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I was wondering...
Have you ever eaten what would be considered an "exotic meat"?
When I say exotic, I mean any animal flesh apart from the norm.
Cows, lambs, pigs would be the norm.

I'm talking about animals that aren't harvested by humanity on a daily basis.

Many of you have probably tasted some fine deer meat...maybe even rabbit.
But are there critters that you've eaten that a lot of other people probably haven't?

The most exotic meat I've eaten was kangaroo when I spent  month in Australia.
Now, to someone like dean, who lives in OZ, kangaroo is the norm.
Not here in America.
Assuming you can find a shop with fresh Skippy, it'd cost you a fortune.
I'd guess at least $10.00 per lb. if not more.

Kangaroo is almost exactly like regular steak with one exception.
It has a very natural robust flavor.
It tastes like it's been heavily seasoned...

(http://img492.imageshack.us/img492/1149/kangaroo4ui.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

What about other animals like exotic fish or birds?



Post Edited (11-04-05 06:25)

ASHTHECAT wrote:

> The most exotic meat I've eaten was kangaroo when I spent
> month in Australia
> Now to someone like dean, who lives in OZ, kangaroo is the
> norm.
> Not here in America.
> Assuming you can find a shop with fresh Skippy, it'd cost you a
> fortune.
> I'd guess at least $10.00 per lb.
>
> Kangaroo is almost exactly like regular steak with one
> exception.
> It has a very natural robust flavor.
> It tastes like it's been heavily seasoned...

Well it's not exactly the norm here either [at least not where I am] but I guess it would be significantly more common to find than other countries [duh...]  Perhaps there's still a bit of a stigma attached to eating a national icon which would account for it being less common!

I have a feeling I've asked you this before Ash, but whereabouts did you go while you were down this way?  Any special reason or just a holiday?

But yeah, I found Kangaroo to be like regular steak, a bit more stringy and not as juicy as normal steak either, but still nice enough.  Not sure about the cost, but the safe bet is it's a fair bit more than steak, even here.  It's funny, since there was a debate recently about the culling of Kangaroo in certain areas where they are pests to the farmers, and a danger on the highways, because of massive breeding.  Can't quite remember it but there was something about one guy who was selling these culled kangas for its meat and was making a heap of money off it, or something like that.  Gotta love national pride...

The most exotic meat I've probably eaten is snake.  I was told it's cobra, but I'm not exactly trusting my sources here.  It was on a trip to Indonesia where there was a hell of a lot of wierd and wacky foods which we all gave a shot.  It was served on a hot plate with a lot of satay sauce so I can't really tell you it's natural flavour, but the food I'd generally compare it to would be Calamari crossed with Chicken [but then again everything is said to taste like chicken so its no surprise there!]

Also a couple of years ago at the Melbourne Show, my girlfriend and I shared a Crocodile Hot Dog, which was pretty nice as well, though the damn thing  was pretty spicy [more to do with the sauce though than anything].  It was at that moment I think we were officially doing 'coupley' things together; it was still early days and everything seemed pretty standard, but sharing that damn spicy, messy hotdog was like an official 'we're a couple' moment.  It was nice [the moment and the sausage], despite the absolute mess it made...

dean wrote:


Perhaps there's still a bit of a
> stigma attached to eating a national icon which would account
> for it being less common!

That would be like an American eating a bald eagle for dinner!
(which would be punishable by many years in prison)

I have a feeling I've asked you this before Ash, but
> whereabouts did you go while you were down this way?  Any
> special reason or just a holiday?

I spent a month in Adelaide 4 years ago in 2001.
I was on holiday.

And driving on the left-hand side of the road was a trip!
I had never heard of a roundabout until I went to OZ.



Post Edited (11-04-05 06:55)

I have eaten turtle, squirrel (f**k those squirrels!), bear, elk, deer, and naturally grown cow. I prefer the chemically enhanced meat that you buy from the store, guess I'm just used to it after all these years.

