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SuperSwede
May 1st, 2006, 01:08 PM
http://www.wschedin.skyhome.se/fest/surstromming-04-09-24.jpg

What is the worst thing you have ever eaten? Do you have any local food that few people would eat?
Please share.

Here comes a "speciality" from Sweden.. Surströmming (Fermented Herring).
It smells... a little like rotten stuff :)

Read more about it here:

http://www.svensson.com/norge/sur1.htm

warren0728
May 1st, 2006, 01:29 PM
as i said in a previous post...it is probably duck tongue. Not as much for the taste (although the taste wasn't that good either) but for the texture.

I ordered them on a whim (oh no drinking wasn't involved at all ;) ) after a night out with my buddy in nyc...and the waitress (who spoke very little english) actually pointed at her tongue two different times and said...duck tongue?...to make sure i was really ordering the duck tongue!

They were served to me unceremoniously on a plate and there must have been 20 or so of them ....it looked exactly how you would picture 20 duck tongues on a plate! I should have taken a picture of them before i ate them.

The texture was bad but the worst part was there was a hard piece of gristle running through the tongue so you had to kinda gnaw the meat off of the gristle.

Will never order it again....my friend ordered the eel and it was actually quite tastey!

ww

SuperSwede
May 1st, 2006, 01:31 PM
So you were out to try the worst the house could offer? ;)

Tim
May 1st, 2006, 02:04 PM
as i said in a previous post...it is probably duck tongue.

ww


Well here you go Warren. Plus a few other delicacies!!!

http://www.hpmuseum.org/china/trip3/dishes.htm

And:

https://aardvarque.com/2006/mel-s-trip-to-china/dscn1085.jpg/view

SuperSwede
May 1st, 2006, 02:11 PM
Hahaha... I loved this part!

"The most challenging dish: They set down a dish in a brown sauce and I thought they were being sloppy because some of the brown sauce spattered my way. Then more spattered and I could see that some of the ingredients of the dish were moving . A few minutes earlier, the waitress had come by with a bag of live Shrimp for our approval. I said "Those are going to be dead when we eat them right?" and Maggie smiled and said "yes". Never believe a Chinese woman when she tells you your food will be served dead! They were alive and kicking, and squirming, and there's something about eating food that's looking at you..."

Thanks for that link Tim, it made my day :)

warren0728
May 1st, 2006, 02:16 PM
the ones i had did not have the pointy bits like in your first link (they were cut off) but just the big meaty part of the tongue....which made them look more like a tongue....the saucey appearance of the duck tongue in your link was similar to how mine looked though.

ww:p

tot_Ou_tard
May 1st, 2006, 02:16 PM
Well here you go Warren. Plus a few other delicacies!!!

http://www.hpmuseum.org/china/trip3/dishes.htm

And:

https://aardvarque.com/2006/mel-s-trip-to-china/dscn1085.jpg/view
We have a winner!!!!

duhvoodooman
May 1st, 2006, 03:38 PM
"...there's something about eating food that's looking at you..."

Funny you should mention that! I participated in a plant startup in Japan in the early 80's that required being there for about 10 days. On the last evening, the QA manager, who was my counterpart, invited me out to dinner with him, and took me to his favorite neighborhood restaurant. It was a tiny little place, with maybe 20 seats, total, and the owner was also the chef/maitre'd/waiter/busboy/accountant/janitor/etc. We sat at the counter, which had a lower level upon which you ate your food, and a higher level (just above eye-level, when seated) where the chef placed the plates of food when he finished preparing them.

Dinner was a succession of individual small courses consisting of a wide variety of different food types and methods of preparation. Since my host and the chef conversed only in Japanese, I had absolutely no idea what I was eating. My host's English was quite poor, so my questions of "What's this?" were answered in a largely unintelligible fashion, because he had no idea what the English word was for most of what we ate. I do remember one course quite clearly, though--and there was absolutely NO QUESTION what it was!

About halfway through the meal, my host pointed to a large fish tank in back of the chef. It quickly became evident that this was not an aquarium! In it were 20 or so fish swimming around that were the same approximate size and shape as a bluegill sunfish, for those of you familiar with that type of fish (see photo below). Their length was approx. 9", I'd guess. Anyway, the chef netted two of these fish out of the tank and busily went to work preparing them. Because of the two-tiered counter, we couldn't see what he was doing on the other side, though the chopping and cutting sounds of his knife made it fairly clear that he was preparing a raw fish, or sashimi, course for us. Now, I happen to love fresh sashimi and sushi, and it clearly doesn't get any fresher than this, so I wasn't at all alarmed. When he finished, he put our two plates up on the second tier of the counter, and we each reached up and moved them down onto the first tier to dig in. That was the disquieting part....

What our friend the chef had done was to neatly filet the fish, cut the skin off the meat, and then slice it up into fine strips, mixed with mild white radish and with some wasabi and soy-based dipping sauce on the side. All well and good. The problem was that he hadn't killed the fish before fileting them. In fact, they were still very much alive. And how do I know this, you ask?

Well, what he had done was to take each of the poor fish, now denuded of the major portion of it's flesh and skin, and run a thin wooden skewer (much like a giant toothpick) through the tail and then through the fish again just in back of the head. This held the fish in a sideways arched position--basically a "letter C" when viewed from the top. He then placed the fish on the plate, with the cut-up pile of sashimi within the arch of that letter C shape. So, as I ate its admittedly very tasty flesh, the fish would occasionally wiggle its tail, flap its fins or move its mouth. And the eye pointed toward me watched me the whole time, or so it seemed. So, while it was delicious, I have never felt so guilty about eating anything in my life!

198

Tone2TheBone
May 1st, 2006, 03:46 PM
*throws up again* bluh-eck.

I catch bluegills in the spring. Good fighting fish.

Tim
May 1st, 2006, 06:15 PM
The best weird dish I ever ate was in Thailand. I was supposed to meet a friend at a street corner in front of a Thai restaurant. I waited an hour for him. I got a little hungry so I stepped inside to order some food. I sat near the window so I could see him coming.

The menu was in Thai of course so I had no idea was it said. So I went by the pictures. Some of it looked pretty gross. So I chose the best looking picture. It looked like fried chicken. Just like the Colonel’s, but a little skinny.

When the meal was served it looked pretty good. I had Thai rice, streamed vegetables, noodles and the fried chicken. It was all very delicious.

When I got back to the barracks I bragged how I was able to order a meal at a Thai restaurant, that didn’t speak English. Just then the Thai house girl came up and asked what I ordered. I told her about the excellent chicken dinner I had with all the trimmings. She started to laugh. I asked her what was so funny. She looked at me and said “you funny American. You ate dog for dinner”.

I looked at her and said; no you’re kidding me right? She said no I am serious. After the stomach did a flip-flop I said, well at least it tasted like chicken. That explained why it was so chewy.

From then on everything I ate I made damn sure I knew what it was. The worst tasting was the rattlesnake. I only ate one small piece. That was enough.

warren0728
May 1st, 2006, 06:21 PM
She looked at me and said “you funny American. You ate dog for dinner”.
hey tim...did your waitress give you good service or did you have to "hound" her to bring you your food?! :D

I'm surprised you didn't like rattlesnake...maybe it was how it was prepared. When i tried it, it tasted really light...not really like chicken but a light non-overpowering flavor.

ww

Spudman
May 1st, 2006, 08:30 PM
Oh Warren

That was pretty funny, "hound her". Good one.

The worst thing I ever ate was fresh off the dairy farm where I grew up in Montana. I was being an 11 year old smarty pants and one of the hired guys thought he had had enough of my mouth and promptly filled it with cow poop.
No I didn't enjoy the taste or texture, but it sure explains a lot about why I am the way I am.

SuperSwede
May 2nd, 2006, 02:21 AM
Spud, what an awful experience. I hope they hanged that man the following sunday (all small towns in Montana has a tree for hanging criminals, right?) :D

Spudman
May 2nd, 2006, 07:53 AM
Spud, what an awful experience. I hope they hanged that man the following sunday (all small towns in Montana has a tree for hanging criminals, right?) :D

I think he got a raise for doing that. He was hung already. :D

Tone2TheBone
May 2nd, 2006, 08:47 AM
She looked at me and said “you funny American. You ate dog for dinner”.

I looked at her and said; no you’re kidding me right? She said no I am serious. After the stomach did a flip-flop I said, well at least it tasted like chicken. That explained why it was so chewy.

From then on everything I ate I made damn sure I knew what it was. The worst tasting was the rattlesnake. I only ate one small piece. That was enough.

..."you'd be surprised how downright delicate the flavour is... (dog)"

Love,

Little Big Man

SuperSwede
May 2nd, 2006, 01:38 PM
Tim, what kind of dog was it? I think if I had to eat dog meat I would prefer a poodle... :D

Tim
May 2nd, 2006, 01:44 PM
Probibly whatever was roaming the street that day. All I know is it was dead and cooked.

Tone2TheBone
May 2nd, 2006, 01:48 PM
For what it's worth horse meat makes excellent burgers. Especially in a carnival situation. I speak from experience.

SuperSwede
May 2nd, 2006, 01:49 PM
Blah.. I think that REAL asian restuarants should allow you to pick from a cage with several different sorts of dog. Just like the fish in the aquarium we heard about earlier.. - "I want that Golden Retriever with lime/garlic sauce, preferably alive when served". MMmmm.. YUmmy.

Tim
May 2nd, 2006, 02:04 PM
I hear you Tone. But here is some food for thought:

CARNIVAL:
the merrymaking and festivity that takes place in many Roman Catholic countries in the last days and hours before the Lenten season. The derivation of the word is uncertain, though it possibly can be traced to the medieval Latin carnem levare or carnelevarium, which means to take away or remove meat. This coincides with the fact that carnival is the final festivity…

Not to be confused with...

Carnivore:
any member of the order Carnivora, literally “meat eaters.” The order includes 10 families of living mammals: Canidae (dogs, wolves, jackals, and foxes), Ursidae (bears), Procyonidae (raccoons), Mustelidae (skunks, mink, weasels, badgers, and otters), Viverridae (civets and mongooses), Hyaenidae (hyenas), Felidae (cats), Otariidae (eared seals), Odobenidae (walrus), and Phocidae (earless seals). …

Did read Homosapien in there somewhere?

Tone2TheBone
May 2nd, 2006, 02:09 PM
Figures. I always said my O positive blood craves red meat. Seafood rocks too.

warren0728
May 2nd, 2006, 02:46 PM
Tim, what kind of dog was it?
ummm...an unlucky kind....

ww

duhvoodooman
May 2nd, 2006, 02:47 PM
Did read Homosapien in there somewhere?
Speaking of disgusting things to eat, the cannibal tribes of New Guinea referred to cooked homo sapien as "long pig". My dad was there in the service during WWII and actually visited several villages that had been active cannibal tribes only 20 - 30 years before! Don't turn your back on those folks when leaving the village!

Spudman
May 2nd, 2006, 08:55 PM
Don't turn your back on those folks when leaving the village!

They say the same things about Greeks. ;)

Swede

That is so gross about picking your dog for dinner. Didn't anyone tell you that you don't have to drink all that beer at once? It doesn't go bad for a while.
Besides, we all know that Golden and rosemary go together and not lime/garlic. Yeeesh!

Iago
May 2nd, 2006, 10:11 PM
that I ever ate was probably "buxada", a very traditional dish from the northeast of Brazil (that`s where I come from)... it`s basically cooked cow`s stomach.

SuperSwede
May 3rd, 2006, 04:39 AM
Spud! And you are telling me this NOW when the beer is already consumed! :D

Iago, so what do they put in the stomach before cooking it? And what does it taste like? I can imagine that it is rather "chewy".

Spudman
May 3rd, 2006, 07:45 AM
Swede
Looks like another trip for a re-supply is in order then, huh?
Cow stomach! Stop!! Eeewww.

duhvoodooman
May 3rd, 2006, 09:00 AM
Cow stomach! Stop!! Eeewww.
It's commonly called "tripe", and you can get it at virtually any well-stocked butcher shop, so it's certainly not "exotic" by US standards. I had it in Japan at a Korean hibachi restaurant. Like eating rubber bands. No thank you, please....

Iago
May 4th, 2006, 09:48 PM
warren -

they put chopped intestine (or guts, as you wish) + vegetables and spices inside of it! ok.. I`ll admit that once I ate it without knowing what it was, and it wasnt as horrible as it sounds like hehehehe. The stomach by itself doenst have too much taste.. but the texture is what makes it weird... the chopped intestine feels a bit like squid hehhehe, but the taste i cant describe too you.. its like meat, but intestine meat! Its rather soft if the dish is fresh made.

Spudman
May 5th, 2006, 08:06 AM
I like pies and chocolate cake. How bout we go there into 'yummy land' instead of 'barfville'? All this talk of cow stomach is turning mine. I must be getting dainty in my old age.

Tim
May 5th, 2006, 08:31 AM
Hey Spuds - Why not start a new thread on "good food"?

SuperSwede
October 23rd, 2007, 12:22 AM
I really want to recommend checking out this thread before eating anything in Asia.

http://www.terrierman.com/ratfood.htm (Rat or Ratatouille?)

Ps. this is a fantastic thread!

Jimi75
October 23rd, 2007, 01:21 AM
that I ever ate was probably "buxada", a very traditional dish from the northeast of Brazil (that`s where I come from)... it`s basically cooked cow`s stomach.

Yeah, something similar comes from Germany and is called Pansen! It is cooked stomack, sometimes also filled with potatoes and meat.

I have never tried it and I will never do so.
I once had a German Shepherd (dog) and it was on a special diet for some time, so we had to cook Pansen for the dog. It was the worst smell I have ever smelled in my life!

LagrangeCalvert
December 28th, 2007, 03:22 AM
Yeah, something similar comes from Germany and is called Pansen! It is cooked stomack, sometimes also filled with potatoes and meat.

I have never tried it and I will never do so.
I once had a German Shepherd (dog) and it was on a special diet for some time, so we had to cook Pansen for the dog. It was the worst smell I have ever smelled in my life!

I'm Scottish American and live in a VERY VERY German city. We have a Hofbrauhaus... the only one in the States..and its awesome. My mother spent time in Ghelnhousen (I think thats how its spelled) Germany - close to Frankfurt - when my father was in the Army...My brother was born in Germany. I bring this up cause it deals with food. They ate at IIRC Burchess Gardens (Hitler ate there) and more crazy stuff bout my parents - they were wed on Hitlers Birthday.......

We have a Dish here in Cincinnati that the German settlers invented in the late 1700's called Geotta. Its basically Pin Oats, Pig Leftovers and Lard formed into a block then chilled and pan fried later. Its awesome.

And my family back round made me curious so I have had Tripe and Haggus - I think I spelled that last one right. Look em up if you got a strong stomach.


Now I believe the worst dish I ever saw or heard of was a west Asian / Pacific Islander dish of Eggs that are buried under a House for a while...then you dig them back up and eat them......you gotta be hardcore to eat those :pancake:




Now....my absolute favorite food is a bowl of home made bean soup and a big ol' slice of cornbread...or maybe some Deer Chili.

Cincinnati Style Chili isn't bad either (its a must if your ever here in Cincinnati)

Hey You Florida guys might have seen or ate ciny style chili... They have opened Skyline Chili joints down there also.

I am rambling....good night folks.

Kazz
December 28th, 2007, 05:59 AM
Una style Pizza is probably my favorite....but a well prepared porterhouse or prime rib is probably a close 2nd as for weird...escargot is probably the weirdest yet best flavored food I have ever consumed.


La Grange, I may be up in Cincy in February to check out Tesla at Bogarts.

tot_Ou_tard
December 28th, 2007, 07:16 AM
I had Haggis once, it wasn't bad. It was more oaty than anything else.

LagrangeCalvert
January 1st, 2008, 02:46 AM
Una style Pizza is probably my favorite....but a well prepared porterhouse or prime rib is probably a close 2nd as for weird...escargot is probably the weirdest yet best flavored food I have ever consumed.


La Grange, I may be up in Cincy in February to check out Tesla at Bogarts.


Lemme know where and when and I'll bring one of the newest members of the fret - and the bassist in our band - fat strings!


Hell, I will bring the whole gang and we'll dring a few beers and then some!:rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: