Exotic Foods

Camel jerky. Seriously. I did not care for it, it was salty to the point of being almost inedible.

The most unique thing I've ever eaten was Black Bear. It was very red meat and kinda reminded me of ham. It was different and very very tender. It was good though. I'd eat it again.

At the safari hotel in Nairobi, I ate zebra (good flavor but gristley), giraffe, different kinds of deer-like animals (ibis, antelope, gazelle), wildebeest (like liver), crocodile, and some birds.
In Ndori I was served fish head soup and it was cooked long so the meat was loose and tender.....so some eyeballs did float around. I did not eat the eyes, as a matter of principal, but did eat the soup and meat. I passed the eyes over to a friend.
Tripe----well, that made me a little angry. I think they forgot to clean it first, as it smelled unlike anything I've ever seen at a table in my life (*gag). A friend of mine, a REAL biker, was all calm about it and said "well...a REAL missionary would eat it". (A big challenge). So I decided to play Indiana Jones. I took some mixed veg (carrot, potato, corn, pea, and a tiny slice of the tripe, and added a couple drops of tobasco (yes, I kept a tiny bottle in my shirt pocket just in case).....It stunk just like poop....so I stuck the fork way to the back of my mouth, and swallowed whole. My neck and arm hairs stood straight up, my legs tensed up and I swear started sprouting hairs on the spot. I put my fork down and went to my room, and made a peanut butter sandwich (I take peanut butter in my backpack when going to developing nations for situations like that) and took a nap to get over the "feeling". That was not my favorite.
In Kisumu we were served "fried chicken"......first meat in weeks, and I was very excited about that. But it turned out to be a plucked rooster, not chicken....just plucked and dropped into boiling water, that is all. I kept the feet and dried them out for my little brother to play with. (Pulling the little tendons to make a chicken foot "puppet"). That wasn't too good, but we ate it and thanked them profusely.
Some foods, my translator wouldn't allow me to try. They thought we Americans had weak stomachs and get sick easily. I didn't argue. Pineapple, passionfruit, and peanut butter can take you a long way, especially when tempered with beans and rice once a week.
In New Orleans I attended a bug fest and ate chocolate covered ants (tasted like...chocolate bits) and cooked/chocolate grasshoppers, which reminded me of cashews. I have eaten squid and octopus in Italy, calamari is a normal thing for us to order at a good Italian restaurant. My son's first birthday dinner was blackened aligator tail, jambalaya, and white beans. :) Being from Louisiana, I can tell you that you shouldn't be served greasy/tough aligator. That would be the dark meat, which we cut up and use for bait. The white meat is what we cook and it is tender and delicious, not greasy like the dark meat. (But A LOT more expensive). Like, gator tail. If it's tough, it was just not cooked right. Grilled or blackened is easiest. My 1 year old LOVED it for his birthday. But I am not really keen on organs, except liver. I need to NOT know if it is served to me. NO TONGUES. I'm not stupid, I know what that evil rubbery thing is. I don't eat exotic just to do so, but to be polite and bond when it is served by someone who thinks they are being kind. Food is a very big deal in many places, breaking bread is creating covenant. If something was to REALLY cross the line, I would just eat/drink the broth or starch and apologize for my weak American stomach, or apologize for my religious beliefs (it's against my religion to drink blood so I did have to flat refuse this when with some Masai). Rattlesnake chili is good, and we'd get it whenever grandpa killed a snake in the oil field he worked in. Is squirrel, frog legs, turtle, and racoon considered exotic or just poor? Anytime my great grandma said you're eating "chicken" but it wasn't fried or had tiny legs....it was probably not chicken.
My husband ate duck tongue which sounds funny. Lots and lots of little tongues. When he was in school in England, they would serve lamb's hearts for lunch fairly regularly, and that was his favorite school lunch. (gross to me)
I do not like sushi, escargot, and I don't even know what foie gras is. I hear about it on Top Chef and stuff like that, but have never seen it. I hate raw meats/fish. I love seafood dearly, but more "my" kind of seafood. Textures are real important to me and I can't stand "wiggly" meat (ahi tuna, even though I "know" it's good and stuff....I don't want it wiggling)

Some of the stuff on there I would not eat. Lord I know there was something bizarre that Troy got me to eat last month but I can't remember beyond it wasn't bad. Damn mind numbing alcohol!!

I will try anything put in front of me.

I think it was from the ocean, we were in Venice at the time. Oh yeah, octopus. See some of the brain cells lived!!!!

most exotic foods are some kind of creepy animal product, since i wouldnt even a steak, or even chicken broth i pretty much haven't tried that kind of food. I firmly believe that we are what we eat so if its filthy and putrid its not going in my mouth. I would have never made it through fear factor.

I have wanted to try the durian though, its a huge awful fruit that some people love and some people hate.

- Intestine on a stick (yakatori style)

- deep fried, chocolate covered grasshoppers (c'mon deep fried, chocolate covered SHOE would taste great)

- If it's japanese; I've eaten it (grew up there, I don't know what people would find exotic)

- If it comes from the sea; I've probably eaten it.

- Gator is exotic? Gator, for sure.

I draw the line at pets, people, scavengers, & spiders. I prefer not to eat carnivores. They have an icky taste. Omnivors are generally fine; esp right before winter since they've usually done lots of 'harvest' grazing.

ROFLMAO... Tabasco! (from April). There's an old saying amongst travellers and military folk: If you like mustard or tabasco, you'll never go hungry!

Camel. Didn't know until after I ate it. Hubby and I were living in Europe and some friends took us to a restaurant and we let them order. It was actually pretty good. That's about it. I can't eat seafood either the smell makes me gag.

Sushi of all sorts, including pieces with raw quail egg - I love sushi, I could almost live on it!
Escargot
Foie Gras
Veal cheeks - sooooo good!
Deer heart and elk heart

It's a little funny to me that some folks consider calamari "exotic" - nothing ever seems that exotic once it is batter-dipped and deep-fried!

I live vicariously through Andrew Zimmern too...him and Anthony Bourdain. AZ's show that he did in Montreal made me want to go there just to eat. I am also intrigued by a hot dog place in Chicago that does a duck sausage on a bun topped with foie gras and cooks their fries in duck fat.

If I am served it, I will eat it, or at least try it before making my final decision. With that said, I have not been too adventurous. I think that people will have different answers depending on where they live. Some might consider a food totally normal, while another might think that it is the most bizarre food ever. I have had a variety of sushi and also lengua (cow's tongue) and pickled pigs feet. I did not care for the pigs feet, but I think it was the pickling that I didn't like. As for the tongue, the first time I had it, it wasn't that great, but the second time it was much more tender and tasted like a good steak!

ETA: I've had calamari as well . . . hated it! I think they might have switched my order with an old rubber band!

I don't think anyone can top April!! I was much more adventerous at a kid. I liked chicken gizzards, cow tongue, bone marrow, ect. I am much more conservative now but I guess it depends on the person. Calamari is exotic??? I love seafood except raw clams. They make me want to throw up. Escargot and frog's legs are good. My husband has eaten squirrel, cow cheeks, pork jello with pork pieces cut up, and he loves foi gras.

I love that show too! I think one time in Africa they ate grilled bum holes. YUCK.

lets see, I tried escargot in the 9th grade, my french teacher had a day of french food and we had the escargot(it was sooooooooo good) and crepes. I had Gater Nuggets from a flea market in Florida, it was the great biggest flea market I have ever seen. The Gater was okay, i think just the way it was cooked wasnt too good, it was kind of tough and greasy. i've tried several kinds of sushi, dont remember which ones now. I've also had philapino food, arabic food, korean food (kimchi is so weird)and a few Romanian dishes, as my husband is from Romania.

