Gator- tastes like chicken, kind of tough and chewy, but come on, have you ever seen an alligator? Of course it was going to be chewy.
Frog legs- pretty much a dead ringer for chicken wings if you didn't know what a wing was supposed to look like. Maybe just the tiniest hint of something fishy going on there.
Escargot - an excellent excuse to eat a bunch of butter and garlic and for some reason it's fancy even though you're eating a garden pest
Squirrel - kind of greasy, but not bad, darker meat than I expected. Not really enough meat on them to be worth it though, at least not the squirrels we have in my neck of the woods, I've seen some pretty big squirrels in other parts of the country though, so maybe they're a little more worthwhile. If you had a handful of squirrels I suspect they could make a pretty good soup or stew though.
Rabbit- tastes like chicken, I've had it a few different ways, I don't know that I would know the difference if you swapped rabbit for chicken in any of them, but I had a rabbit pot pie at a restaurant a few years ago that has been my happy thought ever since, probably the tastiest thing I have ever eaten.
Deer venison - very similar to beef, a bit gamey but I dig that.
Quail - tiny chicken, that's pretty much all there is to it.
Pigeon- much darker than chicken, a bit greasy, overall pretty tasty (these were country pigeons, I don't recommend eating city pigeons) a single pigeon breast is pretty much exactly the right size to make a pigeon nugget.
Bison- lean beef, maybe a bit stronger tasting but overall pretty well within the beef spectrum. If you didn't tell me it was bison, I'd probably assume it was either really cheap or moderately expensive beef.
Wild boar- pork but not, kind of hard to explain this one, and the way I had it prepared had a lot of spices and seasoning so I can't really give a straight appraisal of the meat itself.
Kangaroo- it tastes like it evolved on a different continent than any other mammal you've ever eaten. It's still very much in the red meat family but there's something else going on there that's kind of hard to place, sort of gamey and stronger tasting.
Goose- kind of like a mix of duck and turkey, leaning more duck-like, and yeah, that tracks, you could probably just about assume that from looking at a goose.
I wouldn't really consider these to be exotic, but a surprising amount of people don't seem to have tried them, and they're some of my all-time favorite meats.
Duck- its more like a red meat than chicken, can be kind of greasy/fatty but in a good way
Lamb- red meat, kind of a strong gamey taste (that again, I personally really like) oddly somehow gamier than venison despite venison actually being a game meat and lamb being domesticated. You could probably serve me deer and tell me it was beef and slip it by me, but I don't think you could pull it off with lamb.
Goat- lamb, but moreso.
Liver- it's kind of hard to describe liver in any way but livery, but iron-y and minneral-y are probably the best adjectives I can come up with. I've had beef liver and chicken liver, beef is definitely a stronger flavor but both are recognizably livery. Chicken liver is probably mild enough that as long as it's prepared well most people could enjoy it, beef liver is definitely more of an acquired taste.
Chicken hearts- stronger flavored and tougher than regular chicken, but still recognizably chicken, imagine dark meat but lean. Little bit of a irony/mineraly taste, but not in a livery way, can be a little tough/chewy, and if you're inclined to batter and fry them, they are the perfect size to make sort of a popcorn chicken thing with, or if you want to have little bits of meat for a stir fry or something and don't feel like chopping up the meat yourself. They are also dirt cheap, at least around me.
Tripe- a bit chewy, honestly not too much going on flavor-wise, there's something going on that tastes/smells of a barnyard but in a very pleasant way, but it's almost more of a suggestion of a taste than an actual flavor.
Beef tongue- recognizably beefy, but definitely has something going else on, not quite livery but leaning that direction. Definitely something you need to braise or sous vide or something for a long time because it will be damn near impossible to chew otherwise, and it has its own unique texture, it will probably make you think a lot about your own tongue while eating it.
