Re: Weird meat!

1

Dude, sea urchin is awesome. Seriously.

What about the live octopus?

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2

I enjoy the organ meat but got over the show-offy aspect of it a couple years ago. When I was hanging out on Chowhound there were folks -- among whose number I could all too often be counted -- who every time someone posted about eating cui in Jackson Heights, would chime back about eating duck blood in Elmhurst or bird intestines in Flushing or etc. Gets kinda old. (I haven't looked at "Weird Meat" yet so I'm not saying it's like that, just sayin'.)

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3

Oh and of course there was the guy who worked next to me at the Manhattan Plaza Cafe kitchen who boasted ludicrously of having eaten the brain of a live monkey in Vietnam (or some such south Asian country, don't quite recall which now.)

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4

When I was living in a village in Samoa during Peace Corps training, the family I was staying with presented me with a platter of about a dozen live sea urchins. Cracked, so I could pull them open, but with the spines still moving.

I ate them -- I'm still not sure if I was being honored or hazed. Ick.

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5

Haggis is fairly yukko, although if you really like organ meat you might think it's okay. I think it's worse than sea urchin.

Blood pudding is good, though. As is pig's blood (salty).

But bird poop? No.

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6

I don't like sea urchin either. Nor abalone (although who knows if the abalone one gets in Minnesota is any good).

I've had all of the food apostropher lists, except scrapple. And I've had haggis--it tastes like an oaty mutton sausage. Nothing special.

No way am I eating wang, though.

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7

6 -- not even ATM?

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8

Hmm.... I looked on the Weird Meat page, and the "fish poop" he describes is something called "lokot." I'm pretty sure that "lokot" is the word for a kind of vermicelli noodle in Tagalog, and the photo of the fish poo looked a lot like noodles too. Maybe the locals were having a bit of a leg-pull with the foreigner?

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9

GB, it's possible that I just had nasty sea urchin. Maybe it's like venison in that respect. But there was nothing awesome about what I bit into that night.

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10

In Taiwan I was fed "something the female pig has that the male pig does not have". This was at a Chinese New Year feast and may have been a fertility ritual kind of thing.

A friend said that in the Philipines they serve pickled beef tapeworm. He may have been a liar.

Chinese, especially Cantonese, seem to take pride in their willingness to eat anything whatsoever. Besides live-monkey brains, live baby mice are the championship treat, attested as far back as about 800 AD.

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11

TMK--you first.

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12

Ooh, I bet no one here has eaten palolo. Twice a year, on the full moon in September and October, the palolo reef worms swim out just before dawn to spawn. They look like blue spaghetti, and everyone in Samoa stands in the water with a net scooping them into buckets until the sun comes up and they dissolve when the light hits them (I'm not sure if the dissolve bit is true, but they do disappear pretty darn fast.)

You can eat them raw, or fry them up -- fried in butter they turn into seafood-tasting scrambled eggs, except turquoise.

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13

I haven't had palolo, though it sounds exciting. Haggis was disappointingly edible, though. I love tartare, but most things intestial from mammals have appalled me. Maybe I haven't tasted the good stuff.

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14

Haggis isn't yucko! Haggis is nice.

It's like a spicy sausage/black-pudding combination. I don't get why people have a problem with it to be honest, there's nothing in it that isn't in a normal sausage.

Scottish chip shops sell deep fried haggis as a fast food. It's even better when you add curry sauce -- for a uniquely scottish taste combination. It's the perfect post-beer snack.

I do wonder if foreign-bought haggis is the same as the stuff you'd get in Scotland? Although I believe Macsweens do internet delivery worldwide.

I've eaten Czech blood soup but not brain goulash (although I have a recipe for it here). Czech soup dumplings made from shredded up liver/blood are nice, though. Duck blood and pigs blood are fairly common cooking ingredients there.

I'd definitely draw the line at primates or live animals though. I'd not even do it to say I'd tried it.

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15

No way am I eating wang, though.

It's not so bad, really.

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16

Yeah but come on, B. -- it's different for girls...

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17

6: I had some haggis in Edinburgh and quite liked it. The company that made it would ship it, if you wanted. They had also devised a vegetarian version. I think that they came up with a vegetarian version which tasted pretty similar.

I think it might have been Macsweens.

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18

I don't know whether MAcSweens does internet delivery worldwide, but McKean''s which managed to nab the perfect url (scottishhaggis.co.uk) sells it in the US through a partnership with a company in Bangor, ME.

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19

I've started enjoying Pho, the Vietnamese soup meal. It has particular meats as cuts in it, but also a kind of rubbery meat ball. Anybody know what's in it?

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20

16: what, girl mouths are different?

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21

Yeah, pretty much all their parts...

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22

In the dark, all cats are gray.

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23
But once you get outside the Western Hemisphere, folks will eat anything, including all sorts of dishes that really give me pause.

I used to think this too, until I went to a certain European country and actually watched the making of a haggis-equivalent. Now I realize it's the folks in the Western Hemisphere who will eat "anything".

