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The most disgusting thing you've ever eaten


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Inspired by some other thread which mentioned Japanese liver cake, I'd like to open up a new one listing the most disgusting thing I've/you've ever eaten.

Don't misunderstand me - I like trying new stuff, and many things other people might consider offensive I actually liked (usually after turning my brain off ... or soaking it in various alcoholic liquids), but ...

Dish numero uno:

"Lutefisk": [stolen from some site:] "Lutefisk (dried cod treated with lye) must surely be the strangest culinary effort credited to the Norwegians, but what a treat when prepared properly. Everyone of course is not a devotee of lutefisk, but those who are defend it vehemently. Others go to the opposite extreme and claim it's a national disgrace. In years past, the homemaker had to go through the complicated task of treating the dry fish with lye, but now, even in America, frozen lutefisk is readily available at selected fish markets and at Scandinavian delicatessens."

I refer you to this site for a humorous (but very accurate) encounter with this "national treasure": http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/ic/lutefisk.html

Excerpt: "How to describe that first bite? Its a bit like describing passing a kidneystone to the uninitiated. If you are talking to someone else who has lived through the experience, a nod will suffice to acknowledge your shared pain, but to explain it to the person who has not been there, mere words seem inadequate to the task. So it is with lutefisk. One could bandy about the time honored phrases like "nauseating sordid gunk", "unimaginably horrific", "lasting psychological damage", but these seem hollow when applied to the task at hand. I will have to resort to a recipe for a kind of metaphorical lutefisk, to describe the experience. Take marshmallows made without sugar, blend them together with overcooked Japanese noodles, and then bathe the whole liberally in acetone. Let it marinate in cod liver oil for several days at room temprature. When it has achieved the appropriate consistency (though the word "appropriate" is somewhat problematic here), heat it to just above lukewarm, sprinkle in thousands of tiny, sharp, invisible fish bones, and serve."

Dish numero two-o:

"(Faroe Islands) Sheep brain fried in unshaven and untreated sheep skull (or placed therein afterwards ... what do I care ...)": I have yet to find a site describing this encounter, so I'll have to resort to my own limited abilities:

I visited the islands in the 80s and was invited for a Christmas dinner. The hosts were very proud of having arranged a very traditional meal, most of which was enjoyable and excellent (especially the booze). Little did I know that the frequent intake of alcohol was meant to numb any visitor's sensory perception, as the main course was, well, a sawed-open sheep's skull with boiled brain inside. I did not have the nerve to ask about the why's and how's of that dish (I would not have been able to eat it otherwise), but it was just a vile dish. There was some sort of salt water in there along with everything (if you have eaten fresh oysters in southern France, usually served as-are, you know that salt water can lead to a solid gag reflex which needs to be overcome to enjoy this otherwise very (!) fine food), and the glazed brain didn't look all too inviting either. You had to spoon the stuff out, and it stank like, well, stuff, ... but I managed, only to vow to myself never to eat the stuff again.

Needless to say, I was simply bombed out of my skull at both dinners offering the lovely dishes described above, and I've often wondered if getting drunk was the sole purpose of serving this kind of food. Having lived in Scandinavia for many years, I think that is/was actually the case.

Cheers!

P.S.: I have more food stories, for example my encounter with strange jellyfish food served in London's Chinatown, tiny live eels (or somesuch) which had to be guzzled down with a soup ladle (Japanese), Tarantula legs (which are actually excellent and taste like tender chicken meat (you can find this dish in northern parts of Venezuela and it stems, I believe, from Yanomami cook books), etc. Maybe I'll chime in with more.

Edited by deus62
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I wasn't particularly enamoured by the intestal worms floating in my otherwise delicious sturgeon soup on the banks of the Lena river. That our drunken boat skipper was slurping away at the head of the thing, drivel and fatty stuffs pouring down his chin, didn't help to raise my appetite either. Had some good olde wodka to go with it all and survived. Even the drunken skipper couldn't spoil our fun much more as he had done that already by driving up sandbanks all day like the drunken maniac he was.

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Man I've had a few things that I'd rather not eat again - pig brain, ox intestines, duck tongue, shark fin soup (what a waste of shark), fugu, sea cucumber and some of those gelatanous cubes of fish crap - but the worst had to be raw "Shirako" -aka- Cod Fish Sperm Sacs.

I could only slather down a couple of gooey chopstix worth. That it strings away from it's blob like form with this irredescent mucousy texture is about all you can stand but the fact that it is like that on the tongue is even worse. And it was one of those that you aren't really told what it is until you have it on the palate. yeeech!

Now jelly fish tentacles, on the other hand, are pretty good. And the fact that my host was right-on when he told me: "those, ah, kreen you light out"! foont!

Edited by Man with the Golden Arm
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Having had the good fortune to travel to nearly every country on the planet (I exaggerate, probably 110 countries) - Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, rural China, Lao PDR, Sudan, Mali, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Djibouti, Togo, Senegal, Paraguay, Tunisia, India, Guatemala, Haiti - you can bet I've been offered some tasty morsels.

Alas, as a vegetarian/vegan, I was able to pass on all.

Except durian. (Excuse me, it's lunchtime.)

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I'll just add one more, which was all my fault.

Once in a while I would race my brother home from school because my parents had had some big lunch and often there would be wonderdully creative ice-cream dishes left for us in the fridge.

One day, naturally, I was fastest and threw the fridge door open, found a bowl of what looked like hazelnut icecream or whatever and just as my brother ran into the kitchen, I took this huge spoon, grinned my widest grin, shoved it into the "ice-cream" and with a loud "YUM" I shoved a generous helping into my mouth.

Duck grease (fat).

A full bowl of it.

Needless to say, I've gotten a tiny bit more cautious since then.

Cheers!

P.S.: I swallowed all of it to entice my brother to eat some as well, but already then he wasn't dumb enough to do it ... I guess my best attempts at a smile and satisfied face expression failed somewhat as the stuff was slowly sliding down my throat, a series of gag reflexes pushing it back up repeatedly.

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Dish numero uno:

"Lutefisk":

:lol: Yeah, Lutefisk is a real treat isn't it? I had to polish off a couple of pieces at the Norwegian family reunion in Minnesota in July. See the white blobby stuff on my plate? Yum. A cold beer in hand helps. Nice napkins, eh?

Worst stuff I ever chowed down on was ox tendon in China. I'd put sea urchin in the revolting category as well. I'd wolf down a kilo of Lutefisk before touching that stuff again.

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:lol: Yeah, Lutefisk is a real treat isn't it? I had to polish off a couple of pieces at the Norwegian family reunion in Minnesota in July. See the white blobby stuff on my plate? Yum. A cold beer in hand helps.

In my experience, beer is not nearly strong enough to overpower the taste of Lutefisk. I'd suggest these fine liquids:

Linie Aquavit

akvavit3.gif

Jule Aquavit

aalborg_jule_gr.jpg

[note: the latter is just great stuff [ice-cold] and is sold once a year around Christmas time, the bottle design alternating every two years. The bottles, BTW, make nice oil lamps ... I have the whole house full of them :g )

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When I went to Southeast Asia a couple of months ago, I was determined to eat whatever they had to offer, no matter how offensive it might be to a Westerner's palate. Since I didn't speak the language I'm sure I missed out on all the really good stuff (I've heard they eat all manner of things like bats and grubs in Cambodia at least). Probably the most bizarre thing I had was fish-stomach soup at a little Chinese-style joint in Bangkok. My traveling buddy (a vegetarian) was sort of revolted but it was actually pretty good. My hunch is that Americanized "hot and sour" soup is basically the same thing, although they either take out or don't tell you about the fish stomach part when they serve it here.

Oh yeah, durian's not for everybody either. I thought it was ok but couldn't bring myself to shovel down more thana few bites.

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I remember being served up baby cuttlefish on a Japan Air Lines flight some years ago. Can still picture them there, floating in the soy sauce with their puppy-dog eyes looking up at me. Must admit though, they tasted pretty good ! :blink:

I'm also a sucker for sea cucumber whenever offered up at Chinese New Year do's. Any scuba divers amongst us will know that when picked up under-water they tend to instantly defecate up their guts. Nice, eh !

Which reminds me, food is almost ready.. :rfr

Edited by sidewinder
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Japanese Food:

1. Boiled pig intestines with buckwheat dumplings - both of them the identical shade of gray.

2. Liquified squid, innards and all (hold the ink), blenderized into applesauce-like consistancy and served in a small bowl (as an appetizer).

3. Natto: not exactly sure what it is but I suspect it's fermented soybeans mixed with some kind of turd.

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Without a doubt, the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten (other than Thanksgiving Dinner at Aunt Linda's house, of course...) was something called balut in the Philippines. I refuse to describe it, as I've actually eaten it, and the trauma might be too much for me, but here's a link if you're interested...Balut

And yes, to quote the Pink Floyd album, "I was already drunk at the time"... :wacko:

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I once ate a piece of chicken from a Panda Express that I'm not sure what was wrong with it. I knew something was wrong the minute I put it in my mouth and I spit it out. I guess it must have sat in their serving tray for a long time or something. I'd already eaten most of the serving, but stopped there. My stomach was a wreck for a week--all poisoned feeling.

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Well, the British have a chain of freeway restaurants called "Little Chef" - often the only place to eat in their immediate location. Disgusting food, but at least they are expensive. :angry:

My second worst is also British: London street food. My parents gave me some when I was 7 and I threw up. Years later, in about 1974, it happened again. I lost a whole day of vacation because of it.

"There is death in the pot."

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I think this thread has finally convinced me to vote Republican. I now want Bush to wage war and take over the world so that any foreign city I may travel to will be assured to have a Denny's and KFC...

:blink:

You're too late. There already are KFCs in just about every major Asian city and some of the minor ones.

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