What is the strangest (or most exotic) thing you have eaten?
@owlwings (43910)
Cambridge, England
January 18, 2009 12:07pm CST
I think the most bizarre thing I've ever tried was chocolate coated ants. They were really no big deal ... some chocolate with a bit of crunch in the middle!
Tonight, however, I am cooking kudu steaks. The Kudu is a large antelope that lives in South Africa. It's such a beautiful animal that I'm a little sorry that one was killed to supply me with meat but that's as maybe. It was killed and somebody had to buy that very tender looking morsel of steak.
It wasn't cheap! 175 grams cost me £5 (or around $8) ... that is about $20 a pound or nearly £30 a kilo! Never mind, it is an 'experience' and it looks to be a very delicious piece of meat that is a shame to apply too much heat to.
Kudu is a dark red meat with no fat. If I didn't know, I would have said that it was duck or goose breast or, perhaps, swordfish or tuna. It is certainly much more tender than the best fillet steak or venison. I have yet to taste it but it is said to have a 'distinctive' flavour. We shall see!
I am going to cook it with a red wine and chocolate sauce and shall serve it with creamed potatoes (made with some chopped fresh celery leaf, a pinch or two of caraway seed and fromage frais), braised celery and mushrooms cooked in butter and balsamic vinegar. You would be welcome to join me but there are only two very small pieces of kudu!
At the same butcher shop there was Kangaroo, Crocodile, Wild Boar and Okapi available. What have you tried and enjoyed? Would you fancy a piece of Python or maybe some casseroled Guinea Pig?
7 people like this
19 responses
@violetdreams (658)
•
18 Jan 09
Hi Owl
Wow, I am amazed that you can get meat like that in the UK. I guess the price makes sense when you think how far the meat had to come.
The Kudu are a beautiful animal and very graceful so yes, it is sad that it had to be killed, but apparently they do need to be kulled from time to time, so perhaps that is where your meat came from.
I have never eaten Kudu but did have Ostrich once upon a time. An Ostrich Pie to be exact and it wasn't that great - the meat was very stringy. We also bought some ostrich steaks which may have been better, but we put it out to thaw and the lady who came in to clean the house were were holidaying in came around while we were out, and she threw it out! I guess she thought we were planning on binning it! Oh well.... 
Violetdreams
Violetdreams2 people like this
@singlemommy (2955)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I have tried crocodile before. It wasn't too bad. It was a little tough for my liking, but it had a nice flavor. Please let us know how the Kudu tastes. I would love to know.
2 people like this
@phoenix25 (1541)
• United States
19 Jan 09
I have eaten some things that, in my mind, stray from the norm. I am originally from Louisiana, where there are some different foods. I have eaten fried frog legs before and they are quite good. I haven't eaten alligator, though. On a trip to England, I tried blood pudding, which is pretty unusual. I also ate these strange little fish. I can't remember what they're called, but they are about an inch long and they are fried and eaten whole. Kinda weird, but then again I eat sardines on occasion. I have also had quail, though I wouldn't consider that so much strange as much as rare.
@murugezh (273)
• India
19 Jan 09
Once upon a time in my village in my 14 I ate fried bees with some other snacks. That is the strangest food I ever ate in my lifetime. I hate that after I finished eating that food. I can't sleep for month after that incident. Still I can't digest that experience, which was given by my grandfather he told they were good for eyes.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
18 Jan 09
The only way I would try any of those things is if I was on a deserted island and it was either eat it or starve! LOL Okay, so there is at least one strange food I have eaten before. I've had tripe (which if you don't know is the stomach lining of an animal such as a cow). Though it was only because I grew up eating it. My mom used to make a dish that consisted of tripe on a regular basis. I had no idea what it was at the time though. I just ate it because I was used to doing so. But after my then boyfriend/now husband told me what it was I couldn't "stomach" it anymore. LOL I tried once after I had found out and it just wasn't the same. I haven't eaten it since.
1 person likes this
@grecychunny26 (9483)
• Philippines
19 Jan 09
Sorry I don't like to eat that kind of food. I have a bad appetite. Sorry.
@littleowl (7157)
•
19 Jan 09
Hi owlwings..guess this isn''t very exotic but I loved it and that is Barracuda, it is such a lovely taste and there is no bones in it with fresh vegetables it is lovely...littleowl
1 person likes this
@tessah (6617)
• United States
18 Jan 09
nothing as exotic as that.. and certainly not cooked up all fancy pantsy the way yer doin it lol
growing up the way i did.. if we didnt kill it ourselves.. we didnt eat it. everything from goats and squirrel.. rabbits and groundhog were the regular menu on the table when i was a kid. when i was 15.. my boyfriend and i were out in the woods in his backyard.. near his pond. and i got hungry.. so i thwacked a couple frogs over the noggin with a stick, built a fire, and roasted em up. they werent half bad really.. flavor similar to chicken but with a different texture from being cooked on a wood fire. theydve been better with bbq sauce or a honeymustard dip im sure.
