How many of the following unusual foods have you eaten?
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Akutaq
Alligator/Crocodile
Balut
Beef cheeks
Bird’s Nest Soup
Black Pudding
Casu Marzu
Century Egg
Chicken Feet
Chitterlings or Chitlins
Crispy chicken skin
Crispy Insects
Deep-fried butter
Escamol
Fish Eyes
Frog’s Legs
Fugu
Chicken gizzards
Grubs
Haggis
Hakarl
Jellyfish
Kangaroo
Khash
Koolickles
Lamb’s Brains
Marmite
Nankotsu
Natto
Ox-tail
Pickled Eggs
Pig’s feet
Pig tails
Reindeer
Rocky Mountain Oysters
Sannakji
Scrapple
Sea Urchin
Shiokara
Shirako
Snails
Snake
Squirrel
Steak Tartare
Stinkheads
Surstromming
Tongue
Tripe
Turtle
Whale
I’ve managed a surprising 40/50.
Let me know your score – and the most unusual thing YOU’VE eaten.
I only scored a big ONE….go ahead & laugh. Love pickled eggs. Even make my own. Very surprised to see it on the list. Where’s chicken hearts? That should have made the list.
35/50 for me.
Curious so many other unusual food don’t make it onto your list.
Sea pineapple (or hoya in Japanese) is something I couldn’t eat again … Too pungent.
Only eight. You forgot to include raccoon and porcupine 😊 Bon apetit!
Hog Head Cheese & Souse, some German favorites, along with pigs feet that I learned to eat at a young age. Here in Maryland we just love a big table full of steamed crabs in Old Bay. My dad use to eat raw oyster lice. My mother came from Ireland where they are everything but the feathers & the Oink.
Hey Margaret, where in Maryland? I grew up in Jessup and my mom’s family was from Dorchester County on the Shore; they were evenly split between farmers and watermen. I grew up on regular seafood cookouts (crabs, oysters, blues, and rockfish) and farm produce. I’m still trying to find a reliable source of bluecrab in the midwest…
I guess octopus suckers should be in there. Lots of those other items I think I have found crawling in my breakfast cereal and hot dogs. My least favorite was a glob of raw duck liver swimming in oil. Took a whole bottle of a good French wine to get it down.
Crocodile, crispy insects/grubs (both Australia), kangaroo, snails, snake, tongue (and other various offal), and muktuk (whale skin and blubber). Not to mention, camel (also in Australia). Also had spaghetti with musk ox meat sauce.Not that many but still quite a variety.
1/50. I lived and worked in Norway for 2 1/2 years so Reindeer is on the menu there pretty much all year round.
Any points for having known the animal?
25 for me, but looking closer at this list I see some emphasis on the Pacific Northwest, so maybe you got a lot of hits there?
I’m not sure how to handle the “most unusual thing you’ve eaten” question. I learned long ago that many of the foods that I considered everyday food growing up, a number of friends and acquaintances would now consider unusual. Chicken necks (in chicken stew), pickled pigs feet, ham bone marrow “butter”, pickled watermelon rind, cracklins, oyster paste (not the Asian kind but the kind you spread on crackers), whole fried bluecrab (soft shells not peelers), raw sardines in mustard, all kinds of greens (turnip, mustard, kale, beet, dandelion, et cetera), all kinds of pickled meats, raw ground chuck sandwiches, and suet pies (mincemeat, dried cherry and raisin, or any other dried fruit mixed with suet). Does granny making her own lard from fatback count?
I’ve also had a number of eel, and pickled or fermented egg dishes during numerous visits to Taiwan, so I’m sure that a number of those would be considered unusual, but I couldn’t begin to tell you what the names of the dishes were (the English translations of the menus were a bit obtuse at times, along the lines of “egg vinegar with gravy”).
Take your pick from the above. Maybe it was the rattlesnake I ate in Florida, or maybe it was the white pudding in Ireland? It’s all a matter of perspective…
I only got a 13.
Beef tongue tastes just like the McRib. I like the cooked texture. I know the “still alive” texture far too well because I’ve been the sweaty kid leaning my head too far through the fence to get a good look at the salt lick.
I was surprised I’ve had 4. The crispy chicken skin was my favorite. Rest were snail, roasted insects and scrabble.
By the way, any unusual dishes that you mom would make? She seems to be a wonderful cook, so I’m sure she had some unusually good favorites.
I’ve eaten six of the dishes and loved them all. My momma made an awesome ox-tail soup that won me an A+ on a science anatomy project – a poster of the spine using the bones from the soup. I’ve also had black pudding, haggis, frog’s legs, chicken gizzards (my favorite), and snails. Each of those dishes is hugely dependent on the skills of the cook and their ability to use the right spices.
My mother ate fried duck’s blood when they slaughtered a duck. I’m surprised they didn’t find a way to eat the beak! Head cheese and souse meat were also her favorites.
I guess the weirdest thing I’ve eaten is a whole squid just flipped on a plate. It was extremely rubbery and tasted like the bottom of my sneaker. Gross!
Mine is a resounding zero, which I am quite happy with.
13/50 for me. I would have hoped it would be more but half the list seems to be Asian in origin and the only Asian country I’ve been to in Singapore and I didn’t get exposed to anything exotic as far as I know. So most of my score is thanks to being Australian (crocodile and kangaroo), living in the UK (Marmite, black pudding, haggis, ox tail, beef cheek) and a holiday to Iceland (reindeer and whale).
Weird stuff that wasn’t on that list: Emu, shearwater, Vegemite (if they can have Marmite on the list why not Vegemite?), and various African deer that I can’t remember the names of.
Weirdest thing I’ve eaten? Probably whale.
Whale was the most conflicted thing I’ve eaten. On the one hand, whales are cool and we shouldn’t be killing them. On the other hand, this one was already dead and it was just going to be thrown out otherwise. My verdict? Meh. I would have preferred it to be alive.
I’m a big ole 3!
Zero, which – like Cat4444 – I am quite happy with. And I intend keep.
Well, I know I hate natto, so there’s one. I have had the opportunity to try about half the list, but declined each and every time. Snails didn’t make my “texture” list enough for me to ever like them. Tried those in Frane when I was 14. Supposedly I had camel in Saudi, but I think it was actually goat. Marmite is okay. My friends had a marmite vs. vegamite tasting competition, I’d go with marmite. I’ve had “beef sashimi” in Japan, is that a weird food? It was quite nice, but tiny portions. Duck comfit tacos? Yum. I do love good calamari, but not sure that is weird. My landlocked friends think it is. I did like the squid and corn pizza at Shakey’s. I have had unidentified skewers at street yakitori stands in Yokosuka, so maybe I’ve had more odd foods than I know about? There was a truck which would set up in the parking lot now and then. A lot of point and try selections.
Two – alligator and snails. I’m a picky eater. The alligator was breaded and fried on a stick at the local Tim’s Cajun Kitchen and the snails were garlic butter escargot at a bar in Florida when I was 21. That involved alcohol being consumed beforehand.
I think maybe the most unique was a whole baby octopus at a sushi bar in New Orleans on Y2K eve. That one also involved alcohol.
0/50
Do I win? That’s the best, right?
I’m a big Scrapple “everything but the squeal” fan!
When in Scotland I had haggis, black pudding, and a fried Mars Bar (none of which one wants to think about when consuming, but quite delicious!) I’ve had pig’s feet, which tastes like, well, ham. Snails, somewhere in the long past. I had cod’s tongue in Newfoundland, of course, which tasted like a flavourless rubber to me, I’m afraid. And when I was in Greenland I had reindeer. A bit indescribable but kind of a flavoured chicken taste to it. I’m not really a foodie, so I don’t go out of my way, but all were interesting and glad I had them.
5/50 for me: Chicken Feet, Crispy chicken skin, Frog’s Legs, Sea Urchin, Tongue
Strangest? I’m not sure, maybe shark or octopus?
I’m surprised Shark and Swordfish aren’t on the list.
Had both. Didn’t care for either.
Most unusual thing I’ve ever eaten? Hmmmm. Well, lets see here.
I think it was probably age 10 or 11, at a friends slumber party,
playing Truth or Dare.
I was dared to try a bite of wet canned dog food and a Milkbone type dry dog biscuit.
Almost needless to say, It took two very tall glasses of water,
an immediate, aggressive, brushing of my teeth
and several mouth rinses with listerine,
to recover from the experience.
I then dared the next person to nibble on a bar of bath soap.
In retrospect, I am grateful it was, at the very least,
not the college frat house version of the game.
They dare individual participants to consume live goldfish.
I have tried 12, maybe more if I knew what some of them are. But 40 out of 50 for you, well done, I like people who will give any food a go 😎👍🏼
Only 18 myself, but along with Hákarl in Iceland I had puffin.
I scored zero! Although I love that good old Aussie vegemite, which could replace the Marnie.
Should have read marmite!