With That On the Menu

[crokett]

I am not sure how the restaurant lasted. Channel surfing and found something called 'Weird Foods' or something like that. He is at a restaurant in Spain - oldest in the world, has been around for 300 years continuously. He had: baby squid cooked in it's own ink, baby eels, bull tails and uhmm... some other part, and finally an entire roasted suckling pig, including the head. And yes you eat the head, or at least what is in it.

[jackellis]

I've had eel. Pretty good at "restaurant row" in Brussels.

I've had baby squid cooked in it's own ink. Also very good. You don't really taste the ink.

Can't tell you about bull tails or "Rocky Mountain oysters", which is made from the other part of the bull you're probably referring to.

Everyone's heard of the traditional dish known as Haggis. My grandmother (Jewish) used to make something very similar called kishka. If you didn't know what it was made of, you'd think it was fine. Not great perhaps, but OK. BTW, I've had Haggis accompanied by a "wee dram" of fine scotch whiskey. Very fine.

My sister-in-law (Mexican) makes a traditional dish from cow's stomach. I'm not sure I could eat it. But then again, she's only just learning to eat sushi.

I read an article somewhere about insects as food. Should turn your stomach, except that apparently many insects are pretty tasty.

It all depends. Our forebears used to use a lot more of the animals than we do.

[Tom Slick]

Mountain oysters are actually taste pretty good. If you didn't know what they were you'd think it was a small chicken fried steak.

Cow's stomach is tripas or "tripe" and is usually found in menudo (not the boy band). it doesn't taste bad, but to me it tastes like I am eating a sponge.

Neither of these are something I eat more then about every 10 years.

[Daryl]

That was one of the tamer shows. I have seen one show where he ate boiled eggs that were prepated a few days before hatching, insects. sparrows, rotted tofu and so on.

[cabinetman]

Anyone ever had chopped moose lips?
.

[Uncle Cracker]

That show was probably Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern... Some of the stuff he eats (and claims to enjoy) on that show would gag a buzzard... It's a good one to watch when I wanna drop a few pounds.

[Mrs. Wallnut]

It is funny that you mentioned this show. Mark was watching it the other day when I got home from the store. I walked in and he says I found an interesting show to watch, you might like it. So I sit down and start watching it and soon realize that the man was in a cave full of fruit bats and they were "hitting them pinata style" and then stir frying them. And there were some other things that I just couldn't stand and Mark turned the channel when we made some popcorn.

(Almost didn't eat dinner that night because we were having stir fry)

[Uncle Cracker]

Yup, it is GROSS

[shoottx]

Stranded in ST. Johns Newfoundland on night, we went to an establishment know for local dishes. The local special was Seal Flipper Pie.

It was worth every penny spent on it because I ate it for three or four days.

[crokett]

Uncle Cracker, you are right - that is what the show is called.

I would eat the eels, and with some hesitation the squid. I would eat the pig, or at least some bits of it. I would not eat the eyes or brain like he did.

[atgcpaul]

You want some interesting food? Go to your local Chinatown and sit down for
dim sum. It'll be better the closer you are to a big city like LA, NYC, or
Philly. Philly is my personal favorite. I think the tripe and chicken feet are
pretty tame. I had the coagulated pig's blood some time ago. Interesting
dish.

No problem with squid. I've only had eel in sushi but I like it a lot. Not a big
fan of sea urchin sushi, though.

I can't believe Andrew Zimmern can't eat durian, though. He can be pretty
daring. There are things he eats I probably wouldn't, but he can't get past
durian?!!! I love the stuff.

My favorite breakfast meat product is scrapple. Scrapple, sunny side up egg,
and toast and jam.

My stomach is growling.


Paul

[ironhat]

What is 'durian', paul?

[Gator95]

So many cultural differences...

I remember when I was at my in-laws butchering two pigs. Wife told me the best part was the huge feast that you had while doing this and afterwards. I was imagining ribs, roasts, tasty stuff. Turns out the stuff you feast on that day are bits that are not as easy to preserve or freeze- like brains, face meat, blood made into pudding, organ meats, etc...

They gave me endless hard time about not eating some of the stuff. Wife loves pig brains with garlic and scrambled eggs, I wouldn't touch it.

[atgcpaul]

What is 'durian', paul?

You know, it's really too bad there is no such thing as scratch and sniff
computer monitors. Once you get past the smell, the sweet custardy taste
is just awesome. You can actually buy it in the states but usually it's been
frozen for shipment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

Scroll down to the middle of the page and look at the signs restricting it from
mass transit. While visiting my wife's family in Thailand, you'd see signs like
that at the entrance to hotels.

[vaking]

Our ancestors some 10000 years ago were all hunters/gatherers. They were ready to eat just about anything that was not poisonous. There are still many thousands of plants and hundreds of animal species available even today. Our ancestors also knew a lot more than we do about what could be eaten and how. Later on people learned agriculture. They domesticated couple dozen types of plants (wheat, barley, rice, soy, etc) and few animals (cow, goat, pig, horse). With that we lived for about ten thousand years. We added a little more variety in the past couple hundred years (like strawberries and few types of fish that we domesticated) but not much. In short - If you want variety - go hunt. You will have plenty of options what can be eaten but wild food is scarce. What is better - many options with little food or few options with plenty on the table? With the current human population approaching 7 billion on a wild food we won't last 1 year.