I have had my share of unusual food, but the nastiest most unappealing dish I ever had was at my current place of employment and made by a world renowned French chef.
It was “Beef Tendon Salad”. I have googled it and found that its roots are asian. I do not know if what I had was incorrectly prepared or a deviation of the typical recipe but in my opinion a bowl of rubber bands covered in soy sauce would be the rough equivalent of this particular dish.
I guess mine would be bison and gator. Not that those are particularly uncommon but this is coming from a person who in the other thread mentioned I’ve never tasted coleslaw.
Durian
Beef lung
Squirrel
Dove
Quail
Deer/venison
Venison heart
Frog legs
Bear
Poke Salad
Escargot
Stinky tofu
Some sort of fish brain (Indonesia)
Paella (not sure this counts)
Chicken gizzards, etc (not sure this counts, but they’re getting rarer)
I grew us as a little country boy and we had bounty-a-plenty from this good earth. I sure do miss my great aunt fryin’ up a messa gizzards on a Saturday evening.
Depends on values of uncommon, but I’ve had blood sausage, eyeball tacos, surströmming, cicada, durian, beef tendon (many times, especially in pho), fried fish sperm (milt), raw pork (mett), uni, fried alligator (a local Southern/creole/bbq restaurant has it as a special sometimes–it’s really not all that weird; everyone at the table had it), turtle, etc. If it’s dead, I’ll eat it, so I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff I’m forgetting that people might call uncommon. (Looking through other’s lists, I’ve had escargot many times, ostrich, kangaroo, all sorts of offal, elk, venison, pheasant, quail, ants, etc.) The only one that I would hesitate at eating again is the surströmming, although, if offered, I’d probably give it another go.
I eat balut, but that’s pretty common around these parts. Some other things I’ve eaten:
oxtail
beef tongue
tripe
pig ears
pork knuckles
chicken feet
chicken heart, liver, gizzard
goat
monitor lizard
mantis shrimp
snails
multiple species of tropical fish that I can’t even name
durian
jackfruit
lanzones (aka langsat - mentioned in OP)
rambutan
lychee
longan
mangosteen
star apple
custard apple
nata de coco
macapuno
Trying not to double too many people above:
Pronghorn antelope - good, not that different from venison. And many other game animals that I consider more common.
Alligator - expensive chicken, try it once. Frog’s legs are better.
Kangaroo - interesting/good
Jellyfish - flavorless & chewy
Durian - underwhelming as hell. Smells kind of bad, but not as terrible as I was led to believe. Tastes like papaya or something.
Hearts of any kind - OMNOMNOM
My 2 year old has eaten more than most adults.
Hmm… I should check if the grocery store down the street has huitlacoche, check that off my list.
Bloodworms. In Vietnam.
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Silkworm Larvae
Camel
Alligator
Dragonfruit
Bison
Escargot
Octopus
Calamari (the last two barely count as “uncommon,” I think. Although I did find a tentacle in my french fries, once. A bit crispy.)
Pepsi White
I missed the chance to eat kangaroo (the grill was fresh out).
Wild grapes. They’re growing all over our (Ohio) property.
They’re about the size of peas. Very tart but delicious.
Lychee
Rambutan
Rattle Snake
Alligator
Mochi Ice Cream
Daifuku
I had a cricket taco at a Mexican restaurant. This was the type of restaurant that fancied itself “upscale.” I thought the crickets had very little flavor; mostly I tasted whatever type of sauce they had on them.
The restaurant did not stay in business too long, although their guacamole was very good.
Rattlesnake (in AZ, where it’s really not that uncommon)
Alligator (in NOLA, where it’s really not that uncommon)
Raw Horse Meat (in Japan)
Bubble Bee Larvae (think “maggots”; in Japan)
Fugu (blowfish; in Japan)
Fugu is the stuff that kills you if they don’t prepare it correctly. But I have to say it was, hands down, THE best sashimi I have ever had.
A chunk of these were in Japan…
Land Animals: raw horse meat, chicken hearts, chicken feet, beef tongue, ant eggs, scrapple, pigs’ feet, alligator, liquor with a whole snake in the jar, blood sausage
Marine Life: eel, eel liver, sea cucumber, mantis shrimp, loach, shirako (fish spooge), sea urchin, geoduck clams, marinated squid guts.
Plant Life: Huitlacoche (corn smut), mangosteen, durian rambutan, starfruit, burdock.
Noting that I’m not an adventurous eater, by any means:
Haggis (made by a friend of mine; it essentially tasted like a very rich stuffing)
Kimchee (my cousin had been a Marine, stationed in South Korea, and married a Korean woman, bringing her home with him to Wisconsin)
I’ve never had the chance to try it and would probably pass if I did, but my suspicion is that fugu, per se, is no tastier than any other sea fish… but a chef of that skill could make people line up and pay dear for tilapia.
Ones I haven’t seen listed:
My friends and I had an exotic meat party years ago- kind of standard stuff in that realm - kangaroo, boar, emu.
Since then-
Horse - basashi in Japan
Whale jerky - same
Possum - in Australia
Desert Apples also in Australia. They are about the size of a blueberry but have the crunch and flavor of a good apple.
Bison isn’t all that uncommon around here. I had beefalo once when I was a kid but I can’t remember how it tasted.
Damn edit timeout!
Rocky Mountain oysters aren’t all that uncommon around here either.
If Walmart sells it, I’m not inclined to count it, either.
