What are the weirdest things you've eaten and how did they taste?

[HamdenRice]

This post is really just to jump off the thread on "what tastes like chicken." Most of the things that taste like chicken are not things you eat very often -- and that got me started thinking about all the weird things I've eaten, how good/bad they were and where I ate them.

So what are the weirdest things you ate? Where did you eat them? How did they taste?

For me:

1. Squirrel. My grandmother's farm each summer. My uncle would go squirrel hunting (illegally, out of season) during our week long family reunion. Grandma would cook it in a sweet, tomato based sauce. We would sit around and spit out the shotgun shots.

It was very delicious -- mainly, I think now because of Grandma's sauce.

2. Rat.

I was on a mission with a now-defunct volunteer program called Crossroads Africa to build a school in rural Liberia (over 20 years ago, before the civil war there). There was a hunter who brought bush meat to the village every week or so. I saw him bring this huge rat, but they told us it was muskrat; I learned later it was a very big bush rat.

It was delicious, especially with the pepper and palm oil sauce that is ubiquitous in Liberia.

3. Porcupine. The same summer in Crossroads Africa. Also delicious, but the meat was sweet, like pork.

4. Manicou (sp?), basically a Caribbean possum. Visiting my then-in-laws in the island of Grenada. My ex-wife's uncle was driving us around the island and came across it -- as road kill.

Also delicious, with fatty sweet meat, like uber pork.

5. Mopani worm. Johannesburg in a restaurant that focused on traditional wild foods. Terrible -- like cardboard mixed with crab guts.

What about you?

[flamingyouth]

1. Auuuuuggggghhhh! You lost me at "rat"

Oh. My. I have to run away now.

I am deathly afraid of rats. I know people eat them. I think I would rather starve.

I have got to hand it to you, though. You're brave.

[indigobusiness]

2. Crow

Bad

[Hoping4Change]

3. I happened to drink a centipede that was in a can apple juice

but I didn't swallow. When I first spat it out I thought it was part of an apple but as I looked closer and uncurled it to my eternal horror I saw what it was.


A friend tells how once he was eating a bag of barbeque chips when he realized the barbeque was walking up his arm. He realized then that the barbeque coating was in fact small tiny mites or whatever they're called which must have crawled into to the bag that had been opened on a previous day.

[HamdenRice]

8. That's disgusting, even for me

I'm pretty game about eating things -- but for some reason the dust mites actually made my stomach jump.

There's a funny dynamic at work: if you eat something weird like mopani worms or chocolate covered ants intentionally it's ok, but if you eat it by mistake -- the centipede in the cider or dustmites in the potato chips -- its disgusting.

[Hoping4Change]

15. Welll if you're disgusted imagine how I and my friend feel.

You never stipulated in your post that you weren't looking for unintentioanl consumption of creepy things:)

[HamdenRice]

17. Intentional, Unintentional -- it's all good -- or disgusting n/t

[Carni]

4. whole salt cured dried squid

Compared to the other samplings above -- the dried squid isn't exactly weird.

It tastes kind of like a crab jerky (or what I would imagine crab jerky would taste like if there was such a thing!)

[scarlet_owl]

7. My husband loves dried squid. And kimchi.

I make him eat both outside because they're stinky.

[Carni]

21. Is that Avatar

The husbands? LOL!
(I am sorry but that cracked me up) ;)

But seriously... the dried squid, although foul smelling, isn't that bad it looks and smells way worse than it tastes.

[StClone]

5. Raccoon

My Dad used to smoke them for people and we were given some as a 'gift.' It tastes wild and sort of metallic. Squirrel is quite good.

[luaneryder]

6. You ate road kill!?!

I call that brave!

[Catch22Dem]

11. Just to clarify

Did you kill the road kill or did you FIND the road kill and decide to eat it?

[HamdenRice]

14. I'm embarrassed to say ...

that it was "found in the road" roadkill. "Uncle" Terry sort of sniffed it and judged that it was "fresh" if I remember. He said something like, "it jus been kilt."

[Catch22Dem]

19. Oh dear gawd

I can't imagine. He sniffed it. Hilarious!

[Fridays Child]

13. Oops. Post 12 was supposed to be under your roadkill question.

:)

[Nevernose]

9. I'v eaten rat

Killed it myself with a stick. It wasn't in Africa, though, it was in Texas. Reagan was president. Part of some cracked-out boy scout survivalist training thing led by a psychotic Apache.

What was Liberia like?

[HamdenRice]

16. Liberia was wonderful

I was there in the summer of 1981 -- sort of like Liberia's brief window of relatively good times. Before 1980, Liberia was remarkably like South Africa with "Americo Liberians" as an elite and the "indigenous" people treated almost like slaves. 1981 was about a year after "Master Sargeant" Samuel Doe, an indigenous person, led a coup and overthrew the elitist system, but before he became an evil, vicious dictator (with massive support from the Reagan administration).

Liberia's villages were very poor, but the agriculture was very vibrant, so there seemed to be little hunger. The biggest problems were lack of clean water and health care. The people had a lot of parasites and chronic infections.

I really don't know where to start in describing it -- but it was a wonderful experience.

[Atlas Mugged]

10. Durian fruit

Disgusting smell - like rotting onions. Amazing flavor,though.

[Fridays Child]

12. The Missouri Highway Patrol takes fresh roadkill deer to the soup...

...kitchens and homeless shelters for venison stew.

[Richard D]

18. Smoked crickets

In Mexico. Quite good actually. Nothing like chicken. Crunchy and pretty spicy.

What I didn't eat were hormiles (not sure of the spelling). Little beetles sold by the small plastic bag, still alive. The recipe goes like this: Take a tortilla and roll into a cone. Fill with the hormiles. Cover with Salsa. Eat quickly before they crawl out.

They may taste like chicken.

[Taverner]

20. Silkworm larvae, fried grasshoppers, water beetle paste and Spider Eggs

Oh ant eggs too. All delicious. In Thailand - but I think they tasted good more because of the sasoning. Gotta warn you tho, grasshopper shells get stuck in your teeth like popcorn shells.

[Carni]

22. Good God!

You my friend should go on fear factor!