This started as an endnote on the Feasts of Epic Proportions post, and grew so out of hand that I had to make a new post for it. Brace yourselves, this isn’t a post for the faint of heart. All I ask is that you never, ever, show this list to GRRM. He’s described a number of strange dishes in his books, and really takes it to a new level in Dance.
However, this real world club put his imagination to shame. Which is fine with me- I’ve met my culinary limits.
Don’t get me wrong, I was the only one in the house to eat honey-roasted crickets, and I actually enjoyed them, but these meals take things to a whole new level. A friend of mine swears that bugs are the food of the future, since they are such a sustainable resource. If that’s the case, I hope I can get mine ground into a smoothie or something. My entry to this dubious world of bizarre foods came with the list of dishes served at a dinner put on by the Explorers Club in NYC in 1992. It included:
- roasted crickets and larvae
- mealworm ghanouj
- waxworm fritters with plum sauce
- cricket and vegetable tempura
- roasted Australian kurrajong grubs to roast beef and gravy.
- dessert of chocolate cricket torte
- live tarantulas as centerpieces
Now, you might think that this was a one time thing. I mean, the “Explorers Club” puts one in mind of the two adorable kids in the beginning of the film “Up”, with their badges and quest for adventure. But as the club was founded in 1904, they’ve been doing this for decades, and each year, they seemingly try to outdo themselves.
Wildling Special: all you can eat mammoth ribs
I mean, this is the group that served up thawed Mammoth meat in the 50s, and their later dinners are no less extreme. I’ll give you the link to this article, and let you read it for yourself. Seriously, not for the faint of heart. Some of the pictures alone are daunting, and cannot be unseen (there are eyeballs. For martinis…). Granted, some of the dishes are appealing, such as the slow-roasted elk with rosemary potatoes, or the mustard-thyme rubbed rabbit, or even the caramelized yak. My favorite (might have to make it) are the edible orchids with a honey-creamed dipping sauce. Others sound completely made up, like the ricewine-pickled duck tongue, or jellyfish slivers in white soy marinade. For better or worse, I could see a number of these elements working their way into aSoIaF: Dornishmen nibbling on scorpions, prisoners in the Red Keep munching on roaches, and so on. I’ll spare you the more intense dishes, but in the spirit of things, what’s the strangest thing YOU have ever eaten? Would you take advantage of such a crazy buffet?
Dornish delicacies?
I’ve eaten raw horse, Prairie Oysters (look that one up, if you dare), crickets, meal worms, shark fin (before I was aware of the conservation issues surrounding the harvest of Shark), chicken tendon, beef intestine, head cheese.
I grew up in a Ukrainian and Polish small town, where the Babas never let anything go to waste from any animal.
I also travelled to Japan after high graduation and stayed with a host family and encouraged them to have me eat things they would think North Americans would shy away from.
I’ve tried Rocky Mountain Oysters (which I rather suspect are of similar origin) and can attest that they taste like fine mild pork sausage; slicing them into medallions will obliterate their shape and might help diminish the squick factor.
Ants have a sharp lemony tartness that probably derives from formic acid (the active ingredient in fire ant bites and bee stings.)
Purslane, included in the medieval recipe that inspired Chelsea and Sariann’s Castle Black and Sansa Salads, is disdained as a lawn weed in my social circles. All the more for me, then, but a shame; the stuff is the richest vegetable source of omega-3 fatty acids, and its flavor and texture combine the gooiness of okra, a sorrelly sourness, and a dense fragrant earthiness halfway between vetiver and romaine lettuce.
Purslane flourishes in warm weather–I foraged great amounts during Ohio’s diabolically hot summer of 2012–and its Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Mexican popularity would seem to suggest a Dornean culinary context.
i love reading about weird/extreme food (from an american standpoint), if not always eating it, so this is awesome. entomophagy is common around the world and your friend is right — it actually may be the future of farmed protein. hope you like mealworms! :D
most outre thing i’ve eaten… hm. sea cucumber is weirdly-textured. shark fin soup didn’t taste like much. fish with their bellies split open to expose the eggs and the whole thing grilled — fairly tame from a taste standpoint if not presentation. fried pig ear isn’t bad.
‘extreme cuisine’ by jerry hopkins is a good start if you’re interested in this sort of thing.
… hm. sea cucumber is weirdly-textured.
I’ve found it to be rather like savory roast beef gristle, and very much enjoyed it. (My brother was rather less impressed: “Bilge-flavored inner tube! Yum, yum!”)
