Yes, I'd like the aardvark vomit, please: disgusting foreign foods

[Character Assassin]

Just found some old pictures from a summer trip to Iceland in 1988 with some friends. One of them was of a lovely table set with Harkarl (putrefied shark), svid (sheep's face, singed to remove the hair) and hrutspungar(soured rams' testicles).

There was also a picture of me puking after having sampled the Harkarl. It was absolutely disgusting.

I've eaten haggis (quite bad), Lutefisk (also quite bad) and durian (freaking stinky) and was not able to overcome the smell at the expense of the taste.

Anyone else have any other culinary wonders that I should avoid in the future?

[carolinayellowdog]

1. Sauerkraut and blood sausage n/t

[KFC]

19. Not foreign, but absolutely nasty - Possum

Greasy, stringy, nasty stuff. Don't you tell me you can cook it right. Can't be done.

[PittPoliSci]

57. they're ethnically German.

but they are both very available in america.

[Demobrat]

2. Grilled guinea pig with the fur still on.

Quite a delicacy in Equador.

[trof]

3. you're kidding

right?
burned guinea pig hair?

[slappypan]

4. Ever smell a durian?

Scary tropical fruit from Southeast Asia that smells like a rotting rhino. That smell is a weapon of mass destruction.

[AlienGirl]

46. I LOVE durian!

It actually doesn't smell bad to me--it smells kind of like bananas mixed with strawberries. (I think I don't have the receptor for the chemical that makes it smell like rotting meat.)

It tastes indescribably delicious, with a texture like avocado. The taste is reminiscent of a mango, but sweeter, with an undertone similar to green olives.

Tucker

[Pert_UK]

54. Ever belch after eating durian?

Your breath comes straight from Satan's bottom!

:evilgrin:

P.

[AlienGirl]

55. I don't belch

Therefore, I've never had that experience!

Tucker

[trof]

5. I was OK with the sushi

and sashimi.
It was a formal dinner in Tokyo.
And then they brought in the piece de resistance
A 3 foot long carp or sea bass or something.
All sliced and diced and reassembled.
And the effing gills were still moving,
in and out, in and out.
I excused myself and hid in the men's room for a while.

[SPICYHOT]

7. what about nato???

in Japan is a very "delicate" dish wich consist in soya beans but this particular beans are storage at room tempeture and leave it till gets full of yeast all over, by that time is ready to eat!
yuk!!!

[Character Assassin]

11. Errr.... I actually like nato

Especially when it's with yamakake.

Goddamn breakfast of champions, m'man.

[SPICYHOT]

23. But, but, but How?

that 's that's so soyuk!

[Art_from_Ark]

37. Nothing wrong with natto

It's no big deal, really. Kind of like cheese, in its own gooey way. Really nutritious, too. Yum!



What's really disgusting, though, is shiokara, otherwise known as squid entrails. Yuck.

Then there are those restaurants that feature live, cut up fish flopping around on a dish. I was unwittingly taken to one long ago and swore I would never go back.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. Shiokara! Yuck!

I also dislike kazunoko (herring eggs) and niboshi (tiny dried whole silvery fish sold in plastic bags as a snack).

I like the dried cuttlefish, though.

[Art_from_Ark]

49. I don't like niboshi as such

but when mixed with sliced almonds to make "almond fish", it can be quite palatable.

Ikakun (smoked squid jerky) is another delicacy that will never make it in the States.

[Character Assassin]

50. Nah, it's so nutritious that the funky nature of it doesn't bug

Again, throw some Yamakake together with that (Japanese yam paste with sashimi) and you've got a weight-lifter/rower/sprinter's dream.

[opiate69]

6. Palpitating cobra heart

a delicacy in VietNam. Also, Baloot... fermented partially developed fertilized duck egg.... ugh..

[oneighty]

8. Ah, Baloot

Many times I have heard that tale! I have a Fillipino brother-in-law.

He is a great cook, also wise. When visiting them he would say;

"Ed, you cannot eat this."

"You got that right my brother!" I would say.

180

[44wax]

58. leave the bagoong alone too

I will eat a pot of dinuguan though.

[WhataBildeberger]

9. any kind of testicles

should be off-limits. That's just f*cking nasty.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

14. Texas Calf Fries- Aka- Mountain Oysters - recipe anyone???

Texas Calf Fries- Aka- Mountain Oysters
Ingredients needed-
2 pounds bull testicles
Beer
Salt
Pepper- I prefer a little bit of cayenne
however black pepper will work.
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup corn meal
1 Teaspoon Garlic powder
1 Tablespoon Chili powder
2 Tablespoons Beef bouillon
Vinegar
Cooking oil- My grandpa used lard-
This will probably be hard to find- just use what your wife has- No wife?- Go buy the least expensive cooking oil at the grocery.


