Grossest foods you ever liked?

[Xabia Jim]

I'm willing to try anything once....and also beliieve that if you know how to prepare or cook something you can eat a lot of interesting things. (particularly when you're hungry?)

I mean, how did someone figure out you can eat olives? Have you ever tasted one off the tree? Pickled green tomatoes?

Some things are gross because our mind wraps around them....like blood sausage? like squid/calamari? organ meats? mussels?

So what do you like that was gross sounding at first?

And what don't you like that you've tried?

My low point was tripe...tried it once but won't go back. Also squid in it's own ink (black) but that I'll try again 'cause I love calamari.

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

There was a Roman fish sauce factory here in Javea. They cut channels into the rocks on the shore for salt production? and/or salt water? and cut big vats in the rock.

Anyway, they made Garum, a fish sauce used thoughout the Roman empire for flavoring foods. It was made by throwing the entrails of fish (like tuna and anchovies) into pits with salt and letting it ferment for months.

Nobody liked to live near those places....and it doesn't sound appetizing

Fish sauce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...apparently it was a predecessor to worscheshire sauce!

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

James. can you move this thread to chit chat....

I should not have posted this with all the good memories of WFO meals...

sorry
XJ

[Frances]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

Ive heard that a good substitute for the salty fish entrails thing are anchovies...

They used it instead of salt, so if you're following a roman recipe and just leave that stuff out, it tastes pretty awful.

My worst eating experience was alligator - tasted like a platefull of gristle. But I'd try it again, if someone promised me that its meant to taste different...

See snails is another one. I like them, but how on earth does someone first decide these things might be good to eat?

[CanuckJim]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

Frances,

Truck stop, somewhere outside Brownsville, long time ago when I was on a road tour with two other guys: deep fried rattlesnake. Actually, it wasn't bad at all, and I'd already had a few run ins with Texas truck stop chili that I won't ever forget.

Jim

[chuckster]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

That would have to be Bulut (Balut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) in the Philippines. It actually tasted OK, but the little baby duck bill & feet were still crunchy.

Chuck

[asudavew]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

ugh Menudo...Top of my list. (like xabia.. it's made with tripe) (first three chambers of a cow's stomach)

Escargot... next

And I can eat about anything......
Kidneys, liver, heart... Never tried brains...

Anyone for some brains>?

[asudavew]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

That would have to be Bulut (Balut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) in the Philippines. It actually tasted OK, but the little baby duck bill & feet were still crunchy.

Chuck

I gotta give this one to the Chuckster.

Absolutely disgusting.
That is one thing I would never try!

[Frances]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

Looked at rationally, why would eating Bulut be any different from eating an egg or a chicken? After all its just the stage inbetween... still it'd take quite a lot of courage to try it.

Brains? Uh, I don't get it, whadaya mean?

[RTflorida]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

I'm with Dave, I would starve to death before eating the Balut. Why? An egg is, well, an egg...there is no beak, no feet, no partially developed internals, no tiny feathers. As for chicken, the way I eat it, the same applys
I eat and like most anything as long as it can't look back at me, isn't the feet, isn't the genitals, and has the hair, fur, feathers, or scales removed.

XJ, I'm drawing a blank on the grosest thing I have liked, must be the 3 hrs I just spent in the hot sun. I do however remember the oddest thing I absolutely hated......The highly touted and recommended Sea Cucumber from a Tampa Chinese restaurant. I honestly thought I was eating slices of bicycle innertube that had been soaked/cook in soy sauce; the soy taste was fine, never have I experienced something that I just could not chew. The worst and most expensive Chinese food I've ever eaten (I think it was like $21.95) - The house specialty.

I've yet to try brains...interesting...don't think tar tar or any raw form would be appetizing

[Les]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

I ate brains as a kid mixed with scrambled eggs (mom is 100% Portuguese). I recall it not being that bad. In regard to the grosses thing I did not like – I have to go with cow tongue (that portuguese thing again ).

Les...

[CanuckJim]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

When my mother was in her seventies, I took her to quite a good Japanese restaurant, because I wanted her to experience the chefs slicing lemons in half while airborne (the lemons), throwing knives around and cutting up the ingredients for Tempanyaki (sp?). You have to understand that my mother was an Irish cook of the old school: BOIL EVERYTHING until all colour drains away. While we were waiting for the show to begin, I ordered several different kinds of sushi. It was completely new to her at the time. She particularly liked one of them and asked, "This is great, what's in it." When I replied, "raw tuna," she dropped a half eaten piece on her plate and never touched sushi again. Moral 1: don't ask until you've at least tried it. Moral
2: maybe some of our aversions are culturally created.

I'll try anything once, enough to know that tripe, octopus in ink, head cheese, brains are off my list for good.

Jim

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

While bulut does indeed sound scary, I would probably prefer it to 80% of the things on the "Applebee's" menu. Seriously, I like it all. When I make chicken stock I use the gizzards, livers, hearts and skin and make a fabulous salad (from Jacques Pepin Celebrates cookbook). I love sweetbreads (Thymus gland), though they are bad for me. I love squid in ink. I guess I am not a huge tripe fan, but again, I would take it over what they served in my corporate cafeteria today if it was well prepared and well seasoned!

Give me runny, unpasteurized cheeses, raw fresh seafood, carpaccio, anything well prepared....

I think there is no bad food, just badly prepared food.

Drake
(getting fatter by the day)

[RTflorida]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

I know most of our food phobias are culture related, I've tried very hard to get past many of them...in my mind there are still certain things that just are not apealing, whether it be appearance or specifically what the item is. I pretty much covered them in the previous post. Regardless of the culture, I think some things were not meant to be eaten.....but "man" has tried just about every part of every plant and animal over time. I guess the bottom line is food (regardless of what it is) is entirely subjective - one person loves something, the next doesn't, and the 3rd could take it or leave it.
My hats off to those who have at least tried obscure things such as Balut. Your a bigger person than I will ever be.
Trype....no thanks (maybe a preparation thing)
Head cheese...tastes better than it looks, but it is tough getting past the appearance.
Squid in ink...I think there are several better alternative ways of eating it.
Sweatbreads...pretty good, I would enjoy more if I didn't know what they were.

RT

[RTflorida]

Re: Grossest foods you ever liked?

Drake, I agree with the Applebee's comment......just wish I could get through to my wife. She loves one of their salads...Any evening we are pressed for time or don't feel like cooking, Applebee's carry out is her answer. In honesty, plan fast food (Micky Ds, Wendy's, Subway) is more appealing (and cheaper) to me (granted it is unhealthy). Fast food "is what it is" , Applebee's, Friday's, Bennigan's have decent ingredients and items - they just are not done very well...a waste.

RT