10 Strange Gourmet Foods
Neatorama compiled its list of the 10 Weirdest Gourmet Foods out there. Making the cut are ortolan, canard à la rouennaise (duck in blood sauce), huitlacoche (corn fungus), durian, live baby octopus, de jaeger (snail caviar), bird nest soup, balut (duck fetus egg), kopi luwak ("poop coffee"), and, in first place, casu marzu (maggot cheese). Come on, serious eaters, 'fess up! Who among us has tasted this stuff What's it like?
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28 Comments:
I have to say I'm desensitized to durian. I grew up being exposed to it so I never thought it was strange!
I have a friend who's eaten balut and he says they're extremely tasty.
ag3208 at 7:19PM on 12/02/08
I've had durian. It smells like rotten garlic but tastes like the most creamy, delicious, custard-y goodness ever.
Can't say I've tried anything else on the list. I have seen balut up close and personal, and that was more than enough for me.
buffy at 7:29PM on 12/02/08
I get huitlacoche fresh from my garden in summer. Delicious.
schnitzel at 7:31PM on 12/02/08
I happen to love uni (sea urchin gonads) which isn't on the list, but maybe should be?
mh330 at 7:34PM on 12/02/08
I've had all of it but the ortolan and the casu marzu, although I'd welcome the opportunity to try either of them. That being said, except for the live octopus and perhaps the huitlacoche, I can't say that I crave any of them. Durian is foul - and the best durian is the foulest of all, like an onion forgotten behind the refrigerator for six months. Balut is disconcerting if you look at it, but basically tastes like crunchy, goopy chicken soup. Snail caviar tastes like nothing; kopi luwak is a stunt coffee; and bird's nest soup, like most Cantonese luxury foods, is all texture. Blood sauces can be awfully good though - the reason coq au vin is never any good here is because nobody puts in the blood.
condiment at 7:52PM on 12/02/08
I've had huitlacoche in a quesadilla (the kind without cheese). It was fine, fairly subtle. I honestly don't get why it makes a list of weird foods. Is it the English translation, corn fungus? I mean, it's not that different from a mushroom growing in the ground.
emilydev at 8:17PM on 12/02/08
I think hundred-year-old egg is a lot weirder than many of the foods listed. (But I love it.)
emilydev at 8:18PM on 12/02/08
I didn't see bird's nest soup on the list! I've had it, it didn't have much flavour.
ag3208 at 8:19PM on 12/02/08
I love huitlacoche. It has a characteristic taste very unique and it is commonly influenced bu the way it is cooked (garlic, herbs, etc.). Some people call it the Mexican caviar. It may be not that pleasant to look at but it is excellent.
I love it, I eat it whenever I can.
velascomike at 8:31PM on 12/02/08
I agree with emilydev - I think the translation of huitlacoche makes it sound nasty, whereas it's really not.
I've had the cat poop coffee - it was really expensive but tasted like a regular cup of coffee. I couldn't finish it, though - the thought of it grossed me out too much!
charm city cupcake at 8:35PM on 12/02/08
i live in mexico city so huitlacoche is no problem. it's actually a delicacy here that's quite accessible to most as it's found at most quesadilla stands. not quite sure what it tastes like though as usually it's surrounded by lots of cheese and blue corn tortilla.
durian is a delicious, creamy fruit from Asia that has a uniquely pungent smell on the outside.
it has pods inside that break off and, once you open one, expose a buttery kind of texture with a taste that's hmmm hard to describe.
paulygmex at 8:57PM on 12/02/08
WTF maggot cheese? poop coffee? DO NOT WANT.
sailordave at 9:04PM on 12/02/08
Alas and alack, I've had none of these and don't even know what they are except for the ones described.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 9:06PM on 12/02/08
I'm with the corn fungus crew.
ReneeRobinson at 9:10PM on 12/02/08
In addition to some of the other things on the list, I can speak for the maggot cheese. Technically, casu marzu is from Sardinia, and I've never had it there, but the tradition exists elsewhere. I've eaten it in Molise, Italy, when I worked as a shepherd. Basically, you leave the cheese, preferably with cracks in it, so that a special type of fly can lay its eggs. The maggots hatch, and eat their way through the cheese, digesting it. The way I had it, the original cheese was a firm sheep's milk (pecorino)...once the worms bore through it, it becomes more liquid and intense in flavor. You eat it, maggots and all. And if you love stinky cheese, it's great. Those who grow up with it swear it's the best.
