Expanding Culinary Horizons
 

I'm in Iceland now and on this trip I've eaten two things I haven't tried before...and feel slightly guilty about: minke whale and foal.

The minke whale was served as sushi in one of the courses of the chef's tasting menu at a restaurant in Reykjavik called The Fish Market. I would describe it as "steakfish". It had the texture of sushi but tasted kind of like steak. It's red meat; who knew? It doesn't bother me from a sustainability vantage - minke whale are plentiful - but from a I've-always-thought-of-cetaceans-as-sentient point of view.

The foal was two broiled medallions and a bit of tartare. It tasted good but I feel guilty about eating baby horse (though I think nothing of ordering lamb...). It tasted like beef, but gamier. I had it at our hotel (Hotel Buðir, on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula - really excellent country lodge-style hotel in the middle of nowhere).

What sorts of things have you tried that you hadn't had before? Did you feel any ethical queasiness about it?

Was the whale steak raw?

I've eaten Shark Fin soup.. and Pickeral out of season

The natural Pickeral fish is banned at certain times of the year, and if a restaurant serves it, they face a hefty $10K plus penalty..

I ate 'lamb jewels' from a street vendor in china after an error in translation.

They were actually wonderful. Well spiced.

Good to know - there's place a couple of blocks away from my apartment that has a soup called "Lamb Treasures" - same thing. Been wanting to try them.

The error in translation - did you know ahead of time what you were eating?

No, we learned about 3 minutes after when we used an app and drew the exact symbol on the phone.

We were told initially 'pieces', 'nuggets' cooked on a skewer with spice. They were nuggets, on a skewer, with spice....They were super cheap too, but so was the chicken and all very good.

So -- would you eaten them knowing what they were? It sound's like you'd try them again.

Pig tail and pig stomach is mmmm good..

I probably would have yes, but maybe not bought them.

I've tried many things and always try things once for the most part. I may draw the line on some very unsafe items (some brains, and some raw meats), and that living larvae cheese....

Molds, aging, fermenting, and such don't really bother me, not that I'd eat them thee things daily, but I give a shot.

Pickled pigs feet are YUCK! It is like eating the saltiest vinegar you can imagine with this fatty unchewable hunk....uhh don't remind me.

Well maybe the pickled.. but the pig hoofs are awesome..

Especially if you cook in Soya Sauce for about half an hour..

boiled in broth is pretty good.. speaking of which, I've had Pig snout.. very tender..^

not a big deal really, trompitas tacos are good good. I recommend them! Check your local AUTHENTIC taco truck!

If you're still in Iceland I would recommend trying two things - puffin and reindeer filets, both pretty tasty.

Yes, it was raw. It wasn't steak - it was nigiri sushi. A small piece served on a small bit of sushi rice.

I've been meaning to do so, but haven't seen either on the menu anywhere. Mostly lots and lots and lots of lamb and fish. We'll be back in Reykjavik tonight (fly home tomorrow) so I'll keep an eye out.

I think this is the place where we had the puffin, but it's been awhile.

http://www.randburg.is/is/laekjarbrekka/

good stuff.

only things i "couldnt" eat are dog and dolphin.

and im fine with raw, but not alive.

seriously. met a brit in europe recently who described them as crunchy and said you have to bite them to kill them.

I had some of the best fish tacos in California.. totally sold on them..

and then I tried at 4 or 5 different places since, and was not as good..

So will have to phone up my friend and figure out that restaurant again in California to revisit those famous tasting fish tacos..

btw.. Pig snout was sold at Co-op stores way back when.. so yes, I agree, it isn't that big of a deal..

Can still buy a whole hog head here in TX :D
Makes the best tamales.

Great..

Who needs to go to a luau for hog head cooked?..

Do it right in your backyard..:D

Damn, this thread makes me hungry.

I've tried whale sperm sushi in LA. Donkey in Beijing (didn't know what it was before I ate it - local friends ordered and we just ate). In Vietnam grilled rat was on the dinner menu but I couldn't get myself to try that. (Although everyone else at dinner liked it and even ordered a second plate of it.) :rolleyes:

The problem with reading German/Austrian menus is that they seem to join a lot of seperate words together to make up one long confusing word. I pride myself on my attempts at speaking German although I am complete rubbish.

I took my wife to a swanky restaurant in Salzburg and ordered what I thought I had understood - the same dish for both of us. What arrived was what appeared to be a raw ox toungue in one piece curled around on a large white plate. No problem with tongue ... just the way it looked.

Neither my wife and I could eat it but it was our fault (my fault .....) and so no grounds for complaint. But what to do? When they weren't looking my wife wrapped each of the toungues up in serviettes and bagged them ..... we threw enough money on the table and left quickly ......

