When I travel, I try to taste the local cuisine and love to try things that I’ve never had before. Recently I tried haggis, which was outstanding. I’ve also had hakarl (fermented shark - not really my cup of tea, but glad I tried it) and balut (surprisingly tasty).

What have you tried? Anything that caught you off guard by how tasty (or not) it was?

  • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Haggis is delicious, and when I first had it, I assumed I wouldn’t like it, but had to try, only to really love it.

    A lot of stinky cheeses taste really good, but if you’ve never given then a chance, it’s hard to make yourself eat. Humboldt Fog is a favorite of mine, but basically none of my peers will try it.

  • Xakuterie@dormi.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Grilled fruit bat in Indonesia. They “hunted” them by flying kites with hooks. Wouldn’t recommend. Cruel and disgusting.

    Same country: on a trip to a volcano we ate some sort of fried rice brick with rendang or beef dip at a small road stall. It was the most simple, yet delicious meal I ever had. I still dream of that tasty brick of rice…

    Edit: I forgot sausage made of pigs brain. Sounds horrible, tastes awesome. But it’s an aquired taste. And you need a really good butcher who can make this kind of sausage in good quality.

  • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    The Corsican version of Casu Marzu, sheeps milk cheese with fly larvae. It’s delicious.

    Maple sap, direct from the bucket. The flavor is quite complex compared to syrup since the volatiles haven’t been boiled off.

    Prahok, fermented fish paste. Used as an ingredient, condiment, and main. It isn’t terrible, it’s just not very good. I expected I would love it, but meh.

  • Redje@lemmings.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I have no idea where it comes from but here I go : A long time ago, we were invited at some German friends place (I am french) for dinner and they served us a weird unidentifiable “mud” that we did not thought much of.

    Well I like to try new food so I dug in and wouldn’t you know it I still eat it today and everyone I made some for told me that it was amazingly good for what it is.

    The recipe is simple : For a can of tune, you add a box of creamy cheese (I don’t know if there is a word in English, if you look for “Philadelphia” on the internet, you will find it) and some finely cut dried tomatoes. Be careful to strain everything (remove the water from the tuna, from the cheese and remove most of the oil of the tomatoes) and mix everything together. Salt, pepper and you are good to go. I recommend eating it with plain crackers as the preparation is already salty.

    Unfortunately I don’t have the name as we did not understood what our friends told us and simply named it “carabistouille”

    • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      That box of creamy cheese is literally called “cream cheese”, at least in American English. Philadelphia is the most popular brand name.

    • WFH@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      I call mine “rillettes de thon” or “rillettes de sardines” depending on which canned fish I put in them. Also, I love to twist them with chopped cilantro, chopped shallots and lime juice or smoked paprika (pimientón de la Vera).

    • thorbot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Tuna, cream cheese, and chopped tomatoes. That sounds like tuna spread. I like to make mine with tuna, cream cheese, freshly chopped chives and chopped pickles. Great thing to spread on crackers.

    • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      That actually sounds quite tasty! One of those foods that tastes the opposite of how it looks. (Balut is very much like that)

  • saegiru@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Deep fried cicadas seasoned with Old Bay. Co-worker gathered a bunch a few years ago when they were around and fried them up. They were fine, and if you had not told me they were an insect I wouldn’t even have known. Nothing I wanted to eat again afterwards though.

  • Alexc@lemmings.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Chapulines (Crickets/small grashopper type things) in Mexico - Grilled as street food with a little lime just and chili - Very tasty indeed.

    • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I had them recently ground up on something, and I thought it was just tajin. With chili and zime zest, it basically ends up just a more savory tajin. Not sure I would have given them the chance if I knew what I was eating, lol

  • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Deep fried haggis is much nicer than it sounds. I tried it a few years ago in Edinburgh on a rugby weekend.

    I had what I thought was fried squid in Spain once. I’d tried squid a few years before, and it was flavourless and rubbery, but I later learned that it had been overcooked. When I saw Calamari on the menu in a seaside restaurant, I thought I’d try it again.

    It had a longer name, but a badly translated conversation with the waiter convinced me that it was the same dish.

    The same waiter brought out a plate of what looked a lot like deep fried baby squid or octopus.

    It was very nice, but I got filthy looks from my young niece for ‘eating all the babies’, so I haven’t had it since.

    • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’ve had baby octopus before at a Japanese restaurant. Delicious, but I feel bad about eating octopus now.

      Haggis is great! I just tried it for the first time last week. So good.

    • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Sure, chicken feet are interesting. I don’t think most people outside of Asian cultures have tried them.

      Edit: never had deep fried brain, but I’m had it sauted. Pretty good!

  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Chocolate covered crickets. What made them interesting is they tasted nothing like chocolate and I kinda suspect the person who gave them to me of having sucked the coating off them first.

    And the legs were scratchy on the way down.

  • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachts
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I got tricked into trying stinky tofu in Taiwan before the smell was able to hit me and I admit I liked it, but not enough to make up for the smell once it did hit me.

    Also tried horse nigiri in Japan. Definitely the gamiest thing I’ve ever tasted