Bizarre food you ever ate?

One other food memory stands out.  It was a sausage at a bistro in Paris.  This particular sausage was made with parts of the liver, blood, colon...etc.  It smelled pretty bad, but that wasn't a deterrent.  I took my first bite and told Ha "this tastes like shit..." but I wasn't speaking figuratively. 

The sausage is beloved in France, and I swear their restaurants have a separate piles of sausages for locals and tourists. 

My girlfriend was mad at me, not because I ordered it, but cuz I still ate most of it.    Ya, no lovin' that night in the world's most romantic city.

I've tried every critter ever offered to me, tongue to bung.

I've gone to places asking for a particular food because I've read it on Nat Geo or  a guidebook only to have the locals look at me with that "you're nasty..." look because they don't even eat it, probably just their ancestors.  I've asked locals to write for me the name of some obscure food so I can show taxi drivers to help me locate it.  My girlfriend would come along and usually try these foods, but she was never not supportive even when inordinate amounts of our meager resources went to me hunting for obscure foods. 

I was stopped cold in my cultural culinary track by a mug of saliva brewed chicha in the jungles of South America. 

The smiling old women showing me her rotted teeth handing me the mug of warm spit brewed delicacy almost pushed me to be that "ugly American" tourist. 

Nate

Awesome!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Ya, I was lucky to have been a missionary then and NO Alcohol was the rule... Nasty stuff there. (understand it's not too bad though, After a little you don't care anyway

I was stopped cold in my cultural culinary track by a mug of saliva brewed chicha in the jungles of South America. 

 

Stinky tofu...it tastes really good if you can get pass the smell! 

First three years of marriage, every night....... #neveragain

Growing up in Montana it's all about the bear jerky. A little greasy but not too bad

Once in the north east of Thailand near Mahaserakham, a native friend took me to a road side ranahan (restaurant) and ordered us both a bowl of special fish broth soup. When the bowl arrived, a medium sized whole, perch like fish was draped in the broth, but that was not significant. It was the long winged flies and the small white wiggling larvae that caught my attention  . I motioned to my friend that the soup was contaminated, but he took his spoon and took a giant dip into my soup and downed a good spoonful of flies and larvae with the broth. He then made a gesture of satisfaction and told me it was quite delicious. OK, when in Rome (cough! cough!), I took a spoonful and without looking, popped it into my mouth and was extremely surprised.  = WOW!

Apparently, once a year at the end of the dry season, some mangoes are left on the trees by local famers. A particular flying ant, has a habit of laying it's eggs in the fermenting fruit, and the subsequent larvae feed on the effervecense. The farmer harvests the overripe infested fruit, cleans it, and sells the larvae at the local farmer's market. Restaurant owner's flock to buy it when in season and so...

I must say I have never tasted a more delicious fish soup with mango flavored larvae in my life prior to that.

I Zod Out

Stinky tofu...it tastes really good if you can get pass the smell! 

I love this stuff. But I have not found a restaurant that serves it.

Stinky tofu...it tastes really good if you can get pass the smell! 

I love this stuff. But I have not found a restaurant that serves it.

They serve this dish at Jang Su Jang in Santa Clara

McDonalds Filet-O-Fish.   

Oreo Cookie dipped in Shiracha sauce. 

Shake 'N' Bake pork chops smothered with quality blue cheese dressing.  Good stuff!   

It grows in my Pantry a yeasty, bacterial, symbiotic arrangement.



The Immortal Curd.



The Elixir of Piss.



Ode to Big Jim.   

I'm from northern thailand so we eat so weird shit..
 -blood salad (raw beef with pork blood or duck blood and spices)
- spicy fire ants eggs salad
-stinky water bug fried
-fermented fish
And the worst of them  Durian

I also had stinky tofu and fermented bean soup in Taiwan.. Disgusting
And fermented squid soaked in squid ink in Japan.. One of the most nastiest shit that ever enter my mouth

I ate Beondegi from time to time when I lived in Korea.... Boiled silkworm pupae... mmmmmm...

And the worst of them  Durian

This is my favorite fruit of all