Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: Bledlow on 22 March, 2014, 08:18:38 pm

Title: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Bledlow on 22 March, 2014, 08:18:38 pm
A week ago today, I ate at this restaurant, in the room with the red table.
http://ise.ne.jp/daiki/04kannai/index.html (http://ise.ne.jp/daiki/04kannai/index.html)
It makes extravagant claims, but the beef was the best I've ever eaten: Matsusaka, produced only in that region.

As for the exotic food, we also had Ise Ebi - served a bit like this -
(http://shizuokagourmet.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/ise-ebi-sashimi.jpg?w=450&h=337)
the meat is raw, the poor crustacean having been alive minutes before serving*. The guts are put on the tail. It's served with a little dish of soy sauce for dipping the meat in, & true gourmets stir the guts into it to heighten the flavour.

You don't touch the head. When you finish, it's taken away, & comes back later as soup.


*At least it wasn't still alive, that not being unknown.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 24 March, 2014, 12:16:09 pm
I don't think I've ever eaten raw lobster. I can imagine it's rather good though - especially when it's that fresh!

When you say the "guts" do you mean just the intestinal tract that runs through the tail? Presume the rest of its inner workings are left in the head?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: hellymedic on 24 March, 2014, 03:22:54 pm
My partner is *far* too squeamish to consider such food.
I am relieved he's not a yacfer...
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 24 March, 2014, 03:26:35 pm
My partner is *far* too squeamish to consider such food.

If he ever suggests watching the film Old Boy, tell him he really doesn't want to.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: hellymedic on 24 March, 2014, 03:29:44 pm
We don't have a telly and rarely do films.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: CAMRAMan on 24 March, 2014, 03:47:26 pm
In Sweden, apart from surstömming, I had vodka that had been flavoured by having a beaver's scent gland steeped in it. Very musky. I also had bear tongue there, though I have no recollection of its taste.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: T42 on 24 March, 2014, 03:58:06 pm
The lobster looks rather scrumptious, but I'm utterly fed up with soy sauce.

My own offering is not so exotic, since it came from the Isles: gannet.  Our astrophys. prof. held a soirée where he handed round little cubes of unspectacular grey-brown, slightly greasy & fishy-tasting meat and challenged us to guess what it was.  They weren't protected back then and he had friends there who sent him a couple every year.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Hot Flatus on 24 March, 2014, 05:34:05 pm
Deep-fried cats paws in Borneo.

To be honest, in themselves they were nothing special but it was the dips they came with that made them yummy.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Bledlow on 25 March, 2014, 12:12:31 pm
I don't think I've ever eaten raw lobster. I can imagine it's rather good though - especially when it's that fresh!

When you say the "guts" do you mean just the intestinal tract that runs through the tail? Presume the rest of its inner workings are left in the head?
1) Yes. Yummy.
2) Correct, just the intestinal tract. The head, complete with contents, was served later, boiled down into soup.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Woofage on 25 March, 2014, 12:20:09 pm
I had duck's tongue once in Taiwan. It was rubbery!
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: geraldc on 25 March, 2014, 12:44:35 pm
In Bordeaux I had homard presse, where they take the uncooked shell and innards of a lobster and crush it in a giant silver press at your table. A small amount of blue juice trickles out which they then cook with veal stock and the pour over your lobster.

I've had numerous strange beasts in China and Hong Kong. The strangest one was hasma, which is a dessert made of frogs ovaries/fallopian tubes.  It's like a neutral tasting sponge.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 25 March, 2014, 12:53:22 pm
Just the usual sort of stuff - emu, snake, kangaroo and witchetty grubs.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Fab Foodie on 25 March, 2014, 01:04:44 pm
Turkey Testicles.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 25 March, 2014, 02:21:34 pm
I've had numerous strange beasts in China and Hong Kong. The strangest one was hasma, which is a dessert made of frogs ovaries/fallopian tubes.  It's like a neutral tasting sponge.

I've had chickens' feet in Chinese restaurants in London but I guess that's pretty tame compared to frogs' ovaries. ;D
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: perpetual dan on 25 March, 2014, 09:35:08 pm
I don't think I'm winning here... meals that stand out:
Pudding with gold flake in, somewhere in darkest Kensington.
Cabbage chutney. For breakfast. In India. ( The alternative was Chinese  :-\ )
Fish in Hong Kong. Not particularly unusual, but I got to choose it out of the tank it was swimming in.

In Sweden, apart from surstömming, I had vodka that had been flavoured by having a beaver's scent gland steeped in it. Very musky. I also had bear tongue there, though I have no recollection of its taste.

The best meal I had in Sweden was mushrooms we had picked earlier followed by crayfish, at midsummer on an island near Stockholm.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: hellymedic on 25 March, 2014, 09:41:10 pm
There's nothing exotic about eating freshly-caught pike, cooked on a little petrol stove, whilst wild camping in Sweden, in the midnight sun.
But it was rather special.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: fuzzy on 28 March, 2014, 03:01:54 pm
Not exotic but, the clam chowder served in a bowl made from a big sour dough roll, accompanied by a gottle of local geer at Fishermans Wharf, San Francisco was very nice.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Fab Foodie on 28 March, 2014, 04:49:35 pm
At a motorway Service station in Russia recently, I bought a donut expecting it to be sweet and jammy but it was in fact filled with cabbage.  After the initial shock it was kinda ok ... very greasy though.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 28 March, 2014, 09:06:19 pm
A crisp sandwich. Ready salted. Exotic how? you may ask. Well, it was on multigrain bread, that's how.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 28 March, 2014, 10:34:33 pm

A crisp sandwich. Ready salted. Exotic how? you may ask. Well, it was on multigrain bread, that's how.

What crisps? Only "exotic" if it was Hula Hoops.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 30 March, 2014, 12:34:18 pm

A crisp sandwich. Ready salted. Exotic how? you may ask. Well, it was on multigrain bread, that's how.

What crisps? Only "exotic" if it was Hula Hoops.

Sadly, Kettle Chips, but I've pretty much sampled the entire gamut of snack food sandwiches. Hula Hoops are bit disappointing, as to be honest, are Monster Munch. Skips are only edible in sandwich format but preferably as an adjunct to fish fingers. Oh, don't mock till you've tried fish finger and Skips sandwiches. If you want fu-fu, get some boutique bakery sourdough bread. I'm classy.

Admittedly, they all pale next to the pie club sandwich. It's inexplicable to me how it's not on every supposedly-gastropub menu. Bake a pie, cook some chip, butter three layers of bread, put pie in top, chips on bottom, et voila mon petit connoisseur, le grand pie sandwich.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: T42 on 30 March, 2014, 12:59:40 pm
Dunno how I forgot this one: garlic ice cream.   Not so much exotic as perverted.  In Gilroy, CA, of course.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 30 March, 2014, 01:14:46 pm

Dunno how I forgot this one: garlic ice cream.   Not so much exotic as perverted.  In Gilroy, CA, of course.

My local ice cream emporium specialises in unusual flavours. They did a Brussels sprout ice cream one Christmas. I didn't get to try that. But I did enjoy their oyster and chilli ice cream last summer. Really surprisingly good.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 30 March, 2014, 01:17:01 pm

Oh, don't mock till you've tried fish finger and Skips sandwiches. If you want fu-fu, get some boutique bakery sourdough bread. I'm classy.

Sounds good. With a bit of thousand island dressing perhaps?

Pie club sandwich sounds fantastic. One of those things you "must try before you die" - and best make it the last thing on the list...
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: numbnuts on 30 March, 2014, 04:17:30 pm
Everything my ex wife cooked had an acquired taste  ;)
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Trull on 30 March, 2014, 04:26:36 pm
Its a midweek staple, but lots have not eaten a good Haggis.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: T42 on 30 March, 2014, 04:30:17 pm
Oh for the haggis & chips in the EU Union, 1/3d a shot & bloody marvellous.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Pedal Castro on 30 March, 2014, 04:34:59 pm
Fish in Hong Kong. Not particularly unusual, but I got to choose it out of the tank it was swimming in.

I did not eat it but seen in China, kittens in a cage which you can select for dinner!

Back to lobster, again in China, we were once served a huge 60yr old beast. The meat was spread out on ice behind the head, which was so fresh that the eyes were still swivelling on the stalks. It was literally watching you as you ate it...
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 30 March, 2014, 07:18:09 pm

Oh, don't mock till you've tried fish finger and Skips sandwiches. If you want fu-fu, get some boutique bakery sourdough bread. I'm classy.

Sounds good. With a bit of thousand island dressing perhaps?

Pie club sandwich sounds fantastic. One of those things you "must try before you die" - and best make it the last thing on the list...

It's certainly quite high on my final menu choices for my death row last meal (apparently, the condemned don't get the choice these days, so they get shuffled off to the afterlife with whatever the canteen is serving that day, which seems a bit cruel and usual, like a double period of math after school dinner, tapioca pudding bubbling like volcanic mud in your belly, which puts a boy off his quadratic equations). I confess to a very bland palette because I grew up in a part of East Midlands only discovered by explorers in the mid-1970s. I've travelled the world and, to be honest, I'd choose fish fingers any day. I can actually find burritos in any city on the planet. I have burrito radar. I can live off tex-mex for some reason. I think that's because our isolated East Midlands valley was home to a lost tribe of mariachi musicians. Sadly, upon exposure the outside world they were quickly overcome by Peruvian pan pipers.

Thousand island dressing. With a spoon! That's a starter in my book.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Valiant on 11 April, 2014, 03:09:41 am
I've had a friends Placenta. Pan grilled with garlic and spices. That was tastey.
Chicken feet but that's quite common in asian food I guess.
Cows tongue in France, that was rubbery and horrible.
Brains, I can't remember if that was goat or cow though. An acquired taste.
Ostrich Burger, admittedly frozen from Lidl but very tasty.
Various bugs from my mate who runs Ento.
Bulls testicle. That was sliced and fried and actually tasty.
Snail in Malta. They were okish.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 11 April, 2014, 10:10:13 am
Cows tongue in France, that was rubbery and horrible.

Tongue can be lovely but your experience is all too typical. I think it needs a long period of salting to really tenderise it. Best tongue I ever had was at the French House in Soho, thinly sliced, lightly chargrilled and served with a carrot salad.

Also enjoyed some exquisite bone marrow at the same meal, served still in the bone with a pick, along with a parsley salad and sourdough toast.

The French House always used to be brilliant for fans of offal and other less glamorous cuts.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: fields5069 on 11 June, 2014, 12:06:41 pm
I love insides, me. That said, I really couldn't finish an andouillette I had in Paris a few years ago.

The most exotic thing I've had is probably Percebes in Madrid, or goose barnacle as I believe they're known here. They're harvested by crazy men up on the north coast of Spain, who climb down rocks to get them between waves. It's quite a dangerous occupation and the Spanish ones are correspondingly expensive, although I wasn't paying so I didn't really mind.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 11 June, 2014, 05:34:54 pm
Sausages.

And if anyone knows how exotic those can be, keep it to yourself please.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: fields5069 on 12 June, 2014, 07:28:49 am
A-a-a-armin, i-is that y-you?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: RJ on 16 June, 2014, 05:26:07 pm
Piranha.  Dull.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Canardly on 24 June, 2014, 10:35:46 am
Fantastic lunchtime liver and onions in Lebanese restaurant central Freetown, Sierra Leone. Liver of what is unknown to this day.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: citoyen on 24 June, 2014, 04:39:10 pm
Fantastic lunchtime liver and onions in Lebanese restaurant central Freetown, Sierra Leone. Liver of what is unknown to this day.

