Weird Foods I've Eaten.   List created on 9-18-01. Updated on 8-15-07.
       
      I have a reputation as an avid eater of "weird" foods, and, I must admit, it pleases me. I do have a personal rule: if there's an unusual item on the menu, I must order it rather than the more conventional options.

I once read an article in the New Yorker about a group of diners who call themselves "The Innard Circle" and make it their mission to gather regularly at various restaurants and sample internal organs. I was pretty jealous. I also have a clipping from the New Yorker about a brilliant molecular biologist who liked to eat unusual dishes--"cow's udder, bull's testicles, crocodile tail, filet of snake... which he simmered on his Bunsen burner." He also ate caterpillars, ducks' feet, horse meat, snails, haggis, fish lips, and all kind of brains. I was quite excited by this article and even highlighted the relevant passages. Compared to that guy, my list of weird foods is extremely tame. I try, but weird foods are hard to come by!

Note: "Weird" is, of course, completely subjective. I don't actually consider most of these that strange/scary/disgusting, but, based on their reactions, some people seem to.

Note #2: This list is always in progress. I will try to keep it up to date, but I'm sure there are things I've forgotten (especially in the non-beast realm). As of 6-02-04, I put things in (sort of) alphabetical order; hopefully this will make it easier for me to add new items.

        Beasts (some more exotic than others):
  • Ahi roe - I've eaten ahi (Hawaiian yellowfin tuna, usually raw or just seared on the edges) many many times, but I've only had ahi roe once! Pahu I`a included it as part of their "evolution of ahi" dish. Really unusual and good!
  • Buffalo - Buffalo burgers can be had any time at The Vanilla Bean Café in Pomfret.
  • Chicken feet - Got them cooked and in sauce at A Dong, a really cool Asian grocery. Very neat looking, chompy and tasty.
  • Cow's liver - I get a craving for it every few years.
  • Deer - Given to my family by a hunter.
  • Duck - At restaurants; weird only because I used to have pet ducks. I'm a little bit ashamed to admit it, but I love duck meat.
  • Eel - One of my favourite kinds of sushi/sashimi; I've also had crispy baby eels (were they elvers?) from a dim sum place. I've only had eels prepared in Asian ways; I'd love to try Italian-style eel.
  • Egg, duck's - I've eaten the eggs of the pet duck I had when I was younger.
  • Preserved duck egg / Century egg / Hundred-year egg - Bought a box of them at A Dong and ate one. It was one of the more difficult things I've eaten, mostly just because of the appearance (rotten green colored yolk and translucent cola-brown white).
  • Egg, quail's (raw) - On uni, at sushi restaurants.
  • Escargot (snails) - My favourite; I order them whenever I can.
  • Foie Gras - I've had both duck and goose, I think.
  • Frogs' legs - At two different restaurants. They were pretty juicy. Nothing like chicken.
  • Guinea Hen - At Alto in NYC.
  • Headcheese (testa) - Had warm testa at Lupa. It was fantastic. Ate every scrap.
  • Jellyfish - They don't really have that much taste and are somewhat rubberband-ish but cool. I'd like to try them prepared in different ways to compare. Jellyfish are so amazing.
  • Lobster coral (roe) and tomalley (liver--the green stuff) - I always eat them when I find them in a lobster.
  • Oxtail (in "'Terrina' alla Vaccinara" format at Lupa) - Looked sort of salami-ish, but the slices were really soft and fally-apart-y, with big fat Lupa raisins and pine nuts and celery leaf snipsels on top, and all the flavs combined wonderfully. Yum! Also had an ahi & oxtail dish at Pahu I`a, which was delectable. The oxtail was in shreddy pieces with white beans and sage, and all the flavs (ox, ahi) were perfect together.
  • Octopus - It's a bit too chewy unless sliced really thin. The suckers are so cool looking, though. Spris has an octopus salad I like a lot and always order when I feel like something lighter than the sardines or baccala.
  • Ostrich - I had an ostrich burger in Hawaii. It was good. Brown. Kind of liver-y tasting.
  • Oysters, raw - I loved them. But later that night I felt all feverish and dizzy. :-(
  • Pig's feet ("trotters") - I had these in Luxembourg at the Parc Belair hotel. They were delicious, but not in recognizable foot form.