I still get sweaty thinking about it.:D

Camel in Dubai, loved it. Would have it again in a heartbeat.

Street vendor kabobs of undetermined meat in Istanbul. Really spicy and really good, still cannot figure out what it was.

I had cow's hooves at a west African restaurant called Masala Yangu in of all places Naperville IL (sadly this restaurant has since closed, expected it as Naperville isn't exactly expanding culinary land). The texture (soft, almost jelly like) is not a Western texture, I enjoyed the soup though.

I don't see myself re-thinking what gfunkdave ate, & puffin is for sure on my list when I get to Iceland.^

Soft, jelly like is where its at.. I've had beef tendon, and tripe yesterday.. yum.. a delicacy..

I also like chicken feet in soy.. especially the meaty part where all the fingers join..^

Not had puffin per se, but a friend had a couple packages
of seal and a couple of auk that he'd gotten from a relative
who is authorized to hunt such things; he cooked some
seal and found it okay and cooked some auk and found
it utterly disgusting, so he threw away the other package
of auk. When I came to visit, he proudly defrosted the
other package of seal and discovered that he'd kept the
wrong package. When he described the taste of auk, I
suggested a line of attack. We brined the birds, removed
all the skin and visible fat, parboiled them, soaked them
in a soy-ginger-garlic marinade, and grilled them. They
came out tasting sort of between marine duck and
land-based duck: i.e., okay, not much better than that.

I'd try all the other foods listed here except possible the
whale come and the casa marzu.

I would like to have tried some other Icelandic foods while there - mainly puffin and reindeer. I couldn't bring myself to try hakarl, the notorious fermented shark that is usually served in the midwinter feast. Anthony Bourdain pronounced it the most vile thing he had ever put in his mouth. In fact, Icelanders usually chase hakarl with a shot of brennevin - their local schnapps that tastes like caraway-flavored gasoline - just to get the taste out of their mouths.

Cuy in Ecuador, a local delicacy.

Cuy = Guinea Pig

Driving around Iceland you realize there are way more horses than people to ride them. Didn't try foal, but enjoyed the rotted shark (a tiny bit was enough).

Good idea to eat shark, rather than finning shark and throwing em back into the water..

In Iceland, they bury them for a few months so they're nice and rotten, then dig them up and eat them.

Don't believe me? Look up hakarl on Wikipedia.

Had bofe in a Colombian pueblo, it had tubes poking out of it and tasted vile. I called the "chef" over to ask him what it was and he didn't personally know which part of which animal it was.

Got home and googled it and it turned out to be pigs' lungs. If you fancy trying it then find yourself a pig that smokes a pack of Marlboro a day so it has a bit more flavour.

Anyone ever eaten a century egg?

Yes indeed, not bad at all!

they are sold all over small stores (water stops!) in china, much like we'd have a 'dill pickle' here they are in vacuum sealed plastic, for the cheap ones. Those aren't too good according to my sister, I didn't try it. But, I had one at another place that made them, and they were decent, very distinct flavor, bit of a bad odor.

I'd eat a meal of century eggs before I tried more pickled pigs feet.

Century eggs are made by keeping an egg in mud for a period of time..

in a sense its almost like eating dirt..:eek:

umm no, they are wrapped in hay, or clay, but you don't eat that at all.

I guess the mud would turn to clay.. but yes you're right.. the clay/mud properties soak through the egg, and is completely dark..

In a sense, the properties of which the egg is wrapped in is transferred AFAIK..

A novice question, do they boil and shell the egg before wrapping it or do they wrap a raw egg and the process chemically cooks it then they knock off the surroundings and the shell?

The egg is unbroken and dipped.. I'm not sure raw or cooked..

I presume raw, but I just don't remember..

I just remember eating this at dimsum restaurants going up and currently..

It is one of those things you have to wonder who invented it and what were they were thinking at the time when they said

"I have a cool idea, I am gonna wrap this egg in clay and rice husks then see what it tastes like next summer"

A bit like Peruvian salsa huancaina. Probably invented by drunk students back from 2 for 1 night at the campus bar.

Now a legacy hundreds of years later..:D

Probably an individual playing a tribal trick on another..:)

Unusual Foods
 

I've tried some interesting foods.

1- Cuy ( Guinea Pig ) in Peru- greasey, not much to eat and tons of bones
2- Mud- Peru- definitely the weirdest thing. It became a dare while on a day tour among some people we met.
3-Zebra steak in Namibia- Delicous
4-Zebra Carpaccio in Namibia- tasted great but I was sick as hell for 1.5 days after
5-Fat ... Ants in Colombia- absolutely disgusting, hard to get down... ill
6-Beaver Stew in Lithuania- not the tastiest meal i've had
7-Sausage with Bear in Estonia- very tastey, just wish it was all bear not a combo of animals in the sausuage.