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Just the thought of Lutefisk and blood pudding is enough to send me packing. But I don't eat it and wasn't raised to eat it so my opinion on that stuff is just that, My Opinion.

Shaggy

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Patty, Tog's grubs are small! Our grubs are about the size of both your thumbs placed together. Raw, the texture and flavour are like custard. Cooked, they take on a nutty flavour as well. They're usually found in Morete (Mauritia flexuosa) and Chonta (Socratea exorrhyza and S. dactylorrhyza) palms.

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I don't know if it's considered Weird food, but I like raw salmon (farm raised), Grilled Alligator meat, Frog legs, and Soft shelled turtle soup with swamp cabbage (hearts of Sabel palmetto). I stopped eating Sushi because wild caught fish has a much higher mercury content than farmed raised fish. :2239:

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Ah, sushi! I don't consider it weird anymore - but I do like fine slices of fresh tuna sashimi.

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Hey Shaggy, it really isn't that bad with the durian. Do you know that many Chinese won't eat beef or mutton cos of the meat's odour? Pork, they love but not other meat.

Everytime I watch the shows like Fear Factor with the stuff like bull testicle being eaten and the squirmy faces, I laugh. If you put a Chinese there, he will finish off in a jiffy and ask for more! :ha::ha::ha:

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Eating kosher would put a severe crimp in eating adventurously. No blood, shellfish, meat only from animals with cloven hooves that chew their cud, no mixture of milk and meat, etc. Can't say I'm overly strict here; love crab, lobster, shrimp. Oh well, I guess I won't have to worry about being cold in the next life. :ha:

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Tog , before anyone accuses you of being critical of the Chinese diet: A few years ago a buddy of mine brought his wife(Chinese) to my hunting camp (ugh!) during the late season. We got a few deer that day on drives and after cleaning them we generally leave the guts and the pile will be gone by next morning(coyotes and bear). She was kind of put off and asked "are you just going to leave that there?" After replying "yeah" she casually mentioned "In my country we'd clean it up and eat it." So I know you're not kidding. I'll eat the heart and liver of a small one but that's about it.

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The other day I cooked mutton, we had unlevened bread and bitter herbs. I really would like to have cooked mutton the way my friend did from United Arab E., Mohammed. Best mutton I've ever eaten! I just wish I knew the herbs he used to "spice it."

Most of the mutton was cut into peices mix in a huge pile of rice. On top of the very large platter was the head. As guest of honor I was offered an eyeball. Being North American I was a bit squimish at first. When I did taste it, I just wish Mohammed had prepared two of them, it was good! :2239:

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One of my friends was the guest of honour at an Orang Asli gathering in the jungle. He got the best piece for the night - the whole head of a roasted monkey. He wasn't keen on it at all but had to take it in his stride as he held the thing with a banana leaf and picked it all off as the night dragged on. No, he didn't enjoy it! Should have asked him to save the eyeballs for you Ken. :ha:

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When it comes to monkey it depends on how it is prepared and cooked. Thanks for thinking of me Tog Tan.:2239:

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I ate some McDonalds double cheeseburgers! But no eyeballs came with it......that I know about anyhow.

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Now that is weird food especially when you consider the fat content! I'll stick with grilled foods. Some of the best grilled chicken I've had was in Mexico and Puerto Rico. :2239:

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Oops, I better get back to weird food, tonight I made a medley soup from leftovers, mutton and chicken, I added rice and brocolli, with a hint of spices. My wife liked it.:2239:

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Bob, what is 'Lutefisk'?
Also, I never buy "fresh" octopus here as I know it cannot be fresh! I've seen it fresh in the mart but it has to be leftover from day before I assume (if they didn't sell it then) & originally thawed out.
I buy frozen, thaw it & then clean the head out. Then simmer for 20-30 min depending on size. Turn off heat & let it set for few minutes & put cold water in & rinse. Cut into bite size pieces. Sometimes I cut extra fat off (seems like fat to me). I make a It. dressing of half olive & half canola oil, vinegar (reg & sometimes w/cider vin, wine vin etc), italian seasoning, bay leaf, lemon juice, salt, pepper & lots of chopped onion. Let it marinate overnight - although I sneek some to taste test before.
Eat it as is or on a lettuce salad.
Caloosa, there is a diff between mutton & lamb. Mutton is older lamb & it smells bad...it STINKS. Lamb is much milder & tastes better. Get young lamb... YUM. Oooh, leg of lamb on grill!
Monkey Brains??!!
Reminds me of "Hannibal"...when he was eating someone's brain right out of his skull. So did Johnny Mathis with monkey brain!!!!!
I was young & remember seeing him on Johnny Carson show & he said he went to a country to perform (don't know where) & the HOT thing to eat was monkey brains. He said he ordered it in a restaurant. The skull was cut so he could eat it right out of the skull & it had to be served fresh (meaning they just killed the monkey).
Tog, I'm sure you know if this is true...I'm sure it is, cuz I think Johnny Mathis is too stupid to not keep this to himself. Great voice but no brains -- why he was eating them..to get some for himself! I think he lost lots of good popularity because he mentioned this. I have not seen him on any talk shows since! He said 'A lot of ppl won't like this , but....'
Some of you would be surprised what some of our markets sell. In Mexican & black side of town, cow tongue, chicken feet, pig feet, cow brains, bull nuts, whole pig heads, pig & cow intestines & I can't remember others. No insects or bugs though.
Ya know, ppl in China are prolly more healthy than us Americans as we tend to be obese (I am not) because of Krispy Creme donuts & too many sweets & junk foods!
Thanks for starting this Tog...interesting & fun!!