Lets do it-
With a sharp knife remove all the skin that surrounds each Ball. Soak the Balls in salt water for at least one hour. Drain. Put the Balls in a large pot of water and add about 1/4 cup vinager. Boil for about 5 minutes. Drain and let them cool. Slice the Balls to about 1/4 inch ovals. Put them all in a large bowl and cover with beer. Marinate
for up to two hours, or not. Put the eggs in a bowl and whip with a fork. Mix flour, corn meal, garlic, chili powder, pepper,and bouillon in a bowl. Dip each oval into the eggs, then into the flour mixture, back into the eggs, again into the flour mixture- then drop into the HOT oil and deep fry to a light golden brown- do not over cook!
Dip the ovals out and drain on paper towels.

[nuxvomica]

18. I was at a restaurant in Denver where they served them

We were trying all the appetizers on the menu because whe had a big group and it was a business dinner. There was rattlesnake and alligator, which is no big deal compared to the abominations they apparently serve in Iceland. I would have tried the Rocky Mountain oysters except that I have a seafood allergy. My girfriend liked oysters and I picked up a t-shirt for her that had the restaurant's adevtising on it. It showed a bull desperate for some oysters.
Somehow the subject never came up again until I gave her the t-shirt days later. She new immediately that they were bull testicles. I was a little embarrassed but mostly regretful. I could have eaten those oysters, allergy or not.

[ulysses]

22. gotta disagree

Never had mountain oysters and I'm not searching out the perfect recipe, but but turkey and lamb fries are quite good. Hey, eat the whole thing if you're gonna eat it at all!

[LynneSin]

10. Monkey Brains, freshly killed

I remember watching "Faces of Death" in college and they showed a scene where everyone is around a table bashing a monkey's head in and then scooping the brains out and eating it. The monkey is in a specialized table where his head is sticking out and the rest of the body is caged underneath.

[bicentennial_baby]

16. I remember that!!!!

OMG, that was horrible!! I'm a vegetarian with a soft spot for all non-human primates...

[Dork]

17. hoax

I have heard on numerous occasions that that's fake. In fact the Traces and Faces videos are chock full of BS.

[Interrobang]

12. Korean food.

Other than some of the pickled vegetables (and I include kimchi here), I've so far found it inedible. I had "teriyaki" beef at a little place here in town, and it was way too sweet. In Toronto, I went to what I thought was a "better" Korean restaurant and got the only thing I thought would be relatively edible, a sort of beef soup. Turns out, the soup broth was composed of equal parts water, beef blood, salt, and chili oil. There were a few gristly pieces of meat and some anemic onions floating in the top, and some buckwheat noodles. Urgh.

Then again, there are huge areas of the world where I *know* that if I go there, I will starve...hmmm...unless I find fleschike-kosher restaurants -- I can't have dairy products *at all,* which means large amounts of North America and Europe are difficult at best! :)

[Character Assassin]

13. Wow. There are fantastic Korean restaurants all over L.A.

If you ever make it out there, Korea Town in L.A., which resembles Seoul it's so Korean, has something for every taste.

[Interrobang]

20. No, you misunderstand me.

This place was so Korean they had to translate the menu for me, and they were having trouble finding someone who spoke enough English. I'm glad I managed to avoid the Korean equivalent of black pudding, though, because apparently it exists. I think that if there is such a thing as "good Korean food" out there, I'm too scarred to want to try it.

I prefer almost any other kind of Asian food to Korean. I'd really like to be able to say that I like Japanese food, but I don't, as a general rule -- too much seafood, too much tofu, too much seaweed. (I'm from a pretty well landlocked area, so I didn't grow up eating seafood other than canned tuna and fish sticks, really, so I never acquired the taste.) Vietnamese and Thai are nice happy mediums, AFAIC...and yes, I have eaten tripe as cooked by the Vietnamese. I don't like it very much, but it's far from the worst culinary experience I've ever had.

In fact, based on my experiences with food, I've taken to saying that if cooking is a measure of culture, then the Brits and the Koreans are probably pretty low on the pile. (Deep fried Mars bars?! Black pudding?! Bread and 'scripe'?! Buttered everything?! Food?! Surely thou jesteth!)

[Dookus]

25. hmm...

I went to Seoul last year and LOVED the food!

