Hm. One time I was in my favorite local restaurant and ordered a Ceasar salad with anchovy fillets on it.
When the waitress delivered it, she put it down in front of me, looked at it for a second, then leaned over to my wife and whispered “I know - they look just like cat tounges!”
My wife choked on her drink.
I laughed for about 10 minutes.
One of the strangest things that I’ve seen anyone eat wasn’t exactly what she ordered.
My sister ordered her usual in the local sub shop - chicken salad, sliced cucumbers, sliced carrot “chips” and relish.
What she got - and ate - was even stranger.
Odd chicken salad that tasted like it had been made with a sweet ranch dressing, no cucumbers or relish but extra pickles, a huge quartered carrot just sort of stuck in there, capers, and half of a boiled egg stuck in at one end of the grinder.
I didn’t even know that this place had capers or eggs.
All I can say on the matter is, when ordering a burger with -everything- on it, make sure you are very aware what the restaurant considers ‘everything’. I got the standard stuff; pickles, onions, ketchup, lettuce, cheese, mustard…
There was an Italian Delli near my University that had a Jar of marmite. I would order marmite and cheese sandwiches there to the horror and amazement of the owner. I think I was the only patron ever to order marmite, but since marmite keeps forever I wasn’t worried about the jar being old.
A friend and I had some late-night munchies so we decided to try ordering from a local place that specializes in chicken wings. They have at least a dozen flavors, but we decided to go with the classic Buffalo Wings. I was impressed with the wings themselves - tasty, and the right level of spiciness - but rather than sending them to us with bleu cheese sauce, they sent us a tub of mayo. Ugh.
When my dear sweet Ardred* was a child, he used to torture his older sister (who deserved it, because no one was sweeter and kinder than my dear, sweet Ardred*) by eating things that made her sick.
One famous example: Their mom makes a really delicious egg, sausage and cheese casserole on leisurely mornings. A. was drinking his orange juice and toying with his casserole, (being his dear sweet self, as always) when he decided to mix things up a little.
He took a chunk of his casserole, spooned it into his orange juice, stirred vigrously, and drank it down. His sister ran from the room, gagging. YUM!
*‘dear, sweet Ardred’, in this context, means “awful temperamental hellion”.
My grandfather once ordered breaded beef brains in a restaurant, in 1986.
When they discovered the case of mad cow in the US in 2003, I thought back to that and almost threw up, 17 years later. I still have trouble thinking of someone eating beef brains without getting a little queasy.
The only person I’ve ever seen eat something that was still alive (Raw and Wriggling) was Gollum. Yeesh, people, stab a a fork in the lobster’s head or something.
My mom used to make sandwiches of tuna fish, mayo, American cheese, liverwurst and pickles.
After you scrapped off the cheese, liverwurst and pickles it was actually a pretty decent sandwich because she used good bread but to this day I can’t bring myself to eat tuna fish unless it’s fresh sushi.
You know, this combo actually almost sounds good…except for the Mountain Dew. That kinda ruined it for me. But I could see the sweet & salty & fatty working…after all, how many of you put maple syrup on your breakfast sausage?
Tripe is good, too, once you get used to the texture. Ever have fresh blood fritters after a pig kill? There’s many variations on this, but basically it’s blood, flour, perhaps some veggies (like onions) and herbs/spice cooked into a fritter-type consistency. It’s actually not too bad, but I confess, I’ve never seen one ordered at a restaurant. (I don’t believe health codes would allow it.)
Then, there is czernina—the sweet Polish duck blood’s soup—which I have seen ordered in Chicago Polish restaurants. It’s an “off the menu” item, though.
And I’ll see your lutefisk, and raise you surströmming, Scandinavian fermented herring.
When I was young and holidaying in Hong Kong, I came across ‘thousand year old eggs’ in the hotel buffet. They had the same texture as a boiled egg, but predominately black with streaks of red and yellow.
Thanks to a combination of the name and appearance, thousand year old eggs did not make an appearance on my plate that morning.
I had to Google to make sure that this wasn’t some childish fantasy or woosh. Nope – according to wikipedia they’re actually a Chinese delicacy. Naturally, they’re preserved, and far younger than their name suggests: typically around 100 days. Call me culturally insensitive, but… c’mon, look at this photo – definitely my candidate.
Out of the things in this thread, I’ve tried, and enjoyed:
oysters
tripe
jellyfish
fries with mayo
brains
blood
thousand year old egs
marmite still tastes like crap though.
The one thing I’ve eaten that icks other people out the most is:
a fish, plucked straight out of the water and a towel is wrapped around it’s head. It’s then quickly pan fried and served immediately. When it comes to the table, the fish is still alive and gasping for air while people pick off it’s flesh. It was yummy
Not something I ordered, but one time I got a cheeseburger at Burger King, and it had barbecue sauce on it. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but it also had mustard and pickles. It was a little bit of a surprise when I bit into it.
In a sushi restraunt in Forest Hills, Queens, I ordered scallops. The chef informed me that they didn’t have scallops, but did have razor clams. “Sure”, I said, “sounds fine.”
Knowing that scallops and razor clams were quite different, I wondered why the chef would offer that bizarre substitution. Checking the menu, I discovered that the specialty of the house was scallops, served live. Served LIVE?, I thought, just as the chef put a plate in front of me.
Yep. Two little mounds of rice topped with squirming, wriggling, live raw clam strips.
They were quite tasty, actually. A little chewy, but that’s to be expected when you have to kill something with your teeth, I suppose.
While eating at a better Italian restaurant, a guy at the next table wanted a bottle of ketchup when his food arrived. He then proceeded to bury everything, lasagna, veal parmesan, even his bread in ketchup.
Whilst pregnant with our first child, Mr. Silver1’s siblings prepared a nice Japanese dinner for him to celebrate his birthday. (Mr. Silver1 is Japanese…this is their comfort food…)
I was fine until my SIL brought out the octopus tentacles - suckers and all. As everyone else began chowing down, SIL gets a concerned look on her face and says, “You don’t look so good.” My noodles suddenly weren’t so appealing and I felt a little faint.
Truly, after a mad dash to the bathroom, I noticed my face was a distinct shade of gray.
Strangely enough, though we’ve had a couple more Silver1 juniors since then and have had several more birthday dinners with all that good Japanese food, I haven’t reacted as badly as I did then. But I was about ready to leave my stomach behind that evening - I was incredibly and utterly grossed out.
Poor SIL - she apologized all over the place. We all had a good laugh about it later on when I felt better. :rolleyes:
