What kinds of exotic food are you willing to eat?

[Sherekhan]

Cooking is a fine art that started after fire was discovered. Of course, since then food had been more palatable and looks yummier. You can never remove exotic food from the list. Some may make people's knees weak (or even make people puke).

So yeah. I am asking for you people to give a list of exotic foods you will be willing to eat when the opportunity comes.

I've attached a picture of fried ants on a plate, below. (I have yet to find a picture of Snake Adobo* on a plate).

* = Adobo is a dish prepared by cooking meat in vinegar, soy sauce and pepper corns. And yes, some non poisonous snakes are made into this in provinces where no fancy meat is found. People often feed on insects and/or dogs (even disregarding the possibility of rabies infection) when they fancy it.

[UNODRAGONE]

wow I don't know if it is considered exotic, but I ate eel when I was in Italy

[Canis Lupus]

I'm willing to eat most Chinese dishes, except snakes and stuff.

[MorganaFang]

I <3 Adobo. So much so.

[NeonLightChild]

I'm willing to eat most Chinese dishes, except snakes and stuff.
Including this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_corresp ondent/5371500.stm) (In answer to my own question, yes I would eat that.)

Full text ahead in case link gets farked...

The dish in front of me is grey and shiny.

"Russian dog," says my waitress Nancy.

"Big dog," I reply.

"Yes," she says. "Big dog's penis..."

We are in a cosy restaurant in a dark street in Beijing but my appetite seems to have gone for a stroll outside.

Nancy has brought out a whole selection of delicacies.

They are draped awkwardly across a huge platter, with a crocodile carved out of a carrot as the centrepiece.

Nestling beside the dog's penis are its clammy testicles, and beside that a giant salami-shaped object.

"Donkey," says Nancy. "Good for the skin..."

She guides me round the penis platter.

"Snake. Very potent. They have two penises each."

I did not know that.

Deer-blood cocktail

"Sheep... horse... ox... seal - excellent for the circulation."

She points to three dark, shrivelled lumps which look like liquorice allsorts - a special treat apparently - reindeer, from Manchuria.


Government officials... two of them... they're having the penis hotpot
Nancy

The Guolizhuang restaurant claims to be China's only speciality penis emporium, and no, it is not a joke.

The atmosphere is more exotic spa than boozy night-out.

Nancy describes herself as a nutritionist.

"We don't call them waiters here. And we don't serve much alcohol," she says. "Only common people come here to get drunk and laugh."

But she does offer me a deer-blood and vodka cocktail, which I decide to skip.

Medicinal purposes

The restaurant's gristly menu was dreamt up by a man called Mr Guo.

Boiled ox penis
The Chinese believe that eating penis can enhance your virility

He is 81 now and retired.

After fleeing China's civil war back in 1949, he moved to Taiwan, and then to Atlanta, Georgia, where he began to look deeper into traditional Chinese medicine, and experiment on the appendages of man's best friend.

Apparently, they are low in cholesterol and good, not just for boosting the male sex drive, but for treating all sorts of ailments.

Laughter trickles through the walls of our dining room.

"Government officials," says Nancy. "Two of them upstairs. They're having the penis hotpot."

Most of the restaurant's guests are either wealthy businessmen or government bureaucrats who, as Nancy puts it, have been brought here by people who want their help.

What better way to secure a contract than over a steaming penis fondue.

Discretion is assured as all the tables are in private rooms.

The glitziest one has gold dishes.

"Some like their food served raw," says Nancy, "like sushi. But we can cook it anyway you like."

Rare order

"Not long ago, a particularly rich real estate mogul came in with four friends. All men. Women don't come here so often, and they shouldn't eat testicles," says Nancy solemnly.

The men spent $5,700 (£3,000) on a particularly rare dish, something that needed to be ordered months in advance.

"Tiger penis," says Nancy.

Bull's perineum is also a delicacy

The illegal trade in tiger parts is a big problem in China.

Campaigners say the species is being driven towards extinction because of its popularity as a source of traditional medicine.

I mention this, delicately, to Nancy, but she insists that all her tiger supplies come from animals that have died of old age.

"Anyway, we only have one or two orders a year," she says.

"So what does it taste like?" I ask.

"Oh, the same as all the others," she says blithely.

And does it have any particular potency? "No. People just like to order tiger to show off how much money they have."

Welcome to the People's Republic of China - tigers beware.

Sliced and pickled

"Oh yes," she adds, "the same group also ate an aborted reindeer foetus.

"That is very good for your skin. And here it is..."

Another "nutritionist" walks in bearing something small and red wrapped in cling film.

My appetite is heading for the airport.

Still, I think, it would be rude not to try something.

I am normally OK about this sort of thing. I have had fried cockroaches and sheep's eyes, so...

There is a small bowl of sliced and pickled ox penis on the table.

I pick up a piece with my chopsticks and start to chew. It is cold and bland and rubbery.

Nancy gives me a matronly smile.

"This one," she says, "should be eaten every day."

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42119000/jpg/_42119780_ox_penis_2 03x300afp.jpg

I really have no qualms about eating "strange" things...it's all food. If it tastes good, all the better. If not, there's probably alternatives that do. And if there're no alternatives, then I'll choke it down.

[Canis Lupus]

K, I was talking more about the Chinese you can get here in town. :D

[Splitspahn]

I'd eat just about any thing that tastes good and isnt dog.

[Bone and Soul]

All kinds of Curries, deep-fried rats, monkey heads(also deep-fried), Rocky-Mountain Oysters (bull's balls), Choclate-covered scorpions, human flesh(kidding?)..... the list goes on and on....... :droolbloo

[Sherekhan]

All kinds of Curries, deep-fried rats, monkey heads(also deep-fried), Rocky-Mountain Oysters (bull's balls), Choclate-covered scorpions, human flesh(kidding?)..... the list goes on and on....... :droolbloo


Rats, once cleaned and well cooked can be an ingredient of a very yummy dish. Haven't tried scorpions yet. But I'm sure I've tried cow and goat genitalia. :cool:


I <3 Adobo. So much so.


Yush, however, it is a very delicate dish, as you have to balance the saltiness and the sourness of the liquid. Of course, all dishes should be carefully tasted and cured and prepared to have it magnificently delicious once cooked.

In answer to my own question, yes I would eat that.

I definitely wouldn't dare eat animal fetus. Probably that, and worms and bugs are foods I won't eat even if someone offered a lot of money for me to eat it.

[MorganaFang]

Yush, however, it is a very delicate dish, as you have to balance the saltiness and the sourness of the liquid. Of course, all dishes should be carefully tasted and cured and prepared to have it magnificently delicious once cooked.


That's why I like adobe it's one of those things where it really changes with the individuals who make it. You can tell who cares, who doesn't, who is more acidic or more flavorful in life :D

Of course I favor my own preparation of it the best.

[sai-fujiwara]

I'm willing to eat anything--snake, dog, octopus, squid, clams, ants... not scorpion though. I would be afraid of eating some poison and dying if I ate scorpion.

[Zombie]

Any kind of meat, except ~ahem~ man-sausage of any type.
Anything hot or spicy (curries, vindaloo etc..) just about anything Thai...

Aw hell, Im carnivorus! Whaddaya expect!! :D :D

-Z