Why am I suddenly not hungry anymore...
;)

Caviar
Foie Gras
Pate
Octopus
Beef tartare
All kinds of sushi
Venison
Boar (a restaurant nearby has an awesome preparation!)
Truffle stuff
Squid
Seaweed
Kelp
Ortolan (had it in Paris when I was 12, and I was really upset when I read more about it afterward!)

Wow, that is upsetting. Yuck.

I've always wanted to try Filipino food. That pork dish does sound pretty good.

I've never tried smoked octopus, at least I don't think so. I've eaten the little octopus (or squid, i dont remember right now) that they have at the local chinese restaurant. I might have to try smoked octopus one of these days.

I loved the movie Gigi when I was little, and in it they eat ortolan for lunch one day. So when we went to Paris and my aunt pointed it out on the menu, I wanted it. It was traumatizing enough eating it, with bones and all, but when I was older and read how the birds are caught and killed, I was really sad.

It really is. A lot of people are so disgusted by it, but I'd wager a guess that they've never had it. They just judge based on what their eyes see.

With such a large amount of ethnic foods here, it's kinda hard not to be exposed to the weird and exotic. Most of them aren't all that bad.

I will draw the line on balut and natto, though. I've had both and vowed never again.

:eek: Ostrich meat? Gross.

I heard that Hog Head cheese and pigs brains are the same thing.

ETA: I tried forg legs but I couldn't finish them because I couldn't get pass the look of the legs themselves.

No, I'm not from the south. I saw these things at a meat market. To me they seemed exotic because I didn't know people actually eat that. Cow tongue??? I would never.....so gross. There's no way around it, anyone who eats that is eating saliva. Ughh.http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/31.gif

Except not. There is this thing, it's called COOKING FOOD. Don't knock it til you try it.

Oh, I forgot all about natto! I don't think it's that bad, I'd eat it again. But I'm a pescetarian, so there are a lot of things listed above that I won't eat, so it's only fair that I eat the weird/gross vegetable items. ;)

i take it that 90% of you would eat each other, lol.

That smell gets to me each time. Truthfully, it doesn't taste all that bad. But that SMELL. I can't get through one bite without wanting to puke.

I'm not an adventurous eater but I don't think of squid as exotic. We had it every Christmas Eve (in the form of calamari) but I never knew it was squid until I was a teenager. Then I went years without eating it again...lol. I like it now :)

Have you ever had a partial lobe of this before? I am very fond of foie gras, but most places you just get a few thin slices or it is crammed into a terrine.

There is one fine restaurant I visit periodically where they serve a big chunk of an entire lobe in one course- and it is incredibly delicious, but I cannot look at it as I am cutting and eating it.

Served in so large a piece (8 ounces or so- enough saturated fat to last you a month), the very light cooking process means what you get is pretty much raw, and all the internal linings and fluids in there are more than I can stand to watch.

But very, very tasty...

i didnt know what balut was until i clicked on the link. turns out i have eaten it before. i just didnt know what it was called. i dont eat the chick though, just the yellow part.

i have tasted fried grasshoppers and fried june bugs before.

I think it is funny that many have listed escargot - which I don't consider exotic at all. Mmmmm . . . garlic butter.

I love Irish Black Pudding (Blood Pudding) My dads parents are from Ireland and he grew up on a farm so his mom would make it fresh for him, and him and step-mom usually buy it once a year at the Irish Fesh but knowing what it was made of grossed me out to much until i was in Ireland and it was on my plate for breakfast so I figured why not (the whole when in Rome thing) and its actually really really good. . . Theirs some of it in my freezer rite now :p

Agreed. I'd say the same about foie gras and caviar, too. Pricey, sure; exotic, nah.

(And as far as I'm concerned, none of them are worth eating, much less paying what you usually have to pay for them.)

Escargot, Kangaroo, Giraffe, humpback whale, seal, eel (not sushi, but that's good too)

I'd completely disagree...foie is definitely worth the price. I actually have a 6# bag of it in my freezer right now!

