Fried Scorpion. Which tasted delicious initially, in the sort of fashion that all fried food does, with its crispy greasy awesome. Beyond its batter barrier though, I actually found it pretty tasteless eating.. yet able to deliver a sucker-punch of appalling aftertaste, that repeated on me for the rest of the evening. Avoid.

A much more successful experience was the fried starfish. You prise open its outer layer to reveal.. a rather off-putting greeny-grey flesh. Which sounds revolting but tasted divine. An animal meat-type texture that tasted not to dissimilar to chicken. Just in an awesome starfish wrapping :)

Both of the above were in Beijing. Where there was plenty of other truly, truly bonkers in the offering. Like sheep's penis. I took a picture but wasn't brave enough to take it further.

The single most vile thing I have ever put in me, is fermented shark. Which looks misleadingly tasty.. and tastes like a concentrated cube of sour and pungent vomit. The 3 common stages of comsumption, below:

1. Woop. Shark. Sounds interesting. Looks super-good..

2. ..Tastes horrific.

3. Hot hell-fire horrific.

Buko Pandan ice cream.

My mom and I like to go to this specialty grocery store near our house sometimes and get weird shit that we find. One time, we decided to try every single mango flavored food they had. We completely underestimated the size of the store and gave up about halfway through, but that's neither here nor there. One of the things that we got was this spectacular mango ice cream. It was fluffy, and not too sweet, and it tasted like real mangos, not just mango flavoring. That ice cream stuck with us, and it still does.

The next time we went back, we went straight to the frozen goods, but then we were faced with a difficult choice - to mango, or not to mango. One the one hand, the mango was amazing and perfect and unimprovable, but on the other, what if there was another EVEN BETTER ice cream. We stayed there just staring at the different flavors for at least ten minutes, before deciding on Buko Pandan because the color looked interesting. Neither of us had ever heard of it, so naturally we were very curious. It said that it was coconut flavored, but then why would it be green?

We took the ice cream home, wiped it off, and immediately ate it. We didn't even put the other stuff away, we just went straight in, and it was the most interesting, complex flavor I had ever tasted. I couldn't place it, at first, but then I realized that it tasted exactly like the buttered popcorn Jelly Bellies. It was so confusing, but in a good way.

Thanks for the two part question Chad. The “strangest food I have ever eaten” isn’t as easy to pick as one might think, given that I’ve had:

• ostrich meat
• baby eels (they looked like spaghetti with eyes)
• the Chinese “century egg”
• lobster eggs
• fried insects
• Cow tongue (my mother used to cook that)
• squid
• raw fish of every kind
• snails, and many more possibilies…

Did I enjoy these foods? Yes! There's not much that isn't enjoyable when you cook it with garlic butter and lemon!

I’d say the winner was the time my parents took me to a local New Mexico restaurant to try rattlesnake when I was a teen. This picture looks much better than what we got—which looked like dry, tough rattle snake in a red plastic fast food basket (no forks or knives could cut through it).

Image from: What Do Snake and Other Exotic Meats Taste Like?

Did I like it? No. It does not taste like chicken either! What I still recall to this day is that it tasted like a very bony fish that had been overcooked—and then possibly “nuked” in a microwave oven. Once everyone tried it, the diner closed.

A close second is the Century Egg of China. Why anyone would willingly eat the foul smelling eggs—supposedly called “Century eggs” because they are left festering for 100 days, buried in ash and-or other ingredients intended to “age” them—is still beyond my comprehension! The overpowering aroma of sulfur should remind one of the quote over the gate to Hell (also sulfuric), “Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here” from Dante’s Inferno (though perhaps it could be offered as a type of Purgatory.

Image: 100 Year Old Egg Pictures to Pin on Pinterest

What’s more, several companies that make those eggs (in China) were closed down by the government— accused of adding dangerous chemicals to speed up the “festering process!”

“Century egg coated in caustic mixture…” from Century egg - Wikipedia

For more on the pungent and sometimes even dangerous “century eggs,” see this:

• Anne Harris Wyckoff's answer to What was the worst meal that you ate out of politeness?

I was on a business trip to Japan and went to a plush dinner with my employer.