Was it served with fava beans and a nice Chianti?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: pdm on 24 June, 2014, 05:00:58 pm
In Southern Africa:

Mopani caterpillars.
Termite larvae (eaten like rice)
Crocodile ribs.
Lambs tails (on open fire during de-tailking of lambs a few days old).
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 05 July, 2014, 10:00:37 pm
Tongue isn't exotic. We ate it regularly during my Yorkshire childhood. If you can get it in Skelmanthorpe in 1976, it's not exotic.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: hatler on 25 September, 2015, 09:04:09 am
I had sea urchin in Spain last year. Absolutely delicious.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Tigerrr on 25 September, 2015, 08:00:55 pm
I obtained a large jar of colombian fried ants in the 1980s on a business trip, where my local contact had an ant farm - which is actually a big deal there. He gave me the jar as a big gesture to consolidate a business relationship.
The ants are about the size of peanuts, but with legs and insecty stuff, and taste really lovely.  Seriously, really good to eat with beer - but very pricey. I would eat them anytime and pay for the privilege, but they cost more than anything you can imagine except white truffles.
At my company conference, for the newly formed South America department, thinking to share this 'developing market' delicacy with my colleagues I arranged for the ants to be served with pre dinner drinks. I reckoned I would win huge brownie points as a bold venturer, bringing the exoticism of our markets into the room.
I was unfortunately detained and unable to explain the delicacy to the assembled throng as they headed to the bar to neck the scotch. By the time I got there it was all to late. The MD, a conservative minded northerner, which is codespeak, , had reached for the peanuts and had a few before he realised they had legs.  He went apeshit.  As far as he was concerned I had basically put cockroaches in the peanut bowls as a joke.  There wasn't really any way to explain it with a positive outcome and my career never really recovered.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Redlight on 17 November, 2015, 05:32:53 pm
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Ruthie on 17 November, 2015, 06:22:26 pm
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?

Turkey.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 17 November, 2015, 06:23:44 pm
Durian.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: DDCyclist on 17 November, 2015, 06:35:27 pm
Philippines - buffet eaten off banana leaves using fingers. Fabulous meal after helping with a crown-of-thorns starfish cleanup run from a dive resort I used to help out at.
Philippines - a sweet spaghetti generally eaten on birthdays.
Philippines - balut.
Indonesia - zebra, crocodile, snake, ostrich, kangaroo, spinal cord of cow, pigeon Rat (from a street vendor I later found out was dodgy), cat (from the same dodgy street vendor).
Indonesia - I was offered live monkey brain, but drew the line.
Indonesia - drunken prawns, I was introduced to sushi and sashimi (which are now a great favorite).
Indonesia - chicken feet - readily available but no, thanks.
Germany - More wurst than you can shake a stick at. Most is great but weisswurst is just as awful in Germany as white pudding is in Cornwall.
Germany - Roast chicken, at the bierkellers and biergartens, is to die for. In Bavaria it's traditional to take your own knife. Not exotic but worthy of mention.
Germany - If you like fish try the steckerlfisch. I don't like culinary cemeteries so fish was out.
Germany - I used to go to a Thai restaurant and got friendly with the family that owned it. They introduced me to dog. They save the best for themselves.
Sweden - I tried meatballs but, frankly, I prefer the ones in a UK branch of Ikea.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: hellymedic on 17 November, 2015, 07:37:31 pm
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?

Turkey.

Yebbut what does turkey taste  like?
Tofu?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Oaky on 17 November, 2015, 07:37:40 pm
... andouillette ...

<shudders... (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=74767.msg1538669#msg1538669)>
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: DDCyclist on 17 November, 2015, 07:52:59 pm
Just remembered:

Indonesia - Durian. Delicious. A big favourite in Indonesia. Not allowed in many hotels or on aircraft though!
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 November, 2015, 01:20:59 am
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?

On sampling alligator in Florida the late Phil Llewellin told the waitress it was "like crocodile but with a hint of aardvark".  This may have contained traces of Lie.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: marcusjb on 18 November, 2015, 08:00:18 am
Just remembered:

Indonesia - Durian. Delicious. A big favourite in Indonesia. Not allowed in many hotels or on aircraft though!

 :sick:

Horrible stuff. Even the smell of durian stalls in the cities makes me gag.

Acquired taste for sure. Presumably acquired by removing one's tastebuds with sulphuric acid and a wire brush?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: MikeFromLFE on 18 November, 2015, 08:19:48 am
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?
It might have been badly prepared but the croc I had was like slimey chicken.

Antelope doesn't taste like chicken
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 18 November, 2015, 08:34:44 am
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?
It might have been badly prepared but the croc I had was like slimey chicken.

Antelope doesn't taste like chicken

See also frog. Slimy chicken too, unless they fry the hell out of it.

Durian is all oppressive smell and very little actual taste.

Anyway, scotch egg. They must have weird chickens up there.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: DDCyclist on 18 November, 2015, 09:48:19 am
Just remembered:

Indonesia - Durian. Delicious. A big favourite in Indonesia. Not allowed in many hotels or on aircraft though!

 :sick:

Horrible stuff. Even the smell of durian stalls in the cities makes me gag.

Acquired taste for sure. Presumably acquired by removing one's tastebuds with sulphuric acid and a wire brush?

LOL. With me the taste was acquired immediately. First bite. I sometimes buy dried durian but it's not a patch on the fresh stuff.

Perhaps my taste buds were destroyed by the my lunatic colleagues smoking kretec. The worst offender was Adri. He put the no-smoking sign up in the computer room and constantly filled the room with a kretec fugg like a late 60s bar room. "No smoking? That doesn't apply to me - I was the one who put the sign up."   ???

Indonesian logic - you can't argue with it.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: L CC on 18 November, 2015, 12:54:12 pm
Anyway, scotch egg. They must have weird chickens up there.
Yum.
(http://oi46.tinypic.com/2euk0ap.jpg)
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 November, 2015, 04:11:06 pm
Anyway, scotch egg. They must have weird chickens up there.

Scotch eggses.  Food of the Gods.  I once dropped one and watched it roll across a petrol station forecourt :(. I retrieved it from the base of the pumps and ate it anyway nom nom nom :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: geraldc on 18 November, 2015, 04:16:12 pm
I never got Scotch eggs, until pubs in London started serving freshly made ones with semi set yolks. They are gorgeous, the stuff pre packaged in chiller cabinets, not so good.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: L CC on 18 November, 2015, 04:18:35 pm
I make my own lower-carb versions, with runny yolks, lincolnshire sausage(meat) and rolled in parmesan. They are the yummiest.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: fuzzy on 18 November, 2015, 04:19:36 pm
Chiller cabinets are built to store Ginsters pasties. Not the best pasty in the world by a long chalk but, IMHO the best available at short notice when in need of savoury sustenance.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: DDCyclist on 18 November, 2015, 04:32:28 pm
LOL. Mrs Cyclist is Cornish. One day I'll get her to review Ginsters for you. When someone has moved this thread to NSFW ...
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 18 November, 2015, 05:07:21 pm
Dirty pasties are an essential part of any growing boy's diet. It's award-winning pastry manna available from any train station. They're frankly the best bit of the Christmas party season. I think one of my friends actually moved further down the line so he has an excuse to buy two for his now extended journey home. It's important to stay adequately nourished when drunk and travelling by train.

I confess to consuming posh Scotch eggs, the sort made with chorizo and spaniel or some such and available from those ubiquitous street food vendors. You probably can't have street food up north as the streets are too dirty and filled with animal waste products, but we like it in London. Us Londoners pretty much stopped eating indoors back in 2012 and merely hang around random vans and stalls waiting to be fed.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Mr Larrington on 18 November, 2015, 05:20:31 pm
Last week I spotted an emporium claiming to sell "Vietnamese Street Food".  Closer examination revealed that it was in fact a restaurant with no takeaway menu.  This was in Islington, mind, where there is a long and (dis)honourable tradition of words meaning whatever the bright spark at the Institute of Advanced Language-Mangling decides they mean.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: geraldc on 18 November, 2015, 06:04:47 pm
In a few years time the exotic food will be British food that's disappeared. The pie and mash shop in Shepherds Bush has gone, there are reports of the demise of an oatcake shop in Stoke. I need to find a pub that serves a proper ploughman's lunch with salad cream, so my other half can experience it before they disappear.

I was a big fan of heinz vegetable salad.  Salad should come  in a tin not plastic containers.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: fuzzy on 19 November, 2015, 01:35:27 pm
LOL. Mrs Cyclist is Cornish. One day I'll get her to review Ginsters for you. When someone has moved this thread to NSFW ...

Mrs Fuzzy has links to that there Cornwall and we make regular trips. The main reason for the trips is visiting rellies BUT, the thing that makes it bearable is the return journey with a boot full of Healeys medium dry scrumpy cider, Roddas clotted cream and a several of boxes of Crantock Bakery pasties.

Proper Cornish pasties are a thing of beauty. Ginsters are the most acceptable substitute for when the supplies run out.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: clarion on 19 November, 2015, 01:43:20 pm
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?

Turkey.

Yebbut what does turkey taste  like?
Tofu?

Good grief, no - at least tofu has some flavour!  I well remember turkey with all the allure of warm dry cardboard.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Legs on 19 November, 2015, 02:03:18 pm
Just remembered:

Indonesia - Durian. Delicious. A big favourite in Indonesia. Not allowed in many hotels or on aircraft though!

 :sick:

Horrible stuff. Even the smell of durian stalls in the cities makes me gag.

Acquired taste for sure. Presumably acquired by removing one's tastebuds with sulphuric acid and a wire brush?
(https://acoupledetours.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/pc147323.jpg)
Ais kacang, anyone?  :sick:

Yes, that really is sweetcorn.  And kidney beans.  And a generous splat of durian in there.  Truly horrendous.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: DDCyclist on 19 November, 2015, 02:16:59 pm
LOL. Mrs Cyclist is Cornish. One day I'll get her to review Ginsters for you. When someone has moved this thread to NSFW ...

Mrs Fuzzy has links to that there Cornwall and we make regular trips. The main reason for the trips is visiting rellies BUT, the thing that makes it bearable is the return journey with a boot full of Healeys medium dry scrumpy cider, Roddas clotted cream and a several of boxes of Crantock Bakery pasties.

Proper Cornish pasties are a thing of beauty. Ginsters are the most acceptable substitute for when the supplies run out.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: geraldc on 19 November, 2015, 02:29:44 pm
There's filipino Cheddar cheese and sweetcorn ice cream for those who like sweetcorn in dessert
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Pingu on 20 November, 2015, 10:06:27 pm
Just remembered:

Indonesia - Durian. Delicious. A big favourite in Indonesia. Not allowed in many hotels or on aircraft though!

 :sick:

Horrible stuff. Even the smell of durian stalls in the cities makes me gag.

Acquired taste for sure. Presumably acquired by removing one's tastebuds with sulphuric acid and a wire brush?
(https://acoupledetours.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/pc147323.jpg)
Ais kacang, anyone?  :sick:

Yes, that really is sweetcorn.  And kidney beans.  And a generous splat of durian in there.  Truly horrendous.

Do you feel better for that?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Fab Foodie on 21 November, 2015, 12:15:47 am
Had Bear in a Siberian restaurant on Pushkin Boulevard in Moscow last week.  Tasted strong.  Told Mrs FF it tasted like Pooh ... she didn't get the joke ....
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: contango on 08 December, 2015, 03:56:34 am
Crocodile.

Tasted like chicken - but what doesn't?

The chicken served by the food vendor at the last trade show I attended.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: menthel on 08 December, 2015, 12:31:07 pm
A pig's ear smothered in BBQ sauce in some hipsterish BBQ place off Carnaby Street. Was ok.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Legs on 08 December, 2015, 02:04:11 pm
My uncle, who lived in Hong Kong from the early '80s to 1997, says that the most difficult thing to get his head around eating was pigs' fallopian tubes in fish blood.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: geraldc on 08 December, 2015, 02:49:10 pm
Quorn when you look it up is quite strange. Microscopic mushroom like crap found growing in earth bound together with egg white.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: DDCyclist on 08 December, 2015, 07:17:08 pm
Salt Liquorice from Finland.

A work colleague brought back several packets for about 10 people. He later admitted he did it as a joke as he found it disgusting and thought everyone at work would too.

He was mostly right. I was the only one who ate more than one piece. I ended up with it all.

I also like salt lassi  (the yoghurt based Indian drink - not the dog). Most staff in Indian restaurants in the UK are surprised when I ask if they'll do a salt lassi instead of a sweet one.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Gattopardo on 08 December, 2015, 09:55:28 pm
I make my own lower-carb versions, with runny yolks, lincolnshire sausage(meat) and rolled in parmesan. They are the yummiest.

Sounds yummy, make me one and I'll give it a review ;)
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Gattopardo on 08 December, 2015, 10:04:33 pm
Last week I spotted an emporium claiming to sell "Vietnamese Street Food".  Closer examination revealed that it was in fact a restaurant with no takeaway menu.  This was in Islington, mind, where there is a long and (dis)honourable tradition of words meaning whatever the bright spark at the Institute of Advanced Language-Mangling decides they mean.

Pho cough?
 ;D
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: SteveC on 08 December, 2015, 10:46:18 pm
Salt Liquorice from Finland.

A work colleague brought back several packets for about 10 people. He later admitted he did it as a joke as he found it disgusting and thought everyone at work would too.

He was mostly right. I was the only one who ate more than one piece. I ended up with it all.

I also like salt lassi  (the yoghurt based Indian drink - not the dog). Most staff in Indian restaurants in the UK are surprised when I ask if they'll do a salt lassi instead of a sweet one.

When we were in Belgrade earlier in the year we were introduced to salted clotted cream which is remarkably good. Maybe I should try the lassi sometime.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: contango on 09 December, 2015, 04:35:54 am

Do some of the chemical concoctions that masquerade as squirty cheese count? Some of those chemical names are so long I struggle to pronounce them even though I got a grade A in A-level chemistry.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 09 December, 2015, 08:01:55 am
You are thinking of processed cheese food products. And they're heaven in a tube, squirty scan, or individual shrinkwrapped portion.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: menthel on 09 December, 2015, 12:42:36 pm
Salt Liquorice from Finland.

A work colleague brought back several packets for about 10 people. He later admitted he did it as a joke as he found it disgusting and thought everyone at work would too.

He was mostly right. I was the only one who ate more than one piece. I ended up with it all.

I also like salt lassi  (the yoghurt based Indian drink - not the dog). Most staff in Indian restaurants in the UK are surprised when I ask if they'll do a salt lassi instead of a sweet one.

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87841.0

;)
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Blade on 09 December, 2015, 02:41:34 pm
Went into a local pub recently, and in a food cabinet they had scotch eggs for sale at £1 each.

However, they came in a choice of plain, balti and marmite flavours.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: andrew_s on 09 December, 2015, 02:51:05 pm
Reindeer:
The whalers introduced them to South Georgia, and as they get culled every year we had one sent down to Halley (Antarctic).
Reindeer are well known for boom and bust population cycles on un-predated islands, as they eat themselves out of house and home.
Good, in a beefy sort of way.

Crabeater seal:
Also Antarctic, on the peninsula. We had a biologist studying them, which seemed to involve shooting them and removing selected parts. We went round afterward to collect the bodies to feed the huskies at the next base down the coast, so we helped ourselves to some samples.
Not too good, mostly because they hadn't been bled out after shooting, and we didn't get to them quickly enough.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: contango on 10 December, 2015, 04:30:26 am
You are thinking of processed cheese food products. And they're heaven in a tube, squirty scan, or individual shrinkwrapped portion.

They're the ones. I'm not sure if benzoyl peroxodisilicate (or whatever it was) counts as heaven though. It looks scary.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: DDCyclist on 10 December, 2015, 06:50:39 am
Quote from: Google
Showing results for benzoyl peroxodisulphate
No results found for benzoyl peroxodisilicate

Even scarier when there are no results on Google.

a) What is it?
b) Is there a plain English name for it?
c) What does it do in food?
d) What does it do in people?
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Tigerrr on 10 December, 2015, 07:27:47 am
Went into a local pub recently, and in a food cabinet they had scotch eggs for sale at £1 each.

However, they came in a choice of plain, balti and marmite flavours.
I went into a pub down by the river last night and the scotch eggs were £3.50 each. Plus draught bitter  at over £4.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: CAMRAMan on 10 December, 2015, 07:42:03 am
When in Sweden I taught at a school that had a hunting course so the blood-thirsty gits could learn better how to shoot animals.

One day I was given some vodka and it tasted mightily strange. They then told me it had had a beaver's scent gland steeped in it for weeks to give it a 'lovely' musky taint/flavour. For such a seemingly civilised race, the Swedes have some rather questionable traits...
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 10 December, 2015, 08:05:26 am
Went into a local pub recently, and in a food cabinet they had scotch eggs for sale at £1 each.

However, they came in a choice of plain, balti and marmite flavours.
I went into a pub down by the river last night and the scotch eggs were £3.50 each. Plus draught bitter  at over £4.

You got a cheap pint at least.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: Blade on 10 December, 2015, 04:00:49 pm
Went into a local pub recently, and in a food cabinet they had scotch eggs for sale at £1 each.

However, they came in a choice of plain, balti and marmite flavours.
I went into a pub down by the river last night and the scotch eggs were £3.50 each. Plus draught bitter  at over £4.

You got a cheap pint at least.

You think £4 a pint is cheap?  :o

Today I had an excellent pint of bitter at The Old Swan, Netherton. Price was £2.20  :thumbsup:

They brew their own beer.

It's such a traditional pub, that if anybody orders a lager or even a half of bitter, the barman rings 'The Bell of Shame' so that all the other customers know that there's a lightweight in the pub.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: rafletcher on 11 December, 2015, 08:43:42 am

Today I had an excellent pint of bitter at The Old Swan, Netherton. Price was £2.20  :thumbsup:


Yebbut, that's in Dudley....
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 11 December, 2015, 01:32:27 pm
I think the last pint I had cost £5.80. But it was brewed by people with beards. Those beards are high maintenance.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: contango on 13 December, 2015, 04:58:52 am
Quote from: Google
Showing results for benzoyl peroxodisulphate
No results found for benzoyl peroxodisilicate

Even scarier when there are no results on Google.

a) What is it?
b) Is there a plain English name for it?
c) What does it do in food?
d) What does it do in people?

It hides under all sorts of different names. Hence the "or something like that" in my post. It had a big long name that I suspect the average person reading it wouldn't even be able to pronounce let alone have any idea what it was or what it does. I can pronounce most chemical names with reasonable accuracy (accuracy not guaranteed), and took the safe option of leaving this particular concoction on the shelf.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: ian on 13 December, 2015, 09:44:26 am
Sadly, my processed cheese food product looks quite benign. I'm think benzoyl peroxi-anything would rapidly release peroxide, so I suspect that's not in cheese food. Benzoic acid salts are a typical food preservative, though they've mostly moved to sorbic acid and similar carboxylic acids because benzene (presumably these people avoid salt because chlorine gas).

Quote
Milk, Whey, Milk Protein Concentrate, Milkfat, Sodium Citrate, Contains less than 2% of Calcium Phosphate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Salt, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid as a Preservative, Cheese Culture, Annatto and Paprika Extract (color), Enzymes, Vitamin D3.

Quite disappointing. I grew up on insensible amounts of e-numbers and colour gamut heavily tilted towards the oranges.
Title: Re: Exotic things you have eaten
Post by: contango on 14 December, 2015, 04:21:02 am
Sadly, my processed cheese food product looks quite benign. I'm think benzoyl peroxi-anything would rapidly release peroxide, so I suspect that's not in cheese food. Benzoic acid salts are a typical food preservative, though they've mostly moved to sorbic acid and similar carboxylic acids because benzene (presumably these people avoid salt because chlorine gas).

Quote
Milk, Whey, Milk Protein Concentrate, Milkfat, Sodium Citrate, Contains less than 2% of Calcium Phosphate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Salt, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid as a Preservative, Cheese Culture, Annatto and Paprika Extract (color), Enzymes, Vitamin D3.

Quite disappointing. I grew up on insensible amounts of e-numbers and colour gamut heavily tilted towards the oranges.

It runs in my mind that Jasper Carrott did a piece a few years ago (for varying values of "a few") where he commented about benzoyl peroxide being found in cheese, and how benzoyl peroxide was known to spontaneously break down into something and something gassy, which he presented as conclusive proof for the observation that cheese makes you fart.

Maybe a peroxodisilicate would spontaneously explode into glittery quartz crystals or some such.