Worst Product Advertised

[AndyC]

The mention of the Foods I Fear site made me think of this one. Never had it before (I don't think it's even sold in Canada), but the picture on the can is enough to make me cringe. I'm also a little suspicious of anything that has to have "food product" tacked onto the end of the name, because it can't legally be called meat. Having some of the ingredients described as "tissue" is also less than reassuring, especially the partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue.

As for the broiled tarantula, I'd probably try a piece. We pay big bucks to eat lobsters, crabs and shimp, and they're little more than big water bugs. Why not eat a tarantula if it's got enough meat on it. I also find it odd that some of the same people who would freak out if offered a piece of roasted reptile will gladly take a piece of fish - a slimy, scaly, bulgy-eyed, wiggly, legless, gill-breathing creature that eats bugs and worms. Some gourmet types go as far as to serve them whole, with the head still on, and people's mouths water.

Of course fish is great. I love it. But imagine if you couldn't get past the thing's appearance. There really is a lot of inconsistancy in what people reckon to be delicious or disgusting.

[Squishy]

Too bad bad-candy.com seems to have shut down. Nasty and funny, complete with videos of "taste tests." I guess the Circus Peanuts people finally got to them...

I love squid. Mmmm, mmmm!

[Fearless Freep]

A few months ago I posted a link to a story about a Japanese company marketing some sort of canned meat as "Godzilla In A Can"

[John]

>Firstly i don't like "things" in my cheese

 I guess you wouldn't want any 'maggot cheese' then...

One food that I refuse to eat is boiled hotdogs. I like fried hotdogs, but boiled, YECH!

[Susan]

Speaking of hot dogs and cheese, there was (maybe still is) a product out there that had these jumbo hotdogs stuffed with cheese. I had a friend who used to buy them and ..i just couldn't go there

We should start a 'play with your food' thread on interesting food combinations or eating habits we have. (ie: i only eat pizza with a fork and a knife..i didn't used to be that way!) It's not an issue with greasy fingers, i love nothing more than eating with my hands. Go figure

I also put potato chips in my sandwhiches and ..oh..the BEST, dip mcdonalds french fries (they can't be soggy) into hot fudge sundea. I heard some people do this with milkshakes but i like getting that bit of chocolate syrup on it. Something about salty and sweet go together. but i digress

[AndyC]

Glad to hear other people don't like boiled weiners. Grilled, baked, fried for me, in that order. Boiled meat is just gross. I also agree with Susan about hot dogs with cheese in them. When cheese is put into sausage or burgers, the meat never gets properly cooked, at least not to my liking. Either that or the cheese melts out all over and burns while I'm trying to get the meat cooked. I'm tempted to write a letter to some of these companies pointing out that it requires much more time and heat to cook meat than it does to melt cheese. Better to put it on top, after the meat is cooked.

How does everybody like their steak? Personally, I like mine very well done. I mean, I like it to be put on a low flame and forgotten. Not burnt, but just very, very well done and dry, almost like leather, with the fat completely melted out and crispy around the edges.

If there is one thing I'm picky about, it's meat. There are few things I dislike more than pink, soggy, fatty meat, but so many people love it, and they think I'm weird. I've seen somebody throw a beautiful piece of sirloin on a high flame, give it a quick flip, and then serve it. He cut into it, and the brown colour had no depth - pink all the way through. I've seen people char the living crap out of the outside and leave the middle bleeding. I couldn't eat it like that.

[Neville]

In the field of strange meals, nobody I've ever met can beat my grandfather. During his youth he ate thinks like a roast hedgedog (the fire completely burns that spines) or lizards in tomato sauce. That were very bad times for our country, so I guess that explains everything. Whenever I ask him about it, he replies the hedgedog was quite tasty.

[Neville]

And what about snails? Do you have any place in the USA where they are served? I know they are common stuff in France and some places of Italy. Here in Lleida, on the north-east corner of Spain they are considered a local delicacy, and you'd have to see the looks from strangers when they see a dish of snails with tomato sauce or with all-i-oli (mayonaisse with garlic). My brother in law looks like he is an exception, though, he always has them whenever he pays us a visit.

[AndyC]

Don't know why I didn't think of this before, but here is one of the most nauseating things I've ever seen on a plate.

When I was a kid, we used to visit some friends who owned a cottage in northern Ontario every summer. The father of that family, Ralph, had the most peculiar habit for eating breakfast. He would take a plate of pancakes, sunny-side-up eggs, rubbery bacon and whatever else happened to be on the table. Then he would go over the entire thing with a knife and fork, cutting everything into little pieces. Then he would pour on maple syrup and ketchup and stir the entire plate together with his fork. I'd just stare at the mess of soggy pancake and jiggling egg white and bacon fat, as the syrup, ketchup and yolk swirled together with a squishy, slurpy sound. Then Ralph would shovel the whole mess into his face. Incredible.

[Mofo Rising]

Count me in with the RARE people.  I eat my steak as bloody as I can get it, although I do usually cook it until the middle gains some texture.  Even worse, I take my hamburgers rare too.  Hey, you got to risk a little food poisoning for deliciousness.

I think people place too much emphasis on things being cooked.  Other than for health reasons (you wouldn't eat an uncooked pork chop), most food is fine uncooked or rare.  Different taste, but not bad at all.  Like salmon.  Go to a sushi bar sometime.

The wonderful thing about being a human is that we can eat almost anything.  FEAR FACTOR is for the tame.  My grandmas like a delicacy they call "stink eggs".  You take salmon eggs and bury them in the ground until they ferment.  You could always tell when they were cooking them as the smell could haunt you to the ends of the earth.

Well, I'll try almost anything.  I've had alligator, buffalo, rattlesnake, squid, eel, octopus, fermented fish eggs and other assorted strange stuff.  I wouldn't eat "pet" animals, or primates.  I'd certainly starve to death before I went cannibal.  But other than that, everything is fair game.

Check out this link:
exoticmeats.com

[Susan]

Someone i know who shall remain nameless for fear it would ever leak out...ate dog. While living in the philippines we often attended fairs and cookouts and celebrations (which were usually big deals with the military) But someones these took place off base (ie: not at the nco club or resturaunts) and outdoors with locals serving up the food. Turns out one of the shish-ka-bobs was shish-ka-dog, as noted by our housegirl later who knows the types of meat often used since most local meat was usually pig or chicken or something, not cow. :-o

Personally my meat has to be so well done it doesn't even resemble it was once an animal. I can't eat huge hunks of it anyhow, because i start to get this image that i'm eating flesh..and the more it looks like flesh the less hungry I get which is why i burn most of mine or disguise it in sauce. ;-) I think i was a vegitarian in a past life.

either that or a cow

[Fearless Freep]

Medium rare to rare.  I like it pinkish red on the inside, with some blood

[Pancho]

Earlier in the thread people mentioned their aversion to boiled hot dogs.  I think I can top that.  I'm 16 so I have a wonderful job at a local fast food resteraunt.  We get a lot of special requests but one lady asked for a deep fried hot dog.  That might not top dog itself but when you really think about it it's fairly gross.

[Susan]

Hey that reminds me of a new trend i've seen in the news lately. No kidding either -

deep fried fried twinkies

I hear some resturaunts have started serving them up. And I thought the twinkie couldn't get scarier

[AndyC]

I know a couple of local brunch buffets that cook their sausages and bacon in the deep fryer - for the sake of efficiency I imagine. They're very good - nice brown well-done sausages and perfect crispy bacon. The only flaw is that the bacon comes out curled up, not flat. When you're heaping it on your plate, who cares?