  • Pheasant (wild) - Was this road kill? or maybe it smashed into the window. Gorgeous bird. I salted and dried the pelt and kept it for years.
  • Quail - At a restaurant.
  • Rabbit - At restaurants.
  • Roe - I've eaten at least five different kinds of various fish roe, not including the ones I've given specific entries. I adore all roe and caviar.
  • Sea cucumber - Very very gelatinous. Had it at a Chinese place in Hawaii, in a brown sauce with shrimp roe. It was actually somewhat hard to get down, but I ate it all. I might want to try sea cucumber again, cooked differently, to see if it's more palatable.
  • Shad roe and shad milt - Both cooked, and I made them myself! Also, shad in fillet form; hard to find, but not weird. Love shad milt. Love it. Liked shad roe when I had it at the Griwold Inn; my own attempt was slightly overcooked, I think, but still pretty good. Milt's the best.
  • Shark - I had this in Stratford, Canada; it was kind of boring, as I recall (sort of like the town). I've also had shark fin dumplings as a dim sum food. Update: Also had mako shark in St. John, 2006. It was again kind of boring--a big white slab of fish.
  • Squid - I'm extremely fond of squid and cuttlefish.
  • Squid ink - Love squid ink pasta! (Black!!)
  • Sushi/sashimi - All sorts of raw sushi and sashimi, but sushi is not weird!
  • Stomach, pig - I found prepared stomach at A Dong grocery store, in the refrigerated foods section. It was really good! However, it was a lot more like a fake meat than a real one. (Not a bad thing; just really weird.) If it had said on the package that it was made out of soy or wheat protein, I wouldn't have questioned it for a second. Its texture, colour, and way of taking on the flavour of its sauce/seasonings (in this case, slightly spicy) were exactly like a fake meat.
  • Sweetbreads - Celeric soup w/clove & crispy sweetbreads from Pahu I`a is my new favourite soup. The sweetbreads weren't at all crispy, though. They were pretty smushy. And good. The whole thing had a really interesting, unique flavour. Also had at Babbo and Alto, in NYC, in spring/summer 2005. Sweetbreads are good!
  • Tongue, cow's - A favourite of mine, hot or cold; too hard to find, though! At least Rein's has it (cold).
  • Tongues, lambs' - These are wonderful, too. I've had them jarred lots of times, and, in England, canned. Also had a delicious warm lambs' tongue dish at Babbo.
  • Tripe - I got ox tripe at a dim sum place! Very exciting. It's all fluted like a mushroom cap or a lampshade... looks lungish or gillish, and is covered with cool little bumps. White. The texture was chewy and rubbery, and the tripe itself had a very mild taste. Also had a tripe fritatta, at Lupa.
  • Turkey and chicken innards - Gizzards, hearts, livers and necks; these are the best parts. Also, big piles of chicken gizzards cooked up are fantastic.
  • Turtle - I had a turtle steak in Grand Cayman, where sea turtles are legally farmed (but they're illegal to import to the US); it was good, and reminded me of veal.
  • Turtle stew - the national dish of Grand Cayman. It's "made from a mix of cheaper cuts of meat, including the bone, green jelly-like fat and menabolins (organ meats, flippers, callopy and other parts). This combination is then stewed down (no water is added) to a delicious meaty and strong tasting stew." I got it at a local restaurant, and it was not what I expected; it wasn't a soupy type stew, it was just a big pile of dark chunks of meat that looked sort of like dog food. But, to my delight, I found a bunch of pieces of internal organs (they reminded me of chicken livers and hearts but were even better) and a few bones. Much to my disappointment, there was no green jelly-like fat, but it was still good anyway. Intense and salty (to a good degree).
  • Uni - the sexual organs of a sea urchin (raw) - soooo cool looking. The taste varies. Incredible stuff. Really good uni is melty. The best uni I've ever had was at Imari.
  • White anchovies, a.k.a. Boquerones - had at Alto in NYC, but only one; it was delicious--melty-tender--and I would like to experience this again, more fully.
  • Wild boar - I got wild boar prosciutto with fresh figs at Spris in Hartford, but I would like to have wild boar again in a non-prosciutto format (it tasted pretty much like normal pig prosciutto).
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    Fruits/vegetables/other:

  • Abiu - Got at South Kona Fruit Stand. I'd never even heard of these; they were scrummy, but kind of scary to eat in the dark because the big slimy seeds looked and felt sort of like raw chicken hearts.
  • Apple Banana - I had these in Hawaii from the South Kona Fruit Stand. The texture is so much better than regular (Williams) bananas and the flavour is much more complex. They make normal bananas seem so sweet and bland. I don't usually eat bananas much, but I couldn't get enough apple bananas. I've also had SKFS's Cuban Red bananas (pretty, but somewhat boring) and "ice cream" bananas (you are supposed to be able to freeze them and they remain a bite-able texture so you can eat them like ice cream; it wasn't really that great, though).
  • Asian Pear - Not weird at all, but somewhat unusual; I'm crazy about them; my favourite pome fruit by far; unfortunately, they are usually expensive.
  • Breadfruit - Bought one at the South Kona fruit stand in Hawaii. Soft and creamy, heavy and very filling, like a big bowl of bread pudding.
  • Blood Orange - Not that weird, but rather beautiful inside with shockingly blood-coloured flesh. I've had really good blood oranges a few times, but usually have bad luck with them. They're often too dry and flavourless.
  • Cacao seeds a.k.a. cocoa beans - Some hippies at the South Kona Fruit Stand gave two to me (saying how wonderful they are and how I had to try it), and I ate part of one. It was unpleasant. Tasted a lot like straight coffee beans. Hard and bitter.
  • Cactus pear - Looks very cool on the outside, but not that exciting tasting.
  • Cape Gooseberries - I am not a fan. They're a lot like yellow cherry tomatoes, but more viscous, and they don't have that je ne sais quoi that makes good tomatoes great. They're fantastic looking, though, with their Chinese lantern husks. Another one of those fruits that doesn't live up to its appearance.
  • Carambola - The starfruit you can get around here are so inferior to the ones I had in Hawaii, it's tragic, but I love them anyway, especially sprinkled with salt. Hawaiian starfruit from South Kona Fruit Stand is the best thing ever. Sweet (with a tangy bite) and juicy, with an intensely wonderful fragrance.
  • Cashew apple - From South Kona Fruit Stand. Very juicy. Even though they look and smell scarily pepper-like, it turned out to be pretty delicious.
  • Cherimoya - Cool looking (the cashier compared it to a Rubik's cube) with really interesting seeds, but not that exciting tasting. Had one in Hawaii that was better.
  • Codium fragile - I found some growing wild (rather than washed up, like usual) at the ocean, so I thought I'd try it. Didn't really know if it was edible or not, although someone once told me that all seaweed are. It was very spongy (not soft/smushy, but incredibly fresh, full of cells... I can't think of any food with the same texture), and it tasted like the sea, in the way that oysters do. I chewed the sea-taste out, then swallowed a small piece to make it official. Later I noshed on some more.
  • Tropical Dragonfruit - Very, very beautiful (fuchsia outside and in!). Pretty good, but not super-exciting taste-wise. Similar to watermelon. (I've had it both at home and in Hawaii. They were similar.)
  • Fiddleheads (young ferns) - We have them grilled every spring, while they are in season. So cute, with a unique earthy taste.
  • Figs - Not really exotic, but hard to find fresh; unbelievably amazing in every way.
  • Horned melon - Cool looking but pretty boring tasting.
  • Feijoa - Can't remember it too well; I think it was very fragrant.
  • Jaboticaba - From South Kona Fruit Stand. Tasty.
  • Juniper berries (dried) - Kind of inedible. Tasted like gin.
  • Lychee - I don't particularly like them--too perfume-y tasting; I tried them in Luxembourg, but they're commonly available in groceries.
  • Kiwiberries/Baby Kiwis - Soft, tiny and sweet.
  • Kumquats - Got addicted for a while. Love the perverse inside-out nature of the kumquat, and the texture, the combination of sweet and tart, that weird citrus-zest-oil flav, the crunch crunch crunch.
  • Li Hing Mui - Dried, powdery li hing mui (bought at Long's drugstore) is inedible! But li hing mui is a delicious flavouring for shave ice or sour kids. It's a type of dried plum with a sour/sweet/salty flavor and is a local favourite in Hawaii.
  • Lilikoi - Got at South Kona Fruit stand. Sweet, has seeds that you swallow; ate skin too. I liked the skin.
  • Mamey sapote - The South Kona fruit stand lady raved about it and said it tasted like pumpkin pie, but it was all dry, fibery and not sweet, and was basically inedible, even though it appeared to be ripe when we ate it.
  • Mango - I don't consider mango exotic, but the little yellow "champagne" kind are always incredible; the other kinds can be risky; a good mango is impossibly delicious.
  • Mangosteen!!! - Found at long last on 11-28-06 at Banana Joe's fruit stand in Kauai!
  • Monstera - Highly recommended! After nearly seven years of wanting to try it, I stumbled across a whole pile at Whole Foods! After waiting for the hexagonal scales to start falling off on their own (as per instructions), I ate my first kernels on 8-15-2007. Monstera tastes like very good pineapple with a hint of banana, and is more creamy and tender and less juicy than pineapple. The flavor is pronounced, sweet, and delicious. It's also really fun scraping/popping off the little corn-like kernels and eating them a few at a time as they ripen, and it's cool knowing exactly when a fruit is at optimum ripeness because it tells you so!
  • Morel mushrooms, wild - Picked in my parents' yard. (I've also had them at several restaurants in NYC.)
  • Papaya - We had some nice fresh ones in Hawaii, but I don't think they're that special.
  • Persimmon, Hachiya - So ripe it was almost liquefied. Good. Made my tongue tingle.
  • Pitaya - From the Hilo Farmer's Market. It's dragonfruit, but mine were yellow pitayas, which are more delicious than the regular (pretty magenta) kind. They are also smaller. They were very very good and I wished I'd bought more.
  • Poi - Um. Mauve and lumpy, with a very strange taste. From the grocery store in Hawaii.
  • Pomegranate - Not weird, but I don't think many people eat them; I love eating pomegranates.
  • Quince - At first I tried it raw, and it was awful (dry and sour and made no sense), but then I read that you're supposed to peel and cook it before eating, and it was great!
  • Rambutan - Very similar to a lychee but covered with cool-looking spines like messy hair; I had them at a breakfast buffet in Hawaii, and from a market in St. John.
  • Rhubarb - Is rhubarb weird? I LOVE RHUBARB.
  • Seaweed - Quite a few varieties, in seaweed salads and other applications. I love seaweed; the stranger looking, the better.
  • Purple sweet potato tapioca from Ba-Le - It's a great color. Sort of lavender. And it has chunks (small) of sweet potato. I commented at the time, "Definitely counts as a weird food."
  • Snake Fruit, a.k.a. Salak Palm fruit - Got them at the South Kona Fruit stand in Hawaii. Very scaly, peely skin, with a crunchy not-very-moist chestnut-looking center that separates into several segments. Quite a cool fruit, but not all that thrilling tasting.
  • Strawberry guava - Really, really, really good. (And I am no fan of regular guavas.) Single-bite sized, sweet-tart, and delicious. Got at the South Kona Fruit Stand and wanted more.
  • Torange - Related to a lemon (looks kind of like a large yellow orange and has a very thick rind) and is supposed to be lemon-flavoured but not bitter. It tasted sort of like not-too-sweet lemonade. Sweet and sour at the same time, with tough membranes between slices, sort of like on a grapefruit. Makes your hands smell wonderful. Really loved it, and bought as many as I could. I don't know if I'll ever find them again. (Maybe it's the same thing as an Oro blanco??)
  • Tamarillo - Amazing stuff, intense and tomato-ish, but more acidic; doesn't look that unusual on the outside, but it's filled with seeds that look like blood; don't eat the skin--it tastes horrible.
  • Tri-colour bean Vietnamese dessert - In a tall glass with red beans on the bottom, yellow mung bean goup and weird bright green jello-ish strips, layered beneath coconut milk and shave ice style ice. Very strange but very good. I always order one at Pho Boston.
  • Ugli fruit - Weird looking, but not weird tasting. Juicy and delicious.
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          Weird foods I especially want to try:
  • Lamprey.
  • Kidneys.
  • Sea anemone soup.
  • Sweetbreads (had on 12-10-04 Pahu I`a in Hawaii; later, at Babbo and Alto.).
  • Snake.
  • Ostrich (had on 11-18-04 in Hawaii).
  • Crocodile.
  • Kangaroo.
  • Monkfish liver.
  • Boquerones, a.k.a. white anchovies. (had at Alto in NYC on 7-2-05).
  • Wild boar (had at Spris in July, 2005, but it was wild boar prosciutto, so that doesn't really count).
  • Oxtail (had on 9-6-04 at Lupa in NYC and 12-10-04 at Pahu I`a in Hawaii. Also had an oxtail (in a very tail-ular format) from a local restaurant in Grand Cayman, 2006.)
  • Coxcombs.
  • White apricots.
  • Fresh dates.
  • Monstera (after nearly seven years of wanting to try it, I stumbled across a whole pile at Whole Foods!) (ate my first kernels on 8-15-2007.)
  • Snake Fruit. (bought 11-9-05 at the South Kona Fruit stand in Hawaii)
  • Mangosteen!!! (found at long last on 11-28-06 at Banana Joe's fruit stand in Kauai!)

    •       Weird foods I will never eat:
  • Raw (non-fish) meat.
  • Brains of any kind, even though I want to. Mad cow disease and its cousins are way too scary.
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