Speaking of foods, what won't you try?

[pjm-7]

No Rocky Mountain oysters!

 

[MBAustin]

I won't eat olives - green or black.

Ditto. Or anchovies or blue cheese.

... Looking forward to getting off the beaten path in Peru (and trying some of the fusion restaurants in Lima) for this very reason....

I just returned from 2 weeks in Peru and the food was fabulous (even though we didn't make it to any of the high-end Lima restaurants. Cuy (guinea pig, pronounced "coo-ee") is a delicacy, particularly in the Andean region. They stuff it with herbs and grill-roast it over an open flame on a long stick. We tried a bite - the skin was crisp and tasty, the meat bony and a little gamey. Anticuchos are marinated beef hearts also grilled on a stick - very tasty (enough so that I may try to find beef hearts and make it myself). Ceviche was also new to me - there are multiple approaches, some of which I liked better than others. Many varieties of corn and potatoes. Their bar snack equivalent of popcorn is baked corn kernels of different shapes, sizes, and colors. I could go on but this is making me hungry!

 

[NW-Bound]

Anticuchos are marinated beef hearts also grilled on a stick - very tasty (enough so that I may try to find beef hearts and make it myself)...

Hearts of animals are no different than their other muscles. One time, in the US I saw a package of hamburger patties with a lower price than normal. So, I read the fine print and saw that there was ground heart mixed in. Bought a package to try out of curiosity, and it tasted fine, just a bit dry.

Hearts are lean muscles, though may be a bit tough (they work 24/7 ).

 

[NW-Bound]

By the way, Peruvian anticuchos (grilled beef heart) sound similar to Japanese yakitori made with chicken hearts. Chicken gizzards too. Yummy. I like these.

 

[Fedup]

Peruvian anticuchos are very tasty. I don't like chicken gizzards. I throw them away.

 

[MRG]

About monkey brain, I remember as a kid reading about the Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi serving that to Western ambassadors and delegates in a banquet, and scaring the heck out of them. Do not see how that would be tasty. Perhaps the cruelty is part of the novelty.

I believe that your on to something. I have friend in Bali, her ER. She's running a dog rescue there.

Eating dog is common there and from what she tells me cruelty is said to improve the taste.

I don't do cruelty! I've raised and processed my own meat. Any animal deserves to be treated with respect.

 

[Walt34]

Wow, I'm learning that there are a lot of foods out there that I have zero interest in trying! I think this thread has sent me searching for definitions more than any other.

And I still don't like broccoli or peas. Since I do most of the grocery shopping they never show up here.

 

[braumeister]

Haggis

Sometimes I think I'm the only person on this side of the pond who actually likes haggis.

Not every one, but if it's decently prepared, I find it quite delicious.

 

[Fedup]

Sometimes I think I'm the only person on this side of the pond who actually likes haggis.

Not every one, but if it's decently prepared, I find it quite delicious.

Is that British version of blood sausage? I tried it but didn't really like it. Same with mushy peas. It's awful, taste like baby food. But my husband likes it. Weird to me.

 

[braumeister]

Is that British version of blood sausage?

No, not at all. If you're not familiar with haggis, you should google it.

 

[NW-Bound]

Peruvian anticuchos are very tasty. I don't like chicken gizzards. I throw them away.

I will be sure to try anticuchos when I get there. It's only beef or beef heart, so the tastiness comes from the seasoning.

Perhaps your chicken gizzards need some garlic, like this guy said.

 

[W2R]

I dunno.

I spent most of my childhood out of the country being dragged by my parents to some of the most obscure places on earth (seriously). My brothers and I were required to eat whatever they gave us to eat, whether we were hungry or not, whether it was frighteningly disgusting or not, without making any faces or saying anything negative about it. We weren't allowed to say that we didn't like any food item. This was just the way things were. So, at age 7 I was compliantly eating those crickets that Audrey mentioned, without making any faces, at age 6 I was obediently dipping tofu in raw egg and eating it (that one was the hardest! I actually almost fainted but hid my nausea well enough and did it), at age 9 I ate snake and eels and more bugs all at one meal, and I have eaten almost everything else on this thread and what I considered to be lots worse. Yes I had a weird childhood and grew up able to eat anything. I think this was what our parents were trying to teach us.

