Folks were talking about yucky foods from all over the world today, so that got me wondering.. what’s the grossest thing that you like to eat?

For me I think it would be scrapple. It’s usually a breakfast meat, goes good with eggs & buttery toast. They basically take everything that’s left over after making hot dogs, then grind it all up and form it into a brick. Then you slice it, cook it and eat it! I like it sliced thin and fried crispy in a pan, but most restaurants and diners around here will cut it in big chunks and deep fry it. I don’t like it that way, cuz I don’t like when it’s squishy inside.

So how about you?

Pineapple & Anchovies Pizza

 Necros wrote:
Folks were talking about yucky foods from all over the world today, so that got me wondering.. what’s the grossest thing that you like to eat?

For me I think it would be scrapple. It’s usually a breakfast meat, goes good with eggs & buttery toast. They basically take everything that’s left over after making hot dogs, then grind it all up and form it into a brick. Then you slice it, cook it and eat it! I like it sliced thin and fried crispy in a pan, but most restaurants and diners around here will cut it in big chunks and deep fry it. I don’t like it that way, cuz I don’t like when it’s squishy inside.

So how about you?

Very few people know about Scrapple unless one lives in the areas

Kim-che!

Cheese Pizza with crunchy peanut butter

Spam/Canned Foods in general. I get weird looks from my family every time I mention that I enjoy Spam.

Generally whatever I pick up from McDonalds now and again.

Going to sound crazy but......had it in Nashville. Peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich.

 Jihadin wrote:
Going to sound crazy but......had it in Nashville. Peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich.

That's not gross... that's F'N awesome!

 whembly wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:
Going to sound crazy but......had it in Nashville. Peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich.

That's not gross... that's F'N awesome!

If it was good for the King then it was damn good for me. We're talking thick and I mean THICK slice bacon

Cheese. Most cheese is pretty awful. Still eat a lot of it though on sambos or on pizzas etc. hmmm.

Anything with blood.

Blood sausage, black pudding, those kind of things, lovely.

Canned vienna sausages.

I'd eat everything listed so far. Here's one.

lutefisk

For those of you not blessed with Scandinavian heritage or who haven't lived in the midwest among the various Swedes and Norskies, it is perfectly good cod that has been preserved in lye. Lye, as in drain cleaner or homemade soap reagent. When you are ready to eat it you soak it in water, draining and refilling the vessel several times. Then you steam or boil the cod until it reaches the consistency of Jello. It is served on lefsa, a potato based flat bread, with melted butter.

It takes a strong will to eat the stuff. It tastes faintly of soap and it's consistency is like warm fatty tissue with a fishy taste.

Most foods from Scandinavia were developed on a bet. "Ay Sven, I've found this rotten shark meat that I buried for a month. I'll bet you a sheep you can't eat it all."

Through the (good?) fortune of having lived in Minnesota, I have tried lutefisk.

It actually wasn't too bad. Honestly I've got a strong tolerance for most foods except for overly sweet things, which make me sick to the stomach.

 Necros wrote:
Folks were talking about yucky foods from all over the world today, so that got me wondering.. what’s the grossest thing that you like to eat?

For me I think it would be scrapple. It’s usually a breakfast meat, goes good with eggs & buttery toast. They basically take everything that’s left over after making hot dogs, then grind it all up and form it into a brick. Then you slice it, cook it and eat it! I like it sliced thin and fried crispy in a pan, but most restaurants and diners around here will cut it in big chunks and deep fry it. I don’t like it that way, cuz I don’t like when it’s squishy inside.

So how about you?

I make it from neck bone meat. I simmer the neck bones for a few hours with onions, carrots and celery. Then I strain the meat and bones out of the broth. I cool it all down and pick the meat from the bones. I make the corn meal with the broth and add the meat and chopped garlic along with other herbs and spices. When the corn meal is fully hydrated I pour the mush into bread loaf pans to cool. The bricks get wrapped up and all but one get frozen. We tear though it pretty fast around here, pan fried till crisp served with easy over eggs and toast.

Yummo! The docs like it when I have it because it's plenty of protein. Makes the blood tests look good.

"English food" probably.

Seriously, since coming to America I keep seeing and hearing how "English food is terrible" and I have no idea why this is a thing. Typical English dishes are meat and veg (i.e. The same as typical American dishes), what is objectionable about that? I even see things like Shephard's Pie or Fish 'n' Chips frequently featured in restaurants and on the Food Network TV channel, but still, "English food is terrible"...

Various cheese.

Blood sausages are awesome.

Uh... Pizza Crust, Indian Bread, and breadsticks. Dunked in milk

I like Akutaq, or eskimo ice cream, it is whipped animal fat and berries mixed together. Also I like to eat cold canned raviolli, spagetios, ect.

What's with this notion that cheese is gross? It offends me.

A lot of Amerifats cant understand that there is more than pepper jack mozzarella nacho cheddar cheese and MURICA Cheese.

Hard to say, since I actually like the stuff I like. I've really developed a taste for some of the less-than-americanized stuff at Chinese restaurants. Like I sometimes get the odd are you sure you want that when I order the dry-cooked pork intestine, or pig's feet. I certainly do get some skeptical looks from friends too when I try to encourage them to try it.

If we're talking gak that's just kind of bad-for-you bachelor chow, probably those strawberry pop tarts when the hard/dry frosting.

 Alex C wrote:
"English food" probably.

Seriously, since coming to America I keep seeing and hearing how "English food is terrible" and I have no idea why this is a thing. Typical English dishes are meat and veg (i.e. The same as typical American dishes), what is objectionable about that? I even see things like Shephard's Pie or Fish 'n' Chips frequently featured in restaurants and on the Food Network TV channel, but still, "English food is terrible"...

When I was going to culinary school, a couple of the chefs talked about how there's still this ongoing view of English food as bland and lazy, and that it's kind of permeated its way into our culture somehow, even though, like you say, it's not too different from typical "American" cuisine.

They blamed the French, but the French take responsibility for a lot of things in cooking, I think.

English food has a bad rep. I think it is the salsbury steak and that ilk, but yeah, any country is going to have bad and good food. I've had terrible food in places Central America, but then incredible food the next day, same at home.

American fast food is mostly disgusting. I don't usually eat bad food, so this is a hard question. Foods I like to eat I don't consider gross, but I've had some nasty things, Scrapple (do not like), "American" cheese (Shame to call it that), but.....

I'll go with one of my favorites that sounds weird and tends to get gross reactions, Oreos dipped in Guiness.

I love cheeses of all kinds, but on a regular burger I do prefer regular yellow american cheese, more for the color and the creamyness. There's a supermarket chain called Wegmans that opened up near me that has a pretty big cheese section with all kinds of things I never heard of, and were the first store around to have queso fresco.. or at least the first place I saw it. My girlfriend is from wisconson and has cheeses from back home flown here just about every week. They accidentally sent her some ghost pepper cheddar once, and I think that one burned more on the way out than the way in.

I always wanted to try and make my own scrapple, but I thought i would do it with regular cuts of pork and just pulverize it in a food processor. I have a long list of things I want to try and make someday, I think root beer and pickles are at the top of the list right now.

Anything done on my smoker, to include but not limited to Boston Butt, ribs of all types, turkey, chicken, brisket, bacon explosion, and more.

 CptJake wrote:
Anything done on my smoker, to include but not limited to Boston Butt, ribs of all types, turkey, chicken, brisket, bacon explosion, and more.

Who would consider any of this gross?

also

 Desubot wrote:

 CptJake wrote:
Anything done on my smoker, to include but not limited to Boston Butt, ribs of all types, turkey, chicken, brisket, bacon explosion, and more.

Who would consider any of this gross?

I misread the thread title.

For grossest, would have to go with fanihi soup. The first time you get a piece of bat that still has hair on it can be interesting.

Bone Marrow. Boil the bones and bite them open and suck out the marrow.

Mhm, not even sure if this counts but..

When I go to my local greek restaurant (which I do a LOT) I always order the octopus tentacle as my starter.

Also, Dutch Herring (raw and pickled) would probably gross out some people.

