BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Japanese Food What's the strangest food you've ever eaten?

And what's the most exotic cuisine you've ever tried? Share your stories here!

Octopus, it was a little chewy...

I can remember my first tentacle too! But once I got past that strange "chewy" texture, I really learned to appreciate the mild and sweet flavor of "tako."

Uh, pig testicle. It was a rite of passage at an annual hog roast.

YIKES! Well, I'm adventurous but I don't know if I could be that adventurous!

I did try chocolate-covered ants once. I didn't know what I was eating until after I'd eaten a few, though. They tasted more like chocolate-covered rice krispies!

A live eel in a cup of sake.
It was in Japan and a dinner was being held for us. The sake was poured into a square cup and then a small eel (a couple of inches long) is dropped in the cup and immediately covered with a white card (the sake hurts the eel and so it tries jumping out of the cup) a few people didn't keep the cover on well and the eel would shoot out of the cup and onto the floor where servants quickly scooped them up and left the room.
At the time of the toast (just moments after service) we put the cups to our lips and lifted the card just slightly and drank everything in one gulp.
I didn't notice the eel at all.

The one thing that I can't get enough of is "Ankimo" monkfish liver. I would eat that everyday if I could.

I can't beat the live eel, but the strangest thing I ever ate besides jelly fish (Chinese), but I ate Chinese Palm of Bear

Yikes. What is Chinese Palm of Bear? Is it exactly what it says it is?

What did it look and taste like?

As for strangest food...I have turned down a lot of what I consider to be bizarre foods that are delicacies in their native countries. Turkey nuts (testicles), uni (sea urchin gonads). Filipino Balut (completely formed chick still in its shell).

I've eaten relatively tame foods. Escargot (snail), sashimi (raw fish), alligator, jelly fish.

I don't mind trying unusual foods but will turn down food if I feel a sense of compassion towards it.

[quote=Chi-Japanese Food]Yikes. What is Chinese Palm of Bear? Is it exactly what it says it is? What did it look and taste like? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Actually it's called Emperor's Dish. It's the palm of the bear. I was maybe 15 then, but the consistency was something like corn beef brisket, without the "corn" :>) (pickling) Funny story, my father was a host to the defense minister of Japan (at that time), and to repay my father's hospitatlity, the defense minister took us to a high class Chinese restaurant. The private room we dined in was frequented by Richard Nixon. We sat at a very large round table with a large lazy susan in the middle. We dined on MANY small dishes, but we ate for hours. Birds nest soup, Shark fin Soup, Chicken with jelly fish, and so on. Funny that he was Japanese, but choose to eat in a Chinese restaurant.

It's true that a lot of Japanese people love Chinese food. Chinese food has so many more flavors than in Japanese cuisine. Such a wide variety of foods due to the large land mass that comprises China whereas Japan is a small island with limited natural resources.

That's my guess so I could be totally wrong.