What's the weirdest thing you've eaten?

[Solana]

As long as it falls within my dietary restrictions, I love trying new things. I also have coworkers from all over the world and different walks of life that have helped in this quest.

Squirrel soup- coworker. Very fatty, lots of little bones. Not bad.

Foie gras- coworker with French blood. Honestly didn't care for it- I thought it tasted like sour milk. I happily went back to my pizza rolls. (Sorry, Anthony Bourdain.)

Reindeer sausage- Festival of Nations. Very tasty, especially with a thin slice of cucumber. (And I don't usually care for cucumber.)

How about you guys?

[Ambrienne]

I had an opportunity to eat squirrel soup one Thanksgiving. I declined. Same thing with escargot during a field trip. Given that one of the people that tried the escargot said that it tasted like dirt, I think that was a wise move on my part.

However... I have had bison burgers, ostrich burgers and, (I think) elk burgers. The bison ones were pretty good and so were the ostrich, though with the ostrich, it had a tendency towards being a little drier given that it was so low on fat.

I do not recommend chicken sausage, though. You'd think given chicken's adaptability as an ingredient, it would be a shoo-in, but no. It's just strange.



And don't mix imitation crab and teriyaki sauce, either. That one... I don't understand why it isn't good, but it is absolutely a disservice to both ingredients.

Drizzling wasabi on a sausage pizza isn't half bad, though. Not as good as sriracha, though.

Yes, yes, I am... culinarily inventive within my limited scope of abilities. For instance, chipotle powder in chocolate. It actually works taste-wise, alongside cinnamon and orange. Chinese five spice also works in chocolate, though if it's in the chocolate, you'll hardly notice peanut butter, too. ^^; Lemon and ginger also is a winner chocolate wise.

[Rune Lai]

It's hard for me to think about what the strangest thing I've eaten is, since a lot of things I've eaten are no longer considered strange (at least not to someone living in southern California!). For instance, I remember when eating sea urchin was a novelty. Now there's an entire restaurant that specializes in it! I think it's overrated for the price you pay, but it was cheaper I'd eat it more.

I guess there's the different varieties of fish eggs I've eaten too (the usual salmon and flying fish roe in sushi, but also various eggs found in the whole fish from the Asian markets).

I've had ostrich burgers, but not bison. I'm okay with chicken sausages lol. There's a chicken apple sausage combo that I like.

Escargot is like clam. If you can deal with the chewiness of clam, then you can deal with escargot. I just don't like it because I have a snail problem in my backyard and I don't like the feeling of paying fancy money to eat the relatives of my yard pests.

I've also had frog legs. Overrated. It's like trying to get meat off the smaller end of a chicken wing. Not worth it.

There was one family road trip I went on as a child where I saw rabbit on the menu and considered begging my dad to let me order it (it was the most expensive thing on the menu and I knew it was more than he would ordinarily pay), but I decided to be a good kid and not ask for the overpriced meal that probably wasn't that good anyway.

When I was in Germany I had tuna pizza and I thought it was quite good! And now that you've rekindled my memory of it, I wish I had some tuna and a frozen pizza to recreate that right now, but I just went grocery shopping this afternoon and I don't want to go back to the store again so soon.

For that matter, I think anchovy on pizza is also a perfectly good topping, but none of the major chains around here offer it! It had such a bad rap from my childhood cartoons that I thought it must be terrible, and then the first time I had it I realized that though it was a very salty topping, it really added something, particularly if you had toppings like fresh sliced tomatoes to complement the salt.

And I've had roasted crickets before. They're not bad. Expensive snack, but if you get the chance to try, I'd go for it.

I've also had jellyfish. It's not really a big deal in Chinese cuisine, but for years it was a popular first course dish at a banquet (it might still be, but I don't go to as many weddings anymore) so it was just the cold cut plate I'd eat before the good stuff came out. It doesn't really have much flavor as a meat. It's the dressing that makes up for it.

Which reminds me (just one more), I did have shark fin soup as a kid before it became banned in California.

[Solana]

I forgot- conch fritters and fish, potato, lime soup in the Bahamas. (Yes, the same soup that Aryn gets the recipe for in 'Storms of Rebirth'). An odd combination, but very satisfying. I did find a recipe for it in a book and should try making it.