I loved haggis when I had it. Everyone around me was hungover and already feeling worse for wear, so I got to eat as much as I could physically fit into my mouth and stomach. Up there with the best meals I've ever had.

pickled eggs.

 easysauce wrote:
pickled eggs.

Pickled eggs are great! especially the last solitary one bobbing up and down in its jar. You don't know how long its been there, but you have to have it*






*That is the beer talking, seriously - Pickled eggs are gross when sober!



I like eating dry ramen noodles - Not gross but possibly odd.

Some people get real squemish when Sushi is around

 Jihadin wrote:
Some people get real squemish when Sushi is around

Speaking of which uni is the best thing ever.

 Desubot wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:
Some people get real squemish when Sushi is around

Speaking of which uni is the best thing ever.

Your on your own on that one. I keep forgetting what that is every time I come back from a deployment

Some people think oysters are gross.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Some people think oysters are gross.

Beers and oyster shooters!!

I can't do sushi, just knowing it's raw messes with my brain, I only want charred animal flesh. I would try cooked sushi though, but then what's the point.. I may as well just have a big chunk of grilled salmon instead. I also can't do oysters, or any shellfish except the occasional fried clams that are more breading than clam, and clam chowder only if it's homemade and it's really cold outside.

I'd say pickled dude eggs is probably the worst things I've ever seen people eat, no way in hell will I eat them though.


I like eat cheddar cheese and peanut butter together, no bread or anything.

Also chocolate with my mexican food, OMG so good, spicy sauce melted cheese and sweet all in one.

Have had scrapple and head cheese before, both PA delights, they were ok.

I enjoy most offal meats, kidneys, livers etc, with the notable exception of tripe (which my grandad loves with milk and onions).

The one I miss most of all was my nan's specialty, braised, stuffed lambs' hearts in onion gravy. Bloody amazing.

Also enjoy a tongue sandwich. With a bit of branston or HP sauce and sliced up pickled onions.

Just because I have to... Vegemite

And I don't just mean on bread/toast or on biscuits (crackers, not the sweet kind), I'll eat the stuff off a spoon (something most people won't do).

Yeah I'm weird like that. Suprisingly I still have taste buds!


But other than glorious Vegemite...Maybe avocado, cheese and sardine sandwiches? Admittedly I haven't had one in a few years but I loved them.

Its hard finding that stuff around here but i love it too.

I used to put that stuff in my in and out burgers.. grosses out my friends

 Alex C wrote:
"English food" probably.

Seriously, since coming to America I keep seeing and hearing how "English food is terrible" and I have no idea why this is a thing. Typical English dishes are meat and veg (i.e. The same as typical American dishes), what is objectionable about that? I even see things like Shephard's Pie or Fish 'n' Chips frequently featured in restaurants and on the Food Network TV channel, but still, "English food is terrible"...

Well, the names of some of the dishes may be the problem. Spotted Dick comes to mind. Kidney Pie, I'll eat a lot of organs but I draw the line at kidneys. Jellied Eels ... Nuff Said.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Three words.

Rocky

Mountain

Oysters.....

I really like canned fish, like sardines, mackerel, kipper, etc. Some people are grossed out by it, but I don't really understand why. It's just fish.

I also really like fried chicken livers.

Me Like Burnaz wrote:

 Alex C wrote:
"English food" probably.

Seriously, since coming to America I keep seeing and hearing how "English food is terrible" and I have no idea why this is a thing. Typical English dishes are meat and veg (i.e. The same as typical American dishes), what is objectionable about that? I even see things like Shephard's Pie or Fish 'n' Chips frequently featured in restaurants and on the Food Network TV channel, but still, "English food is terrible"...

Well, the names of some of the dishes may be the problem. Spotted Dick comes to mind. Kidney Pie, I'll eat a lot of organs but I draw the line at kidneys. Jellied Eels ... Nuff Said.

The British have, at least within the last 20 years or so, left the French and Italians in the dust in terms of cuisine. British is producing the best restaurants, the best chefs in the world right now. The French chefs know it, they know they've been trapped by their own dogma and suffocating rules for too long. Bourdain knows it and has given it multiple reference.

Coming to America from the UK, I was amazed at how totally conservative the US is with it's food, it's endless roads of restaurants all selling the same thing. The same menu repeated in a hundred thousand Italian restaurants, with food that barely resembles fresh Italian food. The hundred thousand Chinese restaurants with no seasoning or heat to their food, to appease the American conservative palate for sweet and bland.

Having lived in both countries a reasonable time, the UK utterly dominates the US for variety, innovation and quality. I cannot really get over how a mixing pot culture like America can be so totally rigid and set in how things are in the kitchen.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Hordini wrote:
I really like canned fish, like sardines, mackerel, kipper, etc. Some people are grossed out by it, but I don't really understand why. It's just fish.

Canned sardines, the ones in oil, on toast with a little malt vinegar and ground black pepper, under the griddle to warm. Amazing.

Mr. Burning wrote:
*That is the beer talking, seriously - Pickled eggs are gross when sober!
.

I actually haven't tried one while drunk yet.

They taste like pickles, but with the goodness of eggs, whats not to like?

Oh, since we're talking fish. Smoked Mackerel and or canned sardines on bread with apple syrup.

Love my some apple syrup.

 paulson games wrote:
I'd say pickled dude eggs is probably the worst things I've ever seen people eat, no way in hell will I eat them though.

wait wait what?!

are people eating "pickled *dudes* eggs" where you live?



lol, pickling stuff makes cucumbers taste good, why not eggs? most people who think they are gross never tried one, which was me till i tried one!

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

Me Like Burnaz wrote:

 Alex C wrote:
"English food" probably.

Seriously, since coming to America I keep seeing and hearing how "English food is terrible" and I have no idea why this is a thing. Typical English dishes are meat and veg (i.e. The same as typical American dishes), what is objectionable about that? I even see things like Shephard's Pie or Fish 'n' Chips frequently featured in restaurants and on the Food Network TV channel, but still, "English food is terrible"...

Well, the names of some of the dishes may be the problem. Spotted Dick comes to mind. Kidney Pie, I'll eat a lot of organs but I draw the line at kidneys. Jellied Eels ... Nuff Said.

The British have, at least within the last 20 years or so, left the French and Italians in the dust in terms of cuisine. British is producing the best restaurants, the best chefs in the world right now. The French chefs know it, they know they've been trapped by their own dogma and suffocating rules for too long. Bourdain knows it and has given it multiple reference.

Coming to America from the UK, I was amazed at how totally conservative the US is with it's food, it's endless roads of restaurants all selling the same thing. The same menu repeated in a hundred thousand Italian restaurants, with food that barely resembles fresh Italian food. The hundred thousand Chinese restaurants with no seasoning or heat to their food, to appease the American conservative palate for sweet and bland.

Having lived in both countries a reasonable time, the UK utterly dominates the US for variety, innovation and quality. I cannot really get over how a mixing pot culture like America can be so totally rigid and set in how things are in the kitchen.

See, I'm inclined to agree with you there, old chum. Now, I will add the caveat that I love American(-style) food, however that's mainly because it's all mostly a combination of any from sweet/sticky/greasy/hot and my palate is entirely unsophisticated. It's totally unsubtle, un-nuanced food.

I would also add, to the poster you quoted, that no-one eats jellied eels or spotted dick anymore, and steak & kidney pies are hardly a staple. They're just one of a wide variety of tasty meat pies and pastries you can get in the British archipelago, chief amongst which (in my opinion) is the mighty Cornish Pasty.

People say Brussels sprouts are awful. I say those people should be put to the sword. Sprouts fried up with olive oil, garlic, leaks, and balsamic vinegar...could eat that all day. Also lentils. I fething love lentils. Not everyone feels the same.


How about food everyone loves that you hate? I hate eggs (I'm so fething weird).

Also, I love haggis and black pudding. Turn up.

Bacon fat sandwiches. You keep the fat from your bacon (the drippins, as they say) and save them in a jar. Then use it as sandwich spread. I like it with some butter, a couple of tomato slices, and some mayo. It makes my lovely bride heave just to look at the jar.

Can I just say, just about any smoked dead animal?

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Coming to America from the UK, I was amazed at how totally conservative the US is with it's food, it's endless roads of restaurants all selling the same thing. The same menu repeated in a hundred thousand Italian restaurants, with food that barely resembles fresh Italian food. The hundred thousand Chinese restaurants with no seasoning or heat to their food, to appease the American conservative palate for sweet and bland.

Lol, where in America do you live? In some areas this might be true, but it's hardly a fair blanket statement. (You know, just like it isn't fair to say all British food is grungy meat boiled to tastelessness.)

Virtually every nation has some amazing food if you know where to look. Creole food is mind-blowing. Franchises like Olive Garden or whatever are crap, but that's true in every country too.

Fast food.

Ever since I started eating them in public I have been informed that Pork Rinds are not in fact regarded by all as the divine fruit of the gods.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Ever since I started eating them in public I have been informed that Pork Rinds are not in fact regarded by all as the divine fruit of the gods.

Cracklin is superior in every way.. good day.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Ever since I started eating them in public I have been informed that Pork Rinds are not in fact regarded by all as the divine fruit of the gods.

These people are clearly insane.

edit: Desubot. They are one and the same, unless you're talking about the skin on a pork roast or something.

 Desubot wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:
Ever since I started eating them in public I have been informed that Pork Rinds are not in fact regarded by all as the divine fruit of the gods.

Cracklin is superior in every way.. good day.

Woah, why did I knot know those existed? Thank you so very much for enlightening me. I must have those delicious looking bite sized bacon pillows!

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Desubot wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:
Ever since I started eating them in public I have been informed that Pork Rinds are not in fact regarded by all as the divine fruit of the gods.

Cracklin is superior in every way.. good day.

Woah, why did I knot know those existed? Thank you so very much for enlightening me. I must have those delicious looking bite sized bacon pillows!

Well, I take back what I said, apparently you can use cracklin for both things...
Damn you silly languages.

I like scrapple.

I can't really think of anything else that I like that would be commonly considered as "gross."

Me Like Burnaz wrote:
I'd eat everything listed so far. Here's one.

lutefisk

For those of you not blessed with Scandinavian heritage or who haven't lived in the midwest among the various Swedes and Norskies, it is perfectly good cod that has been preserved in lye. Lye, as in drain cleaner or homemade soap reagent. When you are ready to eat it you soak it in water, draining and refilling the vessel several times. Then you steam or boil the cod until it reaches the consistency of Jello. It is served on lefsa, a potato based flat bread, with melted butter.

It takes a strong will to eat the stuff. It tastes faintly of soap and it's consistency is like warm fatty tissue with a fishy taste.

Most foods from Scandinavia were developed on a bet. "Ay Sven, I've found this rotten shark meat that I buried for a month. I'll bet you a sheep you can't eat it all."

That sounds like a lot of the Nomadic cultures food, both terrestrial and marine. While tripe and some blood sausage is the grossest food I have eaten, I have seen some of the sheep related food that the Mongols eat and I am pretty sure most of that was based off of a bet too.
Now most Thai and Vietnamese food was developed on the bet of how much chiles can we put in this and still not cause the human stomach to dissolve. That's my own theory at any rate.

This isn't something I like, but I had to share it. Because, once again, the French take the cake with going overboard with food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting

Me Like Burnaz wrote:
I'd eat everything listed so far. Here's one.

lutefisk

For those of you not blessed with Scandinavian heritage or who haven't lived in the midwest among the various Swedes and Norskies, it is perfectly good cod that has been preserved in lye. Lye, as in drain cleaner or homemade soap reagent. When you are ready to eat it you soak it in water, draining and refilling the vessel several times. Then you steam or boil the cod until it reaches the consistency of Jello. It is served on lefsa, a potato based flat bread, with melted butter.

It takes a strong will to eat the stuff. It tastes faintly of soap and it's consistency is like warm fatty tissue with a fishy taste.

Most foods from Scandinavia were developed on a bet. "Ay Sven, I've found this rotten shark meat that I buried for a month. I'll bet you a sheep you can't eat it all."

Smalahove..
A classic Norwegian delicacy. Has to be seen to be believed.

Pultost..
Directly translated "Fethed cheese" don't ask. Its best to leave certain things alone..

Gravlaks and Rakørret..
Basically rotten salmon and trout. Very very popular at christmas time.

Oh and stockfish.. We actually eat that stuff. Its a very "Orky" food, seeing as proper stockfish requires use of a hammer to eat.
And yes.. This is the same dried up semi rotten fish we feed to our dogs..


Please don't attach nonwargaming images to Dakka. You need to use off site hosting if you wish to share any such images.
Reds8n

cheese burger.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
cheese burger.

My duty station was in South Korea. I overheard this convo next table over during chow

US Soldier "Why do Koreans smell like Kimchee?"
KATUSA "Probably the same reasons Americans smell like cheese burgers."

 thedarkavenger wrote:
Bone Marrow. Boil the bones and bite them open and suck out the marrow.

See, this, this defeated me. "It's nutritious", they told me. "People have been eating bone marrow for millennia" they told me.

All true, I'm sure.

But people have done a lot of silly things for millennia.

Serious gut check.



<--

I like eating liver. Apparently it's really gross, to the point that it needed to renamed 'fry' in this country. I get the strangest, most grossed out reactions when i mention that i like liver, and get told that its bad for me. Does that qualify?

Liver is very good for you, it's full of iron.

Avoid polar bear liver, though. It's poisonous.

Most people that try liver and dislike it dislike it because the liver they've tried was overcooked and too bitter.


And I think all mammalian carnivore liver is toxic to humans?

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
The British have, at least within the last 20 years or so, left the French and Italians in the dust in terms of cuisine. British is producing the best restaurants, the best chefs in the world right now. The French chefs know it, they know they've been trapped by their own dogma and suffocating rules for too long. Bourdain knows it and has given it multiple reference.

Agreed, but you are talking the high end restaurants, not the "hey Martha, lets take our brood our to dinner tonight" kind of places. $20 a plate places are not where the majority eat.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Coming to America from the UK, I was amazed at how totally conservative the US is with it's food, it's endless roads of restaurants all selling the same thing. The same menu repeated in a hundred thousand Italian restaurants, with food that barely resembles fresh Italian food. The hundred thousand Chinese restaurants with no seasoning or heat to their food, to appease the American conservative palate for sweet and bland.

I know what you mean. In Colorado we had an endless number of little hole in the wall Mexican and Asian restaurants run by people whose English was bad but their cooking was amazing. If you told the waiter "we don't want the gringoficated spicing" you would get such amazing flavors and knock your socks off hot spices. The General Tso's Chicken was sweat on your brow spicy. Then we moved to South Dakota where the average age is so high only Florida has more old people per capita. The food culture reflects their lack of taste buds. Bland is the rule and even if you ask for it to be extra spicy it isn't. There are a few places that get the idea but they are the $20 a plate and higher places mostly. We did finally find a burrito place that has "Chuck Norris" sauce which as the name implies does wicked things to your taste buds with a mix of fresh peppers that is just the right balance of fire and flavor. It's in the price range where you can get enough food for the family without taking out second mortgage. But those places are far outnumbered by the chain restaurants serving the same boring and bland plates of sameness.

Conservatives have devastated more than out political system. Their fear of anything that isn't properly American has overwhelmed out culinary system as well. But there are the culinary anarchists out there who are making good food available to the masses and there is a movement in the younger generations to have more authentic ethnic foods available for daily consumption instead of special occasions. The Food Network and Cooking Network play many ethnic foods shows, mostly in the afternoons so as to not take time away from the game shows in the evening. The worm is slowly turning and in another 20 years I suspect we will be like England is now. We just need the Baby Boomers to die off.

When I lived in Laos there was a little outdoor eatery about a minute motorbike ride down the street from the office that the locals introduced some of us westerners to. They served "gai loot" known to me as fertilised duck egg. You bust open the shell and suck out an eggy meaty tasting juice at the top. Then you dig around a dead baby duck and really hard yolk to eat the rest of the egg. It has a really strong egg-like flavour. Usually enjoyed with an ice cold glass of BeerLao. The first time we went one of my mates from Australia ate THIRTY of them. I also quite enjoyed their ant egg salad. They taste salty.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Most people that try liver and dislike it dislike it because the liver they've tried was overcooked and too bitter.

Agreed. My mother did it with onions and lots of butter. I've adapted her recipe and give it a light breading, like a chicken fried steak, which seals in seasonings and keeps it moister through the cooking process. I do the onions in a separate pan and serve with the caramelized onions on top. I don't do it too often as only my son and I will eat it. My wife grew up on the east coast where everything is boiled and bland. Her mothers cooking is so bad when we visit I spend a lot of time in the bathroom if you take my meaning. My wife's tolerance for food poisoning is high but her tolerance for flavor is very low.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
And I think all mammalian carnivore liver is toxic to humans?

I have been told the issue with polar bear liver is the high levels of some vitamins which are not good for you in high doses. Eating a regular serving is like taking a whole bottle of multivitamins. As for other carnivores I am not sure about that. I suspect their organs are "off limits" for a variety of microbiological reasons. They eat meat, some of which has been dead for a while and would be infested with all manner of microbiological life. Their innards are likely full of the stuff and unless sent through gamma irradiation would be bad for us who are not used to those bugs in our system. Having said that I do recall tales of aboriginal amercians eating bear livers but I don't remember hearing about the eating of mountain lion or wolf livers. Might be a cultural thing. Can't really say.

Vienna "sausages". Not sure why I like the filthy things.
And you can pickle eggs in stuff other than dill brine - a local friend has me hooked on his balsamic pickled eggs. The beet eggs are good too (and they're RED. Needless to say, the balsamic ones are black).

 Necros wrote:
Folks were talking about yucky foods from all over the world today, so that got me wondering.. what’s the grossest thing that you like to eat?

For me I think it would be scrapple. It’s usually a breakfast meat, goes good with eggs & buttery toast. They basically take everything that’s left over after making hot dogs, then grind it all up and form it into a brick. Then you slice it, cook it and eat it! I like it sliced thin and fried crispy in a pan, but most restaurants and diners around here will cut it in big chunks and deep fry it. I don’t like it that way, cuz I don’t like when it’s squishy inside.

So how about you?

Scapple is in no way gross, it is the king of breakfast meats.

My grandfather made the best scrapple I've ever had. After he died almost 15 years ago we found his recipe and my uncle attempted to recreate it. He as unsuccessful because my grandfather never followed the recipe and we weren't able to get the right mix of spices to faithfully reproduce it. It was still tasty though, if a little bland.

Me Like Burnaz wrote:

 Alex C wrote:
"English food" probably.

Seriously, since coming to America I keep seeing and hearing how "English food is terrible" and I have no idea why this is a thing. Typical English dishes are meat and veg (i.e. The same as typical American dishes), what is objectionable about that? I even see things like Shephard's Pie or Fish 'n' Chips frequently featured in restaurants and on the Food Network TV channel, but still, "English food is terrible"...

Well, the names of some of the dishes may be the problem. Spotted Dick comes to mind. Kidney Pie, I'll eat a lot of organs but I draw the line at kidneys. Jellied Eels ... Nuff Said.

Those are niche things these days. Novelties that people point to when they proclaim that "English food is bad". Usually those same people have never even eaten those dishes and have no concept of what "English good" really is. They just like to parrot the same tired idea in order to make it seem like they have experience of food outside McDonald's.

I could take several "American" dishes that I don't particularly care for and proclaim that "American food is bad", but I don't, because that would be ignorant.

Ever watch that show Bizarre Foods on the travel channel? I think I remember seeing the rotting salmon in Norway on there and the dead baby duck egg too.

I'm not a fan of liver, I've had it a variety of ways and just never liked it. My girlfriend gets liverwurst and I can't stand the stank. I generally don't do organ meats at all unless I don't know they're in there, I guess that's why I let scrapple go. I'm sure there's plenty of things I'd like, but I just don't know if I could talk myself into trying it.

I'd say the one food I eat that gets the most 'eews' from others would be my rare steak. Sometimes blue.

I like it cooked for about two minutes each side. Something about eating that cold, bloody, raw meat that drives me nuts. I just love, love, love it! When I order steak at restaurants I kindly ask the server to please emphasize that it must be rare on the ticket, I hate wasting meat and I won't send it back if it's cooked incorrectly, so it has to be done right or my night drops like two points.

Other things like anchovies, tripe, liver, unusual seafood, a couple of other strange proteins will get comments here and there. I have to change it up frequently though, as my diet is pretty strict.

I want bloody beef now. Dang.

Hm... Well, does fishsauce count? I mean, it *is* fish thats been left to rot for a couple of months... (or it should be, anyway)

Apart from that, I like hot food. As hot as possible. Bit of a shame really, since it means that german/austrian food is pretty much boring as hell for me... if not actually disgusting (formative years in asia, in case anyones wondering).

 Tyr13 wrote:
Hm... Well, does fishsauce count? I mean, it *is* fish thats been left to rot for a couple of months... (or it should be, anyway)

Apart from that, I like hot food. As hot as possible. Bit of a shame really, since it means that german/austrian food is pretty much boring as hell for me... if not actually disgusting (formative years in asia, in case anyones wondering).

Fish Sauce is used mostly in all kinds of Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese......well that general region

 Gitkikka wrote:
Vienna "sausages". Not sure why I like the filthy things.
And you can pickle eggs in stuff other than dill brine - a local friend has me hooked on his balsamic pickled eggs. The beet eggs are good too (and they're RED. Needless to say, the balsamic ones are black).

I do it in pickled beet juice. They are tasty.


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 Alex C wrote:
I could take several "American" dishes that I don't particularly care for and proclaim that "American food is bad", but I don't, because that would be ignorant.

Didn't say I agreed. Just giving you an idea of why it might happen.

MRE Corn Beef Hash..cold

Meals Rejected by Ethiopians shouldn't count. No one eats them voluntarily...

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:


Coming to America from the UK, I was amazed at how totally conservative the US is with it's food, it's endless roads of restaurants all selling the same thing. The same menu repeated in a hundred thousand Italian restaurants, with food that barely resembles fresh Italian food. The hundred thousand Chinese restaurants with no seasoning or heat to their food, to appease the American conservative palate for sweet and bland.

Having lived in both countries a reasonable time, the UK utterly dominates the US for variety, innovation and quality. I cannot really get over how a mixing pot culture like America can be so totally rigid and set in how things are in the kitchen.

Weren't you living in central PA?

If this is still true...you're more or less living in a culinary wasteland. Come to where the good food is, and ask some locals about where to go.

See, you probably didn't have this issue in the UK because it was your home turf, and you knew the crap to avoid and where the good food was.

French garlic snails and oysters. And king prawns, with with the shell, legs, eyeballs and everything still attached.

Me Like Burnaz wrote:
Meals Rejected by Ethiopians shouldn't count. No one eats them voluntarily...

Stow that gak. Ethiopian food is great.

I'll second raw beef. My ex and I had a thing for marinating stew meat in soy sauce and a few other things and eating it raw. Gored gored, btw, is fantastic.

I also get dirty looks from family when I use fries to soak up the bloody drippings from a rare steak.

Nothing really strikes me as particularly 'gross'. I suppose one of the things I do like that's generally considered foul is doner meat; I love a nice tray of doner and chips. Not many people can do anything more than grimace at the thought.

 Avatar 720 wrote:
Nothing really strikes me as particularly 'gross'. I suppose one of the things I do like that's generally considered foul is doner meat; I love a nice tray of doner and chips. Not many people can do anything more than grimace at the thought.

But that stuff's great! I've never met a person who has turned their nose up at it!

I do have a probably odd liking for cold garlic bread. If it doesn't get eaten with the evening meal, it goes in the fridge and is breakfast or lunch the next morning. Same with pizza, but that's more normal.

I also apply hot barbequeue or curry sauce to just about anything, from toast to mashed potato. There's nothing in the world that can't be improved with spice.

 gorgon wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:


Coming to America from the UK, I was amazed at how totally conservative the US is with it's food, it's endless roads of restaurants all selling the same thing. The same menu repeated in a hundred thousand Italian restaurants, with food that barely resembles fresh Italian food. The hundred thousand Chinese restaurants with no seasoning or heat to their food, to appease the American conservative palate for sweet and bland.

Having lived in both countries a reasonable time, the UK utterly dominates the US for variety, innovation and quality. I cannot really get over how a mixing pot culture like America can be so totally rigid and set in how things are in the kitchen.

Weren't you living in central PA?

If this is still true...you're more or less living in a culinary wasteland. Come to where the good food is, and ask some locals about where to go.

See, you probably didn't have this issue in the UK because it was your home turf, and you knew the crap to avoid and where the good food was.

Yeah, you don't get more central than Williamsport really.

Loads of restaurants on a long road nicknamed the golden strip. Wings place, pizza place, 'italian' place, steak house, wings place, pizza place, 'italian' place, chinese place, dennys, red robin, wings place... etc etc.

And i'm not just talking about the quality really, it's the menu. You can take the menu from any one of the italian places and swap them around, same with the pizza place, the chinese etc. And they're all really bland. No seasoning (I'm not just talking about heat here, but flavors).

It is a lot lot better since moving to the coast and being a short trip from Boston. I can even find curry here and the town has a great thai place and a good authentic little taiwanese.

But it did make me realize, travelling through the vast interior, it's all the same food everywhere. And no, you don't find that in Britain any more. Almost ever single pub serving food is putting out different menus, trying out one or two really interesting options, offering vegetarian options, seasoning meals, being brave with stuff. I think it may eventually come to the US in a big way, but for the moment the vast majority is sadly lacking.

 toasteroven wrote:

 thedarkavenger wrote:
Bone Marrow. Boil the bones and bite them open and suck out the marrow.

See, this, this defeated me. "It's nutritious", they told me. "People have been eating bone marrow for millennia" they told me.

All true, I'm sure.

But people have done a lot of silly things for millennia.

I was raised to eat anything put in front of me, with a family who leave no scraps of meat on a bone. It tastes like sweet meat.

As a kid (and sometimes till as an adult) I loved eating Peanut Butter and Pickle sandwiches.

Smooth peanut butter on both sides and a layer of sweet bread & butter pickles.

It's really good, but I think people imagine really garlicky dill pickles and think it sounds gross.

 gorgon wrote:
Weren't you living in central PA?

If this is still true...you're more or less living in a culinary wasteland. Come to where the good food is, and ask some locals about where to go.

Very true, we drive through PA when we go to visit the in laws. We pretty much gave up on finding anything good and push through for better food in other states.

 gorgon wrote:
See, you probably didn't have this issue in the UK because it was your home turf, and you knew the crap to avoid and where the good food was.

Or he just likes to gripe about any and all things that aren't British.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Almost ever single pub serving food is putting out different menus, trying out one or two really interesting options, offering vegetarian options, seasoning meals, being brave with stuff.

Sorry, I don't buy that, especially in the Williamsport-equivalent towns or more rural areas in the UK.

Mainly because I don't think things are fundamentally different here or there. Plenty of Americans travel to the UK and come back bitching about how awful the food is. And I suspect that's because they're eating at all the wrong places.

 guardpiper wrote:


That sounds like a lot of the Nomadic cultures food, both terrestrial and marine. While tripe and some blood sausage is the grossest food I have eaten, I have seen some of the sheep related food that the Mongols eat and I am pretty sure most of that was based off of a bet too.
Now most Thai and Vietnamese food was developed on the bet of how much chiles can we put in this and still not cause the human stomach to dissolve. That's my own theory at any rate.

If you think about it many things that we eat today were probably scary to early man. But hunger and "I'll bet you can't" made them eat a lot of things.

Me Like Burnaz wrote:

 gorgon wrote:
Weren't you living in central PA?

If this is still true...you're more or less living in a culinary wasteland. Come to where the good food is, and ask some locals about where to go.

Very true, we drive through PA when we go to visit the in laws. We pretty much gave up on finding anything good and push through for better food in other states.

Good food can be hard to find in the central areas. But then the city of Philadelphia is loaded with good restaurants. Pittsburgh has improved mightily since I lived there.

It's almost like there's a trend here...the nearer you are to a big city, the more likely it is that you'll find more variety and quality in the restaurants.

Edit: The mention of tripe made me think of Pepper Pot soup. Yum.

I like Peanut butter and Nacho sandwiches

 Torga_DW wrote:
I like eating liver. Apparently it's really gross, to the point that it needed to renamed 'fry' in this country. I get the strangest, most grossed out reactions when i mention that i like liver, and get told that its bad for me. Does that qualify?

Liver ? Gross ? Really ?
I'm not fond of calf liver, but I really enjoy some slices of duck liver in my salad.

I just LOVE Roquefort. Cheese + Molds. Yummy.

I also like camembert and sardines. It's not gross per se, but like any frenchman worth his salt, I enjoy old camembert and old sardines. The older the better. The cheese must have a creamy consistency and a strong scent. The canned fish should be several years old. A can of sardines that's several decades old is seen as a delicacy here.

I should also mention osban. Take haggis, bring in the north-african spices, sun, temperature and general lack of hygiene standards. Gross but delicious.

 Torga_DW wrote:
I like eating liver. Apparently it's really gross, to the point that it needed to renamed 'fry' in this country. I get the strangest, most grossed out reactions when i mention that i like liver, and get told that its bad for me. Does that qualify?

As someone who eats Kidney, Heart and Brain. Liver is in no way weird, gross, or anything other than delicious. Liver and mash is gorgeous.

 whembly wrote:
Pineapple & Anchovies Pizza

Where do you get that from, or do you make it yourself? That looks like hangover cure to me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I can't think of anything gross I like to eat. If it were gross I probably wouldn't eat it.

I've been told that sushi and scotch eggs are both gross, and I like those. Kimchi too.

 gorgon wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Almost ever single pub serving food is putting out different menus, trying out one or two really interesting options, offering vegetarian options, seasoning meals, being brave with stuff.

Sorry, I don't buy that, especially in the Williamsport-equivalent towns or more rural areas in the UK.

Mainly because I don't think things are fundamentally different here or there. Plenty of Americans travel to the UK and come back bitching about how awful the food is. And I suspect that's because they're eating at all the wrong places.

Hate to tell you, but you're wrong on that. We went back at the beginning of the year. I took my American wife to some very very rural locations. To pubs in the Cornish hinterland (straw dogs territory).

I just asked her her opinion about what she saw there, what her impressions were. She said 'seasonal foods, fresh foods, local produce'.

So, here's a pub we went to with my dad and stepmum. In deepest darkest Zennor.

http://www.tinnersarms.com/

And an example menu.

http://www.tinnersarms.co.uk/lunch.htm

Food was excellent. I had locally hunted pigeon, locally raised boar sausage and locally caught mackerel mousse. Good, innovative and reasonably priced food is really readily available anywhere in the UK.

There was certainly some very nice food available in central PA, but no daring, no interesting, no real wow factor to be had. I don't know if it's the conservative palate of the consumer or the conservative mind of the menu writer, or a vicious cycle of both, but I'm hoping we're seeing a change to it.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 gorgon wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Almost ever single pub serving food is putting out different menus, trying out one or two really interesting options, offering vegetarian options, seasoning meals, being brave with stuff.

Sorry, I don't buy that, especially in the Williamsport-equivalent towns or more rural areas in the UK.

Mainly because I don't think things are fundamentally different here or there. Plenty of Americans travel to the UK and come back bitching about how awful the food is. And I suspect that's because they're eating at all the wrong places.

Hate to tell you, but you're wrong on that. We went back at the beginning of the year. I took my American wife to some very very rural locations. To pubs in the Cornish hinterland (straw dogs territory).

I just asked her her opinion about what she saw there, what her impressions were. She said 'seasonal foods, fresh foods, local produce'.

So, here's a pub we went to with my dad and stepmum. In deepest darkest Zennor.

http://www.tinnersarms.com/

And an example menu.

http://www.tinnersarms.co.uk/lunch.htm

Food was excellent. I had locally hunted pigeon, locally raised boar sausage and locally caught mackerel mousse. Good, innovative and reasonably priced food is really readily available anywhere in the UK.

