# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/141 "2020-11-03T00:24:47Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > On another occasion I was served sea cucumber. I do not recommend that. The occasion was my Chinese graduate student invited me to his parents’ for dinner (they had emigrated to Montreal when my student was in HS). I did not know that if you finished everything you were served, the host would feel they had to continue to offer. I guess my wife and I did finish everything (it was all really delicious and we always feel it is polite to do that), so they finally brought out the sea cucumber and we made no attempt to finish that. That’s a funny story! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/142 "2020-11-03T01:34:07Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Alligator and rattlesnake aren’t on anyone’s list except for the vegans. Well, I’ve had both, but my wife wouldn’t even try them. She won’t eat reptiles or amphibians. She’s not going to willfully dine on insects or rodents any time soon. I’m in no place to judge. Put any of them in a casserole, and I’m unlikely to eat it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/143 "2020-11-03T02:13:06Z")
As a kid, I ate canned grasshoppers. I don’t remember how they were prepared, but they tasted somewhat like peanut butter. Also had chocolate-covered ants, which unsurprisingly tasted like chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/144 "2020-11-03T02:36:08Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Beef tongue. My mother, from time to time, used to boil a whole beef tongue. It was served with gravy and potatoes and was quite delicious. Beef tongue also was/is a common cold cut for sandwiches. And then there’s Zungenwurst, basically a blood sausage with pieces of tongue. I liked it. @EinsteinsHund I spent a little over a year running the tongue saw at a Beef slaughter house ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/145 "2020-11-03T05:56:34Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Beef tongue. My mother, from time to time, used to boil a whole beef tongue. It was served with gravy and potatoes and was quite delicious. Beef tongue also was/is a common cold cut for sandwiches. In the basque restaurants, they often served pickled beef tongue as appetizer, and I liked it after the initial WTF!?. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/146 "2020-11-03T06:01:21Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I did not know that if you finished everything you were served, the host would feel they had to continue to offer. Ah, the memories! The same thing happened to me with a Vietnamese hostess in Virginia in the 1980s. I had been trained that it was rude to leave food on my plate, so I kept eating and she kept putting food on my plate … it was a perfect storm of cultural misunderstanding. Finally I just couldn’t force down another mouthful, and stopped. I’ve often wondered if she thought I was an uncultured pig, or was glad I liked her food so well, or what. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/147 "2020-11-03T06:17:42Z")
I’ve had both as well and liked them. Gator even recently. I was just saying that no one would be outraged because how could I possibly eat something that cute. Most people, including me, would think they were eating pork chops if they were given gator and not told the difference. There’s only a little difference in mouth feel. Denser maybe? Not tougher, just denser. Rattlesnake? Yeah. Tastes like chicken. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2020, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/148 "2020-11-03T11:41:43Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Weirdest? Baked crickets over a dish of non-dairy ice cream. They were nutty !! I’d eat them again. That is weird. How/why make ice cream non-dairy!? ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/149 "2020-11-03T12:01:07Z")
The easiest way would obviously be fruit ice cream, unless you call that a sorbet. You can also substitute milk with almond/cashew/coconut milk and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/150 "2020-11-03T16:22:47Z")