Chicken feet- look, there's really no meat worth speaking of on a chicken foot, it's basically all skin and connective tissue which is tasty and an interesting texture, but not worth it to me to eat themselves, some people do, but it's not for me. ut if you want to take you chicken stock to the next level, use some chicken feet.
And these are probably the opposite of exotic, just weird or have bad press
Pickled pigs feet- salty vinegary vaguely porky jello with bones in it. I like salty vinegary things, so that's not a bad thing in my book.
Scrapple- local delicacy for those of us in the Delaware valley, if you've ever heard spam described as everything but the oink, well scrapple has some oink in it too. It's soft and mushy and fries up to a real nice crisp on the outside. Taste is sort of in a similar vein as a breakfast sausage, really nothing too wild about it.
Pork roll (you north jersey folk calling it Taylor Ham are crazy, it says pork roll right on the package, you're wrong) is basically just spam with a better PR department, less salty, slightly different spices, doesn't come in a can.
And on that note- spam, it's delicious but very salty. If you like ham you'll probably like spam.
Wow, that's quite a list.
I agree with most of that but would not mistake rabbit for chicken.
Rabbit is much leaner, much sweeter, and has a different grain to the muscle, closer to very tender pork. Good eating but needs to be cooked in some fat.
Agreed. Rabbit doesn't taste like chicken to me either. I live close to a rabbit farm, so I get it fairly regularly. To me, it's best as a filler in sausage. I like to make rabbit sausage with apple or cranberry. It's pretty lean so I also add a bit of fat - either pork or beef.
For squirrel I had good luck slow cooking a few at a time, picking all the meat, and using it in casserole. Kinda like dark meat chicken. They have lots.of tiny bones so it is a bit of work.
Ostrich is delicious. I’ve eaten it in a restaurant once and cooked it myself two or three times. It tastes like a red meat, but cooks like white meat, so you have to be careful because it can overlook in a snap.
I had a roommate who used to make ostrich chili all the time. It was pretty good. Still prefer beef though.
100% agree. I was at a festival, saw a stand selling “ostrich steak” sandwiches, which I’d never heard of before. I figured I’d try it. The meat, which was served on a hoagie roll, looked and tasted like London broil. Good stuff! I’m surprised it’s not more common!
Years ago, we got a huge case of Slim Jim's that said they were made with ostrich, instead of the usual beef and pork. Tasted like Slim Jim's. So there's that.
I used to compulsively rip chunks out of my fingers using my teeth as a form of anxiety driven self harm. I'd say it's close to pork, but I haven't tasted raw pork
That's enough Internet for me today, but hope you are doing better now.
Long pig, they called it
You win my favorite internet comment of the day.
My personal cuticles need more seasoning.
I don't know if you are looking for meat analogues, but I got to eat hand made seitan once. Really great texture. It isn't something I see anywhere in places I tend to be so it was exotic to me. It was pretty labor intensitto make, I thought. It took a lot of water!
I used to make this myself. It was a mission to make.
Indeed. I used to have friends who would make tempeh but I don't remember ever having theirs and it is more available anyway.
That's very interesting. I had no idea this existed.
I don't use facebook anymore but iirc there is a group called the seitan society which tries the most ridiculous recipees with seitan. just the images alone were stunning.
Just don't say it's new to the religionists No Gluten, Glutng Poison, etc. My grandfather passed through Berlin during World War II, thanks to a crust of bread.
If you can find this, it's really good. I have never met someone who did not like it. Rinse it off, marinate it, throw it in curry, whatever. My ex used it, or real duck in fresh spring rolls. Available at many Asian markets.
It's rooted in a Chinese Taoist vegetarian festival called 'the Nine Emperor Gods'. It has become quite big in Thailand.
Seitan is soooo good. I had it in a curry in London and loved it. Haven't had anything as good since.
It's essentially just pure Gluten right?
I think l so, the two people making it referred to "vital wheat gluten" and it was the primary ingredient by far. There were other ingredients, too. I think they used some nooch and tamari. Unsure on seasoning.