There was certainly some very nice food available in central PA, but no daring, no interesting, no real wow factor to be had. I don't know if it's the conservative palate of the consumer or the conservative mind of the menu writer, or a vicious cycle of both, but I'm hoping we're seeing a change to it.

To be honest, even the food in the chain pubs is improving. The 'gastropub' really has taken over the UK. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of crap. London, in particular, I find to be awful for food if you don't know where you're going, which is why I suspect many Americans have bad impressions of British cuisine. Here in Manchester, the good stuff is far easier to find and it's quickly becoming England's hip food capital.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 gorgon wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Almost ever single pub serving food is putting out different menus, trying out one or two really interesting options, offering vegetarian options, seasoning meals, being brave with stuff.

Sorry, I don't buy that, especially in the Williamsport-equivalent towns or more rural areas in the UK.

Mainly because I don't think things are fundamentally different here or there. Plenty of Americans travel to the UK and come back bitching about how awful the food is. And I suspect that's because they're eating at all the wrong places.

Hate to tell you, but you're wrong on that. We went back at the beginning of the year. I took my American wife to some very very rural locations. To pubs in the Cornish hinterland (straw dogs territory).

I just asked her her opinion about what she saw there, what her impressions were. She said 'seasonal foods, fresh foods, local produce'.

So, here's a pub we went to with my dad and stepmum. In deepest darkest Zennor.

http://www.tinnersarms.com/

And an example menu.

http://www.tinnersarms.co.uk/lunch.htm

Food was excellent. I had locally hunted pigeon, locally raised boar sausage and locally caught mackerel mousse. Good, innovative and reasonably priced food is really readily available anywhere in the UK.

There was certainly some very nice food available in central PA, but no daring, no interesting, no real wow factor to be had. I don't know if it's the conservative palate of the consumer or the conservative mind of the menu writer, or a vicious cycle of both, but I'm hoping we're seeing a change to it.

Well, we have gastropubs in the US too. Maybe not in central PA...but then CENTRAL PA. I really don't know what to tell you other than that you're clearly making a lot of projections on either side of the pond.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:
Nothing really strikes me as particularly 'gross'. I suppose one of the things I do like that's generally considered foul is doner meat; I love a nice tray of doner and chips. Not many people can do anything more than grimace at the thought.

But that stuff's great! I've never met a person who has turned their nose up at it!

I've met far more people who loathe it than don't. Some people just have no culinary taste.

 gorgon wrote:
It's almost like there's a trend here...the nearer you are to a big city, the more likely it is that you'll find more variety and quality in the restaurants.

Very true. More population means more diversity in taste. In a small town like Spearfish there might be a small handful of people who want sushi. That's why there's only one place that will serve sushi once a month. Otherwise it's the Safeway deli for prepackaged sushi. But go to Rapid City and there are four places for sushi, all that are top notch quality. Methinks our Brit friend must have spent his time in smaller areas. Europeans don't seem to get how truly HUGE this country is, our states are the size of their countries. We have a lot of open space and more small rural area where you're lucky to find a mom and pop serving the usual selection of burgers and sandwiches that are popular with one or two local specialties that may not even be on the menu but the locals know are there. Otherwise it's the Chuckle McBubbleheads off the interstate exit.


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Litcheur wrote:
I'm not fond of calf liver, but I really enjoy some slices of duck liver in my salad.

There was a hot dog joint in Chicago we managed to find on one of our trips, Hot Doug's. They had a duck sausage with duck liver on top. It was amazing. They also had an alligator sausage that was tasty as well. It's a shame but they have closed down, no idea why. They just said goodbye on their website and are no more.


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 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
And i'm not just talking about the quality really, it's the menu. You can take the menu from any one of the italian places and swap them around, same with the pizza place, the chinese etc. And they're all really bland. No seasoning (I'm not just talking about heat here, but flavors).

No doubt that we have our share of culinary wastelands. Americans are a very mobile people and restaurants must cater to a wide variety of tastes. The market supports it's share of hole in the wall places with a half dozen tables and a tiny sign out front with food that is amazing. Where the locals who like that kind of food know about it and the owners stay afloat just barely but do it more out of love than looking for profits. However the big profits are in providing places for travelers to eat and travelers are a diverse lot, ranging from young people who would prefer that hole in the wall but can't find it to old people whose taste buds are dead so everything tastes the same anyhow, so off the interstates you get roads with boring places as far as the eye can see.

I suspect had you taken the time to search you would have found those holes in the wall.




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 thedarkavenger wrote:
I was raised to eat anything put in front of me, with a family who leave no scraps of meat on a bone. It tastes like sweet meat.

Same here. My wife and son will cut the meat from the bone when we have chops or steak leaving quite a bit. So when I'm done with mine I take theirs and gnaw every last tasty morsel from the bones sucking the roasted marrow out as well. I make them laugh by making growling wolf like sounds while I do it....


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 gorgon wrote:
I really don't know what to tell you other than that you're clearly making a lot of projections on either side of the pond.

I think he's just going to hate most things American no matter what you tell him. That's some ground not worth dying on....

Though they are becoming a fad, I enjoy roasted crickets when I can find them. People are mashing them up and putting them into energy bars now, which ruins them IMHO.

MGS, if you're a quick hop from Boston, you should try and hit the North Shore some time. I've had some world class meals in Beverly, Salem, and Gloucester. Definitely a few joints in that area that are on the bleeding edge of 'gastro pub'.

Boston has a bunch as well, but I know a lot fewer of them as I don't like waiting for a table while watching hipsters take 50 photos of their meals for Instagram.

I don't think I have anything that hasn't been mentioned (gunslinger you stole my one unique thing!), but...

Haggis. LOVE haggis. I can't understand why people recoil from it. (But then, they're probably people who never looked too closely at the hot-dog manufacturing process) Comfortingly stodgy, beautifully spiced, can't wait for Burns Night in a week or two.

Other types of offal, too. Liver, heart, kidney (after roasting a chicken and picking at the carcass, I like scooping the kidneys from their hiding-place under the pelvis). Beef shin slow cooked, braised, stewed, whatever you call it: thrown into a pot of stock with veg and seasoning and simmered for a few hours. The meat falls off the bone and the marrow melts out from the middle of it. Same with oxtail which I only found once, in a wee butcher shop. It maybe isn't too 'gross', but it's unusual enough to unsettle some people, made to realise that 'beef' is more than shapeless burgers, mince and steak from a supermarket package, and actually comes from some bit of a cow. And cold oxtongue is great - tastes a little like corned beef, but nicer.

Though on the flipside, I come from a family that's squeamish about any meat (not just poultry) with a hint of pink left in it, as if we'd all be instantly struck down with salmonella and Edwina Curry would personally quarantine our house. But my brother in law's introduced me to the pleasures of blue steak. Not that I'd have it every time, but when I do, it just tastes... right.

I've also tried curing my own salami (basically, raw pork made safe to eat by copious quantities of salt and a bit of sodium nitrate, then dried in beef intestines) and bacon. The latter smelled a little odd but was the best bacon I'd ever tasted, if I say so meself.

I've eaten a larger-than-average part of the animal kingdom, especially after a visit to that odd little restaurant in Edinburgh, once. Pigeon, rabbit, venison, wild boar saucisson, zebra, springbok, ostrich, crocodile... I love any kind of fish or shellfish except the red stuff - salmon and trout. I'm fond of sushi, and the most unusual example of that I've tried is octopus. (as in, a square of raw octopus flesh - though judging by the experience of chewing it, it's possible they mixed it up with the neoprene suit of the diver who caught it) I've eaten live waxworms and I've stir-fried crickets. (they taste a bit nutty)

Fish sauce. Stinks to high heaven. One of the worst things I've smelled (and I've been in Games Workshop in the height of summer), but added as a little seasoning to a dish, fantastic. The Hail Caesar book provides an ancient roman recipe and suggests 'strong soy sauce' as a substitute for garum. Nuts to that! A bottle of good fish sauce is what you want.