ASHTHECAT wrote:

> That would be like an American eating a bald eagle for dinner!
> (which would be punishable by many years in prison)

Yup, well that shows you how much we care about national 'treasures.'  But I guess the Bald Eagle is an endangered species isn't it?  See that problem doesn't really exist here since in many areas they are becoming quite the pest because of massive overbreeding, and in some cases, violent attacks.  

Some of those things can get pretty darn big when standing up to their full height [about 7foot or so methinks] so I really really wouldn't want to get in a fight with one of those monsters [though on the most part they're nice and timid!]  

 
> I spent a month in Adelaide 4 years ago in 2001.
> I was on holiday.
>
> And driving on the left-hand side of the road was a trip!
> I had never heard of a roundabout until I went to OZ.

Yup that's right, it's all coming back to me now... and yes those roundabouts can get pretty crazy if you are a new driver and its a big freeway one where they add a few extra lanes to the mix!

I've eaten a lot of of different meats considering where I live, but to most of the locals they are the norm.

Turtle
Frog
Rabbit
Duck
Swan
Deer
Bear (awful fatty)
Mussels
Calamari
Pig Brains
Alligator
Geese

The area in which I live is very strange.  You have the sound on one side with all of the seafood and on land it's mostly forests.  So, we get a lot of surf and turf and food most people wouldn't normally eat.  

Deer is plentiful around here, and it's not uncommon for most people to cook deer on Sundays.  I myself can make a pretty damn good deer roast.  I've only eaten turtles and bear in stews, and as I said, I've normally found bear meat to be fairly greasy/fatty.

Swans are another of those Sunday dinners that you can find around here frequently.  I've never much cared for the taste of it, but it's not bad.  I'm at a loss as to what to compare the taste to.

I haven't eaten Mussels since I was a kid.  My friends and I when we were much younger, would go around the various ditches and such and collect the mussels that would grow on the sides.  We'd do it on the weekends and most of the time we'd come back with about 10-15 each.  Our parents would always cook them up.  Now, it's extremely hard to find any, and if I did, it wouldn't be a wise idea to eat one considering the diseases/bacteria that alot of the shellfish in the area are carrying now.

Pig brains are something that I've been eating well before I can remember.  My mother's parents used to watch me quite a bit as a child while my parents were working.  Apparently my Grandfather would fix scrambled eggs with pig brains quite often for me.  He and my Grandmother have both passed away now, but I still try to eat it atleast once a year.  It's actually not that bad, and the flavor isn't too different from the eggs.  If you were to eat it without knowing, you'd never tell from the taste.

Alligator was the latest of my strange meats.  Each year, we have a Seafood Festival in Morhead City here in NC.  It's a big thing with thousands of people, and there are rides, booths, games and food.  My wife talked me into getting some alligator this year.  It wasn't very good.  We were given some fried/breaded chunks of meat that looked like chicken nuggets.  The flavor of the meat was excellent and was quite spicy but the meat was too damn hard to chew.  Imagine a big piece of cooked chicken fat, and trying to bite into it while the grease is spraying in your mouth.....that's alligator.

Of course we eat various parts of some animals that most wouldn't.  Chicken livers are a personal favorite of mine.  They are great when fried up just right.  Otherwise, we eat the gizzards, and various innards of chickens/turkeys and gravy with the gizzards in it is fantastic.  I never got into eating chicken necks though.

Well, there it is.  I've written too much.

ASHTHECAT wrote:

> >
> Many of you have probably tasted some fine deer meat...maybe
> even rabbit.
> But are there critters that you've eaten that a lot of other
> people probably haven't?
>
> >
> What about other animals like exotic fish or birds?
>

>
> Post Edited (11-04-05 06:25)

What do you mean 'maybe even rabbit'  Over here in Belgium it is extremely common (and tasty I might add). Another kind which has a small following is ostrich. Don't care too much for that.

My most exotic dish must be crocodile. Very nice too. Oh and I like horse steak

I said "maybe" because how many soccer moms and their families eat rabbit...or ever have.

Upper middle class America for the most part is pretty sheltered and really lame.



