Monday, September 08, 2008

Foodiness

Okay it's really interesting reading about people's experiences in that food meme that's going around. I read Will's and cracked up when he mentioned eating a bug once that was in some Japanese candy. Oh those wacky Japanese. I no longer have a cadre of Japanese students because the last of them went back last year. But for several years before that I met with several families for English lessons. Often times, there would be food and we would go out to restaurants when one of the families returned to Japan. That was how I tried natto, which if you can picture this, is like edamame (soy beans) out of the pod in a bowl. There is a substance very much like clear snot all over the beans and a VERY SHARP odor is emanating from the bowl. The odor is rot. We eat lots of rotted things, cheese, sour cream, fermented fruits etc, and so this didn't really turn me off. I'm not sure if I would seek it out again though. It was during these restaurant outings I fell in love with tako yaki and I would definitely seek that octopus dish out again in the future.

Anyway, back to quirky Japanese foods. Once, I was introduced to karinto, which I posted about here. It was one of the non-fish infused sweets, though it looks just like freshly laid (not lain, but then you knew that) turds. Usually, when I met my students for lessons, they would prepare tea and have some kind of snack food on the table. You had to be really really careful with the snack food. It might look just like a chocolate truffle, but upon biting into it, chocolate fish oil might gush out of the center. You had to be prepared to fully eat whatever morsel you brought to your lips - to be polite of course. There might be a bowl of chips on the table, but instead of salt you discover coating the chips, you have some kind of fish powder. I'm not anti fish, but I think the Japanese have numbed their palate to the taste of it because it just seemed to be in absolutely everything. Pretzels wrapped in seaweed, cornchips dyed salmon pink. From the chips to the jellied candies, there was always at least a "hint from the sea". Hey, I love seafood, it just takes getting used to it being in everything. Though I'll never get used to those fish hotdogs they had. Gross just got grosser.

Okay, so what's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten, intentionally or not? So far for me, it must be natto.

The most disgusting thing I've seen eaten? I remember being at a restaurant with my mom when she dug out the green matter in a lobster and sucked and slurped it down with enthusiasm. I almost barfed right there on the table.

14 comments:

Rox said...

Once, we went to a TKD tournament and it finished really late so we stopped at 7-11 since it was the only thing open. I grabbed a pre-packaged sandwich and ate it in the van on the way back to the hotel. It tasted weird. When the dome light came on in the van, I saw that it had blue mold in the layers of meat.

It still makes me shudder.

It's not exotic but it IS disgusting!

Petie said...

Talking about takoyaki make my mouth watered... Only a few places sell good takoyaki in Bangkok.

I tested one of the best in Osaka (of course :))

I recently saw in a Japanese TV show that there are 'Ikayaki' now (Ika = squid). Those looks really tasty.

lattégirl said...

I didn't eat it, but I once found a dead cockroach in a bowl of Bran Flakes.

I'd have to agree with you, fish-flavoured everything would be a bit weird, especially in chocolate.

I eat "normal" things like squid and fish eggs that gross out people who've never tried them. I recently made a friend try a breaded squid ring (without the telltale tentacles)and he loved it.

I suppose the strangest thing I've eaten, to some people, would be sweetbreads. My granny used to make them for us when we were kids, thus laying the groundwork for a lifelong love of sheep's pancreas. As mentioned also in your food meme comments, I've tried brains twice and found them too slimy.

lattégirl said...

p.s. I also eat all the innards when they come packaged with turkeys and chickens. Gizzard, heart, the works.

Hula Hank said...

Also a japanese dish... Unagi Pies. Unagi being eel. Pies as in sweet desserts.

Surprisingly, I liked them, which I suppose technically does not make them the most disgusting thing I have eaten.

Salmon Aspic. That is the most revolting thing I have ever eaten.

Lemuel said...

I love lobster, but I too will pass on the green guts, whether or not it is considered a delicacy.

As for the turds, I guess it all depends on whether they "reposed" or "were reposed". ;)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reminding me why I have never eaten Japanese food. I never ate it myself but I saw my grandmother take a nutcracker and crack open a Squirrels skull and eat the brains. She told about during the depression when she ate Sparrows. Waste not want not was her theme. ed

Birdie said...

We of the delicate palate do not eat disgusting things. But check out Dantallion's post on the subject.

A man who knows the difference between "lie" (intransitive) and "lay" (transitive) is a man who owns my heart. *Sigh*

GayProf said...

I couldn't think of anything particularly unusual that I have eaten. How boring!

A Lewis said...

Never, not, no, not now, no how. Would I eat anything icky. I'd toss up,right then and there. Here's my nearly complete list:

http://spiritofsaintlewis.blogspot.com/2008/09/food-of-gods.html

Franciscus van Munster said...

I have very effecive mental blocks, which means I can't remember any of the disgusting things that I know, deep down, I have eaten.

On a trip to China I had 1000 year eggs, you know, with the blue, translucent egg white and the green yolk. It sounds disgusting to many people, but it didn't taste too bad, really.

Mel said...

The tomally (green stuff) in the lobster is the liver. I always ate it in my pre-veg days, but I never understood why people make a big fuss over it. Growing up in the South, too, I ate all sorts of stuff - squirrel heart and roast bear probably being the two most obscure things on the list.

Anonymous said...

The only thing that I truly couldn't eat was a dish called "Drunken Shrimp."

I was in Japan, having a big, fancy dinner with the other American teachers, the head of the English Department, the Dean of the High School and the president of the college the high school was attached to.

The waiters brought out a big glass bowl, filled with live, flapping around prawns. 3/4's of a bottle of vodka was poured in. The flapping became less and less frantic. Next thing you know, the waiters have taken the sloshed shrimp out of the bowl, cut off their still living heads, and placed one on each of our plates.

Now, I hate all seafood anyway, but, ew...

I got the fork up to about 2 inches from my mouth,and then just couldn't do it. I tried, but it was as if my arm had frozen in place.

I guess it doesn't count because I didn't actually get it in my stomach, but to me... the grossest ever.

Anonymous said...

Guess, I've not had anything really weird, but had squid once.