Having decided to try every dish presented to me, a strange dish was put on the table.

Of seven people at the table; three Japanese and four Aussies, nobody tried it so I did.

Three slices of this weird slimy sausage like thing, I took a piece in my chopsticks, dipped into the Wasabi and put it in my mouth.

The Japanese watched with interest as I chewed and chewed and chewed. It would not break down, it was like eating a tyre inner tube!

I took a mouthful of Saki and swallowed it.

I got a round of applause from the Japanese.

One laughed and asked if I knew what I had eaten?

Gagging, I said No.

He replied, “raw eel, great honour to be served, nobody expected to eat”

I won a lot of brownie points that night.

A Rambutan.

Now this little fruit thingy is native to Guatemala, so as an American, I have never heard of it. My mom ran across it in Walmart and decided that me, being the lover of fruit that I am, would maybe want to try it. She bought it yesterday actually and told me about it yesterday too.

Anyways, today she showed one to me. A spikey red, sea urchin like thing, that actually almost gave me a heart attack today when my mom put it in front of my face as I was on my phone not paying attention to the outside world.

See told me that the instructions said to cut it open, which she did to show the white fruit inside and she then proceeded, without no warning to me, to plop it in my mouth and told me only to watch out for the pit. I recoiled at first but then started chewing on it and realized that, “Omg this is so good.” I know have been snacking on them all day every since I first tasted one this morning.

So, never trust food based on it's appearance and smell, actually taste it. You might be surpised like I was.

The strangest food I’ve ever tried was a steak made of Bull’s testicles.

It tasted so blunt and chewy. I cannot recall the taste of it now, but I clearly remember denying the serving second time. All I can remember from that day was that my husband was so horny for the rest of the day, I still wonder if it had anything to do with the Bull (He ate a good portion of it btw!)

I’ve tried it along with the likes of Ostrich, Crocodile and Wild Buffallo, once while I was in a restaurant called ‘Carnivore’ in Kenya.

Raw - Bull’s testicles.

Image courtesy: Google

Cooked Bulls’ Testicles.

Image courtesy : Google

My family may be the only one to experience the horror that is Fish Brownies.

My father is a frugal man and will often keep old containers and fill them with something else rather than throw them away. One day my mother decided she wanted to make brownies. Unbeknownst to her, my father had filled an empty bottle of cooking oil with fish oil, which she used to grease the pan before pouring in the batter.

The result was the most awful tasting food imaginable. Imagine a brownie with the color and consistency of cake, but with the saltiness and pungency of raw fish and an aftertaste of chocolate. I cannot describe it any better than that.

The Q is "What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten, and would you eat it every day?"

My A is:

oh I'll go with something less weird than durian. I'm always mentioning that. It truly is spellbindingly grotesque.

Nah this time, dandelion root jerky. Much better! Yes, I would eat it every day. Dandelion is super healthy for you.

In addition to this jerky, you can roast & grind the roots to make a very tasty coffee substitute, (there's even a commercially made one

)

and of course there's dandelion greens, and wine. Dandelion is a powerhouse of a plant.

Wild food forager Paul Tappenden shows us what’s growing wild and edible in our area.

Dandelion root is very beneficial, as a food and a medicine, but it can be a bit of a challenge to sit down to a plate of raw roots, so I’ve experimented with different ways to make them palatable. A few years back I was chewing on a dried root and although it didn’t have a very pleasant flavor, it had a great texture, not unlike jerky. That got me working on different techniques for infusing the roots with flavor.

I started playing with the idea of dehydrating and reconstituting the roots in a sauce or marinade to give it flavor, then drying it out until it became chewy, like meat. After a lot of exploration into different sauces and drying methods, I finally arrived at the formula which I use today.

My secret for tasty and successful results begins with the roots. Choosing the right root can make a big difference in the final result. The old, gnarly roots are harder to clean, and can be really bitter. The younger roots are too skinny. The best roots are the long, wide tap roots on a plant that is about 2-3 years old.

The reason you need long, straight roots is that they are easier to clean and can be cut into strips. Once I have them sliced, I put the strips into the dehydrator (an oven at low temperature would do) to dry them out.

The next part requires making a sauce in which you can either simmer or marinate the dried root. Simmering should be done on low heat for 15-20 minutes. Marinating takes several hours. So far, I’ve used teriyaki sauces, curried sauces and sweet and sour sauces. No matter what other ingredients you use it is important to add some oil. It helps to give the root a nice texture and finish.

After the root has soaked up the flavor, I return it to the dehydrator (oven) and dry it until it is chewy. Dandelion jerky makes a convenient and nutritious snack!

To which I add, obviously only forage in a wild place untreated with pesticides! Bon appetit!

I have three answers. When I was 8 years old, my parents and I travelled to Yugoslavia (as it was then) and Greece for vacation. In Yugoslavia, an English woman who spent much of her time in the country talked about the readily available food at the seaside. She cut a limpet off a rock and had me eat it. Not a remarkable taste, as I recall, in fact mainly salty and a bit rubbery.

A couple of weeks later I was on a beach in Greece where I befriended a local fisherman, Nicos. We talked about the octopus hunters that worked there: a couple of guys with snorkels who every day gathered a dozen or so octopus about the size of a man's hand. One day, Nico reached into the water and pulled out a large, black sea urchin. He split it open with his knife and gathered up on his blade the plentiful orange froth inside. I tasted it from his knife - a creamy, salty sort of foam. Sea urchin roe.

A few years later my dad received a package in the mail from a sister in Newfoundland. In it, among other things, was a tin of seal flipper, which is a typically Newfoundland delicacy. Usually flipper is served fresh, and baked into a pie with vegetables. This was the first time my father had seen it in a tin. We opened the tin, and inside was a dark red meat, almost the consistency of tuna, actually, but incredibly oily. Growing up in Newfoundland, my dad had enjoyed flipper pie, but he was disappointed by the tinned meat. I didn't like it. It left a greasy film in my mouth.

These days, I don't know if anyone eats limpets, though I understand they're fed to pigs. Sea urchin roe is now a trendy and expensive item in fine restaurants. And seal flipper pie remains confined mainly to Newfoundland as a byproduct of the island's history and sealing industry. Only the sea urchin roe seemed worth the trouble, and I wouldn't eat any of these things today simply because I'm vegan.

Lemons.

2–3 whole lemons a day since I was about 5!

My father would feed them to me in my high chair as I loved them so much . I remember when I was about 4 years old, falling over and hurting my knee at a history reenactment so he got me a piece of lemon from the lords table to cheer me up.

I stated drinking big glasses of pure lemon juice when I was in the states and I've messed up my digestive system as a result from years of excessive acid consumption.

I'm now only allowed 2–3 a year on special occasions by order of my gf. Unless she challenges a barman to me eating a lemon in front of him without wincing in order to get free drinks…

Good buddy of mine, a farmer, prepared prairie oysters, - the testicles of a bull.

I was hesitant to try them, but they sat in the bowl like a couple of dark hard-boiled eggs.

A spoon could cut it and; it had a similar density and consistency as the aforementioned

hard-boiled egg, -but somewhat gritty. Although entirely edible.

Later, I emailed one of my rabbi friends: The bull balls are considered kosher if the animal

was slaughtered in the Jewish ritual kosher manner. With one detail: There is a membrane,

called a khrum, covering the testicle which must be removed to make the balls kosher.

Aren’t you glad you are on Quora? LOL.

The liver of grilled turban shell.

Although bitter, it goes very well with sake.

One of the delicious ways to drink sake is to pour sake into the shell of a crab.

It's kind of difficult to decide what is the "strangest" food I've eaten because what is strange to me is just normal to other people. So I'll make a little list of my top ten "unusual for most westerners" foods I've eaten.

Now before I get people hating on me for eating some of these things - it was all some time ago and I was living with indigenous people and eating the food that they ate. When all you've got to eat is dog... you eat dog.

In reverse order of enjoyability;

10. Balut, Duck embryo still in the egg - utterly horrible, slippery,feathery,crunchy beak and feet. Never again.

9. Bat; I stayed in the Minahasa regency in Indonesia for a while and got to eat a few strange things while I was there. Not nice. Roasted bat - tastes mostly of burned fur. Splintery bones and strangely enough the wings tasted of aluminium.

8. Pit cooked pigs face; Supposedly the best cut. The thing looked like road kill after cooking under a ton of hot rocks for hours. As a guest I had to eat it's snout! baked pig snot anyone? Yuck.

Mine didn't look this good.

7. Palm grub; A huge white maggot that lives in Sago palm trees. Eaten raw and alive. To be honest the taste was okay - but the texture as it popped between my teeth. Nope - nasty.

6. Monkey -not sure what type but it was roasted in it's skin and tasted very strongly of burned fur. Being served an arm with a still identifiable "hand" on it was an experience I don't really want to have again. It's being listed at six only because some of the meat was ok tasting.

5. Dog - you know what wet dog smells like? - it kind of tastes that way too.

4. Forest rat. Actually very tasty if you skin it before cooking. Kind of like rabbit.

3. locusts/grasshoppers.Crisply roasted with chilli - nice once you get over the idea of eating an insect. A bit like eating a prawn with the shell on.

2. Roasted ant larvae. Nice, nutty, crispy with a tang of vinegar, I would eat these lots if I could find them here.

1. My favourite "unusual" food; Dugong. Very very good steaks! It's endangered now and I would never eat it again but 25 years ago when I ate it,it was still allowed for indigenous populations to hunt them, so they did.

I would have listed papeda as well -but I don't even count that as food!!

Do you really want to know? It kind of bothered me at first.

Pig roasts are not uncommon, but a baby still milk fed baby pig roasted on a spit. Sauced in oriental spices and seasonings…a ebony almost black glaze. But…not black as in burnt or charred…not even a hint of that. The marinade and glaze were dark sticky sweet smoky…the meat, sticky and juicy.

Crisp on the outside…and impossible to get the stickiness off your fingers…the meat and glaze…you've heard of Colonel Sanders finger licking good? This was more like finger licking and to me as I was uninitiated…this was finger sucking on a suckling pig decadent. There was no clothe napkin strong enough…besides it was soooo good.

Cave Man. 2 Cave Women, unleashing Primal Carnivorous Carnage. All thoughts of flatware… who needs flatware???…all finger's.

I have eaten very unusual even exotic fare and ‘food’…but this was the by far thr most tasteful…even if all semblance of Western table manners were… let's say discarded…

We left nothing but a skeleton that looked as cleaned as a set of bones exposed to sandstorms and searing dessicating heat in the Gobi desert for years.

It is a funny thing. I was working nights many years ago, decades ago. One of the guys I was working with was Vietnamese. When I said, off handedly, that it was my birthday, he insisted on getting us a real Vietnamese dinner. He sounded like he said beef …something. I was unfamiliar with Vietnamese food but thought, OK, beef, and something like Chines food. Sweet and sour pork? That will be good. It took longer for him to go get the food and get back. I was really hungry when it arrived. We sat down. With the typical white boxes that Chinese food came in. He opens the box. He poured onto the plate. I was thinking more pepper steak. Out came this kind of white sticky stuff that was not rice. It was beef tripe. The guts of a cow. I nearly puked. He saw my expression. But I felt I had to eat it. He was doing a nice thing. I didn't;t like the look, texture or smell of it. But I chewed it up and ate it up. I didn’t spit it out. Although I wanted to. But since then it has grown on me. A little.

What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?

It has to be vitello tonnato. Imagine room temperature slices of baby veal dressed with a Mediterranean tunny fish sauce. Super umami? Beef with fish? You’d better believe it. The flavor was nothing short of magnificent. I was fed this during one of my tours of Bezerkeley’s ultra-classic food institutions, Chez Panisse—the home of Alice Waters and California Cuisine.

