Things you eat that make others recoil in horror

[Varrdy]

Oysters - yes they look like snot but with a little lemon juice, they're not bad!

Mussels - Again, many people are put off because they look like bogeys. I was too until I manned-up and tried one and was immediately sold! Mussels in garlic butter and served with spaghetti or linguine - yum-yum!

Black Pudding - Bit of an odd one this. Having seen it being made I first thought that there had been some kind of gruesome murder in the kitchen. Yes a sausage made of pigs-blood sounds horrible but I can confirm that, if done well, tastes bang-on. Just don't eat too much of it...

Anchovies - Why do so many people hate these salty little fish? I can eat them straight out of the can and do so, often. I have them on pizza; I dissolve them into Carbonara pasta sauce to give it a bit of bite; I have them in salad (pardon my French!)...they're great! Well...they're great until you manage to get one stuck to the roof of your mouth and you get salt-burn on your palate, which isn't so great.

Pate de Fois Gras - I have eaten this in France and can confirm that it is delicious. However I now avoid it now I know how it's made. While I have no issue with eating animals, I don't like them to suffer before they reach my plate!

 

[fenrizz]

Spoiler: snip

My fellow countrymen don't recoil in horror, but a lot of foreigners do.

Spoiler: Reindeer a.k.a. Rudolph

It's pretty delicious, nice taste of wild game.

Spoiler: Whale Meat

I've always liked a good whale stew, especially when I can get the meat fresh of the boat.
I urge you all to try it if you can find some whale meat!

It's super delicious!

For me, it's less "That's gross!" and more "You monster". I mean, you might as well say you hate Santa Claus and like to beat dolphins to death with a shovel. Reindeer are beautiful, majestic creatures, and whales are (to my knowledge) endangered. Still...judging by the pictures, they both look yummy....you bastard.

They are both yummy

But, no, we do not hunt endangered whales.
We only hunt northern minke whale, it is heavily regulated and sustainable.

Reindeer are bastards though.
And surprisingly small.

 

[Benni88]

Chicken hearts are delicious. On a skewer like that.... mmmmm.

 

[Benni88]

My fellow countrymen don't recoil in horror, but a lot of foreigners do.

Spoiler: Whale Meat

I've always liked a good whale stew, especially when I can get the meat fresh of the boat.
I urge you all to try it if you can find some whale meat!

It's super delicious!

I can't get down with Whale meat. They're cetaceans, higher mammals with a developed nervous system. It would be like eating chimpanzee, or dolphin. They've got very advanced brain function in comparison to most other food animals.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Second place goes to eel. Every time my coworkers and I order from Hibachi or Hibachi Express, I always order eel roll sushi, and someone always gives me a funny look or tells me it sounds gross. Don't care; the savory brown sauce they put on it ties the whole thing together.

Agree on the eel, it's delicious. Sadly good eel tends to be a little too expensive for me to eat regularly, but I like to pick some up at my local Korean market when I get the chance.

That's one of the things that I love about living in California. Within a 10 minute drive from my house I have at least 3 Chinese grocery stores, 2 Japanese grocery stores, and a Korean market. Makes getting extremely fresh fish and exotic produce really easy. The only downside is that I have to put up with the smell of durian fruit in one of the Chinese grocery stores.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Oysters
Frog legs
Sardines
Pickled herring
Alligator

Not very odd, but it raises a few eyebrows.
My parents don't understand my love for sushi and my roommates don't understand my love for pickles.

I would eat things like chocolate covered mealworms if I had never previously owned a lizard and used them as a major part of his diet. Now I just look at them as lizard food and go "No".

Me and my dad like to try new foods, we tried squid once, I guess I didn't exactly have the good squid because we couldn't stomach it and it wasn't the idea of eating squid that made me spit it out.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Closest thing I can think of is gherkins. Oh, and I spread salad cream on pretty much anything, from rice to burgers.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

Raw fish. I love sashimi, but a lot of my American friends look at my like I've gone mad when they find out. Yes, I realize that it's raw. Yes, I realize that raw means uncooked, what's your point? Not everything needs to be deep-fried.

Spoiler

I hate you so damn much right now that picture looks so good and I am hungry.

Uhhh, for me it is the candy with the bugs in them like cricket chocolates, cricket lollipops, and cheese dusted grubs. I like them but before I met my current crowd of friends I was given your standard "ewwwwwwww" when i talked about them.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I loves me some octopus and, squid and not even in the context of sushi. I don't really eat a lot of stuff that people would look sideways at me for eating but there are common foods people eat that other people wouldn't touch or look at a second time. There are people who would think I'm insane for drinking soy and, almond milk. The people who would support me for drinking those would vomit a bit in their mouth when I voice out loud my desire for some McDonalds.

 

[Mr Fixit]

About the only thing I eat that makes people say "wait, what?" is peanut butter & pickle sandwiches.

Some people give me strange looks when I tell them I drink cranberry juice.

Oh & I've had raisins on pizza before... yeah that was different, not completely horrible though.

 

[Total LOLige]

This one was back in eight grade, before people realized the glory that was Nutella. My Mom bought some back before it was popular and made a sandwich for lunch. When my friends saw me eat it they all almost vomited and gasped. "What the hell are you eating?!" "Looks like shit!" "Gross!" Were a few of the popular answers. I still give them shit about it today. I mean I get where they're coming from, but still.

"Ate Nutella before it was cool" Should be on your tombstone. I feel like Nutella(or chocolate spread as it is also called) has been popular for as long as I can remember in the UK. Could trade Nutella sandwiches for anything way back in the day.