Anyway, right now my family is almost all dead. I could refuse to eat anything I choose not to eat. I am now allowed to not like things, finally. I admit that I got a big kick out of telling the forum in a recent post about how I don't like BBQ. I don't! Well, some types.

As for what wouldn't I try.... I see no reason to eat anything that I don't want to eat, any more. I can't think of much. I don't think I ever had the "opportunity" of being forced to eat balut compliantly as a toddler or little girl, but I'm pretty sure from the descriptions that I have read, that now, at age 69, I would smile broadly and decline.

 

[Koolau]

Cannibals are in complete agreement with you.

Donner! Party of 48, your table is ready.

 

[RobbieB]

Dogs. I refuse to eat dogs.

I might eat cats, but not dogs.

 

[Nodak]

There is a dish that's quite popular around Christmas with the Icelandic descendants around here. It is Lutefisk AKA lye-fish served with lots of melted butter. I cannot get past the smell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

 

[pullmyfinger]

Vegetarian here. I go with the late Linda McCartney - never eat anything with a face.

 

[Morricol61]

I'll probably be in the minority here but there's this Brazillian BBQ place in Brisbane that my DIL wants us to go for the grandkids birthday party.

$45 a head gets you 15 types of meat, grilled cassava, pineapple and bananas. No fries with that and drinks will cost extra.

I am totally against spending upwards of $100 (for the two of us) to attend a 10 year old's birthday lunch. I can't bring myself to spend the equivalent of a week's worth of groceries on a lunch that I won't even be able to finish.

Guess that's what comes from years of frugal living.

 

[FUEGO]

I'll try pretty much anything. And already have tried many things. Several insect varieties, cooked blood, tripe, all kinds of weird animals, raw stuff.

Having a wife and extended in-law family straight out of the jungles of SE Asia (and who lived through the famine years of the Khmer Rouge genocide eating literally anything that might provide some sustenance), they eat some weird stuff. For the cow, they eat literally everything but the skin, solid outside part of the bones, and hooves.

I'm not a fan of everything I try but I'll give it a taste.

Surprisingly tasty things that I'll eat again when given the chance - fried grasshoppers covered in lime and chili. Chapulines - a native dish to Oaxaca, Mexico. The texture is a little off (little legs and wings get stuck to your tongue and teeth) but the flavor is pretty good. Like toasted peanuts covered in a tangy, spicy seasoning.

I'd avoid questionable stuff that might kill me or make me really unhappy for an extended period - that blowfish in Japan; innards that have been sitting in the hot sun uncured, covered in flies; brains in most parts of the world; mayonnaise dressing that had been sitting in 100F heat all day at that fish taco place in Cancun.

edit: I'm also a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain. He's inspired two trips overseas so far, and I try to watch his old episodes before we go somewhere. We visited the same grilled meat stall he visited in a market in Montevideo, Uruguay and weren't particularly impressed. But it really looked good on the show! Maybe their prices went up and their quality dropped after Bourdain visited them.

 

[athena53]

I"m going back to Iceland next month and will skip the things DH and I saw on menus there on our 2015 trip: whale, puffin, and horsemeat carpaccio (thinly-slicd raw horsemeat). I'm sure they're all palatable but puffins are so CUTE and I like whales. Horsemeat is perfectly acceptable in some European cultures if it's sold as such and they follow the laws for feeding and treatment of the animals- but I just can't get used to the idea.

I don't like organ meats. Tried haggis and blood sausage (also called "black sausage") in Edinburgh. Once was enough. Did not try eating termites in the Costa Rican forest although a couple of my fellow travelers did. I love spicy foods, especially Indian, and haven't encountered a fruit or vegetable I didn't like. I particularly loved traveling in India on business because, unlike most areas in Asia, you were unlikely to be presented with, let's say, unusual forms of meat. I ate traditional Indian food 3X/day and stayed happily vegetarian. It was a piece of advice I got to prevent stomach upsets- maybe the unfriendly bacteria are more likely to proliferate in meat than plants. The worst upset I ever had was after I violated this and had fish in the restaurant of the hotel where I stayed- a good one that prepared foods to the standards of European and American sanitary practices. I won't do that again.

 

[braumeister]

I"m going back to Iceland next month and will skip the things DH and I saw on menus there on our 2015 trip: whale, puffin, and horsemeat carpaccio

Good decision. Iceland has some "interesting" food items. Hakari, the aged, fermented shark meat, is probably the most famous.

In a recent interview with Time Magazine Anthony Bourdain was asked what foods he would never again taste. One of the items Anthony mentioned was Icelandic fermented shark

He described it as

the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing

he has ever eaten.

 

[gamboolman]

Can't eat sushi, i.e., raw fish

I grew up eating fish we caught out of creeks, rivers, and lakes - and fish is fried or grilled and served with hot water cornbread and raw onions, pickled tomatoes and a bottle of tabasco sauce and fresh homemade iced tea. Usually since there was / are so many kids around - a big batch of homemade ice cream to send everyone over the food coma edge........

We are planning to retire to a lakehouse in a couple of years - God willing - and plan to have a Pavilion that will have the fish fryer (and turkey fryer) kit along with the BBQ smoker for wood only, and a wood only grill.

Having said that about the sushi's - I love raw oysters

I will also add, that living / working in Africa for the last ~15 years - that I have eaten lots of local "mystery" meat and "bush" meat - but we try to be real careful about that because - we have enjoyed some real good bouts of miserable food poisoning over here also....and there's that Ebola thing about the bat meat.....

And for the vegetables - have to be real careful about eating out - due to cholera....

All good stuff and part of the working oversea's experiences.....

 

[NW-Bound]

If I don't know what it is, but it's a plant (that someone reliable knows is not poisonous), I'm game. But unidentifiable animals or animal parts, not so much.

Some people think so until they encounter the durian fruit.

... haven't encountered a fruit or vegetable I didn't like...

Have you had durian?

I had a bite of it once. Did not spit it out, but did not care to eat it again. Mushy, a bit sweet, but an extremely extremely strong aroma that is hard to describe. Some say it's stinky, some say it smell good, but I think it is neither, just very very strong. There are people who are addicted to this stuff and pay big bucks for it.

See video below of Andrew Zimmern who can eat a lot of things that I cannot even look at, yet he bows to this durian fruit. After that episode in Malaysia, he tried once more at the Chinatown in NYC, still could not swallow it and admitted that he totally surrendered.

 

[Fedup]

Very smelly fruit. I like Jack fruit though. Not a fan of durian fruit at all. Maybe we should have a durian eating contest.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, jackfruit is good. Durian, I do not care for.

Here's one who likes durian.

 

[FUEGO]

Durian is pretty good. I had some at my in-laws and it was sweet and creamy. The odor wasn't too bad at all - I've had several cheeses with much worse odors.

Now one thing that was disgusting was something I tried shortly after having the fresh durian fruit. Durian flavored cream wafers from the Asian store. Like the kind that usually comes with strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla. Except with durian cream in the middle. I took one bite, immediately spit it into the trash as I tried to avoid gagging, then washed my mouth out for a while.

I forgot the wafers were in the trash. Later on, I came home and smelled a natural gas leak. Intoxicating, horrible stench of natural gas. I checked the crawlspace, sniffed around the hot water heater and furnace, and nothing. I was about to call 911 and report the gas leak when I realized I had spat a bite of the durian wafers in the trash. It stunk the whole house up so bad. I assume it was an artificial flavor/scent they added to the durian wafers that is similar to mercaptan, which they add to natural gas to give it that stink to warn you of a leak or concentration of gas.