Oh, I know some people love it, and more power to them. Like I said, I love haggis, so who am I to talk.

But every time I've had foie gras, I feel like Tom Hanks in "Big," where he starts trying to scrape the food off his tongue. Just doesn't do it for me.

Do you eat tiny corn like Tom Hanks,too?:p

33girl, you mentioned scrapple. I haven't had that, nor from RaggedyAndy's description, will I probably ever. I have had dandelion salad soaked in bacon fat dressing as the Eastern Pennsylvanians do. It felt like I had sucked on a big stick of butter. Yuck! I would have never tried it if I had known what I was eating.

Has anyone ever had Ugli Fruit?

LOL!

yes. :o

I know I have, but I was younger, so I can't remember much of it. I just remember laughing at the name!

I once ate an Italian BMT from Subway made by a skilled sandwich artist.

The sad thing is, I've met people who think that it passes for a good Italian sandwich. They also, apparently, have never been to a good Italian deli.

It reminds me of an episode of Anthony Bourdain's show, where he said that the most disgusting food he's ever eaten was a Chicken McNugget.

And this is why you need to come around more often!

Not all the bacteria dies when you cook the food. Boil it, freeze it, nuke it, or whatever, it doesn't matter. Uhmm there's "these things" called "Baterial spores" that will still be there, and in this case the ones found in saliva.

Cheerfulgreek, do you know that kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray? Yeah, I hear it's just like that. Just like how eating cow tongue is like eating...saliva. And ewwwwwwwwwww SALIVA!

Hahahha why oh why did I read the new posts on this thread before deciding what I want for lunch? I must be a freak or something!

I've got some in my kitchen right now... hubby loves it! :D I don't think I would consider it weird or exotic, though.

sheep/mutton----it didnt taste bad, but I felt weird eating it and havent eaten it since (14 years ago).

It probably is, but I wouldn't know because I've never kissed a smoker. I wouldn't go out with a guy who smoked anyway.

Has anyone tried raw oysters before? I love oysters, but not raw. I once tried them that way but the slime made me gag. I couldn't swallow it. It was SO gross.:( I've seen people eat them raw, and it looked good, at least until I tried it myself. Yuck.

Chitlin's - an acquired taste
Gizzards - my personal favorite
anything crunchy that's left from a pig -um um
Squirell and rice

Well, at least you didn't say gooey buns...

I tried them before; it had the nastiest fishy aftertaste! YUCK!!!

I tried frog legs for the first time today! It tasted like a mixture of fish and chicken with the texture of a chicken. Interesting...

I love pork rinds - are they considered weird? Mmmmmm . . . crunchy piggy goodness.

Squirrel - my mom fixed it in a skillet like she does pork chops, so it didn't taste any different than pork chops to me!
Ostrich burger- you could definitely tell it wasn't a beef burger- I'd say it was a little dryer (it's much leaner than beef) and tasted "game-y"er than beef
Pig intestines- it was part of a challenge, at a restaurant in chinatown. I chewed and swallowed as fast as I could.
Horse- The first time I went around Europe, I was only 10, and always got spaghetti with meat sauce. I got it in Paris, Vienna, Brussels, etc., etc. Looking back on the trip, and how often I ate "spaghetti with meat sauce" I likely had some beef mixed with horse meat at some point.
Prickly Pear Cactus-flavored shake- it just tasted like a regular milkshake with a different fruit flavor.

Venison- grew up in Wisconsin, so this was a regular thing for my family, and so I don't consider it exotic. I prefer it cooked as a roast. Yum!
Escargot- I love most all fresh seafood, and have had this so much I don't really consider it exotic either. What doesn't taste good with butter and garlic and olive oil?!

I consider myself pretty adventurous, but don't really like eating animals (besides seafood) that I consider to be pets, or to be inhumanely raised. So I draw the line at guinea pigs, dogs, turtles, horse (now that I know better), veal, foie gras, etc. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, and don't really care much what other folks eat, I just can't eat something that I could have myself as a pet.