Strangest Foods

On Friday I asked you to share on the Facebook page the strangest food you've ever been encouraged to eat (not literally share--but tell us about it). You people have had some terrible life experiences. This reminded me of a summer I spent in Moscow Russia in 2009 when I went on a very brave food testing kick and first met Lohan (my parasite). I lost 18 pounds that summer. 18 pounds I really couldn't afford to lose. Here's an old post about the 10 worst food experiences I had that summer. Lohan could have come from any of them.

Anyway, here are some of your responses:


1. Gina: "I made the mistake of knowing exactly what it's made of before taking a bite. FDA said it's unfit for human consumption. I gagged thrice before it even reached my mouth."

2. Dee: "Chicken intestines (aka kokorec) YUCK!"

3. Rachel: "Sweet bread!"

4. Susan: "Pumpkin Soup - It's a horrible stew-like soup that is cooked inside a hollowed out pumpkin. Then, when fully cooked, you use a spoon to scrape the pumpkin off the inside and serve it with the stew."

5. Hailee: "Fermented cabbage bleh . . ."

6. Jil: "Octopus....tasted and felt like snotty boogers."

7. Melissa: "Dried salt cod."

8. Marilyn: "I was sick and away from home and was well acquainted with a Jamaican who took me in as her own granddaughter. (I was also well acquainted with her cooking and how to politely refuse.) Being sick as I was I suppose I really thought "chicken soup" wouldn't hurt. Three bites in I found a chicken foot, talons and all, in the bottom of my bowl. I suddenly felt better, and didn't need another bite. I guess it worked (This is why the Queen of Colors story is so compelling to me. She's literally got her talons into everything!)."

9. Jessica: I had cow tongue at a Mexican restaurant the other week. It had good flavor but texture not to my liking."

10. Bethany: "Sheep brains...they were NOT tasty and had a weird texture."

11. Cami: " "Rat. And termites."

12. Jenna: "Cow stomach (mondongo). So so so gross."

13. Daniel: "Borscht."

14. Eli: "Not funny Daniel. Not funny at all."

15. Libby: "Currently in Uganda where they want me to try grasshoppers. Haven't braved them...yet."

16. Dee: "Gina I'm Scottish, i can assure you haggis is safe to eat and yummy! :) (must have neeps and tatties with it tho!)."

17. Madi: "Pig feet! :) Pretty good once you get past picking out the bone."

18. Mallory: "Fiambre from Guatemala. basically just take everything (no joke) in your fridge and cook it in the same pot. then add beats so everything is purple. Do it! You'll like it!"

19. Faith: "Fried grasshoppers in Thailand, durian fruit in Malaysia, worse thing ever to have eaten, bum dae gee (silk larve worms) ins south Korea."

20. Laura: "Escargot, chicken heart, and haggis. Luckily not at the same time."

21. Dorothy: "Piftie - a jello type thing filled with all the parts of a pig you wouldn't want to eat like ears, lungs, etc."

22. Judy: "Our local farmer's market is now serving crickets. All the staff at the cricket stand have t-shirts that say "Save a cow, eat a bug." Sorry, no."

23. Paula: "Escargot...just because it's fancy does not mean it's delicious. getting queasy just thinking about it."

24. Suzanne: "A live cricket."

25. Ariel: "nacho cheese sauce (the stuff that probably has pink slime and petroleum and all that jazz) on popcorn… which ended up being delicious… but my family has told me I need to eat frog legs and escargot when I head to France in the next couple of months so that can definitely be considered as encouraged… though I haven't gotten there yet…"

26. Serene: "Thin slices of raw horse meat - my Japanese friend assured me it would be delicious."

27. Sadie: "My brother made me a sandwich with bacon, mustard, and lime juice. I politely refused."

28. Tricia: "Foie grass cotton candy."

29. Celena: "Eggs with grape jelly."

30. Jessica: "My friends and I waded into a sewer tunnel, caught a turtle, killed it, boiled it (there's still a green spot on the ceiling where the sewer steam hit it), took off the meat and made turtle chowder. It was surprisingly tasty."

31. Toni: "Christensen I have not been encouraged to eat anything, HOWEVER I do pay my husband and kids to try new foods. Recently my son tried asparagus then promptly asked for his dollar."

32. Megan: "Agar. Like the stuff in petri dishes that you grow bacteria on in high school? On an exchange trip to Japan, I was served some clear noodle-y dish, and when I asked what it was, that was the answer I got. But all I could think of was the petri dishes from science class."

33. Lisa: "Holodets. Oh and a huge ant up in the mountains. It tasted like lemon. But the wiggling kind of wigged me out."

34. Kelly: "Bajan Souse: "spare" pig parts w/ limes, peppers, cucumbers & sweet potato. Ends up, pig ears are mostly crunchy cartilage. Yum. I couldn't bring myself to taste the pig's tail as it was still curly in my bowl. I've also eaten grubs, but that was not on purpose. And when I realized my taco "meat" was moving, I almost puked. So. Gross."

35. Julia: "When I went to Mexico at age 12, the only thing that my dad taught me in Spanish was "Solo como insectos." (I only eat insects)."

36. Mercy: "Cow blood soup in Korea..and Soup with dog meat."

~It Just Gets Stranger