Marc's comment on my last post made me think back about the weirdest foods I've ever eaten. Being a habitual compiler of lists, here's a list of the 5 weirdest "foods" I've ever eaten:
1. Deer heart. I had deer heart many years ago on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. We were visiting one of my dad's friends who had just shot a deer. The heart was served as an appetizer before dinner. I don't remember how it was cooked but it was delicious, albeit incredibly rich. It's something that should be eaten like pate, i.e., served on crackers or perhaps on a salad. It's simply too rich to be eaten by itself as a main course. Definitely good though if you can get over the dark purple color and aren't opposed to chewing on the occasional ventricle.
2. Squirrel. Yes, I've eaten squirrel. One day while my parents were out and about, my brother John shot a squirrel in our backyard with his 22. We were probably 13 or 14 at the time. Anyway, John decided that we needed to skin the squirrel and cook it for dinner. Skinning the squirrel involved me holding the squirrel's head while John tried to rip the skin off with his bare hands. This ended up being a traumatic experience because when John yanked on the squirrel, I lost my grip on the squirrel's head, and the squirrel's teeth caught hold of my palm and shredded my hand. I was bleeding everywhere, as was the squirrel. John assured me that the squirrel wasn't rabid. Apparently it hadn't tried to attack him before he shot it. In any event, this didn't deter John from skinning the squirrel and putting it into a bowl in the fridge with some sort of Asian-inspired marinade.
If I recall correctly, the squirrel marinated in the fridge for a day or so without anyone noticing. It was finally noticed by my grandmother who screamed in fright. "Oh, Nan, don't worry. It's not a rat. It's just a squirrel. A squirrel that John killed and which he plans on eating."
John cooked the squirrel in a skillet on the stove top. It was greasy and disgusting.
I don't think I ever told my mom the truth about what happened to my hand because I knew she'd make me get a rabies shot.
Surprisingly, John went on to be a great chef.
3. Rabbit. This probably isn't too weird for a lot of people, especially if you're from Western Europe where rabbit is eaten commonly. But you don't see it often in the US and many people are openly hostile to the idea of eating such a cute thing. That's a shame because it's delicious. It's also extremely nutritious and lower in fat than chicken, turkey, beef or pork.
4. Fois Gras. Fois gras is also not that weird, but most people have never had it because it's extremely expensive and/or because they've heard about how frois gras is made/farmed and are morally opposed. I am actually one of those people who is morally opposed to frois gras, but I tried it once anyway because I lack moral fiber and just had to try it. So for all of you who want to try it but probably never will, here's what it tastes like: imagine making a pate that is equal parts liverwurst and butter. If you're into that sort of thing, you'll love frois gras.
5. Alligator. Had it in Florida. It was dry and bland. But it made me wonder, has anyone ever tried farming alligators for meat? That would be a dangerous venture. Definitely want to keep your small dogs in the house if you live on that farm.
That reminds me of a story. Several years ago, Nate and I were hanging out at the house one of Nate's co-workers outside of Sarasota, FL. I think the guy's name was Buddy although Nate called him Boutros (like Boutros Boutros Ghali). Anyway, Buddy lived inland and had a big pond in his backyard. Apparently the pond was full of large gators. Buddy told us about the huge gators as we sat on the little dock at the side of the pond late one evening. He told us about one occasion when his sons were fishing from the dock and a big gator jumped up out of the water at them following their bait. It lunged all the way onto the dock and almost grabbed one of the boys. The other boy ran and grabbed a golf club and then went back and bashed the gator in the head a few times. The gator apparently retreated back into the pond. This was a scary story to be hearing late at night with things splashing around in the water nearby, particularly since we were all high on mushrooms and Nate was crying for no apparent reason. Just kidding.
Anyway, would you ever let your children out of the house if you had a gator infested pond in your backyard? Me neither. But then I would never give my 14 year-old sons free access to riffles and shotguns so that they could go out into the yard and slaughter road kill for dinner at their leisure.
6. Okay, I know I said five things but this is a bonus item because I just thought of it. There were rows of big maple trees that ran along both sides of a road that bordered our property in Maryland. John and I used to climb at least 50 feet up into one of those trees and would literally spend hours up there. One time I was up there by myself and I noticed that one of the branches had a hole in it that was leaking sap. I touched the sap with my finger and noticed that it was really watery and kind of smelled like maple syrup. I immediately wondered if it tasted like maple syrup. Instead of tasting the little bit of sap that was on my finger, I put my mouth to the tree and sucked as hard as I could. I was instantly gagging on a mouthful of sap and all sorts of bugs and dirt. I climbed down the tree and never told anyone about it.
It feels good to finally get that off my chest.
I would be interested to hear about the weirdest things other people have eaten. Marc and Hartsong, nothing perverted please.
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11 comments:
First, none of that stuff is that weird except deer heart, and I would totally eat that. Let me lay this on you: "Hart" means deer or stag in Old English. So if I were to eat a deer heart, that would be Hart eating a hart heart. That would probably give me super powers on the level of Q from STNG, but at least on the level of Wolverine. I don't know why I haven't thought of this before.
