Me: escargot, chocolate covered ants, grasshoppers, raw oysters( foreign or not!). I don't know that many foreign foods. I love sushi, good Mexican food, Masala chicken, German sausage, love Italian anything, love Greek food, no Haggis.
Oh God, lordy yes. I was not raised to eat bugs. I know I am overcoming a huge prejudice and I am wrong, but I don't want to unlearn this nauseating thing I think about the idea of it.
Maybe someday something will change my mind, but not today. Nope. Not today. I don't eat meat, period. I don't like the idea of a lot of stuff that the Aryan races think are tempting period. I like Asian foods but not super exotic, over-the-top inventions that they have that put animals in very dire straights. I am not eating a poison fish, just because it costs 1000's of dollars and I can tell my friends I did it either. That is so stupid.
So, you've never had frozen vegetables, especially broccoli? The FDA sets standards for the number of insect parts (or rodent hair, or whatever other part of the rodent that gets in the way) that show up in our foods and it's not 0. You've probably eaten a LOT more than you think. So bon appétit mes amis!
It's necessary too. What do you think gives that broccoli its flavor?
Eating bugs is not big deal. I used to eat bunches and bunches of them before I hung up my motorcycle helmet.
This post was edited by Salt and Red Pepper at October 16, 2016 7:11 PM MDT
S&P that doesn't bother me at all. I am not squeamish, I can't get my head around biting into insect guts and yet I'm sure they are very much like sea food. They look just like a lot of weird sea creatures, especially shrimp. But I just don't want to get used to eating caterpillar larvae is all.
In Southeast Asia they roll beatles in flour and deep fry them, then serve them with a mixture of sriracha and spicy mustard. I'm sure I could eat that.
There is a lot of great foreign foods. I do love the Italian cuisine. When traveling I do also try some of the local food. I can't say the fried bugs were a specialty to me, crispy but not something I'll introduce at home. Lol.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at October 16, 2016 7:11 PM MDT
Oh man alive, YES to that, Sapphic, but the weird stuff is scary. I don't want to try fried bugs or that Durian fruit that stinks up the world for weeks after you eat it.
I have eaten food in 18 different countries. So no, ...as long as i know what it is. LOL But of course some of the stuff you mention. i wouldn't eat either.
@Baba, wow! 18 countries! I'm trying different foods here in Houston. It's an international city. I have tried many new things. My biggest surprises are India's desserts. They aren't sweet. I learned to eat suschi. Now I love it!
Marguerite, not to butt in, but India has lots of very sweet deserts as well as what you have tried. They have a lot of great food. So different than our normal palette but still kind of familiar in an odd sort of way. Not Asian really and not Mediterranean, but kind of a tad of both with a lot of just Indian.
If it's traditional and tastes good then there's a fair chance I'll like it. 'Foreign' can often a byword for 'superb' if you avoid large retailers and know what you're looking for. There are a host of speciality cheeses and processed meats across Europe that are just heavenly. Every nation and every country will almost certainly have something that will be of interest, just as there will be things some people absolutely will not touch.
And speaking of meats... however much we might like to not notice it, we should be honest and admit that a large proportion of 'western' food is sold to the customer with a big, fat slice of pretence attached. The largest producers/sellers have spent huge sums disassociating meat with death, or a specific product with what actually goes into it (sausage is a perfect example but there are many more). And that is to say nothing of what our farmed animals are actually fed before they end up in that dish.
The 'traditional' route may involve a few rodent hairs or the odd unclean hand and raw milk as an ingredient, but I'd rather have that than animals fed gallons of antibiotics or bits of their relatives - all in the interests of cheap prices, obscene profit and a big, fat, f**k you to the health of the consumer.
'With a big, fat slice of pretence attached' - can I steal that, Mr W? And I agree entirely with what you say, for what it's worth.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at October 17, 2016 3:47 AM MDT
My best friend runs a very high end restaurant in Belgium. He serves raw pork. No. Never. I don't care how much it costs. I'll never eat any animals testicles either, regardless of how they are cooked and what kind of sauce adorns them.
I go into the German butcher down the road to buy the best kielbasa I've ever had. They make it themselves. Delish! However they have black sausage they call blood sausage. I just look at it and wonder how anyone could eat it. She always offers me a sample but I always decline.
No, I'm not afraid of the food; I just am not going to eat that which I don't want. It isn't rude.
Now, the water is a different story. When out of the USA I always order Evian. It seems to be everywhere.
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at October 16, 2016 7:14 PM MDT