OT: Nothing I eat makes people recoil in horror or disgiust. Sticking with the sandwich theme, people do think it is werd that I don't have butter on sandwiches.

 

[Bofus Teefus]

Oysters - yes they look like snot but with a little lemon juice, they're not bad!

Mussels - Again, many people are put off because they look like bogeys. I was too until I manned-up and tried one and was immediately sold! Mussels in garlic butter and served with spaghetti or linguine - yum-yum!

Black Pudding - Bit of an odd one this. Having seen it being made I first thought that there had been some kind of gruesome murder in the kitchen. Yes a sausage made of pigs-blood sounds horrible but I can confirm that, if done well, tastes bang-on. Just don't eat too much of it...

Anchovies - Why do so many people hate these salty little fish? I can eat them straight out of the can and do so, often. I have them on pizza; I dissolve them into Carbonara pasta sauce to give it a bit of bite; I have them in salad (pardon my French!)...they're great! Well...they're great until you manage to get one stuck to the roof of your mouth and you get salt-burn on your palate, which isn't so great.

Nice spread.

Oysters - Tried them once steamed... like just steamed and nothing else. That was nasty. Tried again years later with garlic and butter and stuff, and they were freaking delicious. Guess it's all in the prep.

Black Pudding - Thinking about it makes me a bit ill.

Anchovies - In dressing, on crackers, on pizza, all good!

 

[cathou]

snails and frog legs. actually, not very uncommon here, snails is on the menu of lots of restaurants. but hey, we descent from the french, so cultural heritage...

patée de foie gras is sold in almost every grocery store here too. quite good, depend on the brand.

liver, cook with bacon and tomato sauce, is delicious

i've try kangaroo meat for a chinese fondue. it was ok.

 

[lacktheknack]

I went to a Thai/Viet restaurant and ordered rice noodles with fried squid tentacles, with a small phở on the side brimming with beef tendons and tripe (cow stomach lining).

I thought Dad was going to hurl. xD

I don't really recommend the tripe, by the way. It got stuck in my braces, and I found a bit more in there two days later.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I went to a Thai/Viet restaurant and ordered rice noodles with fried squid tentacles, with a small phở on the side brimming with beef tendons and tripe (cow stomach lining).

I thought Dad was going to hurl. xD

I don't really recommend the tripe, by the way. It got stuck in my braces, and I found a bit more in there two days later.

Yeah, I have tripe pretty often in noodle soups at a chinese restaurant I go to near my house. It's pretty decent when it's in small pieces, but when the pieces are huge (or there's just one single piece in the bowl and you're expected to just take bites of it) it's kind of gross. I feel the same way about animal fat in general.

Still, I don't know what the OP is saying when people complain that squid is slimly, I thought it was very hard and chewy with a bland taste.

I didn't say anything about squid being slimy. My friends complain that sea urchin is slimy.

6. Sea Urchin - I'm guessing the yellow stuff is the part you eat, not the spiny thing...right? Like, what the hell would you even do with that? :/

8. Jellyfish - You can eat that? What kind of jellyfish is it, and what parts could you seriously eat?

For the sea urchin, yes the yellow (sometimes brownish) stuff is the part that you eat. In fact for a long time I didn't actually know that it was sea urchin, since the place I got it didn't have it written in English.

As far as jellyfish goes, I believe what is eaten is the "dome" part of it, not the tentacles. The tentacles have poison, but the top part of it doesn't (that's why you can touch them there without getting stung when they are alive). I'm not sure what kind of jelly fish it actually is, but the way I've eaten it is pickled. It doesn't really have its own flavor, it just tastes like whatever it was pickled in. Also, surprisingly it isn't slimy or jello-like. It's actually has a surprising crunch to it. The best way I could describe the texture is like biting into a pickle that's had the skin peeled off.

 

[Ravinoff]

I'm gonna go with cod tongues. Not exactly something that anyone outside this province has ever heard of. Not a huge fan of them, they're a bit rich and amorphous for my tastes, but they're alright when cooked like any other fish. That said, I'll try pretty much any seafood, which probably comes from living on an island. It's hilarious how people on the mainland talk about lobster as if it's this massively expensive luxury item, but around here you can buy them out of a panel van in a parking lot when they're in season.

 

[Varrdy]

Nice spread.

Oysters - Tried them once steamed... like just steamed and nothing else. That was nasty. Tried again years later with garlic and butter and stuff, and they were freaking delicious. Guess it's all in the prep.

I had them au-naturel and they were fine. I had them deep-fried and I was almost ill!

So I agree - it's all in the prep and presentation.

 

[Lovecrafts Sunny Day]

I strongly suspect that it's possible to cook/present most foodstuffs badly. This is a shame, as it will really put people off trying new culinary concepts.

I'm a huge fan of squid, I've had perfectly prepared examples of full calamari in Italy, light crispy batter, tentacles and all, lovely. I've also had overcooked 'calamari' locally, which are more akin to deep fried rubber bands... does not endear.

Deep fried salt and pepper squid also deserves a mention, not sure how authentically Chinese the recipe is, but it's a feature on many UK Cantonese menus.

Not mentioned so far is Haggis
I have Scottish heritage, but I would never eat it when I was younger. Nowadays I love it.

It's a hearty meal (and quite lungy too, truth be told).

 

[DerpLordSnuggy]

I love sashimi, squid, octopus, eel, alligator, kangaroo, and one that I didn't expect people to think odd was alfredo pepperoni pizza.