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Well, to start it off, my grandmother(Non-biological) is a purebred Chinese, and when I came back from there for a Christmas trip, I came back with more Chinese snacks and food than i did with clothes and gifts... This got me into more exotic dishes for dinner, and tonight I tried my hand with Pad Thai, a delicious, spicy treat of a dish that has suddenly become my new favorite. Care to tell of your exotic culinary adventures?

I think squirrel and alligator are probably the most unusual things I've ever eaten. And they're good.

(I have hillbillies in my family. )

I had squirrel on a hunting trip in South Dakota, never tried Alligator though I heard it was good.

With apologies to Short Tail, I had bobcat soup once. No, it tasted like turkey, believe it or not. Like most game (organic free range!), it was so loaded with iron I clanked when I got up from the table.

I do like frog legs, and would like to become a regular venison eater...but I need to catch a deer first...

I have a whole "no holds barred" cookbook called <i>The Decadent Gourmet</i>. It tells how to make helmeted fowl, Roc's egg (gilded with real 24-carat gold leaf), St. Sebastian, cat in tomato sauce, and a number of selections from Salvador Dali's cookbook. I don't have it immediately to hand so I can't go into it but let's just say the tamest thing they have in there is the croque-em-bouche.

The St. Sebastian dish is a pastry filled with wine-diluted raspberry jelly. It could be in the shape of a dying man or a deer. The way it was served was that it was carried in on a platter and someone shot an arrow into it; the arrow would cause a wound and the wine-raspberry jam "blood" would leak out. Not exactly exotic ingredients but a damn nice — if thoroughly heathen — dessert showpiece. I wanted to make one in culinary academy but my chef instructor specifically forbade me to do it

I guess the weirdest thing I've ever consumed was a cocktail called the Brain Tumour. You drizzle a little grenadine in the bottom of the glass, almost fill it with peach schnapps, gently drizzle Bailey's into the schnapps to top it up, so that the cream in the Bailey's curdles in a semi-congealed mass. The effect is supposed to be an excised brain tumour in formaldehyde, and you don't sip it. You knock it back in one shot. Tasted awful but the pleasure came from viewing the expressions of your tablemates.

Most unusual I've had is Ostrich, Crocodile, Springbok all on one plate at a fantastic South African restaurant not far from where I live. I was really surprised at the ostrich, a VERY coarse dark red meat. Tasty tho.

Oh and I had a go at hedgehog once on a survival weekend. we had to catch and prepare it. encasing it in clay before throwing it in the fire to cook. the idea being that when you smash the clay of, it takes the spines with it. Just remember it tasting rabbity, although it was a LONG time ago.

I'm gonna have to go back to China for a while to top off these... Maybe to the Penis specialty restaurant in northeastern China.

Gotta say tho, I couldn't eat Dog. That is about the only thing I wouldn't touch. I've eaten Horse on a visit to my Gran-in-laws in the South of France. I think the French will truly eat anything. I know that in the works canteen at AIRBUS in Toulouse, they serve some pretty foul dishes, Sauasage marinated in Pigs urine anybody? Still I suppose it's outwieghed by the fact you can have a beer or wine with your works lunch!

I have a picture of a dog being butchered and strung out somewhere in the Shang Hai marketplace... That was disturbing to say the least.

I read an article in one of my 'specialist' magazines once, which had graphic photo's and accounts of the dog as food industry in Korea. Apparently they beat the poor fellas with sticks before they kill them, as they say that the adrenaline it produces makes the meat taste better!

OK, you've got to kill the animal of chioce to eat it, but PLEASE! do it humanely

They probably consider it some sort of aphrodisiac like everything else. Beat the dog before you off it?

I saw a number of dishes where the main ingreedient was Turtle when I was in the Caymans

i've had goat recently (boyfriends family eats it reliiously on sundays) and i have to say it tastes pretty damn good (like pork)
and wild boar tastes like roast beef

Fang wrote:I saw a number of dishes where the main ingreedient was Turtle when I was in the Caymans

At long as it wasn't turtles head!

There's alot of dishes in the Florida Keys with Conch ( Pronouced Konk) as a ingredient. Ya know the cute little critters in those big shells you can hear the ocean in? By far my favorite is Osyters on the half shell, yummm raw osyters, with a little horseradish.

Then i've had typical kinda weird things like liver, alligator, crawfish boils (where you peel and eat it, then suck the stuff outta the head..yummm), quail, scallops (which are actually shark...).

twirrlacurl wrote:There's alot of dishes in the Florida Keys with Conch ( Pronouced Konk) as a ingredient. Ya know the cute little critters in those big shells you can hear the ocean in?

I had some fried Conch when I went to the Bahamas. Good stuff.

I'm very experimental, but I won't eat anything that could have suffered needlessly. As a result, I don't eat many foods others consider "normal" like chicken or hamburger, but I'll gladly gulp down sushi, emu, raw oyster, octopus, and the like. A lot of people think I hate meat because I describe myself as a vegitarian. But, when I find a meat outlet, people are stunned at what and how much I'll eat. It's a sudden flip-flop in expectations.

I've had deer, and a neighbors rooster, (my mom killed it for always waking everyone up in the morning). Both of which were really good.

I'm white as wonderbread, but was raised on Korean food.

I help with administration in the local Boy Scouts and at one campboree, each troup choose a country to "celebrate" - including cooking a meal from taht country.I hung out with the "Australia" troup and enjoyed the food emmensely. They had alligator, kangaroo stew, and fried swamp root. It was all good.

I have a personal project that I call "The International Wok" I use my long weekend holidays to cook a meal centered on a wok dish fom some country - I'm going alphabetically and my last was Anguilla - I cooked peas and rice (wow! That was good), Johnnie Cake, and banana flambe. I'll be cooking a pot of shrimp bisque first chance I get.

Most of my experiments turn out pretty well.

Growing up with red neck and American indian family members I've had
Deer, wild turkey, rabbit, squirrel, gator, snake, turtle, wild boar, and god knows what else they fed me as a kid. I don't remember anything I didn't like.
All I know is when I would ask what it was they said it's good for you so eat it.

I have a little entertainment I call The International Wok. When people hear "wok" they usually think "Chinese" but it's just a great kitchen tool. On long weekend holidays I'll make a meal centered around a wok dish inspired by some nationality. Some are great, like, strangely enough, the American Samoa Corned Beef Stir fry and the Andorran Pork Cutlets. Others are just weird, but they've all been good.

I'm taking the nations and states in alphabetical order. I started with Afghanistan and now I'm cooking Anguillan food. I'll be cooking a shrimp bisque for the fourth.

If you're curious, you can look at the website where I post the results - http://community-2.webtv.net/WolfVanZan ... tionalWok/

If you'd like to see my other cooking adventures - http://community-2.webtv.net/WolfVanZandt/TheStuffFile/