OT: For the adventurous epicurean. What’s the most unusual food you’ve eaten?

[JMT3]

Snake, whale, squirrel, very gammy, quail and ostrich come to mind quickly. I guess I could add goats head here too.

[pdonk]

Not as weird as some here.

Proteins
Sweet breads - depends on how they are cooked - served them at my wedding as sliders with a Buffalo wing hot sauces - thanks Matty Matheson
Beef cheeks - pressure cook them and they are amazing
chicken hearts - yuck
Dehydrated then deep fried beef tendon as part of an amazing steak tartar dish.
Chicken feet, they look like children's hands, not for me.

Not since I was a kid and forced to - goat, sheep, moose, deer.

Exotic fruits
Durian, jackfruit - the smell in China town is not garbage.
Rambutan - tastes like lychee, skin is furry like a weird muppet.
Mangosteen - wish they were cheaper - nice sweet with a hint of sour.

[yngpunk]

If you're serious about cricket protein, you can start with acheta powder or protein bars made with acheta powder from someone like EXO Protein (exoprotein.com) rather than trying to eat whole, fried, crickets, which seems more of a novelty

They've been around for awhile, but have since changed their branding to focus less on the cricket component. I've had their protein bars (and fed them to senior executives ) and they taste like other protein bars...

Further reading here:

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/a...ating-crickets

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by bigbill

In addition to the grilled chicken hearts ...[snip]...no part of the sheep goes to waste.

In the late 1980s in our Brooklyn apartment my roommate and I used to grill chicken hearts over the open flame of our gas stove. Really delicious! The local Key Food supermarket would often have 1lb packages of fresh chicken hearts...sometimes I felt like we were the only people buying them.

As for the No Part Goes To Waste thing, here's what might be a distressing story for folks who perhaps think American fast food is unchallenging: My Dad worked in the plastics industry -- polystyrenics to be precise -- and so he was involved when McDonalds made the (temporary) switch to foam plastic clamshell containers for their sandwiches. As part of his work with McDonalds, he learned this wonderful bit of trivia:

There are only four parts of a steer that are not used in the ground beef McDonalds uses for their burgers...brains, eyeballs, testicles, and bones. Everything else gets thrown into the meat grinder all together, the filet mignon right next to the stomach and intestines.

[benb]

Alligator, Ostrich? I guess I don't even think those were weird. I liked Alligator quite a bit and would eat it again. When I had Alligator it was not chewy.

I think the weirdest thing I've had is Chinese Pork Blood Curd. The weirdest thing about is I had it in Massachusetts at a place you'd think was just your normal US Chinese restaurant. A bunch of us were out for a work lunch and one of the Chinese guys who was pretty macho says he's ordering for everybody and proceeds to order the entire lunch and none of it was actually on the menu.

There was some Cambodian or Thai dish I had that was an ultra spicy dish with Octopus and that just about knocked me out of my chair. Again just here in Massachusetts since Lowell has lots of Cambodian immigrants and one of my friends/co-workers was Cambodian. It was the spiciest thing I've ever eaten and it had the whole Octopus texture.

Mostly I'm an amateur.

[Frankwurst]

Rocky mountain oysters (Fried bull testicles)
The worm out of a mezcal bottle
Rattle snake
Fish livers
Head cheese
Blood pudding

[echappist]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

There are only four parts of a steer that are not used in the ground beef McDonalds uses for their burgers...brains, eyeballs, testicles, and bones. Everything else gets thrown into the meat grinder all together, the filet mignon right next to the stomach and intestines.

I thought steers by definition do not have bollocks?

[rrudoff]

None of these are too gross in my view

Horse-Italy and France
Raw Opihi-Hawaii
Stinky Tofu and Natto many times
Sweetbreads
Chicken Sushi-Japan
Boar in Italy too many times to count
Quail
Kava in Fiji (Chewed in front of me first)
You name it from the lamb and chicken in Israel at an Arab restaurant
Whitebait
Blood Sausage in too many places to name
Haggis

I did not eat Scorpions in Mexico City, and I enjoyed the Pulque greatly

[jadmt]

I grew up working on a ranch and every year at branding time we castrated and dehorned at the same time. when we were done there was a rocky mountain oyster feed and even at 12 yoa you were expected to drink beer and eat up.......A local bar had a grill and they served cow brains and eggs which of course at 2am tasted fine when you were drunk. Worse thing I saw anyone eat was my buddy ate a live snake....for a little while he was letting it stick its head out between his teeth before eating it...made me sick and still kind of does thinking about it...lots alcohol involved in that one..pretty much any wild game over the years but believe it or not I have not had rabbit.

[reuben]

I ate a Big Mac.

[jadmt]

Originally Posted by reuben

I ate a Big Mac.

safer than a 1/4 pounder......those can kill you.

[martl]

Originally Posted by jadmt

safer than a 1/4 pounder......those can kill you.

we call it a Royale with Cheese

[Flinch]

Oh, almost forgot...
Home made whale meat spaghetti sauce when I was 12. If you've never smelt whale blubber being rendered after slaughter (Iceland, 1963)- you have no idea!