The most unconventional thing you've eaten?

TastyReuben

TastyReuben

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What's the most unconventional/unusual/strange thing you've ever eaten? How was it prepared? What was the experience like? Was it something you'd eat again, or no?

For me, since I don't go around necessarily looking for weird and wonderful things to eat, I'd probably have to look back to my childhood, when we ate a lot of varmint meat. I've eaten rabbit, squirrel, ground hogs, possums, raccoons, and even skunk on one occasion, on a summer visit back to my dad's family in Kentucky.

Squirrels were a particular favorite of my granddad's, and in addition to the meat, he also liked the brains, we'd have those scrambled in eggs. On a side-note, he also carried a carved raccoon pecker bone (I think I can say pecker bone here) that he used as a toothpick.

Mostly, the meat would be dusted in flour and pan-fried, though the skunk I had was spit-roasted outside. I haven't eaten any of that stuff since I was in my early teens, mainly because it's a lot easier to get beef, pork, and chicken. Even rabbit is scarce, unless you go to a specialty shop or specialty butcher, and they usually have to be ordered ahead of time.
 
I've eaten a LOT of unconventional things, but the item that took the most courage to put in my mouth were smoked silkworm cocoons.

My dad and his brother were big on challenging each other on foods. This had to be early but not the beginning of the 2000 decade. My uncle came up to visit, bringing smoked silkworm cocoons that he'd bought at a Chinese shop in the DC area.

I have no idea what they were smoked IN, but I have ideas....

At any rate, we were all in Dad's retirement home kitchen, and my uncle pulled out the can. They were already cooked or whatever (or so the can declared).

They both ate a cocoon or two, and offered them to me. This is the only food I've been proffered that I took a while to get around to picking up a morsel to eat. I took one.

Um. Kinda nasty. Just to be sure, I eventually swallowed a second. Yup, definitely nasty. My uncle and father seemed to like them but actually they didn't eat very many. When I left that night to go home, they made sure these went home with me. "Hey, a gift for you!" They ended deposited in the next trash pick up.

Frankly, I don't know for sure, but I think the problem wasn't so much with these things being silkworm cocoons, but them being smoked in some horrid industrial-tasting sludge. I am willing to try UN-smoked silkworm cocoons down the road.

.
 
TastyReuben said:
What's the most unconventional/unusual/strange thing you've ever eaten? How was it prepared? What was the experience like? Was it something you'd eat again, or no?

For me, since I don't go around necessarily looking for weird and wonderful things to eat, I'd probably have to look back to my childhood, when we ate a lot of varmint meat. I've eaten rabbit, squirrel, ground hogs, possums, raccoons, and even skunk on one occasion, on a summer visit back to my dad's family in Kentucky.

Squirrels were a particular favorite of my granddad's, and in addition to the meat, he also liked the brains, we'd have those scrambled in eggs. On a side-note, he also carried a carved raccoon pecker bone (I think I can say pecker bone here) that he used as a toothpick.

Mostly, the meat would be dusted in flour and pan-fried, though the skunk I had was spit-roasted outside. I haven't eaten any of that stuff since I was in my early teens, mainly because it's a lot easier to get beef, pork, and chicken. Even rabbit is scarce, unless you go to a specialty shop or specialty butcher, and they usually have to be ordered ahead of time.
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I have had squirrel when I was a kid, and Dad prepared it. I liked it.

More recently - maybe 7-8 years ago - a co worker shot several squirrels and kindly skinned and gutted a couple he brought over to me. I put the larger one in a stew, but the best of these was the younger, smaller one, which I braised, AND I TOTALLY ENJOYED. Young squirrel meat is now one of my favorite things to enjoy. I seriously wish I could find it again.

I can find rabbit in supermarkets (occasionally) but that meat is too dry to truly impress me. But... Yes, I'll eat.

=============

Dad did bring home rattlesnake when I was about 11ish. I don't remember much of that, other than it did taste like chicken. Good chicken.
 
caseydog said:
Snails and testicles are as exotic as I have eaten. I've eaten alligator tail -- tastes like chicken. Oh, and shark.

I have zero interest in eating insects.

CD
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I'm sure I related the story where, while living in Texas, my wife accidentally ate bull testicles at the Texas Folklife Festival.

Long story short, they were listed as "Calf. Fries," and she asked me what they were, and I said, "That must be short for 'California' so maybe it's avocado or something like that." I wasn't being deceitful, the festival highlighted foods from all over the country and the world, so having something called "California Fries" seemed likely enough.

The fellow working the booth gave her a little sample, and she chewed...and chewed...and chewed, and she finally asked what they were.

"Well, they come from a cow."

"What part of the meat, though? It's really gristley and chewy."

He grinned and said, "The part that makes him a bull."

As it slowly dawned on my wife what he meant, she spat them out, right on the counter of the booth.

She didn't talk to me for the rest of the day. When that story pops up now, she's still convinced I knew what they were and tricked her, but I didn't.
 
TastyReuben said:
I'm sure I related the story where, while living in Texas, my wife accidentally ate bull testicles at the Texas Folklife Festival.

Long story short, they were listed as "Calf. Fries," and she asked me what they were, and I said, "That must be short for 'California' so maybe it's avocado or something like that." I wasn't being deceitful, the festival highlighted foods from all over the country and the world, so having something called "California Fries" seemed likely enough.

The fellow working the booth gave her a little sample, and she chewed...and chewed...and chewed, and she finally asked what they were.

"Well, they come from a cow."

"What part of the meat, though? It's really gristley and chewy."

He grinned and said, "The part that makes him a bull."

As it slowly dawned on my wife what he meant, she spat them out, right on the counter of the booth.

She didn't talk to me for the rest of the day. When that story pops up now, she's still convinced I knew what they were and tricked her, but I didn't.
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Yup. Calf fries are young bull testicles. They are a bit chewy. They are usually deep fried, as you would expect in Texas. They don't taste bad, but I wouldn't order any at a restaurant that has them. When I do eat them, it is usually on a dare, and I play it up to con someone into buying me a beer if I eat one. :wink:
 
Mountain Cat said:
I've eaten a LOT of unconventional things, but the item that took the most courage to put in my mouth were smoked silkworm cocoons.
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Ahhhh, silkworms!

These are sold at our evening market. The are fried.

35592
 
caseydog said:
Yup. Calf fries are young bull testicles. They are a bit chewy. They are usually deep fried, as you would expect in Texas. They don't taste bad, but I wouldn't order any at a restaurant that has them. When I do eat them, it is usually on a dare, and I play it up to con someone into buying me a beer if I eat one. :wink:
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About 25 years ago a friend and I were eating at a Colorado steak house. We ordered them (the calf ones) as an appetizer to share. They were okay - not terribly chewy but a bit so. A lot more tender than most preparations of chicken breast!!! They were sold as "Rocky Mountain Oysters".

The lamb ones are indeed very tender. I've not done them deep fried - not really interested in all the breading and the deep frying if I can help it.
 
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