I’m wrestling with creating a mock locust for a GoT dinner sometime in the future…
I’ve eaten bear, gator, pansies, nasturtiums, bloodcake, jellyfish, chicken bones, duck bones, frog bones and turkey bones (Soup bones are the best, after boiling, they’re fairly soft,) pomelos, durian and more, but for me the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten was a piece of sushi right after finishing a cough drop. Not recommended.
The strangest thing I’ve eaten is iguana. It’s actually really good. It doesn’t taste quite like chicken, but it’s definitely poultry-ish. I could see people eating them in ASoIaF. The guy who caught and grilled it for my family while we were on vacation said that eating them is pretty common there.
Rattlesnake jerky. I ate it on a family vacation in Florida, and the place we got it at also sold gator jerky which we didn’t buy but but I would be more than willing to try if it was anything like the rattlesnake. I also have had fried squirrel. Both were good, though the squirrel was a bit too greasy for me. Anyone else had squirrel? Is that normal?
I ate raw chicken on purpose. I know the animal isn’t weird, but eating chicken raw so pretty much the most difficult thing I have ever done. We were in a restaurant in Tokyo, and although our Japanese friends reassured us that it was meant to be raw, and I wouldn’t die, I could only manage two pieces before I gave up.
I’ve eaten Emu, Kangaroo and Crocodile. Uncommon but not bizarre in Australia. I remember really liking the emu and kangaroo, not so much the Crocodile. You can get Crocodile pies near my hometown. Strangest thing I have eaten as of twenty years on this earth would have to be grilled chicken heart, which I ate at a Brazilian restaurant. My granny dared me. I don’t really remember it having a particular taste, because I chewed it quickly. I was worried I was gonna vomit
Lol Chicken hearts is really common here in Brazil. A must in every barbecue, in my opinion.
Strangest thing I ate was Tenebrio mollitor larvae, I guess.
Myself and my culinary partner-in-crime roasted an entire pig’s head, and tried every part of it (snout, ears, eyes, brain, tongue, mysterious gland we found somewhere in the brain-mush….).
We’re generally pretty open to eating “weird” things – we have heart (lamb or ox) fairly frequently, and are slowly working our way through the Entire Pig as parts become available from our thankfully-very-understanding butcher. So far beef heart sliced like steak and served very rare has been the best, and pig trotters have been the most disappointing (because unless you really, really like crackling there doesn’t seem to be much on there worth eating).
“mysterious gland we found somewhere in the brain-mush”
That would probably be the pituitary gland.
I fear the weirdest things I’ve eaten so far are gator and kangaroo – and I don’t really think those are very weird at all.
There actually IS a Chinese regional delicacy that involves duck offal (giblets, tongue, livers) pickled in rice wine vinegar – and they taste wonderful when braised! I wouldn’t mind reading about them in a new aSoIaF volume. :D
Hmm weirdest thing I have ever eaten. Hard to say, I think for me it was the grilled rattlesnake recipe from your cookbook actually. I’ve never been the most adventurous eater, tis a sad, sad fact lol.
I’m Chinese, so I’ve had some interesting foods. Sea cucumber is delicious in this particular kind of soup/sauce, and proper China-made pig trotters are FANTASTIC because the meat is incredibly good quality.
What else have I had… Snake (really does taste like chicken, with the texture of fish), ants (only my brother dared try some), all manner of internal organs (heart, stomach, kidneys, gizzard, what I think was lung, intestines), live [drunk] shrimp (I had to decapitate mine to make it stay on my plate), ostrich, frog (I was eight and my cousin told me it was chicken… joke was on him when I went back for more).
I married a Chinese woman, and have been to China several times. My first trip was a real culinary experience. It seemed like all of her relatives were curious as to just what the white guy would be able to eat.
Drunken shrimp. The shrimp are thrown into a bowl of white liquor (sort of the Chinese version of gin) and allowed to swim in it for a short while. Then they throw in a measure of soy sauce, and you eat the shrimp. Still alive. After that, the deep-fried snake and boiled bull’s penis didn’t seem too bad. The pickled duck tongue was actually very good.
The Chinese experience makes the warthog, ostrich, and kudu that I enjoyed in South Africa seem tame in comparison.
Ha! The Cantonese have a saying that “anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible.” Although a region in my country makes soup with the most common grass here.I guess on the picky die where I live!