Post Edited (11-04-05 15:54)

Let's see:

Alligator
Squirrel
Rabbit
Eel
Goat
Frog
Turtle
Pheasant
Quail
Ostrich
Mealworms
Duck
Everything available from the sea except Octopus and that fish that can kill you.

Fun

Whenever I travel, I seek out exotic foods.  I have had the following (some are not meats, but what the hell . . . ):

* Buffalo
* Alligator
* Ostrich
* Quail
* Quail eggs
* Frog legs
* Whole frog (the body and the legs)
* Eel
* Squid (including squid cooked in its own ink, which makes your lips and tongue turn black)
* Octopus
* Rattlesnake
* Wild boar
* Goat
* Pheasant
* Pigeon
* Reindeer
* Venison (not exactly sure what the difference is between regular deer and reindeer, but I have had both)
* Duck (not very unusual, but I added it anyway)
* Rabbit (one of my favorites)
* Rocky Mountain Oysters (aka fried testicles . . . the restaurant actually gave me a certificate saying that I ate them)
* Escargot

There are probably a few more that I can't remember right now . . .



Post Edited (11-04-05 08:13)

Squirrel? Isn't that awfully finicky to eat, or do you eat the bones?

Also if snails count, I like them a lot and once in Chine I had something which may or may not have been rat. It was a small rodent, for sure.

ASHTHECAT wrote:

>
> Upper middle class America is pretty sheltered and really
> f**king lame.

Ow...Ash, man, you hurt me deep.

I don't have an extensive list:

Ostrich (ground into patties; I liked it and would get it regularly until the restaurant that served it shut down. It tasted like beef for the most part, but with more the consistency of a fried sausage.)

Shark
Venison (steak and sausage)
Wild pig
Quail

I think I had some alligator once, but I don't remember for sure. I'd get it again if it was available.

I also may have had rabbit when I was young; I know we raised them briefly, but I'm not sure if we ate them.

I have had most game meat.   Elk, antelope, deer, moose, and once bear.  I have had rattlesnake once.  Also grasshoppers and ants.
-Ed

Ed wrote:

> I have had most game meat.   Elk, antelope, deer, moose, and
> once bear.  I have had rattlesnake once.  Also grasshoppers and
> ants.
> -Ed

Well, I've eaten a few ants and a mosquito or two by accident, but I don't think that counts here...

I meant as food.  The grashoppers were stir fried and served with sauce.  Ants were the honey ants.  I also ate ordinary ants in a wilderness survival class.  

But THIS is scary...
http://www.tofurkey.com/products/tofurkyfeasts.htm

The roast tatses fine, but it looks like a roasted nerf ball.
-Ed

Ed wrote:

> I meant as food.  The grashoppers were stir fried and served
> with sauce.  Ants were the honey ants.  I also ate ordinary
> ants in a wilderness survival class.  
>

I know; I guess I should have added an emoticon like (http://www.smileys.ws/smls/grinning/00000048.gif) or (http://www.smileys.ws/smls/grinning/00000031.gif) to show I was being silly.


> But THIS is scary...
> http://www.tofurkey.com/products/tofurkyfeasts.htm
>
But possibly not as scary as this (http://www.mcphee.com/items/M5074.html).

I too seek out exotic food to try.  Like others I've had rattlesnake, ostrich, bear and the like.  A few notes:

Alligator: Had this at a seafood place breaded and deep fried like popcorn shrimp.  I thought it tasted like shrimp and chicken, with a very soft texture.  But breading and deep frying is what you do when you don't want to taste something.

Buffalo: is delicious.  Like beef with a deeper flavor.

Lemon ants: In Ecuador, one of our guides broke a branch that contained a bunch of these tiny ants.  They're about the size of sugar ants, but when you pop them in your mouth they taste like little bursts of lemon.  I figured they would be great if you could keep them in a little shaker on the table to add to your food.

Stink eggs: Not "meat".  I'm Tlingit (Native Alaskan), and my grandmas make a delicacy they call "stink eggs".  They are salmon eggs which are buried in the ground until they ferment.  I wouldn't say I enjoyed the experience, but it does take like. . .