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24

The mother of a friend of mine went to Senegal in the Peace Corps awhile back and had a big grub they eat. Tested like shrimp.

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25

Isn't it kind of redundant to have a cuisine that includes grub?

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26

Is there a cuisine that doesn't?

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27

Tested like shrimp, but wrote essays like scallop.

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28

Is anyone else here on blogspot having trouble posting? I can write and save my post, but can't get it to show up.

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29

I can't even access my Blogspot sites, eb.

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30

JM, I can access your blogspot site, although the comment count for your most recent post hasn't been increased to reflect the comment I left telling you to check your email.

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31

That's really odd. I can still load your personal page, but not the hatred one.

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32

I too was recently reading "Not Yet Enlightened" without problems; for to find out in which states Jackmormon had stayed in her time.

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33

OK, going to check me email. (I really fear I have a trojan on mine own computer, so slow is its processing.)

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34

Everyone else is sleeping, it seems, but here's an update on the blogspot problems. In other words, still not working. I suppose if I were ready to pay to blog I'd look into Typepad.

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35

re: 17

Macsweens do indeed do a vegetarian haggis which I highly recommend. We actually eat the veggie one most of the time as my wife isn't that keen on the meat-derived haggis.

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36

Can you recite 'To A Haggis' over a vegie haggis?

I say it is no chieftain of any puddin' race.

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37

Duck blood and pigs blood are fairly common cooking ingredients there

I've had duck's blood soup at a Polish restaurant in Pittsburgh. Tangy, but I prefer duck. And pierogies.

"Duck Soup," of course, is the greatest movie evar.

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38

"Duck Soup," of course, is the greatest movie evar.

And "Duck's Blood Soup", the Marx Brothers' only venture into the slasher genre.

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39

Do you know why Groucho Marx was a Jewish comedian?

Because of WWI. He started out as a German comedian doing German jokes, but in 1914 the bottom dropped out of that market.

Groucho Wiki

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40

IIRC Harpo became a silent comedian because his Irish act wasn't that great.

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41

re: 36

No, its face is dishonest, but still pretty damn sonsie.

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42

To be clear, I'm not objecting to smoking pole, I'm objecting to masticating and trying to swallow all of the chewy bits in a penis. Strikes me as worse than boiled pork belly.

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43

I'm not objecting to smoking pole

Of course not.

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44

the most terrible meat of all to eat is closer to home: horse. It's *sour*. Awful.

It was produced by a French university cafeteria that also served me pigeon (which is crunchy - from ligaments). Waste not want not.

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45

"Duck Soup," of course, is the greatest movie evar.

So a lot of movies must fail the Duck Soup Test.

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46

In Kansas, one can sometimes get barbecued rattlesnake. Mmmm.

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47

This is the most disgusting food I've ever heard of, although it might not qualify as "meat".

Balut is pretty gross too.

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48

I'm shocked that someone would bring up pho in a weird meat thread. In this day and age, it's as American as hamburgers, isn't it?

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49

47 -- reckon it is meat if you leave the larvae in it.

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50

This is the most disgusting food I've ever heard of

"When disturbed, the larvae can jump for distances

up to 15 cm (6 inches), prompting recommendations of eye protection for those eating the cheese."

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51

The icelandic dish consisting of rotten shark meat sounds pretty vile.

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52

I've had Casu Marzu! Not that bad. Not even the most disgusting cheese, actually.

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53

Although, I really like sea urchin, so YMMV.

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54

So, what cheese is more disgusting than one riddled with leaping larvae?

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55

The larvae aren't that bad. Arguably the mold in Roquefort or Gorgonzola is worse. Various unpasteurized fermented cheeses are definitely worse. There's one pickled in grappa that sounds like it should be awesome, but is in fact revolting.

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56

Except the mold in roquefort and gorgonzola is like the opposite of disgusting -- this is the only problem with your little hypothesis...

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57

I am actually fanatically pro-gorgonzola, and roquefort is darn good. I'm saying the larvae aren't bad either; they sound much more disgusting than they are. Other, less disgusting-sounding cheeses are IRL much more disgusting. That's why I said "arguably"; you could argue that gorgonzola mold is disgusting using the same arguments by which casu marzu larvae are disgusting. You'd be wrong.

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58

I once had a bottle of ketchup that seemed especially tangy. It was just regular Hunts or Heinz ketchup, but I didn't think anything of it. Somewhere along the line I liiked into the squeezebottle and found the reason. There were a dozen or two little grubs in the bottle. This must have been the same as cheese effect.

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59

I'm objecting to masticating and trying to swallow all of the chewy bits in a penis

So you won't be dining here, I take it?

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60

Wow, I wish this discussion was on WeirdMeat.com itself ... some of these things I haven't heard of before, like the blue sea worms in Samoa.

As for the fish poop in Cebu, Philippines ... I've gone to pains to confirm it, because it's so unbelievable, but everyone I spoke with in Cebu confirmed this...

http://www.weirdmeat.com/

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