Rattlesnake in the wild, thanks to an insane ex-military Scout leader I had that was trying to prove a point to us (his Scout troop).
It was actually a lot better than I expected, but I wouldn't recommend it for a number of (hopefully) obvious reasons.
Same, reminded me of somewhat greasy chicken.
I've eaten a rat.
In my youth I was trekking in Thailand and we arrived to our next destination late at night and we were starving. The only option to get food was a street grill which served only two foods: rat-on-a-stick and some kind of a fried jellyfish-on-a-stick.
The rat was actually pretty good. My friend chose the jellyfish and regretted this instantly.
LOL, I'm getting Discworld vibes. The vendor wasn't Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala by chance?
Things were pretty crazy, but not Ankh-Morpok-level crazy ;)
Alligator. Chewier than chicken. Tasted kinda like chicken. Would try again, I guess.
Also had ostrich burgers a couple of times. I'm told I was shitfaced and enjoyed them immensely, but I couldn't tell you for sure, for I was shitfaced.
Ostrich burgers are excellent. There used to be a sports store near here that served burgers (bison, elk, ostrich) and the ostrich was the best. Also deep fried alligator nuggets, but honestly once you bread and deep fry something they're pretty much all the same.
Is it just me or is this diet sounds extremely australian?
Nah crocs not gators for Australia.
Rattlesnake. Not bad, but totally unremarkable - tasted like chicken. Still, I’d recommend it, because the best thing about it is getting to say you’ve eaten rattlesnake.
Not bad, but totally unremarkable
Pretty much sums up my experience with rattlesnake, as well. The novelty of it was the most interesting part, really.
Though that really applies to just about every "exotic" meat I've had. They all taste like a slightly worse version of other, more conventional meats, and it's immediately made clear why it's not more popular in the first place.
I think I had grilled blow snake once. I was camping with a bunch of other kids and somebody caught the thing. You're right it tasted like chicken.
Dog, it was chewie and not tasty at all, no wonder most people don't eat it.
I wonder if it's because it's a carnivore. Are there any other carnivores people generally eat? Hmm..
lots of kinds of fish. most other carnivores are not cost effective to be eaten regularly.
I heard something somilar about why cat doesn't taste good.
Bears supposedly have very distinct tastes depending on whether they've been eating meat and fish or fruits and honey.
Think you meant to reply to the other guy.
Where dogs are eaten they are usually omnivores. Lots of scraps mixed with rice, at least in Southeast Asia.
Chicken
Bear. I’ve never had it but I’m told it’s super greasy
It can be really good, though undeniably gamey.
What's your favorite breed?🙂
I have no idea, as far as I know there are specific meat dog breeds.
Snake ate the ducks we were going to eat so it was allowed to digest them then we ate the snake.
Not bad, tasted a bit like duck weirdly. Lots of bones.
So like a turducken but a snuck?
Snake ate the ducks...
This. Should not be possible. Snakes are so strange.
😀 👍
Bear, when travelling in Sweden. It was smoked, I believe, and served on a sandwich. No particularly distinguishable taste, but it was very lean and easily fell apart when bitten. Turned vegetarian not long after, lol.
Lol a meat so exotic it turned you vegetarian.
I can get you exotic meats. Hippo steaks, giraffe burgers…
It'll all be goat.
Got any goose grease?
Believe it or not, also goat.
No, I’ll have to take a trip to the store for a can of expensive goose grease.
Flamingo, but the meat is a bit tough...
Ate a platter of 3 different fried insects. I think it was wood worms, bees, and crickets. The bees were the best.
None of them were horrible. Would do it again.
Horse. A friend of mine brought some from Iceland and was kind enough to share. Its somewhere between pork and beef to me.
The fermented shark he brought back on the other hand, was the worst thing I have ever tasted. The smell alone cleared the room, and as one chef instructor said, “it smells like dirty pussy”.