That dancing squid, holy shit. I’m running a D&D game with a kraken as the Big Bad, but I don’t have anything in the game as horrifying at those 45 seconds. For me, I’ve got two entries that are unique: 1. Venison. Wait, I know what you’re thinking, so let me try again: road kill. I was vegetarian at the time, but when I found out that the pagan banquet’s main course would be venison from a deer the host had found by the side of the road, I was all in. It was delicious. 2. I used to make chocolate chip hazelnut cookies with a quarter of the flour replaced by finely-ground coffee. I called them Seattle Communion Wafers, and they were _amazing_. One year, my brother held a Blasphemy Party for him and all his hipster/goth friends, so I baked a batch of Seattle Communion Wafers. Around midnight he thanked me for bringing them, and I said, “Sure! You wanted us to be blasphemous, right? So _I made them with decaf_.” I have never seen such an expression of shocked betrayal on anyone’s face. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/151 "2020-11-04T09:23:55Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > it was a perfect storm of cultural misunderstanding My aged parent was taught to eat the food she didn’t like first, so that she could enjoy the food she did like. When she and her siblings came to the USA, her grandmother observed the food they ate first – and gave them more of it. Which was good, because it was cheap. There wasn’t any money, and they didn’t complain, but she remembered it 50 years later. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/152 "2020-11-07T13:24:52Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Most people, including me, would think they were eating pork chops if they were given gator and not told the difference. There’s only a little difference in mouth feel. Denser maybe? Not tougher, just denser. Huh? I had gator, and the structure was like fish, lots of short bands in the muscle, instead of long fibers. Also, the flesh was white, like fish. But it wasn’t tender and breaking, like fish, it was chewy like mammal. The dish I had it in was highly seasoned, and all I can say about the flavor is that it isn’t very pronounced. It certainly didn’t taste like any fish I’ve had. ---
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/153 "2020-11-21T04:34:08Z")
That’s effin’ horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/154 "2020-11-21T09:37:40Z")
I just posted about oyako donburi in another thread. The dish itself isn’t transgressive, but the irony of the name may be. Oyako in Japanese means mother and child, and donburi (or just don) means bowl. Oyako donburi is pieces of chicken cooked in soy sauce and sugar (the mother), which is then placed in a bowl of steaming hot rice and covered with raw scrambled eggs (the child) and covered with a lid so the steam partially cooks the eggs. I remember when my Mom first told me the meaning of oyako and I thought she was kidding. After she assured me she wasn’t, I happily gobbled my _Mother and Child Reunion_! Paul Simon has confirmed that _Mother and Child Reunion_ was inspired by this combination which he says he saw listed on the menu at a Chinese Restaurant. [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mother-and-child-reunion/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mother-and-child-reunion/)](https://) ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/155 "2020-11-21T09:46:32Z")
Yes, I know oyako actually means parent and child, but given that hens lay eggs and most chickens eaten are hens, mother and child suits the dish well. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/156 "2020-11-27T00:16:10Z")
tongue and oxtail are common in mexican and Jewish cuisine, oxtail in Jamaican, soul food, others ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/157 "2020-11-30T23:40:09Z")
Grasshoppers are kosher; ants are not. I ate roasted grasshoppers at the ball park in Seattle. They were kind of nutty. Once my wife and I were at a restaurant in French Switzerland in a small town called Avry devant Pont and we got prix fixe meals that included rabbit. That was find with me but my wife asked to skip it. The waiter asked her (I translate; I don’t recall his actual French words) “What was the name of yours?” She told him she’d never had one. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/158 "2020-12-01T06:14:53Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Grasshoppers are kosher; Maybe. [https://watermark.silverchair.com/ae42-0195.