Seal oil: Rendered seal fat.  It's illegal for you to have, but I can enjoy it.  It's good if you dip dried fish in it, or herring eggs.

Seafood: I don't view as exotic anymore.  Especially since you can get such a great variety as sushi.

So, that's a small list, I guess.

Have a lot of money to spend? (http://www.exoticmeats.com/)



Post Edited (11-04-05 16:24)

Nobody seems to have mentioned emu. A few farmers around here started raising them years back. The birds have a very lean, red meat (makes a decent hamburger), and are valued for some other  products, like oil. Around here, it never really got beyond the promotional stages as an alternative to traditional livestock, and they don't promote it like they did when they started, but it's still pretty readily available at farmers' markets and one or two restaurants.

Actually, I've eaten a good deal of exotic meat at farm shows, where the alternative farmers set up food booths to promote bison, elk, deer, emu, etc., by selling burgers and sausages and such. Local festivals are also good for that. I've often thought a checklist, like birdwatchers use, might be fun. "Let's see, I've had buffalo, veal, venison......."

I used to get my share of game meat any time I visited my brother, who was quite the hunter when he lived in more remote parts of the country (I'd like to see the list he could come up with). Mostly venison - deer steak, deer sausage, deer salami, deer burgers.

Also have eaten rabbit, frog legs, snails, squid, quail, and a pepperoni stick made from alligator. That's all I can remember at the moment.



Post Edited (11-05-05 02:34)

odinn7 wrote:

> ASHTHECAT wrote:
>
> >
> > Upper middle class America is pretty sheltered and really
> > f**king lame.
>
> Ow...Ash, man, you hurt me deep.


Actually Odinn...I modified that sentence.
It sounded bad so I changed it.

The most exotic for me Deer Meat (Venicin), Buffalo, Bat Ears, Pigs Blood (soupy)

What............ nobody has had a Baby Slouth Burger?



Post Edited (11-04-05 18:49)

AndyC wrote:

>Nobody seems to have mentioned emu.

Another national 'icon' being sold off for food.  Gotta love it!

On the Australian coat of arms we have an Emu and a Kangaroo, both of which were chosen because they were 1. Native, 2. Cannot move backwards [thus symbolising progress] and it now seems that 3. They both make a great snack!

Yum Yum, national pride has never been so tasty!

alligator while in florida - I have to agree with the 'tough  chewie and greasy' description.  Then again it was deep fried.

frogs legs  - tastes like chicken

Emu burgers -not too far from beef

horse while in Quebec - strongly flavoured   Do I get extra points for knowing the horse's name (Wisefly), occupation (racehorse), value ($5 000 000), status (uninsured) and method of death (ran headfirst into a post and broke it's own neck)

goat while in Morocco, along with a number of fish I didn't recognize

squid (calamari)
snails (escargot)

rabbit
duck
moose
deer

and of course sushi and sashimi

As an aside, if Ben Franklin had gotten his way, the turkey would have been the American emblem.  Does that mean eagle would have become the traditional Thanksgiving feast?

I'm not real crazy about goat. I remember that the one I had was dry (bad cook). Didn't think of it different at the time, but looking back at it now it can be considered exotic. Haven't run into an opportunity to eat goat since. Haven't sought out goat since. There was a snow storm and I couldn't get home, so I stayed overnight somewhere and had goat one evening.  Talk about roughing it...................

Fried eagle.
Candied owl anus.

Depends what you might consider exotic. In the part of my country I live in we eat snails, just like the French. Usually they are accompanied with garlic mayonnaise or onion & tomato sauce. I'm not a big fan of that dish, but I tried it quite often when I was a child, since it is very popular

Also have tried the frog ankles at the local Chinese, but they're not my coup of tea.

Oh, and in some bars you can find some interesting things, like fried stralings or other pigeons, all kinds of tripes or baked goat heads. I like the heads quite a lot, but they don't have much meat, brains apart, and they are messy to eat, so I rarely order them. Occasionally you can also find boar meat, if you live in a village, because the locals hunt them now and then to prevent them to eat their crops. It's very tasty, just like pork but with a stronger flavour and less fat.

Older people have memories, back from many years ago, when they had the strangest things to eat. My grandfather once claimed he ate a grilled hedgedog, and that another time he was tricked into eating a cat, thinking he was eating rabbit.

There has been a persistant rumour about one of the local chinese food places has been using cats in place of chicken.   I've never eaten there but a friend said he had the chicken one night and it was amazing.  He's gone back several times since and it has never been the same......

Mofo mentions Stink Eggs, which are fermented --
In Iceland, I've had fermented shark, which is buried in volcanic sand for 6mos., near the shore, so that it's pickled in brine -- has the consistency of cheese, but yes, very smelly -- actually quite flavorful --
You should eat your fermented shark with Brenevin, aka. The Black Death, which is a currant infused neutral grain spirit.
I just had great Haggis & Blood Pudding in Scotland -
In India, the head of the fish is considered the best part, and only offered to guests.  You have never tested the bounds of hospitality until you've had a fish eyeball the size of a large olive pop in your mouth . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

Mmmm, haggis and blood pudding. Haven't had either in a few years. Used to be a pub in town that put on a big celebration for Robbie Burns day, and put haggis on the menu for that one day, served with potatoes and turnips. It was pretty tasty. The owner told me he'd had to go pretty far to find a butcher shop with good haggis. Not a popular dish in Canada, for the most part.

I love black pudding sliced and fried with eggs for breakfast. Again, haven't had that in quite a few years (a buddy and I were double dating a couple of English girls around 1997), but now I'm tempted to pick some up. It's readily available in supermarkets here, which comes as kind of a surprise. Actually, I was also surprised to find rabbits in the meat section, which I've been tempted to buy but ultimately deterred by the price. Grocery stores have come a long way since I was a kid.

I'm of Norwegian heritage, so of course I've been made to try - Lutefisk.   For those of you who don't have any idea what that is =  dried fish soaked in lye.  Basically.

Speaking of exotic seafood, has anyone sought out a nice filet of coelacanth?

(http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=coelacanth/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=121tdeuj4/EXP=1131382700/*-http%3A//www.pibburns.com/cryptost/co833cmx.jpg)

Mmmmmm, coelacanth.

It's too bad this fish doesn't end up on some other kind of website dedicated to even more exotic foods. We'll call it the Special Appetite Club, similar to the one found in The Freshman with Matthew Broderick. But, I bet if we traveled to Indonesia, where the fish was first rediscovered, we could get some. At the time of its rediscovery, local fishermen had been harvesting it for years and it was not at all uncommon to eat. I think we need to reintroduce the world to this delicacy. You know, the reason it almost went extinct to begin with is because it was so tasty, it would try to eat itself. It only came to our attention again when scores of Indonesian fishermen drowned at once trying to catch and eat this fish and were bitten by the coelacanth's themselves defending their tasty flesh.

I wonder how much a tin of coelacanth eggs would go for on the European black market.

 Gee, my most exotics are:
buffalo
squid & octopus, both fried and as sashimi
venison
crawfish head
fried chicken feet (utterly horrible, there's nothing to eat there.)
and haggis (in Edinburgh).  Yum.

Ain't no way in hell I's eatin' Rocky Mountain Oysters (not that there's anything wrong with that)

Has anybody here tried the pork feet as well? They're also pretty common here. There's no real meat there, it's like jelly, so the are served stewed with strong flavoured items, otherwise they are tasteless.

I don't consider Emu to be too exotic, or game for that matter.  
As for Lemon Ants- "you pop them in your mouth they taste like little bursts of lemon. I figured they would be great if you could keep them in a little shaker on the table to add to your food."

Actually all ants taste lemony. There is not much I won't eat, as long as it it low on onions, I can't stand onions.  

-Ed

Neville wrote:

> Has anybody here tried the pork feet as well? They're also
> pretty common here. There's no real meat there, it's like
> jelly, so the are served stewed with strong flavoured items,
> otherwise they are tasteless.
>

I have a question about pickled pigs feet.  This was more common in the South (United States), but they were in a big jar at the counter of most gas stations.  Do you just pick one out of the jar and start gnawing away at it?

Mofo Rising wrote: "I have a question about pickled pigs feet. This was more common in the South (United States), but they were in a big jar at the counter of most gas stations. Do you just pick one out of the jar and start gnawing away at it?"

Mmm... Always wondered the same about pickled eggs. Can't answer that, I'm not an American. Any southerners in here?

Yeah, I could never quite figure out the custom of having big jars of pickled eggs and pickled sausages sitting on the bar. These are not things that seem appetizing to me, nor are they things people seem to eat on a routine basis, yet they seem to be traditional bar food in many parts of North America. I suppose when you get a bunch of guys together with a lot of booze, they get cravings for stuff like that. I can remember thinking they must almost have been there for decoration, since I could never imagine anyone actually buying one, except maybe on a drunken dare. Of course, in recent years, I know a few people (people I would never have suspected) who've bought pickled eggs at the bar from time to time.

They're welcome to it. As for me, if it ain't a vegetable, it has no business being pickled.

I always figured that pickled pigs feet was a joke Southerners were playing on us Yankees.  "Yeah, go ahead, eat that, we do it all the time, it's real good."
Sucker!

Pigs feet aka pork hocks do have some meat to them, you just have to work to get it.  It's very tender. Pickled Pigs feet?  I'm going to go along with the practical joke idea.  That makes the most sense....

Pickled eggs are just hard boiled eggs that are pickled.  I was quite disappointe dto learn they were not more sinister,   I have cooked with pork hocks... in pea soup etc.  But never eaten a pickled one.
-Ed

Don't want to worry you but I hope the roo was well cooked they are usually  well wormy and normally sold as pet food!

One caterpillar, a few spiders and various types of ants. The bigger, the better... and none are as crunchy as you might think.

Funny, none of the things mentioned here scare me as much as potted meat. Oh, excuse me - Potted Meat(TM) Food Product (they can't technically call it meat in the generic sense). I own one can that I bought on a trip to the States (we explored a couple of supermarkets last time we were down there, just to find treats we can't get up here). I'd known about potted meat by reputation, but had never actually seen it. I don't think regulations allow it to be sold in Canada. Bought one can as a souvenir, and occasionally take it out to show a nonbeliever. Yes, this is the scariest "meat" I know.

AndyC, that actually reminds me of a food company here I saw once which calls itself 100% Australian Beef [or at least something like that], and is declared on all its products as such, though as you can imagine, the product doesn't exaclty live up to its name.  Gotta love marketing...

For more information on potted meat, check this out:
http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/potted.html
This guy actually called the manufacturer to clarify certain ingredients (some of which are actually described as 'tissue' rather than meat), and he's even recorded a jingle.



Post Edited (11-10-05 08:40)

I've never eaten potted meat, though I pass by it all the time at the grocery store.
And yes, it's always right there next to the Spam.
Usually, it sits right next to the Vienna Sausages...Yuck!

I think I'm gonna have to try this s**t sometime.
And that's what it looks like...s**t.

It looks like a brown paste that you can spread on crackers.
I wonder what else it would taste good on?

Andy C,

That link you provided was very informative. And that jingle, it was the best jingle for a product I'll never eat, ever. I might have to go out and find a can just to say I've tried it. And then talk about how disgusting it is on this page since no one else seems to care in real life. Funny how the internet can bring people together from all over the globe about a subject such as potted meat.

Never had any myself, but there's a greasy spoon drive-in restaurant near where I grew up that serves fried alligator. This is made all the more unusual by the fact that I grew up in rural Massachusetts.

I've eaten a lot of that exotic canned meat called POTTED MEAT when a young lad. It is a weird substance that we would mix with some mayonaise. They make in  small cans because you can only eat so much at anyone given time and yes it is just a tad below SPAM and VIENNA SAUSAGES.

Had it once as an adult and almost hurled. It won't happen again unless it's the end of the world and when the shelves are bare except for that little can of POTTED MEAT.

What a treat that funny meat when you have nothing to eat.