Olho de Gato at 9:17PM on 12/02/08
I'm constantly intrigued by the food s of other cultures. We are really so boring and relatively stunted when it comes to diversity in food. So many people (myself included) balk at the thought of eating tongue or head cheese or other parts of an animal that aren't "standard" and pretty. My grandparents were poor; my grandfather from Mexico, and they wouldn't dream of wasting any part of anything. They raised a goat every year for cabrito (then, of course it was a pet, so my uncle sold it and bought another one to be butchered). They cooked ALL of it. My grandma made head cheese and, though I never saw her to know what she did with them, ate the eyes too.
I've since had head cheese that my brother made from wild boar, and told me it was pate'. Yes, we are a loving, lying family. It was delicious.
The maggot cheese scares me.
Live baby octopus gives me pause. It's ALIVE.
Coffee from excrement? Really? Someone must explain.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 9:46PM on 12/02/08
I never understood how poop coffee, tortured animals and rotten food becomes "gourmet".
smile at 1:10AM on 12/03/08
I've had bird's nest soup. Yes, it's tasteless so you can't have it plain! It's usually cooked with rock sugar.
Vincci at 1:40AM on 12/03/08
Some of these sound disturbing (the consumption of live animals is the one thing that I think would be harder to overcome than any other food-culture barrier), but I have to agree with the others who don't find these particularly weird. Although I've never had canard à la rouennaise, I have had hare cooked in similar ways, several times, and it's very good (I'm assuming that it is the blood component that is being identified as weird); I doubt one would know about the presence of blood, without being told.
mongoose at 2:28AM on 12/03/08
@mh330 - I too was surprised that no gonads made the list. That's usually high on people's "that's not food" list.
I don't see understand why the duck press is so expensive or why they are so hard to get. I've never pressed a duck but I can't imagine its too different from olives, apples, or the number of other things that are routinely pressed. Add duck, apply pressure, no?
christopher at 8:20AM on 12/03/08
None of this stuff sounds remotely appealing to me.
juliebugsmama at 8:55AM on 12/03/08
i've had kopi luwak! tasted like...really good coffee that i could have gotten at my local roaster for 1/8 the price. should have saved my money for a good steak.
thuscwspake at 9:45AM on 12/03/08
@CharmCity- LOL "cat poop coffee"
Perhaps I could convince my furry one to taste some columbian decaf and then follow her around with a baggie. Times are tough.
Kerosena at 12:06PM on 12/03/08
I was surprised to see I had eaten 5 of the ten.
Durian--I was underwhelmed. Didn't taste bad...On the other hand, not all that good either.
Live Octopus--both tasty and fun to eat. I like a food that challanges me on the way to my mouth!
Kopi whatever coffee--Again, I was underwhelmed. I'm not a big coffee drinker though, maybe someone more into it would be more excited.
Huitlacoche-I mean, it makes a mean quesadilla--how different is this than a terrific mushroom? Not that much.
Balut--Honestly, if you can get over the visual of seeing the body parts of the fetus, it tastes like a very good egg, maybe even a little creamier
dagoose at 12:41PM on 12/03/08
A coworker of mine brought some durian in to work for us to try. I only ate a little bit, but another coworker helped himself to a big bite. He later said, "That's not a flavor that I would see out."
I got an equal mix of onion and melon, and hoo boy, did it ever linger.
maryofdoom at 3:15PM on 12/03/08
Durian's all right, but I don't like goopy, custardy textures, so I'll have a spoonful now and then, but its not something I go out of my way to have.
Bird's nest soup - not very exciting.
Never had the others, unfortunately, but none of them sound that bad.
@smile:
Rotten food? Without the process of rot we wouldn't have lovely things like cheese, wine, kimchi, etc!
fuuchan at 10:26PM on 12/03/08
I've been meaning to try huitlacoche - sure, fungus sounds a little weird, until you remember that mushrooms are fungus (and grow in worse stuff than corn!). and i ADORE mushrooms, so I bet i'd love huitlacoche.
i want to try durian. i think i'd try most any thing vegetarian, actually. but,
i don't think i'll ever eat a live animal, and I'd be hesitant w/ some animal products.
emisara at 8:38PM on 12/08/08
also, I can imagine some list of gross foods w/ common western foods.
blue cheese (listed as moldy curdled milk, of course.) or cheese in general (aged, curdled milk?). eggs are a weird concept. fermented foods (aged & soured?) could be seen as pretty gross.
it's all so relative.
emisara at 8:42PM on 12/08/08