We’ve all been there before, at someones house and they serve up something unrecognizable, and just to be nice you make yourself eat, at least a little. I have eaten those nasty little wienies in ketchup, blood sausage (blech!) but absolutely refused to sample the chitlins (smelled like caca).
Whats the worst thing you forced yourself to eat, just to be nice?
I think it was a carp, complete with crusty scales, hazy, dead eye staring at me.
Sushi it wasn’t…
BCS stands for “Best at Choosing Second”
A ladleful of Vegemite. It’s was a stupid teenager thing…
Unidentifiable Hungarian meat. By process of elimination, we guessed it was horse - although the texture suggested hoof.
Liver. It is the most foul substance on the planet, but as a kid I would force myself to eat it because, well, we had to eat what we were given for tea.
[homersimpson]It looks like ketchup, it tastes like ketchup, but brother, IT AIN’T KETCHUP![/homersimpson]
hrh
Call me strange, but for me the answer is sweet potatoes.
Not that I haven’t ever tried some of the strange, exotic things mentioned here, just that though they were bad, they don’t even begin to make me gag as much as just the thought of a disgusting yam touching my tongue. shudder
Oh man, I still remember being sent off to family friends to be babysat when I was, oh, four or five, and being fed a liver sandwich for dinner.
I don’t think I finished it, but I ate far more than I would have had I not been trying to be polite.
Kidney.
I’d taken a room for two weeks in South Shields. The very nice landlady asked when I arrived if there was anything I wouldn’t eat, since there was an option to have her fix supper every night, which I took. Since I’m not picky, and I even enjoy trying new things, I said, “Oh, no, there’s nothing I won’t eat.” Of course, I’d forgotten about all that blood sausage and internal organ business.
Two nights later, she served steak and kidney pie. I realized what it was as soon as I cut into it. I tried to eat it all, I really did, and I managed to choke down some of it, but in the end I sort of re-arranged it on my plate to make it look like I’d eaten more than I really had.
Oh yes, Liver, the all time favorite of
“Oh you don’t know how I make liver, its REALLY GOOD with (bacon, onions, bean sprouts, chihuahua cheese, fried gerbil *fill in the blank)” line.
No matter what you do to liver, its still just a giant fried blood clot
*gag**aaaacck!
A duck foot. De-boned, but it still makes a 100-year egg taste like a Swiss chocolate truffle in comparison. It was pretty much like chewing a hunk of cartilage.
Durian.
Imagine eating a bowl of vanilla custard in the filthy head of a garlic freighter, and you have an idea of what it’s like.
Turnip greens. Yes, you are reading the words of probably the only Southerner alive that despises turnip greens. (urrrrrggg!!)
My mother and sister loved them with a vengeful passion. My mother begged and begged me to pleeeease try them “for her” one night.
I choked down about four forkfuls before I started gagging.
I’ve tried them at least ten times since then, hoping I’d grow into liking them (like I did broccoli and cauliflower) but nope…after the fourth bite, my throat slammed shut.
I’m still a disgrace to my mother. She is forever saying, “You mean you STILL hate turnip greens??” Like I’m the only one.
[sub]I’m not, am I?[/sub]
Heh. Funny…according to my husband, son and even my mean turnip-green-loving mother, I make the best liver 'n onions in the world. Bar none.
I wouldn’t know. I’d rather eat raw rat droppings soaked in codliver oil than so much as taste a bite of liver.
I have to hold my breath while cooking it, as it is. That shit is nasty.
Bit of a tossup between sweet potatoes, some of the spicier Burman dishes I tried while on vacation once, and barium solution… That last might not count, since it was purely for medical purposes, and anyway it didn’t stay down long enough for the CT scan to be taken. Don’t ask.
I don’t care what my Southern ancestors say - sweet potaotes with that brown syrupy stuff and marshmallows melted on top are not fit for human consumption once the marshmallows are all gone. ::shudder::
Well, beets and Tootsie Rolls both make me incredibly queezy if I so much as smell one . . . Do those count as Nasty Things To Have Eaten?
Chitlins?
Let me tell you about this one time…
[wavy lines]
I awoke one morning at my grandparents’ house to the smell of shit. I thought the dog had soiled the rug in my room or something. So I get out of bed and look, but the dog had left nothing.
So I go into the family room, which is one big space with the kitchen, and ask “What smells like crap?”
My granpa looks at me and grins, “we’re havin’ chitlins!” with a sparkle in his eye like he’s truly anticipating tucking into some pork anus.
OK, so it’s not anus… but it’s close. Chitterlings (pronounced “CHIT-lins”) are the small intestine of a pig. Usually reserved as offal, or for sausage casings, some folks in the south just cook 'em up as is, either breaded and fried, or as was the case in this story, just boiled.
And when they boil, they make the house smell like pig shit.
In fact, you have to put potatoes in the pot to absorb the shit flavor and odors. (And no, you don’t eat the potatoes.)
I choked down one, and it was my first and last chitterling ever.
Gah!
I will never understand the appeal, unless it’s some kind of male bravado thing I never ascribed to. Even then, I don’t see the point of boasting about eating pig anus.
Oh, and of course, while we’re eating, my cousins have to tell me their favorite chitlin joke for initiates:
Q: How do you clean chitlins?
A: By slinging them around in a circle over your head.
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My husband’s family used to eat them, and he and I both were totally disgusted. We used to call them “shitterlinks”
Lutefisk. It was on a cracker so I didn’t have to take the full impact of jellified fish in my mouth. Not much flavor either.
Green fried tomatoes. I managed to choke down my helping before I barfed it all over my plate.
Nearly had the same experience with eggplant.