Didn't have anything ultra-exotic, but what I had was really tasty. Who knew there were so many kinds of kim-chee?

[KFC]

32. With you there on the Brit food

I worked there for two years. Awesome place - great people - but, outside expensive restaurants and Indian places, the food sucked.

I remember ordering nachos from a "mexican" restaurant in Chester. The salsa was a mixture of butter, mayonnaise, and ketchup. The garnish, as always, was corn. The chips were fritos.

If I had money back then, I would have opened a Taco Bell and made a fourtune. Not that Taco Bell is the best food in the world. Just would have been the best food in England.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

44. There's some wonderful Korean food

Bulgogi--marinated and charcoal broiled beef
Bibimbap--rice topped with veggies and egg
Mandutuikim--kind of an egg roll, others whose names I don't know.

[Pert_UK]

35. I was offered "Ox knee jelly" in a Korean restaurant in NY...

Said "no thanks!" and got the SPICIEST squid dish I have ever had instead.

Marvellous.

P.

[chenGOD]

59. Korean food is the best in the world.

Having lived in Korea for 4 out of the last 6 years, I can safely say that it's the best food out of anywhere I've been (including France, Germany, Spain, England, Japan and Canada). The Korean diet is also probably the healthiest in the world too, they eat so many vegetables.

Yes I've eaten dog here. It's pretty good too, depending on the restaurant. I've also eaten the live octopus, which is good with the red-pepper paste (although a little weird to feel the tentacles wriggle). I haven't eaten the rotten-fish soup yet, although I would like to try it.

When you went to the Korean restaurant, they probably westernized the food for you. I've found that they'll do that in Korean restaurants back in Canada.

And yes, dried squid is a great snack.

[dragonquest8]

15. funazushi

http://www.jas.or.jp/funazushi.html

[Habibi]

21. Nothing worse than sushi

which was actually pretty good.

Btw, how about posting those old pictures??

[Art_from_Ark]

39. Actually, sushi itself isn't raw fish

Sushi is a vinegared rice dish that may or may not contain raw fish. Inari-zushi, for example, contains absolutely no raw fish.

For what it's worth, raw fish (sashimi) isn't so bad. I refused to eat it at first, but now consider it a delicacy (except for fugu (blowfish) sashimi, which can be fatal if not prepared properly)

[bocadem]

24. UNI

I love sushi - but UNI makes me hurl...

It's the innards of sea urchins.


Some delicacy!

[Art_from_Ark]

42. Uni-- yum

The low priced stuff is what I like

[KCDem]

26. Russia has lots of delicacies for your enjoyment:

Kholodets is basically meat in gelatin, which is nasty.

Sala--bacon without the meat. Usually eaten frozen with vodka.

Not a good place to be a meat-eater, that's for sure.

[bleedingheart]

61. I was raised eating meat gelatin

my husband found it disgusting...but yet my young son will eat it when mom makes a fresh batch...

its otherwise known as head cheese..

[whirlygigspin]

27. stinky tofu

deep fried tofu--ooooooooooooo! the smell!!!!!!!

--Police were called to a Toronto appartment building last year when a woman was cooking it!!!

[Art_from_Ark]

41. Deep fried tofu is delicious

This Toronto police story sounds like an urban legend to me.

[Character Assassin]

51. That's Agedashi Tofu, and it's deeeeeelish!

[Ivory_Tower]

28. Seal Flipper

Not me, but a friend of mine told me that during his stay at a village in a remote area of Alaska, there was a local recipe: "Dig a pit, throw some seal flippers in the pit, and leave them there. When they start to foam, they're ready".

Don't know if anyone from Alaska could confirm or refute this, but I always wondered...

[KFC]

29. Certainly an urban legend, but - Vietnamese Dog-Spin Beef

Not a recipe for the PETA-inclined:

Take a dog and starve it for three days.

Feed it several pounds of high-quality beef. He will gulp it down very quickly.

Wrap his muzzle with plastic wrap (leave the nostrils clear). Close his trap firmly with duct tape.

Grab the dog by the back side and spin him for as many revolutions as you can manage.

Set the wobbling dog down in front of a large bowl and remove the duct tape from his muzzle. Dog will yack the beef into the bowl.

Beef is done. Serve with rice and steamed vegetables.

[SmileyBoy]

31. Oh, Jesus.

:puke::shudder:

[Pert_UK]

33. Beef-spin dog is better........

You take a cow and starve it for several days.....then you feed it several high-quality dogs........

Believe me, spinning that cow is hard work, but worth the effort!