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@radairc (98)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I've had a few things... Crocodile, rattlesnake, frog, soft-shelled turtle... squirrel, rabbit, even skunk. I love shark, and eel isn't half bad. Squid, raw and fried, can be delightful. I even had tamales once that my aunt from mexico made.. she neglected to tell me it was dogmeat. They were good though. I've had duck and goose, quail and chicken. Those are normal, acceptable birds to gnosh on. I ate minnows once..
We used to fry the eggs from sand bass and eat them like pork rinds. I've had chocolate covered ants and fried grasshoppers and locusts (cicadas). I've eaten Bison. Most of these things are pretty tame, albeit unusual. I wouldn't mind sampling some ostrich, emu, kangaroo, or other exotic meats, but where I live, if it ain't beef, it just ain't right!
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@bellis716 (4799)
• United States
19 Jan 09
I'm afraid that I've never had a chance to eat anything really exotic. We ate squirrel frequently when I was a child. This was partly from necessity,but we children liked it. Wild boar and armadillo are fairly commonly eaten here in Texas. You sound like a much better cook than I. Your meal sounds delicious.
1 person likes this
@Shar19 (8231)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I'm not very adventurous when it comes to trying exotic foods. I have had crocodile sausage before. I didn't know that's what I was eating though. We were at a pig roast and my husband told me it was just sausage with some cheese and herbs. I told him it didn't have much flavor to it and then the truth came out that it was crocodile. I was a little grossed out but it isn't something I would eat again.
1 person likes this
@TheCasualReporter (283)
• France
18 Jan 09
I had some Kangaroo the other day for Christmas dinner, which was weird. One of the strangest consumption moments I remember was when I was in high school, driving down the highway with my friend in the passenger's seat, our windows rolled down. Without warning he reached his arm out his window and grabbed a moth that had gotten stuck in the windshield wiper, and popped it in his mouth, smiling at me as he munched it down. Of course we laughed until we cried, as high school kids do when they do silly things like this, but it was still a rather unusual moment. I never tried it.
1 person likes this
@JoyfulOne (6232)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I've had choc covered ants too, they weren't too bad at all, and definitely NOT what I expected lol. (Our whole class had to try them after losing a bet with our science teacher) Haven't had too much exotic stuff though. I have had terrapin (turtle), frogs legs, possum, squirrel, and stuff like that. Hope you enjoy your Kudu, sounds like an interesting dish to try.
1 person likes this
@pumpkinjam (8770)
• United Kingdom
19 Jan 09
We have those kinds of things at some of our butchers. They also have ostrich and one of them has several kinds of gamebird because he kills them himself! I would like to try crocodile but I haven't. I have had wild boar which wasn't that interesting. I didn't really like it. It tasted like pork but a bit richer and was darker and I didn't like the texture. I have also tried kangaroo. That's probably the most exotic thing I have had. That was quite nice but very very soft. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I'd got some kind of veggie burger (I had a kangaroo burger) because it was so soft. I would try almost anything. Actually, if I didn't know what something was then I would eat it anyway but I don't think I could eat eyes or pigs feet. In fact, if I could see what it was while alive then that would put me off but mash it or mince it or put it in a burger then I am game for anything!
@sunshinelady (7609)
• United States
19 Jan 09
The only strange thing that I have eaten is sushi. I was in California visiting my sister and she took me to a sushi bar. I had never eaten that before. It didn't taste bad at all. I also have eaten frog legs and they are delicious.
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
19 Jan 09
After reading yoour post - I now realised why I became a vegeetarian last year! I actually wne tback to eating all kinds of meat over the christmas season up to yesterday when we had a family reunion but today - back to being a vegetarian. I ma sorry but I felt nauseous after reading your post . Forgive me if I sound impolite - I don't mean it that way. Just have a queasy stomach. Nothing 'exotic' for me thank you. Blessings
@soundfreak22nd (475)
• Malaysia
19 Jan 09
owh! so that choc coated ants do exists! a while ago my gf played the 'choclatier 2' game and one of the choc recipes is those choc coated ants. we had a laugh to it because we thot it was ridiculous. ants on choc? haha! since it IS real i'd like to try some day :)
well. as for me, i once tried worms that come out of trees. it's one of the exotic food from borneo located in malaysia. it's called the 'mulung worm'. it's fat like a human's thumb (maybe a lil bit bigger!), it's yellow, slippery, it doesn't smell tho and it feeds on rotten trees, i guess. browse over pic of a 'mulung' and u'll get what i mean :) people over there says its hard to find nowadays so it could be expensive but im not sure how much are they exactly.
but then, those worms are cooked first normally with butter and fried with curry leaves and a lil bit of salt. and walla! dinner's ready. like timon from lion king said, taste like chicken!! hehe. but u can really taste the fats out of it.
the mulung worms are one of the staple food of the melanau ethnic in sarawak. and this is like just ONE of the wierdest food there.
owh ya b4 that. i didn't enjoy it tho. it's not the taste, it's just the look offit. fried worms in curry leaves. imagine that! nyum nyum??
