter of things that looked and tasted like gelatinous rubber bands, but he did say it was worth 99 cents to say he’d tried fish lips. Chinese restaurant “fish lips” are supposedly some type of shark skin. I’ve never had it, but I’ve had pickled jellyfish skin, which is also rather like gelatinous rubber bands. ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/99 "2020-10-23T12:55:38Z")
Not necessarily in the “transgressive” vein, but I’ve eaten raw sea urchin. That is the yardstick by which I rate anything that passes my lips - “It’s not as bad as raw sea urchin!” 😆 I ran a fish collection station for a short while in Tonga, collecting & shipping fish back to the states for the saltwater aquarium trade. We could not export Tridachna clams for the trade, as they were considered endangered, but could collect them for food. One day out on the boat, at lunchtime, I ate a freshly harvested clam, and thought to myself “That would have brought $350 on the retail market for someone to put in their reef tank!” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/100 "2020-10-23T13:12:14Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > > [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > > > (I felt pretty guilty about the kangaroo > > Why? Kangaroos are basically considered pests in Australia. So are rats and bugs in the US, but they still seem transgressive. I, unfortunately, don’t have anything that I’ve eaten that’s transgressive, to the point that I opened the thread before I realized what was meant. I’ve eaten venison and I think maybe a frog let at one point. One time the local hunters were having a game cookout, but I didn’t get to attend, but I think I got a frog leg brought back to try. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464.md?page=6)