ever eat a pine tree? Some parts are edible. Or, what strange things you've eaten?

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cognitivefun

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Remember the late Euell Gibbons ads for Grape Nuts? The one that started out "ever eat a pine tree? Some parts are edible." I always thought a pine tree probably tasted better than Grape Nuts, but that's another thread.

This thread is about the strangest food you ever ate.

I arrived in Singapore once, very late, and I went to those food courts they have and saw a stand that said "pig organ soup." It was delicious. Kids around high school age were eating it to. Imagine high school kids eating pig organ soup in the USA?

In Oaxaca, Mexico we ate fried beetles (not to be mistaken for Beatles). They taste pretty good.

What about you? What's the strangest thing you've eaten?
 
I haven't eaten anything that exciting, I think. I had haggis once, and it was quite tasty. They didn't tell me what it was until after. On a camping trip I ate crickets once. They kept jumping on me so I'd skewer them on twigs and roast them by the fire. Crunchy!

-t7-
 
A friend and I were out in Sarajevo in the late 90s. We stopped in at this really nice restaurant with an outdoor dining area on the side with trees and flowers and such which was all fenced in.

We sat down and ordered, both of us getting muckalice, which is kind of a pork, veal or mixed meat dish fried in a thin, spicy sauce with tomato, paprika, peppers, hot peppers and onions. It was my favorite dish and this was exceptionally well made.

The owner of the restaurant stopped out and asked how we were doing and if we liked everything. We followed up with a turkush coffee and were hanging out talking, when we heard this cat start to wail, then a few cats, then a whole bunch of cats.

The owner walks over to the back fence, and yells, and then kicks the fence and on the back side, you could hear the cage rattling as all the cats quieted down...
 
Euell Gibbons was one of my favorite writers. I think I have all of his books, even the out-of-print, hard-to-find ones. I used to read his column in Organic Gardening magazine too.

My list.

Slugs
scorpions
grasshoppers
living shrimp swimming in wine
turtle blood
turtle gall (bile)
camel hump
alligator
rattlesnake
bull testes (rocky mountain oysters)
possum
chitons
sea urchin roe
sea cucumber
seaweed (numerous types)
dog
chicken feet
pig feet
duck head
duck tounges
brains (various critters)
haggis
"trash fish" (various including dogfish, sculpin, etc.)
limpets
Poisionous mushrooms that become edible after boiling
octopus
Giant Whelks (from crabpots in the Bering Sea. Slightly poisionous, can give you a little tingle.)
Sashimi - various types, make myself when I catch salmon
Raw beef - Ethiopian style
organ meats (just about everything)
Tibetan tea (with salt and Yak butter, Yangdu will know about this)
Tsampa (parched barley, usually soaked with Tibetan tea)

I'm sure there are a few other things that should be on this list that I've forgotten.



Possum beheaded by HI WWII
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Red Flower feeding me scorpions.


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The waiter at Quan Ju De in Beijing said not too many prople order this dish anymore!

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Red Flower with some delicious duck hemi heads --

IM002371a.JPG
 
During the Huricane Catrina relief operation, people at a local hospital gave my unit two turduckens. No one had ever heard of it. Eventually we found someone who could cook it for us and we had them as an addition to our dinner.

The food is a seasoned and boneless chicken stuffed inside a dimilarly prepared duck, which is then stuffed inside a similarly prepared turkey. It is then either baked of deep fried. It is actually pretty good. Kinda spicy and interesting flavors... mostly because the robust duck would marinate the other birds. Might not be exotic, but it was certainly unusual.
 
Howard[b/], that is amazing.

I read about a restaurant in China awhile back that serves only dishes made from rat. They raise the rats of course. You wouldn't eat a wild rat, would you?


Imagine...
Rack of rat
Ratatouille
Leg of rat
Rat tenderloin
and my favorite...

medallions of rat, served with a bearnaise sauce, on braised leeks with a caper polenta, and spam.
 