I'd eat everything on your list, but wouldn't eat anything I'd consider weird- like cow lips or crickets. Probably the weirdest thing I've ever eaten is soft crab. Which, while common cuisine, is pretty damn weird if you think about it.
Yeah, none of this stuff is that weird. Priya reminded me that I've also eaten beef tongue and goat, both of which I enjoy.
Well I agree with Hart (Deer-man), none of those things are very weird at all and I have eaten all of them except for the squirrel and Hart heart. I liked all the others except for Here's a much better list of weird things that I have eaten. Peter, please try not be jealous that I have a better list of weird foods simply because I have traveled a lot more than you and live a more exciting and adventuresome lifestyle.
1. Crickets. These were dried and salted with a spice that might have been paprika. Served in a bowl much like peanuts with beer. They are a traditional snack from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. They are traditionally consumed whenever drinking Mezcal which is like tequila but made with any kind of agave (not just blue agave required for any true tequila) and not made in the town Tequila. Sometimes Mezcal is filtered through a chicken breast in the distillation process. It is very delicious but the crickets are not. Dried crickets taste exactly as you would expect. Crunchy dirt with salt. I would eat if starving but would always prefer pork rinds (chichoronnes).
2. Pig brain: I had this in Mexico served inside a small taco and the whole thing was then deep fried. It was absolutely some of the best pork I've ever had. It was more tender than Carolina barbeque and had a delicious pork flavor with a slight hint of something almost metallic -- almost as if some good blue cheese had been mixed in with the meat. Maybe that was the prions. Neurological disorder, here I come.
3. Barracuda salad sandwich. Speaking of neurological disorders, in spite of what white people in Florida tell you, the rest of the world eats barracuda and loves it. As you would expect it's a little oily but all the meat is white and tender. The closest analogous fish would be Pike. I ate this on a boat in Belize. Our guide caught it the day before and fed his family with it that night. The next day he put the leftovers in a salad with lots of mayo (not miracle whip) and then gave us sandwiches on wonderbread with a side of fresh papaya. It tastes good even when you are sea-sick.
4. Tepezcuintle (Cuniculus taczanowskii): This is a delicious jungle rodent found in the mountains of central America. It is served sliced thin and grilled with rice and beans. Delightful. Here's a picture: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/pictures/Cuniculidae.html
5. Black/White pudding. These are abominations served in Ireland and I feel great pity for whoever was poor enough to have to come up with something that disgusting. I have no idea what it is other than it must be derived from some kind of animal product.
6. Grouper liver: This is served on top of stewed fish in Vietnam. It is disgusting and should be disgarded immediately.
7. Century egg: This is a vile creation of some Chinese people. They take a duck egg and bury it in an alkaline mud for 100 years. It is brown and green and it tastes like a rotten egg.
This is all I can think of for now.
"Jealous" is not a strong enough word to describe how I feel about your "adventuresome lifestyle." "Resentment", "anger" and "disgust" would be the words I would use. But I can't be too bitter because I know that karma will bring the prodigal son back to the flock one day. That's my hope anyway.
FYI, to all of you who might be reading this, don't ever watch the "Life on the Factory Farm" show on HBO if you want to continue feeling good about buying meat in the grocery store. I saw it last night and it was deeply disturbing. As just one example, there was footage of pens for the crippled and/or sick pigs. The pigs that were still alive and could move around would just eat the pigs that had died or were close to death. It definitely made me not want to eat pork for literally the first time in my life.
Hartsong, btw, I just figured out after about three hours that Q from STNG is a star trek reference. I sometimes forget that you and Murray are essentially dorks trying to pass yourselves off as normal people. :)
The one thing Pete didn't mention is that he got the Wolverine reference right away, owning as he does the entire X-Men trilogy on DVD. Sometimes, even I forget that my husband is essentially a dork trying to pass himself off as a blogging foodie HBO-documentary-watching hipster attorney.
Thanks. You always know how to cut me down to size with your little dagger of a tongue.
I love this blog. I have two words for the traveling professor: Jesus Effing Christ, why am I not surprised. The obvious lesson here (I'm fond of identifying the obvious lesson) is that it's best not to go to Mexico for any reason other than hookers.
Priya, good job keeping your wife's self-esteem low. It's important to the greater good that he remain docile and subservient.
I can now add rattlesnake to the list of weird foods I've eaten. I had a rattlesnake sausage last night at this restaurant: http://www.wurstkucherestaurant.com/index.html. It was good. Tasted like pork. I also had a duck and bacon sausage. It was even better.
I'm guessing that most of the 'rattlesnake' sausage was pork because I've had plain rattlesnake meat before and it tastes like nothing. I had it served like shrimp cocktail. Chopped up and put in a glass with some lemon wedges. I think mixing it with pork would be much better.
The wierdest thing I can remember eating might be ox tail soup. I had it in South Africa. It was great pretty greasy but great. Looking forward to being in topsail this coming weekend I was remembering the pork rinds from Smithfield's. Those aren't particularly wierd, but they are gross in description, but great to eat. I described them to a vegetarian friend as lightly salted, deep fried chunks of butter, with a hint of pork flavor. She looked almost convinced to try them. I love those things. I'm gonna steer away from getting involved in the social commentary going on here. It's way over my head.
Marc
I need a new blog entry.
Mrs. Persnickety
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