:evilgrin:

P.

[SmileyBoy]

47. What about that recipe for whale diarrhea???

It's a delicacy in Taiwam, I hear.:-)

[whirlygigspin]

48. ROFL

I can't stop laughing!

[opiate69]

30. Damn..

WHAT IS THAT FRENCH DELICACY... THE LITTLE BIRD THAT YOU PRETTY MUCH EAT WHOLE, WITH A LITTLE TOWEL OVER YOUR HEAD??


edit: sorry 'bout the caps...

[Pert_UK]

38. Ortolans - gotta love those French!

"For centuries, a rite of passage for French gourmets has been the eating of the ortolan. These tiny birds -- captured alive, force-fed, then drowned in Armagnac -- were roasted whole and eaten that way, bones and all, while the diner draped his head with a linen napkin to preserve the precious aromas and, some believe, to hide from God. "

http://www.coldbacon.com/food/ortolan.html

[opiate69]

45. Yes! that's it!

Eewwww.. thanks for the info....I can never seem to remember the name. (Not that I'm going to be ordering it any time...)

[Pert_UK]

34. I LURVE black pudding (blood sausage), haggis, sushi, raw beef. Not Durian

Seriously......good haggis is fantastic, I had it for breakfast nearly every day when I was working in Scotland!

Black pudding can be good (it can be bad). I've got a great photo of me eating fried blood sausage in a small town in Yunnan province, China - bought from a woman who was frying it in the street.

Sushi RULES - what a pure, fine, delicate treat!

And as for raw beef - carpaccio (very thin slices) or steak tartare (done properly) are fantastic flavours!

What's wrong with you???

Durian fruit is hard work though. It absolutely stinks - like a garbage bag full of rancid fruit. The first taste is similar to the smell, but once you get over that, the 2nd taste is nice. It's a bit like custard, but vaguely pineappley and bananary. The major drawback is that when you then belch (and you will), it tastes like rotten fruit again.

P.

[BritishHuman]

53. I've had carpaccio

It was... a bit odd.

And it's not that British food is bad, it's just less extreme than most - for example, France has the highs of exquisite cuisine, but they also eat snails and horses. Extremes, see?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

36. Spagetti-O's

Worst thing I have ever tasted. Not even Tobasco can fix em.

[Pert_UK]

40. Caneton Rouennais

Strangled, lightly roasted duck. Squashed in a press and served with a heart, blood and red wine sauce.



I would actually eat this, but the last time I was in Rouen (France) my girlfriend said she wouldn't enjoy eating her food if I sat there with this dish in front of me.

You actually need a licence to be allowed to cook this dish in a restaurant.

P.

[SOteric]

52. In Western Samoa

I do not know the name of the dish, but...

They scrape out the innards of a demised pig, salt them heavily, squish them into a receptical that looks like a Coke bottle (and probably is) and bury them in the ground to ferment, ala Kimchee.

It is an indescribable rudeness to turn down the honour of being the first to sample this dish, - but luck would have it that you can either 'share' or 'bestow' the honour upon your host or another at the table. Better still, tell 'em you just can't stay for dinner.

[REP]

56. Most Chinese Food is Delicious But

there are some delicacies to be avoided, like chicken knees. It's not terribly disgusting, but the cewy cartilidge is the point. Too chewy and not enough taste.

Another that is rather gruesome is called Flying Around the Room, in which live shrimp are brought to the table and drowned in a spicy sauce, then eaten raw. The name is taken from how the shrimp behave pre-mortem.

I find sushi incredibly nasty. I keep trying to like it, but the only one I can tolerate isn't that authentic: cripsy salmon skin rolls. Not a big loss; I'm diabetic and rice isn't the best thing for me to eat.

Perhaps because of my Celtic genes I don't find British cooking to be all that horrible for the most part. A pasty can be a thing of beauty, and who can't like shortbread and soda bread? Yeah, some of the inventions - like spaghetti on toast - are unfortunate, but is it really worse than Hamburger Helper?

[devarsi]

60. Like watching a carcrash

I couldn't stop reading this disgusting thread!

I'm a long time vegetarian, and to me, any meat product qualifies as gross. But while I can understand why some people like the smell of cooking meat, I simply cannot fathom the desire to eat any dish that contains blood, entrails, or bloody entrails. Also uncooked or undead flesh.

HURRLLLL!

Remind me to pass up the next DU potluck.... :puke:

:-)

[bleedingheart]

62. My husband is getting sick from me just reading the

highlights of this thread...

hee hee