Well Howard has me beat by a mile, and I'm a Cajun. I've had alligator (actually participated in the hunt), rattlesnake (girlfriends dad trying to scare me off and didn't know my heritage), coon, horse (at boy scout camp), a few bugs on a dare, blackbird gumbo (deliscious), etc. I used to think I ate some pretty outrageous stuff until a friend of mine who had been in the Navy told me about some of the Philipino cuisine he ate. He told me of a delicacy over there and maybe someone here knows the name. It was embrionic duck eggs, whole and raw. They ate shell and all he said. I have always thoght of myself as open minded when it came to food, but I guess there are limits.

Andy
 
Rattlesnake,alligator,coon.But the absolute worst was muskrat.I swore I would beat the next person who offered it.Being told it was very good,by some older guys at the gun club I belonged to,I never truted them again.
 
Ain't nothing y'all got thet skeers me, I et my ex wife's cookin' fer nine years, and lived to tell the tale. :eek:

Flashing back to Desert Storm, food inspector: "guys, don't eat the eggs, they've got worms in them", me: "sorry pardner, those are the first real eggs we've had in some months, and besides, them worms is tangy, right boys?":D

Sarge
 
I knew I forgot somethings on my list.

Durian
horse
small birds of undetermined type
Yak
sea slugs
Bison
water buffalo

Dave Hahn said:
Howard, have you considered fear factor?
Click to expand...

I saw it on TV once and it looked delicious. I'm kind of shy though. Do you think they serve take-out?

cognitivefun said:
I read about a restaurant in China awhile back that serves only dishes made from rat. They raise the rats of course. You wouldn't eat a wild rat, would you?
Click to expand...

I have nothing against rodents. I understand people eat squirrells, and I have eaten rabbit. I just haven't had the opportunity to eat rat. But I do have Karen Hood's "Cave Cooking" video series (highly recommended) which shows video of preparing and eating mice. I just have not had a chance to try that one yet. With wild animals you do have to be careful about disease transmission, but that holds for the more commonly eaten rabbits, armidillo, etc also.

aproy1101 said:
He told me of a delicacy over there and maybe someone here knows the name. It was embrionic duck eggs, whole and raw. They ate shell and all he said.
Click to expand...

Balute

Bandit5 said:
During the Huricane Catrina relief operation, people at a local hospital gave my unit two turduckens. No one had ever heard of it. Eventually we found someone who could cook it for us and we had them as an addition to our dinner.

The food is a seasoned and boneless chicken stuffed inside a dimilarly prepared duck, which is then stuffed inside a similarly prepared turkey. It is then either baked of deep fried. It is actually pretty good. Kinda spicy and interesting flavors... mostly because the robust duck would marinate the other birds. Might not be exotic, but it was certainly unusual.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, and not that far out of the mainstream.
 
Balute huh, I always had a feeling he was pulling my string.

Howard you are the champ. I cannot imagine you ever starving to death.

Andy
 
Muskrat stew is good eatin'...I've had lots of the same stuff as Howard, but the one that stands out was dog. It was good going down, then once told what I had just eaten, even back going back out.
 
ground squirrel
tree squirrel
cottontails
jackrabbit
moose
elk
deer
grubs from log
live minnows
raccoon
mergansers
coots
Here goes:

bear
lizards
rattlesnake
gophersnake
thistles
inner pine bark
alligator
bison
kidneys
heart
liver
diniguan (pork cooked in blood)
diniguan (intestines cooked in blood)
tendons
tripe
 
Some odd ones in some odd countries. Bugs, bats, what have you. I like trying new things.

I have a theory that if it didn't taste good, the locals wouldn't be eating it, so why worry?

That being said, I don't like sea urchin roe, I don't like salmon roe, and I don't like menudo. Everything else was more or less enjoyable.
 
Dave Rishar said:
Some odd ones in some odd countries. Bugs, bats, what have you. I like trying new things.

I have a theory that if it didn't taste good, the locals wouldn't be eating it, so why worry?

That being said, I don't like sea urchin roe, I don't like salmon roe, and I don't like menudo. Everything else was more or less enjoyable.
Click to expand...

I never had bat. What does it taste like? Chicken?

I forgot salmon roe and menudo on my list.

There's a little Mexican place nearby that makes their own special menudo. Mostly I like to have it when I have a queasy co-worker with me.
 
Never that many animals that are strange just game.

Lots of unusual mushrooms and plants of various kinds.
 
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