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW\_Ercy7Dm3ZL\_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAp4wggKaBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKLMIIChwIBADCCAoAGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMdYEgd5WEee-Vj0xIAgEQgIICURSfQnYBB9e6GQlElELKiWIZTo7FvfMxPoZMHA-TSJPMn7JZfuU2T\_93QaNFamKPiI0D-2DjZMNIB\_46hTx8IiazIxVIqeDqQ2I841T\_uFGJd53T8GklUg1ABSp0BwMz9KF3O7-LTJcqjY4TLnWB\_bRwkj8kpZhqVGOOZ\_5tRpKl5bZHnGtmfKfsjAeOx4QYxZ6VAjcahtg4tuydsR7zm4Zw-3lPt4NsFwhocfxJ2xALYHqAL2OHCd7kEG4shi5iVtywAmFoe5X8jD7POGI1p4UamQPFoz7r49IvWXqdkGyr\_pSHM9I4SPuxu9WRGZcbAUxEIJPJZpHHxcsZzsOwwCFnnfqxGSfGyhLZQZnP8xe8bFOeS3kY\_NuYDyvo3WVxzTwWReJvv-7vpqgSkDPTVzRi61VFn\_rKXkKl-dFESV8g0jdKjZX-zjnoBK13IC0UrUrJ4nfHkGcsQt-pWaci9Mlx1IlffUkN7peSqjTEh1ybd2sEP5Mykj0NuTshFma7Rfag\_YgzrauOgI-77axWLTzkbP6izssVmLRKsZsI2nSLBVFKFUAbZAOuJQQRGS4kt5\_eNBATa1wwxqX7rAKf5HtZKLgrgzHR-Z7uhcKRbd0Ax8-PnKOiT193ROTBxrl0kvsLdUtBemzxJQwfdH3pig\_w4m8bsJH2nVl63kgHb9\_-YnmYTOnuAmlZiQmtOo49OnLbjr2L1smMeEc-U8Qet8QZ4W4-2ygnWmm1vjSHQGZHwJxBHJC2KHmi0PmstZZFBOqiiNHe6yL2wGAC\_PXGHzDF](https://watermark.silverchair.com/ae42-0195.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAp4wggKaBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKLMIIChwIBADCCAoAGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMdYEgd5WEee-Vj0xIAgEQgIICURSfQnYBB9e6GQlElELKiWIZTo7FvfMxPoZMHA-TSJPMn7JZfuU2T_93QaNFamKPiI0D-2DjZMNIB_46hTx8IiazIxVIqeDqQ2I841T_uFGJd53T8GklUg1ABSp0BwMz9KF3O7-LTJcqjY4TLnWB_bRwkj8kpZhqVGOOZ_5tRpKl5bZHnGtmfKfsjAeOx4QYxZ6VAjcahtg4tuydsR7zm4Zw-3lPt4NsFwhocfxJ2xALYHqAL2OHCd7kEG4shi5iVtywAmFoe5X8jD7POGI1p4UamQPFoz7r49IvWXqdkGyr_pSHM9I4SPuxu9WRGZcbAUxEIJPJZpHHxcsZzsOwwCFnnfqxGSfGyhLZQZnP8xe8bFOeS3kY_NuYDyvo3WVxzTwWReJvv-7vpqgSkDPTVzRi61VFn_rKXkKl-dFESV8g0jdKjZX-zjnoBK13IC0UrUrJ4nfHkGcsQt-pWaci9Mlx1IlffUkN7peSqjTEh1ybd2sEP5Mykj0NuTshFma7Rfag_YgzrauOgI-77axWLTzkbP6izssVmLRKsZsI2nSLBVFKFUAbZAOuJQQRGS4kt5_eNBATa1wwxqX7rAKf5HtZKLgrgzHR-Z7uhcKRbd0Ax8-PnKOiT193ROTBxrl0kvsLdUtBemzxJQwfdH3pig_w4m8bsJH2nVl63kgHb9_-YnmYTOnuAmlZiQmtOo49OnLbjr2L1smMeEc-U8Qet8QZ4W4-2ygnWmm1vjSHQGZHwJxBHJC2KHmi0PmstZZFBOqiiNHe6yL2wGAC_PXGHzDF) [https://www.chabad.org/library/article\_cdo/aid/4624319/jewish/Why-Are-Grasshoppers-Locusts-Kosher-for-Some-Jews.htm](https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4624319/jewish/Why-Are-Grasshoppers-Locusts-Kosher-for-Some-Jews.htm) _## Signs of a Kosher Grasshopper_ _The Torah[2](javascript:doFootnote(‘2a4624319’)😉 gives us a number of signs to discern which species are permitted. The Mishnah sums up the signs:_ _\> . . Of locusts: all that have four legs, four wings, leaping legs, and wings covering the greater part of the body, are kosher. Rabbi Yose says: [In addition to the signs] its name must be chagav [locust].[3](javascript:doFootnote(‘3a4624319’)😉_ _In other words, even with the signs, there must be a tradition that the locust bears the name chagav . As the Talmud tells us, there are 800 non-kosher species of grasshoppers and locusts,[4](javascript:doFootnote(‘4a4624319’)😉 and there are only eight that are kosher.[5](javascript:doFootnote(‘5a4624319’)😉 Since, for the most part, we are no longer able to ascertain which species of locusts are kosher, we refrain from eating any locusts.[6](javascript:doFootnote(‘6a4624319’)😉_ _This is, however, an oversimplification of the issues involved._ ---
**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:** [December 1, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/159 "2020-12-01T20:29:02Z")
I make a cold chicken / hard-boiled egg salad that I call Mother and Child Reunion - I took it from the Paul Simon tune and underlying story. ETA - general comment on the thread — weird and unusual is not the same as transgressive. I don’t get why eating insects, snakes, etc. would be considered transgressive. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464/160 "2020-12-01T20:47:11Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > ETA - general comment on the thread — weird and unusual is not the same as transgressive. I don’t get why eating insects, snakes, etc. would be considered transgressive. It’s in the OP: > [@](#): > > Let’s be generous in our definition of “transgressive” - if a food could shock you and/or people whose opinions you care about, for cultural, religious, health, aesthetic, or other reasons, it counts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-transgressive-food-youve-eaten/923464.md?page=7)