Given that this was back during 1986, please try to understand my utter hilarity when, coming over to Europe in 2010, I found numerous restaurants suddenly providing various less-than-adequate presentations of this exquisite dish. Here’s a glimpse of the magical stuff:

Oops, I left out hotaru ika, the firefly squid. It’s served whole, guts and all, at only the finest sushi bars. The ink sack and internal organs add a level of flavor that is incomparable. If you’re fortunate, the best places in town might have a few of them left. This is the beauty of them:

This is their world:

Try either of these foods and experience culinary paradise. It took me several decades of life to discover these unbelievable little treats. They provide a bandwidth of flavor that simply cannot be matched. If you want something that remotely approaches these cooking wonders, try my hashed browns:

I grew up in the South West a long, long way from the coast. On my first visit to a sea side city was in my mid twenties where a relative lived.

He took us to a restaurant and ordered a platter of fresh oysters on the Half Shell. Oh gosh I was in love with them from that moment on. This odd gooey thing that is not even cooked but is so delightful!

We do have them here but usually as Oyster Rockefeller. Also quite good but just not the same.

A traditional Ethiopian feast is an elbow to elbow community event. The food is served either in bowls or directly on specially covered table depending where you go; Rice, various ground meat dishes, sauces, are piled in mounds in front of you and your party.

Then everyone tears pieces off a spongy sourdough pancakes, which are then used to scoop up the food. Everyone eats with their hands from the same trough so to speak. I find it to be a joyful experience.

It’s hard to keep one’s pretenses up while passing bread and stuffing your face with your hands like a child. In some places they roast and brew coffee right at your table using traditional methods, which adds even more energy to the event.

-A good time!

I studied in a boarding school. We were people of little means. But that didn't deter us from celebrating birthdays!

So, here goes the recipe...

Mayo Fudge Cake

Prep Time: 40mins
Planning Time: 1 week
Serves: 30 hungry teenage girls

Ingredients:

1. A bottle of Chocolate Horlicks

2. 2 large packets of glucose biscuits. (Parle G works great. What we had was an obscure brand called 'Windsor Biscuits')

3. One bottle of water (from the water-cooler)

4. A large coffee mug

5. A spoon (Stolen from the mess)

6. A plate (Stolen from the mess or borrowed from a sincere junior)

7. Many people (for crushing biscuits and generating excitement)

Optional
Cadbury Gems.

Procedure

• Crush the biscuits. But not too fine.
• Make a semi-runny sauce with water and half the Horlicks.
• Mix the crushed biscuits and the 'chocolate fudge'
• Place the dough on a place (preferably in the shape of the initials of the birthday girl's boyfriend)
• Make a thick fudge with the rest of the Horlick. Pour over the dough.

Then it looks like this!!

As strange as it might be, it tastes quite good.

In my culinary journey, I’ve encountered a plethora of unique dishes, but nothing quite prepared me for the experience of eating fried crickets. Yes, you read that right—fried crickets. The moment I was presented with a small bowl of these crispy critters at a local street food market, my curiosity and trepidation intertwined in a delightful dance.

The crickets, seasoned with a tantalizing mix of spices, had a surprisingly appealing aroma. I took a deep breath, embraced the spirit of adventure, and popped one into my mouth. The crunch was immediate and exhilarating, followed by a nutty flavor reminiscent of roasted seeds. As I chewed, the initial hesitation faded, replaced by a newfound appreciation for this unique snack. It was an experience that defied my expectations, transforming what I thought would be a gag-inducing moment into a culinary delight.

But would I eat fried crickets every day? While I admire their nutritional profile—rich in protein, fiber, and healthy fats—I must admit that daily consumption might not be for me. The novelty, the thrill of trying something so outside the norm, is part of what made the experience enjoyable. Eating crickets daily could dull that excitement, and I might find myself longing for the varied textures and flavors found in traditional cuisine.

That said, I wholeheartedly endorse giving fried crickets a try, especially for those seeking to expand their palates and embrace the unconventional. They serve as a reminder that the world of food is vast and diverse, filled with surprises waiting to be discovered. Whether as a once-in-a-while treat or a bold addition to your snacking repertoire, they certainly deserve a place in the culinary conversation.

In conclusion, while fried crickets may not make it to my daily menu, they have carved out a unique space in my food adventures. The experience has opened my eyes to the wonders of the edible world, reminding me that sometimes the weirdest things can lead to the most delightful discoveries. So, the next time you encounter a dish that seems outlandish, take a leap of faith—you just might find a new favorite snack along the way!