I would never eat insects unless I had to.

Here in Hawaii there are so many exotic foods.
Sea cucumber
Squid
Octopus
Raw fish and seafood dishes
Foods from so many cultures
Even foie gras, is exotic to some
Escargot is great
Hawaiian Food is also great
Thai Food, yum.

It is really a regional thing too.
Being exposed to it or not.

Sushi. I blew up like a puffer fish, felt like I was on fire from head to toe, inside and out, for two days, and begged my husband to put me out of my misery.

If you like that kind of stuff, there is this guy on www.youtube.com named Michael and he will accept food challenges from people out in youtube-land and eat whatever exotic food that is reasonably sealed when it arrives, they send him in the mail.

The man is absolutely nuts. But the things people send him (from all over the world) is amazing. I never knew so many bizarre things were canned and sold as food in various countries. One of the worst things was from the US. Some sort of canned scrapple-type stuff. Yuck.

If you can find the Australian Vegimite episode, it's absolutely hilarious.

See his channel "Just Eat It" at: http://www.youtube.com/user/mykylc

I have tried frog's legs, escargot, and alligator. They were OK, but I didn't like them enough to buy them again. I've had calimari both pickled and fried. I will not eat raw fish, but I have eaten a grasshopper and a lollipop with a mealworm in it. I am open to trying wild foods such as fried dandelion flowers, greenbriar shoots, and purslane.

Well, we have a can of bondagi that our daughter brought back from Korea (as a joke).... we've not been able to actually open it and try it, though.....

But.... most of the other things she has brought back we've loved! We really like the red ginseng candy, and other candies, the dried squid, the Kim (seaweed snacks.. yum!), and the gum from Korea is really different... I like the Rose gum... yes, it tastes like roses smell... like a bath oil bead!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0UUvY65wu4

Rocky mountain oysters - which are deep fried bull testicles. DH loves them, me....not so much. Tasted like chicken, but the texture was nauseating.

No rocky mountan oysters or anything similar for me. No escargot. (I have offered the escargot on the hoof out of my garden for any of those that say they like escargot, but no takers.)

I'd like to try bear. I've had racoon, rabbit, squirrell, camel, ostrich, emu, zebra, giraffe antelope, buffalo, venison (deer), and elk.

I've had all kinds of seafood, except that that they say must be prepared "perfectly" or you could die from eating it. Thanks, but no thanks.

Good question. Good luck to you and yours.

I am a quasi adventurous eater. As in I will eat foods from many cultures and I eat seafood and sushi too but no thank you to frogs legs and escargot and anchovies or that gross Scottish thing Hagis.
I guess calamari and sushi are the most exotic. I like ethnic foods - Indian, Spanish (several regional kinds including Dominican, Columbian and Peruvian foods) Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and of course Italian!

Hmm, I'm pretty adventurous and am willing to try anything at least once. So things I've tried are:

Alligator, shark, fried ants, chicken feet, frog legs, numerous sushi things...that's the best of the things I've tried. As far as liking an of it, alligator had a sausage type consistency to me. Shark, I don't really remember it. Fried ants tasted like crunchy nothings. Chicken feet were just tough. Frog legs really weren't that bad and the sushi is hit or miss. I've never tried any type of animal brain or tongue and may or may not hesitate:)

calimari (sp?)... I swore I wouldn't like it but oh ya! it was awesome.

Tho - I didn't know they could serve fried vs something else (to this day I have no idea how they cooked it). We were out in Cali visiting my Dad and his family and me trying to be all fancy said I enjoyed calimari. So they ordered some and it came out raw looking. YUCK! I was embarrased and there was no way I was eating that. barf!! hahaha.. I had to admit that I only ate it fried and looked like a fool in this fancy restaurant! haha.

one of the strangest things I ever ate was rattlesnake. And yes it tastes like chicken! I would try it again any day. I also like calamari (squid).