Lastly, cheese. I like cheese and strong cheese at that, but roquefort nobbled me the first time I tried it. I'm going to have to take another run at it.

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:
Nothing really strikes me as particularly 'gross'. I suppose one of the things I do like that's generally considered foul is doner meat; I love a nice tray of doner and chips. Not many people can do anything more than grimace at the thought.

But that stuff's great! I've never met a person who has turned their nose up at it!

I've met far more people who loathe it than don't. Some people just have no culinary taste.

I love diner kebabs! But i Always tend to smother it with ketchup or bbq sauce.

 Albatross wrote:
Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of crap. London, in particular, I find to be awful for food if you don't know where you're going, which is why I suspect many Americans have bad impressions of British cuisine.

Perhaps it's just touristy (passing trade) places in general. The Italian restaurant across the road from my house in the UK was far better than any place I ate-out in Rome.

I think the stereotype of British people having bad food and being bad at cooking is fairly unwarranted now. It probably dates back to the early 20th century when industrialization brought us canned food, and was then compounded by WWII rationing. But now the idea is ridiculous. The UK has so much diversity in terms of restaurants, Italian, French, Thai, Japanese, Lebanese, Indian, and just about every pub has a nice selection of home made burgers, fish, roast dinners, baked potatoes, sandwiches etc... If you can't find something nice to eat in the UK then you can't be looking very hard. Also, British people are just as obsessed with cooking shows as everywhere else. We have fresh produce from all over the world, organic shops, farmers markets, sushi rollers, fondu sets... The idea that we just eat thrice boiled cabbage and whatever jellied eels are? is absurd (personally I have never even seen jellied eels let alone tried them).

I actually find the food I get at home to be far better than what I find on holiday. I hate going out for breakfast on the continent where you just get some bread rolls and a tomato. Where's the rest of it? Don't I at least get an egg? In NY I found a lot of basic stuff like bread and cheese was much more heavily processed than at home, even the Coke-Cola tasted sickly.

The best country I ever went to for food was South Africa. Perhaps because good quality food is so inexpensive there. You can literately eat yourself silly.

Sambal Ikan Bilis. It's dried anchovies in a hot chilli paste.goes great with Nasi Lemak which is coconut rice.

Spam.

Spam, spam spam spam spam spam spam spam

LOVELY SPAM, WONDERFUL SPAM
LOVELY SPAM WONDERFUL SPAM

Spam isn't half bad; I think more people hate it because it's what's accepted rather than because it's 'gross'. So far, the people I've asked "Have you actually tried spam?" have all said "No, but..."

Then again, I also love marmite on nearly everything, and as a hot drink (mixed about 50/50 with Bovril), so I might be the loony one... >_>

Spam really isn't that bad, especially depending on how you prepare it. It's not really any worse than any other processed meat, and it certainly has its uses.

I am a huge fan of the north Swedish delicacy Surströmming. Surströmming is herring that is fermented for six months, and eaten with barley crisp bread, butter, potatoes and finely chopped onions. To this you drink beer and and a lot of snaps.

It is of course delicious and should not be posted in this thread, but some weakling southeners apparently find the smell of this delicacy a bit to strong to their taste.

Snails. Super gross and disgusting texture. But whatcha gonna do when ya superiors order food.

Well, the thread is about foods you *like* to eat. But in your case, your get-out-of-jail-free card is to say that you're allergic.

Well I do like to eat them...but it's not for the snails themselves, it's for the social aspect...and the fact that the rest of the meal is top-notch-super-awesome.

For anyone thinking that English food is bland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9OP1i9UN8

We didn't have potatoes until 'recently', and pasta and rice can't have been much sooner. Meat and 2 veg does dampen the inspiration a bit.

I'm partial to salami-based snacks (peperami), but I've read the ingredients beforehand.

 jorny wrote:

Spoiler:

I am a huge fan of the north Swedish delicacy Surströmming. Surströmming is herring that is fermented for six months, and eaten with barley crisp bread, butter, potatoes and finely chopped onions. To this you drink beer and and a lot of snaps.

It is of course delicious and should not be posted in this thread, but some weakling southeners apparently find the smell of this delicacy a bit to strong to their taste.

/thread

I don't actually eat these, but they deserve mention in any thread about gross food.

Balutes. An almost completely incubated duck egg.


Please don't attach non wargaming images to Dakka. You need to link to an offsite host if you wish to share any such image/s. Reds8n

 Skinnereal wrote:
For anyone thinking that English food is bland:

I always think anyone who think English food is bland should try a spoonful of English mustard. I like strong and spicy condiments but I can only take a light smear of English mustard on whatever I'm eating. Less is definitely more. (American mustard, or what's labelled as American-style mustard and put in McD's quarter-pounders over here, is like tangyer-than-usual salad cream in comparison)

Vermis wrote:
I always think anyone who think English food is bland should try a spoonful of English mustard. I like strong and spicy condiments but I can only take a light smear of English mustard on whatever I'm eating. Less is definitely more. (American mustard, or what's labelled as American-style mustard and put in McD's quarter-pounders over here, is like tangyer-than-usual salad cream in comparison)

Is it an alien yellow and tastes like unfortunateness and sorrow? If so, it's probably American mustard. I didn't actually like mustard at all until I was about 20 or so and tried what we would call a "fancy" spicy brown. I kind of fell in love at that point. I have five different kinds in my fridge right now.

Pancakes with ham and cheese... sounds gross on the paper but OMG they are wonderful when made properly

ThatSwellFella wrote:
Pancakes with ham and cheese... sounds gross on the paper but OMG they are wonderful when made properly

Actually they pretty much do this already with those mc griddles in the USA

Also delicious but disgusting

I found these quite tasty while I was in Thailand



Then someone reminded me of Zimmerman(?) in Thailand eating one who almost puked from the smell. Have to eat them before they ripen (no smell)

 Desubot wrote:

ThatSwellFella wrote:
Pancakes with ham and cheese... sounds gross on the paper but OMG they are wonderful when made properly

Actually they pretty much do this already with those mc griddles in the USA

Also delicious but disgusting

I wasn't even going to count those because I didn't think they were gross. That's the only thing I'll eat from McD. It's a good thing they're only there for breakfast and I only eat breakfast maybe one or twice a month, and those even less, otherwise I'd probably be diabetic.

Scrapple!

And raw oysters.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And for some reason, probably nostalgia, I love eating MREs (when I can get my hands on them).

Dutch pea soup. It is really thick (almost a stew) and looks gross. A lot of people think it is gross as well, but I like it.

Also, a lot of people seem to hate salty liquorice, but I like that too.

Apart from that I am really picky with food. I just can't understand why people eat stuff like octopus, oysters and peanut butter combined with stuff which it should never ever be combined with (i.e. anything sweet)

The most disgusting, horrible food in the world though has to be Icelandic hákarl.
Hákarl is basically a dead shark that has been buried and left to rot for several months, after which it is dug up again and hung to dry.

Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

JRTC rotations to Fort Polk LA we would go get styrofoam(sp) coolers full of those little SoB's

 Jihadin wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

JRTC rotations to Fort Polk LA we would go get styrofoam(sp) coolers full of those little SoB's

Well Crawfish aren't the best. The best is Calamari and Alligator tales.

Man I feel like during scouts I ate more interesting foods than I have in college.

The food I went for most though was Coconut anything with coconut is basically my favorite.

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

They're called crayfish, and they're bait for real fish

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

I thought the only way to eat them was to drown them in so much sauce you didn't notice them.

Actually, you catch a bunch of them under rocks, let them boil in the sun until they're rotten and stinky, tie em up in panty hose, chum the river with them, get some beer, come back, and catch some catfish!

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

I thought the only way to eat them was to drown them in so much sauce you didn't notice them.

It tastes great with Tobasco sauce.

Except everything tastes better tobasco sauce....

Except maybe Chocolate....

 Asherian Command wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

I thought the only way to eat them was to drown them in so much sauce you didn't notice them.

It tastes great with Tobasco sauce.

Except everything tastes better tobasco sauce....

Except maybe Chocolate....

