Exotic Eats

[Hanske]

Oh, forgot something more. Italian porchetta.

[Roo]

When I was in Mongolia my friend's family killed a goat in the traditional way, which is to stab it through the solar plexus, reach into the wound, and quickly pinch off the aorta. This causes less adrenaline to release into the muscles apparently, if done right, and is very quick and humane. Then they chopped the goat into big pieces and put it in a huge pressure cooking vessel with some garlic and dill and water. They then took large stones that had been heating in a fire, carefully put the hot stones into the cooking vessel, and sealed it shut. We then drank vodka until the entrails and organs and big hunks of fat were cooked and removed, where they were put in a pot to simmer into a tea or soup -- hence the goat fat tea in my earlier post. We then drank more vodka and ate the meat with Sriracha (not the Mongolians though -- they don't like spicy food at all). It was a great time, and goat is delicious. I'm not a fan of mutton though.

[kreigle]

Maybe not very exotic, but over the years:
pickled beef tongue and beef heart
frog legs
rabbit
pheasant
beef liver - love this lightly dusted in flour and fried to just past medium with onions
alligator
conch (on vacation with parents as a child in Key West)
snapping turtle
shark
octopus (in Maui)
eel sushi
calamari (best we ever had was in Boston)
beef kidneys (yuk)

My wife tries to buy lamb at least once a month and the kids (2 and 9) both love it. We have scrapple every so often and both kids like this too. Also, can't forget the deer that jumped out in front of my wife's car 2 yrs ago - I think we might still have some of that in the freezer.

My wife likes pickled pigs feet and tripe

[CoderGuy]

Stir-fried dog and a $150 bottle of cognac was the most memorable. Scorpions, congealed duck's blood, duck brains, crab brains, pig's ear, chicken feet, various intestines and organs, horse salami and cold cuts, pigeon, goat fat "tea", fermented mare's milk (arag)... I'll try anything once. Even Taco Bell. Brains and blood are horrid, and straight-up beef liver always makes me puke.

I too am a fan of hotdogs!

I have just had the usual strange things, fried rattlesnake and alligator. Octopus in various forms, including squid (with ink) and cuttlefish. Snails, frog legs, head cheese and tongue. I think most people have had those things though.

Plus all the things mentioned in kreigle's post. Mako shark was actually pretty good. Not a fan of goose but duck is good.

[ratcheer]

I have had shark many times. To me, it is just another kind of fish.

Tim

[snupy]

eel sushi

That's my fave sushi and usually is almost the entirety of my order at the sushi place.

[RobsanX]

When I was in Romania I ate pig bowel soup. Unfortunately due to a language barrier, I ate it twice... Ugh...

[Snuts]

I wanna tell to you about our "tripas à moda do Porto". Let me see if I can explain myself.

In 1415, we needed to provide food to our military expeditions in Africa. So in the city of Porto we filled the naus (the names of the ships of that age) with pork and cow meat to our brave soldiers. The only thing that remained here were the intestines because no one would eat that. But we were starving to death and someone decided to start cooking it, and the "Tripas à moda do Porto" was born. It means "intestines porto way" or something like that. The people who live in Porto are still known by the tripeiros.(kinda of intestine guys)



This is our tradicional food here in Porto and I bet you would loved it if you tried it. It goes very well with red wine.


We also have the stone soup. It's a tale that says that in the ancient times a very poor priest in a land of farmers said that we could make a wonderful soup only by boiling water with a stone in it. Everybody was very curious about it. So, as the water was boiling he said to one farmer that a little bit of pork meat will give the soup a very special taste. Then he asked for a little bit of salt, and a little bit of vegetables, and a little bit of this and that. In the end he made what is known by the stone soup, that is a very strong soup with lots of ingredients, almost solid. You eat a plate of it and you don't need to eat anything for the rest of the day.

The stone soup:

[Monkey]

I will try anything once and what may be weird to some may not be weird to others.

I guess the weirdest things I have eaten are grubs, crickets and live baby octopus. I will eat any animal nose to tail (and pretty much have) but I never had the more expensive exotic game (lion, zebra, gazelle) but I have had kangaroo, ostrich, emu, boar, snake, rabbit, squirrel, possum, bear, deer, elk, moose, buffalo, frog, pidgeon... you get the idea. I've also had hansaki (not sure how it os spelled) which is saki with a poisonous rice patty snake drowned in it and left in the bottle.

Blood things really are not up my alley but I keep trying blood sausages and puddings hoping that I will get something fantastic. I never do...

I always wanted to try scorpion. As soon as I get the chance I will.

[ratcheer]

When I was in Romania I ate pig bowel soup. Unfortunately due to a language barrier, I ate it twice... Ugh...

LOL!

Tim

[Roo]

Hey Mike, where did you eat possum? Did you salvage/hunt it yourself? Pardon me if that's a somewhat common dinner item in parts of the country. I know some people salvage roadkill and whatnot, but I don't know how common it is. Funny story: my girlfriend had a family dog when I first met her, a Dutch keishhound (or some such spelling), and they gave the puppies away to several hillbillies who literally lived isolated in the hills in rural Oregon along the Columbia River. One day a dude calls her mother and tells her if she doesn't come back and reclaim the puppy, he's going to have to eat it. He didn't want to, he said, because she was real cute, but he didn't think he'd be able to compel himself to not eat it. Puppy-eating American hillbillies... Dog tastes much like mutton; the food dogs in China at least. They are usually a medium-sized brownish breed with pointy ears, pretty standard for feral dogs in Asia. They are closely related to the earliest domesticated dogs from what I understand. Native Hawaiians were big dog-eaters too. I've heard that house cats are eaten not only in small parts of Southern China and Vietnam, but also in small parts of Switzerland and Peru. Good thread.

To be fair, eating dog is not common or even legal in much of the country (but this is funny anyway):

[GoVegan]

I just had to read this thread.

[Monkey]

Roo, the possum was "hunted" from a friend's barn in central Pennsylvania. His dad did the whole thing and i missed the cleaning and preparing of it. I learned from him that possums carry leprosy so you should never handle their raw meat with bare hands. You have to wear rubber gloves when dressing them and I am not sure of any other steps needed to properly prepare a possum. It was in a thick stew. Reminded me of turtle gumbo a bit but it may have been the way it was seasoned. I got most of the "rural delicacies " I tried out there. His dad is a " I killed it so im gonna eat it" kind of guy. Something I can definitely get behind.

I don't think I could eat roadkill unless I had to...unless I ran it over fresh myself.

[Monkey]

I don't know how I feel about eating dog. Never had it.

My godson's mother is Vietnamese and when she went to visit relatives she was fed dog. She is vegetarian now.

I hate cats though so that wouldn't bother me...

[muddyfunkstar]

I've eaten a bunch of unusual meats, like kanagaroo steak and ostrich burger, both very nice, quite rich compared to beef.

When I was in Finland I ate reindeer steak. It was absolutely gorgeous. On the same trip I also had reindeer pizza in some local chain italian. I only had it because it was amusingly named The Rudolf

Other than that, nothing really unusual springs to mind. I'm not squeamish about trying weird stuff, I just haven't really had the opportunity.