# What uncommon food items have you had? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058 "2016-08-07T18:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058/61 "2016-08-22T23:04:15Z")
I used to think I was hot stuff for eating buffalo (pfft, I’ve never seen it called “bison” on a menu or on the frozen steaks I’ve bought, regardless of what the “real” name of the American buffalo is) and ostrich. Later I expanded to such exotic things as calamari and in recent years sushi and sashimi. Not very uncommon for the world in general, but among my boring family, I’m like daring and adventurous. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058/62 "2016-08-22T23:09:35Z")
I had some balut this weekend. I think I’ll pass next time… ---
**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:** [August 23, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058/63 "2016-08-23T15:43:11Z")
Speaking of ammonia rich foods, I’ve also had salmiak, Scandinavian salty licorice flavored with ammonium salts. It’s, um, an acquired taste. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058/64 "2016-08-23T16:25:30Z")
Lived in Japan and Taiwan for 26 years with trips to various places around Asia. Not sure what Asian food I haven’t tried. Some of the more unusual: Stinky tofu. Not for me, thanks. All sorts of parts of birds and animals that ought to be ground up into hotdogs like they do in “civilized” countries. 😉 Weird combinations on pizza. Really weird. Asparagus, teriyaki chicken, teriyaki sauce, mayonnaise and corn sort of weird. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058/65 "2016-08-28T15:22:19Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Jellyfish - flavorless & chewy A couple of things in the “uncommon food items” line explored for the first time by me yesterday, in the Chinese quarter of Birmingham, England – a Sichuan restaurant there, specialising in “unusual to British diners” fare. On their menu, as a “cold appetiser”: jellyfish, described as “street and sour” (their command of English is, charmingly, less than 100%). We felt – with some trepidation – that we had to try this. It seemed to involve, basically, tentacle-ish material, and hard-to-identify long, stringy, clearly vegetable material; in a sauce. Compared to **thelurkinghorror**'s finding: we reckoned all the solid material, not particularly chewy; but basically devoid of taste – all the taste of the dish, came from the sauce – vinegar, plus something strong and sort of stock-like. Wondering prompted: is what this restaurant calls “jellyfish”, conventional biology’s jellyfish – or something else? And, as a main course, the Chinese speciality of ducks’ tongues – in the dish which was ordered, cooked with sweet peppers. A surprise to us diners, not highly-educated in the subject of biology: the tongue of a duck contains, basically throughout, a bone-like item. Have discovered that according to some, lower down in the tongue it’s a _soft_ bone-like bit, and pleasantly edible: that reported feature eluded us, new to this scene. The “meat” part of the tongues was pleasantly and richly meaty, with – would you believe it – a duck-like flavour; but there was so much practical-type hassle in dealing with with the bone-ish bits. It ended up, that the majority of the duck-tongue dish went home with me: plan is to de-bone the tongues at leisure, and do something with the component parts. ---
**Author:** ![coolbyrne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058/66 "2016-08-28T17:43:24Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > I’ve had hákarl, too - not the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat it again unless money were involved. > > Horse pastrami and broiled puffin are the only really unusual things I’ve eaten in recent memory. Both, like the hákarl, were consumed in Iceland. Just recently came back from Iceland where I, too, had the hákarl. Served up with Brennivin, so that helped. Truth be told, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think I psyched myself up so much that I thought it was going to be wretched. I thought it was going to be rubbery, but it was this weird flaky but chewy texture. It was the smell more than anything that got me. Holy crap, the ammonia! ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058/67 "2016-08-28T18:00:39Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > I’ve had hákarl, too - not the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat it again unless money were involved. Add me to the hákarl samplers. Didn’t seem _that_ bad. I also had whale sushi, whale sashimi, and a small whale fillet in Iceland. Rubbery, but not like fat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-uncommon-food-items-have-you-had/762058.md?page=3)