Post Edited (11-10-05 20:39)

I'm going to lump Potted Meat Food Product in with head cheese.  For some reason, I could never bring myself to eat little bits of meat supended in gelatin.....

Has anyone even noticed how many cheese slices are actually referred to as 'processed cheese food' rather than cheese?

Funny, most supermarkets I've shopped in carry Spam, Kam, Klik, Vienna sausages and the like, but I've never seen potted meat in a Canadian grocery store. I suspect it's because some of the less meaty ingredients don't pass muster with the government. Spam has the reputation, but there seems to be solid evidence that potted meat is far less edible.

Even some of the less objectionable sounding ingredients are pretty gross. Mechanically separated chicken sounds very nice, but upon further investigation, it seems to involve putting chicken carcasses (stripped of any good meat) through a machine that works rather like a garlic press to separate the remaining meat from bone. Now there's an image.

And you really have to admire a product that mashes the less desirable parts of beef, pork and chicken together into one homogenous paste.

Ah, lutefisk. The great Norwegian delicacy. The one where my mother has seen a dog go up and smell it, then lift its leg and urinate on it.

While not of Norwegian descent myself, I was born and lived my first five years of my life in an area of the country that was predominantly Norwegian. Never had it then, but after graduating from high school, I went back to college in that area, and once an year, on some Norwegian holiday, the college cafeteria would serve Norwegian food in the cafeteria, and lutefisk being one of the foods served. That is the first time I can remember having it. And it is one of those foods that tastes better then it sounds.

Not a southerner by birth, but my mother's people, both on her father's side and her mother's side, were from the South. Maybe that's why I ate both of them, both pickled pigs' feet and pickled eggs, as a child. Though, I haven't had neither one for a long time. For different reasons. Pickled pigs' feet, while I can still find 'em in the store, now that I'm older, I can't stand the way they look. As for picked eggs, I eat 'em in a minute. They're just as not as common in stores, as they use to be.

Hey, don't say that to the restaurants in the town in which I live. As they have emu on the menus as an exotic game bird. Actually, a few years ago, where I live,  there was a fairly large market for emu, as an alternative to beef. That is until the demand for it went south, and it never has come back since, except for the few restaurants in the area, that still serve serve emu as an exotic game bird.

It makes good sandwiches. Actually, there are two types of potted meat. Potted ham, which is just ham and other pork by-proucts, and potted meat, which includes by-products from other animals, besides pigs. (IMO) potted ham tastes better then the other potted meat, but I usually buy the potted meat, because it is a little bit cheaper than potted ham.

Hey, I've eaten  my share of potted meat and deviled ham in those little cans. Potted meat is pretty good on crackers or Fritos.

I've eaten some deer, but didn't care for it at all. I've also had buffalo burgers, they were okay. When I was stationed in the Aleutians, a lot of guys hunted caribou. I was never brave enough to eat it because it really stunk while you were cooking it. We did fry up a lot of halibut in beer batter there and had plenty of smoked salmon (all fresh caught).

The one thing I would never ever try was tripe. I also lived in Scotland for two years and I never had any inclination to try haggus, but I did go to Holland once and we had smoked eel on a bun.

Head cheese. Like potted meat, that's something else that makes a good sandwich. I'll have took for it, the next time I'm in the store.

trek_geezer wrote:

 I did go to Holland once and we had smoked eel on a bun.

There is a bad joke there, just screaming to get out.....

Uhhh...I don't get it.

Potted meat and Fritos. Can feel my left arm tingling just thinking about that.

Think below the belt ASH.  It would lose too much if I had to explain any further....

Okay, I have to admit a little about my hillbilly background here. My Grandma, knew the secret recipe for head cheese, and yes when I was a kid I did see hogs get slaughtered (actually I usually hid during the disemboweling part).

Anyway, when the cutting was done, Grannie wanted the head saved to make the aforementioned exotic meat product. So, I'm about 8 years old and I open the freezer to grab a fudge sickle or something and lo an behold there is pig's head looking me right the face. Needless to say I abstained from pork for a while after that.