I love to try unusual types of meat -- alligators, frogs, ostriches and more -- so this is totally the club for me. The Gastronauts is an organization in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. that brings people together to eat weird items:
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
Link | Official Website | Photo: Gastronauts
At their last gathering in New York they ate balut, which is a Philippine snack of boiled fertilised duck egg.
''There's a reason why people eat this stuff,'' Calleo said. ''In many cases, cultures have had hundreds of years to make the food palatable or even exquisite.''
While no one is forced to eat anything, he said the goal is to ''try to try'', which reflects the group's spirit of culinary adventure. [...]
At the October Gastronauts dinner at a Yemeni restaurant Bab Al Yemen in New York, Nicole Murray, an assistant editor at an education company, extracted a piece of eyeball from a cooked lamb skull and brought it toward her mouth as those seated around her cheered.
''It's kind of jelly-like,'' she said, during her first Gastronauts dinner.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
Link | Official Website | Photo: Gastronauts
I'm sure there's a Neatorama post that observed exactly that, but I can't find it at the moment.
I've had alligator and emu before, and I honestly would like to try other exotic animals just to say that I did (where are those lion tacos, again?). Hey, animals are delicious...
I've had what they listed under the LA club except for beaver tail (no comment). And I've had balut a few times. Chinese 100 year old egg. Calf's brains. Eye balls. All of those wonderful offal parts. Gator and emu, sure. Sea urchin? My favorite. Monk fish liver. Jelly fish. Sea cucumber is not so good, really. Escargot is like bacon. But that's just meat. Durian. That's the stuff that scares people. I love it.
I thought they tasted like warm dirt, but then again, I was drunk.
Hmm... weirdest thing I've ever eaten... erm.. when I was a kid, for some reason I used to eat ants :P No idea why I did it, I just remember that I did. *shrugs*
As a grown up... hmm... I dunno, I don't really consider anything I eat weird.
Had alligator for the first time a few months ago. Wasn't bad. Also had frog leg. Frog leg certainly LOOKS like chicken but tastes nothing like it, so not sure where that came from. It tasted like very overcooked fish.
I've had alligator, dragonfly, meal worms, turtle, frog legs, snails and all sorts of offal. Ox tongue is fantastic in BBQs
2. Monitor lizard meat soup
3. Horse meat sashimi (this one didn't go down well)
4. Flying fox (giant bat)
5. Black squirrel herbal soup
http://www.neatorama.com/2011/01/21/restaurant-offers-lion-meat-tacos/
I've also had horse sashimi -
@juls - only had ostrich (like lean beef) - would love to try those others. I've heard horse meat is quite good - was it flavor or the thought of horse that made it difficult?
@JustJD - Yes, I've had BBQ ox tongue in Japanese restaurants, quite good. And cartilage in pho is my usual order - tender and wonderful. I have yet to have an opportunity to eat insects.
I found raw nature of horse difficult after a few - I love salmon sashimi and such, but even those my body doesn't handle a big amount of it
Oh, also had live fish and turtles.
Off the top of my head: horse, cicadas, mealworms, sea cucumber, turtle, moose, seal flipper, yak, calf testicles, grasshoppers, reindeer, scorpions, jellyfish, fish eyes, chicken feet/hearts.
Plus there's all the not-really-weird things like ox tongue, frogs, snails, elk, and bison.
I almost got to try camel at a Xinjiang-style restaurant in Shanghai, but it was about $200CAD for the dish.
I've also eaten some of the strongest and most foul-smelling foods: chou doufu (stinky tofu), durian, and surströmming.