I guess I'm pretty mainstream. I recall in Beijing, there were snake restaurants and I thought that was disgusting, but my dad told me he liked rattlesnake. Yuck - I really would have to be starving.
I love raw oysters, not terribly exotic, but most people I know think that's weird.
Shark fin soup. It was very slimy and disgusting.
shareWait, that's illegal!
shareI live in Los Angeles and at the time I was served sharks fin soup by a Chinese family observing the Chinese New Year celebration and it was legal. This was in 1999 and there were no restrictions on shark finning at that time. It took California until 2013 to ban shark finning and other states have followed suit.
Because of these bans the black market illegally imports over 60 thousand tons of shark fins each year into America.
seal/rabbit/hare/partridge birds/moose/caribou/caplin
shareOxtail.
I'm afraid I haven't really eaten anything spectacular out there, but I have eaten a few things many people in the US have not:
- lobster (at Red Lobster)
- curry at both at Indian and Thai restaurants
- some kind of weird "burrito" with raw greens at a Thai restaurant
- sushi at a Chinese buffet
- Korean food cooked at my house by actual Koreans, complete with pork, seaweed, and white rice
- Dan-Dan noodles at Pei Wei (I would not recommend it unless you wanta turn your stomach into a fiery furnace)
That's it. I might revise this if I can remember any other exotic foods, but so far, much of what I've eaten is pretty mundane compared to some people. I honestly can't compete with Andrew Zimmern, though.
I backpacked solo around Japan about thirty years ago. There were times I ate things without knowing what they were, reasoning that everyone else was eating the same things and nobody seemed in distress. The "most exotic thing I've ever eaten" may have been one of those things, but I guess I'll never know what it was.
The weirdest thing I ever knowingly ate was a scorpion sucker, from https://hotlix.com/. I bought a box to give away to friends as gag Christmas gifts, but I didn't want to give them out until I tried one first and made sure it didn't make me sick.
Probably frog legs.
shareNot really exotic, but I never let a fish head go to waste. When I catch striper, I'll roast the head and use all the meat for fish cakes. You'd be surprised how much good meat is on it. In Japan, yellowfin tuna head is very common and can serve a group of people.
I've also eaten perrywinkles and sea urchins, but again, not terrible exotic. And lastly, I've had eel a few times, which is very oily and similar in flavor to mackerel.
Much of what’s caught or shot here in Louisiana might be exotic to others.
share