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
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.
Oh, also had live fish and turtles.
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
@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.