What, they’re a separate food group? 
I’m a huge gristle and cartilage fan and also marrow. I’ve always enjoyed foods that take huge amounts of effort for relatively paltry rewards. On the plant side, I love systematically breaking down pomegranates and popping out arils one by one and digging into a huge bowl of sunflower seeds/pistachios and deshelling each kernel.
On the meat side, I love diving into a pile of chicken wings, scraping absolutely everything edible off the outside, then cracking them open and sucking out the bone marrow. And if you’ve never tried pork neck bones before, braise them simply until they still have just the right amount of give and then you can spend over and hour trying to extract every single scrap of meat out of them. Also love making a tomahawk steak, saving the rib bone for later, roasting it low in the oven for an hour and then going to town gnawing off all the gristle from the bone.
Cartilage is the crunchy white bone. Gristle is the chewy sinew.
Surely you’re joking! 
You can buy the Langostino tails frozen in bags at many Trader’s Joe’s. They are also often used as a substitute for lobster. I’ve seen “lobster rolls” at sushi bars that used them, and also “lobster burritos” at Mexican places. But they aren’t lobster and don’t taste anything like lobster, although the texture is similar. I’ve tried cooking with them a few times. Afterwards, I usually decide that I should have just used shrimp or lobster, both of which taste far superior, IMO.
Gristle seems an odd choice but marrow is a commonly featured item at high-end steak restaurants. I see it often on menus.
I’ve had marrow at a restaurant. The bone is split and broiled. Since it is so rich, it is usually served with bread or something else to spread it on.
I know that marrow can be spread on bread as a snack or a sandwich for a working man’s lunch. Or it at least used to be, back in the day.
When I make broth at home for things like Scotch barley soup, I bake beef bones for at least an hour at 500 degrees. Then I pull the pot out of the oven, fill it with hot water, and let it boil until every last bit of marrow and other goodness has been extracted. When the liquid cools, it transforms into a lovely gelatinous mass that’s brimming with protein.
In the last 18 months of her life, I fed my late dog (God bless her soul!) dishes of this broth, boiled barley, and mixed veg. It kept her going more than any canned dog food would have, and she liked it better.
isn’t that a George Zimmern specialty eat?
Who dat?
my bad, Andrew Zimmern
Oh, him. I dunno…wouldn’t surprise me. That guy wil eat anything.
I’m a big fan of natto (Japanese fermented soybeans). The slimy, stringy texture and the strongly fermented character are a lot to get past, but it all clicked for me when I learned how to mix it up with soy sauce and horseradish mustard and use it as a white rice topping. Mix it up with white rice, the texture doesn’t offend, and the admixture of soy sauce turns it into a nice umami wallop that brings boring steamed rice to life.
I recommend giving natto a proper chance if you get the opportunity.
I did not have the guts to try any of these, but I’m sure the taste would have bugged me:
I’ve heard that Asian cultures consider fermented milk to be disgusting, or at least not palatable, which is why cheese as an ingredient in traditional Asian cooking is almost unheard of.
But then, there’s natto, so go figure.
Speaking of bugs and various cultures’ cuisine, there’s an invasive species of stink bug (the brown marmorated stink bug) now here in Michigan by the millions, that give off a distinct odor of cilantro when alarmed. I looked it up, and the stink bugs give off the same chemical that gives cilantro its characteristic flavor and taste.
Which got me wondering, do cultures that use cilantro in their cuisine also use stink bugs? Of course they do! Here is la salsa de jumiles (though, as it rurns out, Mexican stink bugs have a flavor more like a mixture of mint, cinnamon, and anise. I bet some brown marmorated stink bug salsa would be a hit, at least for anyone who likes cilantro):
Most Asians are lactose intolerant as well (between 60% to 90% depending on region), which no doubt contributes. If a food will tends to make most of the people at the table sick it is likely to get a bad reputation.
(The ability to properly digest milk after childhood is a relatively recent mutation in humans, one that most of their ancestors didn’t happen to inherit)
I would totally have tried some of those! Add it to my life list, baby.
I take it you’ve never heard of kumis?
It’s often found in Russian supermarkets (for the Asian part of the population, I assume). If someone drops or otherwise breaks a bottle of the stuff, the smell is horrendous! 
Hmm, I had heard somewhere that Mongolians made an alcoholic drink from mare’s milk, but I didn’t know (or remember) its name, and I didn’t know it was still a thing, let alone commercially available, to this day. I thought it was something that dated back more to the days of Genghis Khan.
As for some Asians traditionally finding cheese disgusting or unpleasant, it is a thing, but changing with Western influence, and tastes do vary, apparently. Here’s an interesting article on the matter:
I remember introducing British kids to peanut butter and jam sandwiches while on a camping trip in Sussex back in 1976. They watched in amazement as I spread PB&J liberally on my bread, saying “Peanut butter and jam, ooooooooooh!” The friend who’d invited me on the excursion took a bite and said “Mmmmmm, that’s quite nice, actually!” but I don’t think they believed him.
At the same time, I was being introduced to bully beef and Marmite on white bread (separately, not together). The first was fine, but would have been better with a little mayonnaise (or salad cream 
). I took to the second like a mule takes to millet, so long as it was spread thinly. The last time I tried to convert someone to Marmite, I failed miserably. They were part of my Russian extended family and could barely force themselves to lick the spoon.
I had to look that up-- Google says it’s ‘salty, cured beef brisket’.
So, corned beef? Or is it different from American-style corned beef?