# What's the worst properly prepared thing you have ever eaten? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940 "2017-10-27T02:05:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/61 "2017-10-28T02:40:00Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > [Something more like this](https://www.przyslijprzepis.pl/media/cache/default_view/uploads/media/recipe/0002/71/f6fd61e7aab00ae1d2cae83bd47d916aa0dd1d7c.jpeg)? Were the people you were with of Eastern European background? I grew up with this stuff, and I love it, but, I admit, my brother also grew up with it and thinks it’s the vilest thing on earth. I can understand. It’s certainly a hard sell. 🙂 ETA: The aspic gets clearer than that, [like here](http://foodmag.pl/wp-content/uploads/images/kurczak-w-galarecie-02-full-900x600.jpg). Those actually look good. That green stuff in the last post? I don’t care how good it may taste; it looked dreadful. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/62 "2017-10-28T02:48:31Z")
90 percent of anything my cousins ever cooked…they wonder why I eat so fast ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/63 "2017-10-28T06:38:35Z")
Tuna helper. ETA: oh and gefilta fish. . ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/64 "2017-10-28T07:36:42Z")
Any bastardisation of a drink that was formerly known as ‘coffee’. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/65 "2017-10-28T07:47:09Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Most offal and cooked carrots. I didn’t think I had an example of my own, but I do: _Candied_ carrots. Carrots cooked in a stew are good, or at least as good as the stew itself. Carrots kind of boiled in water and served with salt are fine. Carrots coated in something sweet and served to me as food are _not OK_, and anyone who does that is wrong. Just wrong, on some deep, personal, metaphysical level. There was a time when I would have said creamed corn, but I’ve had good creamed corn, so I know that it can be done well. I am damn near certain nobody can make good candied carrots. Carrots should not be sweetened. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/66 "2017-10-28T08:00:30Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Carrots cooked in a stew are good, or at least as good as the stew itself. Carrots kind of boiled in water and served with salt are fine. Carrots coated in something sweet and served to me as food are _not OK_, and anyone who does that is wrong. Just wrong, on some deep, personal, metaphysical level. > > There was a time when I would have said creamed corn, but I’ve had good creamed corn, so I know that it can be done well. I am damn near certain nobody can make good candied carrots. Carrots should not be sweetened. Surely you don’t have a problem with carrot cake, I hope. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/67 "2017-10-28T11:06:50Z")
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natt%C5%8D](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natt%C5%8D)Natto - a Japanese fermented soy gludge which effervesces on your tongue as it sends strong blue cheese-wet dog flavour tendrils up your nose. Even most of Japan, a culture with a broad palette for odd food textures, wont have a bar of it. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/68 "2017-10-28T19:01:01Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Surely you don’t have a problem with carrot cake, I hope. I love carrot cake, because the carrots are worked into something which _is_ food. Food covered in buttercream frosting, which is even better food. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/69 "2017-10-28T19:29:22Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Natto - a Japanese fermented soy gludge which effervesces on your tongue as it sends strong blue cheese-wet dog flavour tendrils up your nose. Ooh, good one. The aroma was very much like latex paint and that lumpy, slimy texture didn’t help things at all. I’ll add two Asian egg items. First are [century eggs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg). Beautiful appearance, toxic flavor and odor. Jellied ammonia sums it up. Second is balut. Having been ‘on my list’ for a long time, I recently had an opportunity to try [this Filipino delicacy.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(food)) Hooboy, this one was tough. I literally had to choke down a token bite while fighting a gag reflex I didn’t even know I had. I was OK with the flavor, sulphury and a little bloody with that duck gameiness. The texture of tiny feathers and bones in an eggy substrate had my shoulders lurching. One and done. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/70 "2017-10-28T19:44:27Z")
My daughter and I went to a new Mexican food restaurant and I got some tacos which looked really good , I took one bite and spit it out ! It tasted gross to me , there was cilantro in it . I never had cilantro before and found out it taste like soap to some people. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/71 "2017-10-28T20:05:59Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > Second is balut. Having been ‘on my list’ for a long time, I recently had an opportunity to try [this Filipino delicacy.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(food)) Hooboy, this one was tough. I literally had to choke down a token bite while fighting a gag reflex I didn’t even know I had. I was OK with the flavor, sulphury and a little bloody with that duck gameiness. The texture of tiny feathers and bones in an eggy substrate had my shoulders lurching. One and done. Mine was [surströmming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming), a type of fermented herring popular in some northern parts of Sweden. This is the only foodstuff I’ve eaten that almost made me wretch. Now, I love fish. I like extreme tastes. I like fermented fish sauce. I like natto, marmite, limburger, extra old kim chi, etc. Still, nothing prepared me for the foulness of surströmming. Those of you curious, just search Youtube for surstromming, and you will see many videos of people trying it for the first time. Some even vomit. It’s every bit as bad as those videos make it out to be. Upon open the tin, a cloud of gas whose smell can best be described as a cross between a dog’s ass, stale urine, and a human corpse audibly escaped. (Sometimes, the pressure is so high that the cans get visible bloated, and the brine squirts out like a fountain of shit and piss upon piercing the tin with your can opener.) I spilt a little of the brine on my stoop (I was not foolish enough to perform this experiment inside), and almost immediately, all the flies in the neighborhood descended upon it and coalesced into a singular mass of flies on my step. Seriously, it was as if they spontaneously came into existence, that’s how sudden it was. My brother watched from a safe distance as I put that first bite into my mouth. They say it doesn’t taste as bad as it smells. Bull. Fucking. Shit. It tastes every bit as bad as it smells, which makes sense, since smell is something like 80% smell! It had that odd, gelatinous texture somewhat similar to lutefisk, but with several orders of magnitude stronger flavor. The texture didn’t get me, but that flavor. Ugh. I swallowed one filet, chased it with bread and beer (bad idea, as I was burping up that flavor for some time later) and called it a day. Holy shit this stuff was awful. Did I make that clear enough? 😉 To this day, it’s the only food-like substance that I could not find one redeeming quality about. Otherwise, I eat everything. Now, if I ever find myself at the surstromming fest in Sweden, I may give it another go. When in Rome, and all that, and I have a masochistic streak. But, other than that possibility, never again. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/72 "2017-10-28T20:06:09Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Those actually look good. That green stuff in the last post? I don’t care how good it may taste; it looked dreadful. I guess apart from the hideousness of unflavored gelatin, what’s the point? Why not just make turkey and vegetables, maybe over a nice bed of rice or noodles? When you say it looks good, what do you find appetizing about it? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/73 "2017-10-28T20:09:17Z")
In a somewhat ironic twist, I can not stand lamb. > [@DrCube](#): > > I feel the same way about any clam flavored beverage, especially those weird “clam-a-rito” beer things that Budweiser sells… > > I like clams, the eating type. But who in their right mind decided drinking them was a good idea? And who the hell buys these things? Me. Love 'em! Even better with a shot of Tequila added in. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/74 "2017-10-28T20:13:50Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I didn’t think I had an example of my own, but I do: _Candied_ carrots. > > Carrots cooked in a stew are good, or at least as good as the stew itself. Carrots kind of boiled in water and served with salt are fine. Carrots coated in something sweet and served to me as food are _not OK_, and anyone who does that is wrong. Just wrong, on some deep, personal, metaphysical level. > > There was a time when I would have said creamed corn, but I’ve had good creamed corn, so I know that it can be done well. I am damn near certain nobody can make good candied carrots. Carrots should not be sweetened. You’ve never had my wife’s Maple Glazed Carrots. Heavenly. ---
**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 28, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/75 "2017-10-28T20:31:12Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Hmmm…very possibly the [Smoked Maple Salmon Jerky](https://thrivemarket.com/epic-bars-smoked-salmon-maple?utm_source=google&utm_medium=pla&ccode=FIRST3&ccode_force=1&utm_medium=pla&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Shopping_Food_Beverages&utm_content=732153028456&utm_term=google-pla_na&gclid=CjwKCAjwj8bPBRBiEiwASlFLFeGhVsw6nH_lW5dkVpQ_Sk0NjqrGeADzTOm2JfRTChTzR8NoVfai8RoCijIQAvD_BwE) I tried, about a month ago. > > The first half of a bite was OK-ish. The rest of it was, remarkably, like the aftertaste of _throwing up_ smokey, burned salmon. > > The lamb and venison jerkies by the same company were actually quite nice, though. I might have bought that same salmon jerky. The dogs liked it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/76 "2017-10-28T20:46:57Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Chicken Van (At a catered affair) > Chicken covered with some kind of sauce with olives in it. Did you mean “Chicken Divan”? Also, the sauce with olives may have been chicken cacciatore. I used to like Hamburger and Tuna Helper until they were reformulated a few years ago; they’re now inedible, as are Campbell’s cream soups. For those purposes, I have purchased store brands or gluten-free knockoffs, and use Amy’s cream soups. Even though they’re more expensive, they’re at least edible. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/77 "2017-10-28T21:24:39Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I guess apart from the hideousness of unflavored gelatin, what’s the point? Was it really just unflavored gelatin surrounding the meat and veggies? Typically, at least in Eastern European cooking, it’s gelatinized broth. [Here’s another picture of it in aspic](http://cosdochleba.blogspot.com/2015/08/szybka-galareta-z-kurczaka-z-rosou.html). That looks pretty clear, but it’s a light chicken broth that’s gelatinized. I find these aspics quite tasty with vinegar, served with rye bread. But it is something you generally have to grow up with to appreciate (and many people who grow up with it don’t, anyway.) It’s never really meant as a main meal, though. It’s kind of like a light lunch or tea, or possibly as a salad or appetizer course. It is pretty weird to see it in the context you mention. I can’t imagine why it would be served in a volunteer community with a limited food budget. If you want to get cheap calories, turkey and noodles would be a much better use of resources. Aspic is a fairly light course that does not fill you up or anything. And it’s a bit of a pain in the ass, and takes time since you need to refrigerate and gel the darn thing. ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/78 "2017-10-28T21:36:32Z")
Gefilte fish. Uni is edible, but I swear, take away one electron away and it is moldy sneaker pus MRSA. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/79 "2017-10-28T22:07:34Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Mine was [surströmming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming), a type of fermented herring popular in some northern parts of Sweden. Heh, that one hasn’t yet been crossed off ‘my list.’ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940/80 "2017-10-28T22:12:21Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > Heh, that one hasn’t yet been crossed off ‘my list.’ There is also the Norweigian version, [rakfisk](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20543802), which is either similar or worse (which I can’t imagine), and the somewhat more well-known Icelandic hakarl, fermented shark. I’d be really curious to try both these. I thought hakarl was supposed to be worse, but [at least this commentator](http://demislw.com/2014/03/09/its-a-fork-off-the-worlds-foulest-food/) thinks the title goes to surströmming. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-properly-prepared-thing-you-have-ever-eaten/799940.md?page=5)