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i love it! its great. talk about playing with your food while you eat it. tasty tasty. i lovemudfish. its really good.

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Lutefisk from what I've seen is whitefish that started decaying and then was cured, dehydrated, left to sit for a long time, reconstituted and then warmed up and served. Supposed to be very ummmm pungent to say the least.

Let's see if Bob can add more to this.

LOL @ Tog, chinese can be a funny bunch with food.......Then again so are white people. Everything is all dependant on how you were raised and what you were brought up on.
My walk on the wild side is eating at the Pizza Hut I used to work at! (Trust me, if you ever worked fast food, you know exactly what I am talking about!)

Shaggy

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That's the scariest thing I've heard yet!

Patty , lutefisk is fish(shark or cod I forget) that is preserved for 6 months in lye. It was from the days before refrigeration. The reason I asked about it was because I saw Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Foods eating it in Wisconsin. In any case no one who has eaten it on TV has anything good to say about it other than its an old traditional food.

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It's cod, Bob. Lutefisk is an acquired taste, just like Gefilte fish, or headcheese, or any of the European or Scandahoovian traditional foods.

"Pungent" is putting it very lightly.

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Boy, am I enjoying this thread.... Somebody should give it a rating in the interest of culture exchange! :ha:

Ken ; What you cooked with the mixed meat is the typical food of the Isan (pronounced E-sarn) region of Thailand. This place is the worst place in Thailand and probably one of the worst in the world. The soil is poor and everything is bad. In order to populate and have it developed, the Kingdom of Siam, in the olden days sent all the exiles there. It also included the bad guys, witches and so forth. That place is their only chance to start over again instead of rotting in prison or facing the death penalty.
Since Isan is such a bad land, they ate whatever they could to stay alive and have since developed a very unique cuisine of whatever that's available.
They will cook whatever at hand and nothing is ever wasted. Here are some of the more interesting examples of the stuff I have eaten from there;

B-b-q cow's teats - Whoa! Like chewing gum with a milky flavor. Goes with a very nice and spicy dip.

Marinated Raw beef and liver - Pretty tasty if you are not squeamish. Just don't let the blood put you off. Highly spicy.

Fermented Vege - A cow has 4 stomachs, rite? The vegetation is taken out from the 3rd one before it becomes turd. It is stir fried and is bitterish. You won't die if you don't think its turd!

Mixed soup - Very little traces of meat (cos hardly available) but all you can think of in a cow, pig and goat. It is spicy and crunchy and squashy, weird combo of soft and hard parts and the mixed flavor of the various meats.
It's very much a Tom Yam kind of soup, spicy.

All sorts of insects : I will come to this later.

Bob, Pat - Lutefisk? You guys like soy sauce? Do you know what is fish sauce? It is way beyond soy sauce in taste and once you have tried it, you won't go back to soy sauce. Know how it is made? It comes from fish fermented (this is a kind word), or rotted in earthen jars. Meaning the death juice of the fish. But it's very fragrant. I will come to another similar Lutefisk thingy from here later.

Pat - Eating monkey brains was an in thing and no longer in vogue. I don't think much of it and haven't the desire to try it. The actual procedure is this; a monkey is strapped to a high chair and then the head goes thru a piece of wood with a hole just enough for it to protude. The scalp and then the skull is skillfully knock off while the darn thing is still alive. Herbal rice wine is poured on the area and the *******s eat it off with spoons. Bloody stupid.

You are right about mutton stinking but that's all we get here. In fact, prior to getting decent mutton, local goats were eaten. Strong in smell though tasty, that's where the spices comes in. It knocks off the odour and what not and also help to tenderize the meat. Spice plays a big part in Malay and Indian cooking. The Chinese use a lot of herbs.

Come guys, more.....:ha: Lovin' it! Now I am finding out what weird things White folks eat! :ha::ha::ha:

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Hey, Caloosa!

The best way to knock the smell of mutton back is to rub the meat in cumin and mint, marinate it in beer for 3 or 4 days, then roast it (on a spit, if possible) over open flames, basting it all the while with a paste of butter, cumin, salt, mint, and coriander. Serve immediately with a sauce of tomatoes lightly sauteed with parsely and red onion. And pita. Don't forget the pita - if you don't make your own, you can toast them over your flame to make them poof up.

Equally, if you've got a cut that isn't terribly boney, you can bash it with a tenderizing hammer for about half an hour, cut it into cubes and then subject it to the above treatment. This is cooked kebab-style on the BBQ.

My Syrian friend Hafeez, who is a professional chef, taught me this, and I'm never going back to rank stinky sheep roasts again.