Never had Mexican Chocolate then I presume

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

I thought the only way to eat them was to drown them in so much sauce you didn't notice them.

It tastes great with Tobasco sauce.

Except everything tastes better tobasco sauce....

Except maybe Chocolate....

Never had Mexican Chocolate then I presume

Apparently not XD

I'll throw cold Spaghetti-Os in the mix. My wife gags every time she sees me eat em.

 jasper76 wrote:
I'll throw cold Spaghetti-Os in the mix. My wife gags every time she sees me eat em.

I just gagged too. Anything i used to have as a kid just now tastes pretty bad now.

How can you eat that stuff man thats basically torture for your stomach

 Asherian Command wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
Crawfish.

Oh dear go there is no point for the struggle to eat the tinest sliver of small fish food that tastes so bad that its not worth the tremendous amount of effort.

I thought the only way to eat them was to drown them in so much sauce you didn't notice them.

It tastes great with Tobasco sauce.

Except everything tastes better tobasco sauce....

Except maybe Chocolate....

Never had Mexican Chocolate then I presume

Apparently not XD

Its basically Chocolate with chili pepper zest.

@AC: Doesn't hurt my stomach, plus it's quick, easy and vitamin fortified!

Sometimes I'll still eat raw hamburger too

I cannot stand the sight of Vienna Sausage (someone mention here already)
Also Pop Tarts
Nature bars of whatever brand
Dill Pickles

Sounds like a quick way to get food poisoning :(

but iv always wanted to try beef sashimi.

I also like meat that's burnt to hell...not well done, but burnt. Love it!

Its not dangerous if prepared properly. Fresh meat is completely sterile.

 Desubot wrote:
Sounds like a quick way to get food poisoning :(

38 years and no problems yet! But i don't do it often. I used to eat the hell out of it as a kid, before people worried about such things so much.

I think the grossest sounding thing that I really like is Black Pudding (blood pudding). It was one of those things I liked as a kid, an no one bothered to mention what was in it. Liver pate is another. Though I think you're probably better off not knowing what's in most processed meat, chicken nuggets, hotdogs etc... I imagine those are by far the grossest things I eat (not that gross stuff is really integral to the recipe).

I also like drinking the water out of the tuna can, if no one is watching (even I know that's shameful).

 Smacks wrote:
I think the grossest sounding thing that I really like is Black Pudding (blood pudding). It was one of those things I liked as a kid, an no one bothered to mention what was in it. Liver pate is another. Though I think you're probably better off not knowing what's in most processed meat, chicken nuggets, hotdogs etc... I imagine those are by far the grossest things I eat (not that gross stuff is really integral to the recipe).

I also like drinking the water out of the tuna can, if no one is watching (even I know that's shameful).

Really processed meats are not that gross.

They're the little bits of meat that cling to the bones after a chicken/turkey/whatever has had the large cuts of meat removed.

The carcass is then ground up and forced over a very fine mesh which allows the meat to pass through, but the bone remains behind.

Pink Slime also isn't gross at all. When meat is trimmed, a bunch of excess fat with small slivers of meat is left over. That is then ground up and either used to increase the fat content of other ground meat(such as turkey sausage having pork fat added) or, if its made into Pink Slime, it gets ground up and then heated. The heating cooks the meat portion, thats why its pink, and the fat becomes liquified. It is then put through a centrifuge and the meat and fat are separated. The result is pink slime, which extremely high in protein.

The product needs to be sterilized, usually with Citric Acid, to kill any bacteria which may have grown during the heating process. Ammonia compounds were used previously, and they were NOT the toxic compounds the critics claimed was used, they were a harmless gas which would also be fully removed from the meat before consumption. But they stopped using that because of PR.

Ultimately, Pink Slime is a very high quality protein source which is also extremely low in fat. Its also responsibly using all parts of the animal instead of letting those small bits go to waste.

When I go fishing, the first thing I do with any fish I catch is cut the cheek off, wash off the blood, take the scales off, and eat it raw.

It tastes amazing, but some people find it distasteful.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Really processed meats are not that gross.
...
responsibly using all parts of the animal.

I suppose grossness is a relative term, however mystery 'bits' of the animal doesn't exactly scream appetizing. Compared to most stuff I eat, that would probably qualify as the grossest. Also since it's so heavily processed, you have no way of telling what is really in there. You just have to take it on trust that it is fit for human consumption. I personally don't trust anyone, least of all corporations with an agenda to turn "waste" into "profit". There was a scandal here recently where horse DNA was found in supermarket shepherds pie (I'm sure you remember), and I'll bet that's not the worst thing to ever end up in our food. Who knows what might have fallen in the grinder over the years. There are still plenty of missing persons unaccounted for, if you catch my drift...

As I said, you probably wouldn't even want to know about the stuff that's supposed to be in there, let alone the stuff that isn't.

Sure, businesses have profit as their primary agenda. But that very thing is why they have very little motivation to do unsafe things.

Businesses lose a TON of money whenever they have to do a recall. Plants also get shut down if there are problems. When you're normally needing to run 24/7 to turn a profit that hurts.

And Horse meat should be allowed for consumption, its silly that any animal is banned for reasons other than conservation. Thousands of horses represent a lot of meat that, by our laws, would go to waste OR have to pay a bunch of money to ship them out of the country.

I've had horse before. Its not very appetizing IMO, but its food. Other countries eat it all the time.

And the idea of people ending up in ground meat belongs to the Tin Foil hat crowd.

 Jihadin wrote:
MRE Corn Beef Hash..cold

I actually liked that one.

Of course I liked the dehydrated pork patty and the dehydrated beef patty too.

I don't think I can include this, but people have tried to get me to eat it during my last trip to France to visit relatives.

A live songbird dipped in brandy and eaten. Bones et al.

 thedarkavenger wrote:
I don't think I can include this, but people have tried to get me to eat it during my last trip to France to visit relatives.

A live songbird dipped in brandy and eaten. Bones et al.

Live?

Surely something that cruel would be illegal in Europe.

 Grey Templar wrote:

Live?

Surely something that cruel would be illegal in Europe.

The people who brought us veal?

At least you kill the calf before you eat it.

It also seems like an utter waste of energy. "Hey, lets catch a bunch of those little birdies and eat them raw!"

And don't forget geese forcefed with feeding tubes til there livers are huge and bloated.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Horse meat should be allowed for consumption, its silly that any animal is banned for reasons other than conservation.

That misses the point. There is nothing wrong with horse meat, it is perfectly legal in the UK. The problem was it was being fraudulently added to beef products, and the source of the meat was not certifiably fit for human consumption (it was unknown), the horses may have been old or sick, and the meat tested positive for dangerous veterinary drugs which are not supposed to make their way into the human food chain.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Businesses lose a TON of money whenever they have to do a recall.

Which is all the more reason not to do one. If the horse meat hadn't been exposed in the press, we might never have known about it, it could still be selling now.

 Grey Templar wrote:
And the idea of people ending up in ground meat belongs to the Tin Foil hat crowd.

I will concede that it is probably a rare occurrence, but to say it doesn't happen is naive. In the horse meat scandal they couldn't even trace where the meat had come from ("somewhere in eastern Europe" maybe). Corruption means that meat products can come from all over the world, even lawless places in Africa, and Central America. A meat processing plant would be an excellent way for organized criminals to dispose of bodies: mechanically ground up and mixed in with a thousand tons of other unidentifiable mulch to be shipped off to 'god knows where' -- what's not to like?

 Grey Templar wrote:

 thedarkavenger wrote:
I don't think I can include this, but people have tried to get me to eat it during my last trip to France to visit relatives.

A live songbird dipped in brandy and eaten. Bones et al.

Live?

Surely something that cruel would be illegal in Europe.

It isn't eaten live. Its called an Ortolan. The bird is kept in a dark box and fed millet - because it is dark, it thinks it is night so it eats more millet and gets fattened. It is then plunged live into brandy so that it drowns, thus ingesting the brandy, and then cooked. You eat it whole bones and all whilst covering your head with a blanket supposedly to enhance the aroma and taste. Pretty sure someone mentioned it in this thread already. Also, I believe eating Ortolan is now illegal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting