Food that looked like it would be gross, but when you tried it....Yummy!
 

Hmm, first thing that comes to mind are jalapeno peppers. I can eat them by themselves right out of the jar. They are so good. Hot, but good.:)

Haggis.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...ottishflag.gif

What's that?

I ate haggis in Edinburgh - I found it to be, um, surprising. Not what I would call yummy - mainly tasted like spiced oatmeal with chewy bits. Unfortunately I knew what the chewy bits were . . .

Sauerkraut looks disgusting but it is so good.

Chitterlings

I'm sure someone here will agree with me lol

I just looked up what Haggis is. Ewwwwwwww!

Sushi for me. Quivering raw fish flesh - mmmmmmm....yummy!

Octopus. Pipipi (little raw shellfish) in Hawaii.

Guacamole... looks like somebody ran the front lawn through a blender. Tastes yummy!!

Pulling the divider out between the cheese and carmel popcorn in the tin and mixing it up. Sounds gross, but Yum!

Yep. I think it tastes sort of like spicy chopped liver, and -- get ready to groan -- I love liver (if it's prepared properly).

LOL. I completely understand that reaction. But it's tasty.

Actually, I think haggis is a good example of how culturally-conditioned food preferences can be. It sounds gross to an American because we typically don't eat offal (with the exception of liver, and then most of us don't eat that).* But there are other things we do eat that to someone in another culture might sound equally strange or disgusting.

[soapbox]It's also an example of not letting any part of the animal go to waste, something that can seem very foreign to contemporary American culture, which too frequently forgets that any form of meat was once an animal.[/soapbox]



* At least we don't knowingly eat offal; sometimes it's best not to ask what's in the sausage. ;)

That's called Chicago-style! Beyond delish.

Having lived in Glasgow-- haggis is delicious. It's cheap, too (although if you buy it in a posh restaurant it can be expensive, but the stuff you get at the grocery store is fine). I found it to just be filling and comforting with mashed potatoes at the end of the day.

Plus, I've had the VEGETARIAN haggis! My roommate was a strict vegetarian, so we'd cook that some days. It was part of my regular diet.

Mind over matter--you don't mind, it don't matter.

OMGGARRETTS.

We were in Chicago for a wedding and picked up a mixed bag from Garrett's...then post-wedding, everyone drunkenly inhaled the entire huge bag and we all woke up with orange hands.

Velveeta "cheese" sauce.... so good

Menudo!! Hmmm... I could use a bowl right now.

Agree on Haggis and Guacamole.
Was afraid to try both at first but they're so good!

Stamppot is my favorite meal in winter. Traditional Dutch meal. Looks gross but tastes sooooo good!

Indian food. Looks very gross but is actually amazing! Pictured: Mattar Paneer


http://blog.bharatbuysell.com/wp-con...tar-paneer.jpg

I love liver.

I also love chicken gizzards.

I hate chitterlings. I had it fried at a restaurant when I was a child. I liked it but only because it reminded me of chicken gizzards.

wow... that does look very unappealing. It makes me think of what the inside of our stomachs would look like after a meal.

Yeah...that's the problem with Indian food...it's striking resemblence to vomit. Pretty much most of the items on the Indian buffet resemble it in some form (with the obvious exception of rice, bread.) Makes it that much more difficult to recruit people to come along with you...

But honestly, it's really delicious! It just looks really gross. It's a hard thing to describe- kind of spicy and creamy. All this talk is making me hungry :rolleyes:

I've never had chitterlings, but I did sample tripe one summer when I was working at an Italian restaurant. It looked, smelled and tasted very gross.

There are better pictures, but overall it's not much worse looking than a stew.

Indian food is delicious. (But I've never thought it looked gross.)

I don't eat it anymore, but my dad and I loved potted meat on crackers.
Also...summer sausage. I crave it in the fall, but it looks awful and is so bad for you.:o

Oh man, Mattar Paneer....*drooool*

I've actually made my own paneer at home (super easy--boil milk, put in some lemon juice, curdle, strain into cheese cloth, press and eat/cook). I do miss being able to get it cheaply at a grocery store. Get with it, America!

I've tried Indian food -- I don't think I've ever had any I liked. I have friends who love it, but even my wife, who's not nearly as picky as I am, passes on Indian food.

To each his own.

What 'burgh are you in? In Pittsburgh they just closed one of my favorite Indian restaurants :(

When I was a child, I was the pickiest eater EVAR. I grew out of it and am now a pretty adventurous eater.

Indian food never looked "gross" to me, with two exceptions: dhal and paneer. I tried masoor dhal (the red one) and nom nom nom :) But most dhal is on my shit list, as is paneer.

Eel sushi initially looked disgusting to me, but I went out for sushi with a few friends, and we ordered an eel roll, and I was convinced to try a piece - nom nom nom. I have a limited tolerance, though - I'll eat one piece of eel sushi or I'll split a roll with someone, but I prefer other types of sushi.

El yucko.

Spinach-cheese dip. It looked like someone mowed the lawn and put cheese on it, but sooo good!

Twice in my life I've been served snapper soup, and both times were at gatherings of Southern women. The first was at a dinner at a KD convention in New Orleans, and we (the people at my table) didn't know what it was. It didn't look pretty, and I just assumed it was some kind of potage, but it was delicious. It was a big shock to a lot of us to find out afterward that we'd just eaten turtle, and I wondered if I would eat it again by choice, but the idea of eating turtle, even deliciously prepared turtle, is just too weird for me.

The other occasion was at a UDC luncheon, and I had to eat it to be polite. But I swear there won't be another time.

Responses first - we get Indian food here all the time (there are WAY more Indians here than Emiratis, so it's probably the second most common after Lebanese food) and I love it. There is a restaurant here that serves black dal (black lentils) that will make you see god. I've been on a mission to find a place that makes it as well, since the first place is so expensive. Everywhere else it's just, meh.

We have a Garrett's here at the Dubai Mall! It's not as much fun as standing in line on Michigan Avenue in the cold, and they made the tragic mistake of putting the poppers behind smell-proof glass so we didn't know for some time that there was a Garrett's there. But yes, a vat of caramel and cheese and a handful of napkins and I'm good for the duration.

There is a food here that I tasted only out of courtesy, but LOVED it and went on a mission to find a recipe, which took more than a year to find. Madrouba. It literally means beaten. Here's the short version of the recipe. Boil chicken (no bones or skin), a kilo of onions, a kilo of tomatoes, a larger version of bulgar and a bunch of spices. As you cook it you beat it with a baseball bat looking thing until it turns to a homogenous mush. I found a stick blender worked wonders. The result is something like turkey stuffing and it is HEAVEN. But don't confuse it with hareesa, another Arab dish that looks very similar but is sticky and in my opinion DISGUSTING.

I live in Millvale, so just across the river from Lawrenceville. My go-to Indian place is Taj Mahal on McKnight Road...sooo good. Which place was your favorite?

Agree about Indian food. Once you become a fan, the appearance just reminds you of previous delicious meals. But if your first introduction comes as an adult, the veggie dishes do have a tendency to look...pre-chewed or partially digested. The lucky thing is, it smells so fantastic, it's usually pretty easy to get a newcomer to give it a try.

I have eaten at Indian restaurants quiet a few times. It's okay, not something I would go to on my own. There are other types of cuisine I would rather have over Indian.