I also ate horse in Japan and didn’t enjoy it
I had horse steak from the UK, it was superbly tender and a lovely mellow taste. I was quite surprised.
You have to chase hákarl with brennivin. Although brennivin itself makes me gag.
What is brennivin? To be honest I’d try it again if theres a better way to eat it
It's a particularly gross Icelandic liquor. Some people enjoy it apparently. Wikipedia says that it has hints of the flavor of fresh rye bread. I strongly disagree.
The cow brain was bland and I did not care for the squid ink. The rest were great.
Ate ostrich and kangaroo. Were alright.
For some rabbit and horse is exotic, or even deer, elk, reindeer, but I wouldn't count that.
While visiting Norway, I had a reindeer burger which was simply awesome. I also had reindeer meat prepared like they prepare antilope in the country the cook was from. Expensive and worth it.
Horseshoe crab in Ho Chi Min city. It was alright. Not much meat.
Mind you I've eaten a lot of stuff that could be considered exotic. Jellyfish is pretty good.
I had a duck egg containing a baby duck in HCM. It was ok. I stopped when it got crunchy.
Balut. I was going to try it
It's pretty normal tasting. If you're a bit leery of it, try getting the quail version, you may find them easier to start with. We call them cút lộn. Watch your tonal pronunciation or you'll ask for a "large feces".
Never tried the horseshoe crab here, I actually forgot that we eat that.
Reindeer in a restaurant in Helsinki. It was good, a lot like beef. The reindeer were farmed, so it wasn't too tough or gamey.
Alligator - oddly enough as fritters at a Margaritaville in New Orleans. Like most say, flaky like fish, tastes like chicken.
Horseneat served and packaged like baloney in Sweden, eating with crisp bead and breakfast cheese. Was not a fan.
Moose in Sweden. Like beef, only the "grains" of the meat were really large.
Reindeer in Sweden. Like venison, but I am told "less gamey." I say I am told, because apparently I cannot taste the "gamey" in meat. That is, I have had gamey venison and non-gamey venison and can't taste whatever gameyness is.
Cicada - tastes like weak shrimp.
The love and respect we give horses vs. other farm animals kind of makes me sad.
deer - clean but mineraly, also lean
goat - like lamb but more barn flavor
alligator - like chicken pork fish
frog legs - like chicken fish
goat testes - like the white of an egg but kinda musty (would not eat again)
snails - chewy
crawfish - tastes like a "muddier" lobster
shark fin soup - had it once in a restaurant decades ago, it was kinda gelatinous but slightly sticky
sea urchin - I didn't like this, but the ones I've seen in sushi restaurants look different (paler) than the ones I see fresh from the ocean, so it might be a freshness thing
eel - fatty and denser meat similar to the texture of mahi mahi
wagyu - I've had a few slices of this before, and I find it overrated (I find steak in general overrated). However I had it seared on a pan and it was thinly sliced already so it might've just been too nuked to taste good
Gator sausage is pretty good, it either has a bit of a natural spice or takes well to spices, not sure cause I only had it once
I had fried gator and it was actually a pretty nice meat all considered - it had that "freshwater fish" taste that I kinda dislike but otherwise it was sort of a softer-textured chicken.
Very low end: goat. There was an Indian restaurant near a museum we visited, and I saw it as an option and figured why not. Turns out it's mostly like lamb. Quelle surprise.
Haven't had it since. It's hard enough finding anywhere that serves lamb, in the US. It's just not on our radar. I think everywhere I've seen it is either some kind of ethnic cuisine (mostly Indian and Greek, since a few years in Bavaria had quite an impact on my palette) or some upscale restaurant treating it as exotic. Otherwise you have to buy a shoulder and slow-cook it yourself.
As an Indian myself, thinking of goat as exotic feels funny. I guess in a sense it's true though.
Like I said, it's not exactly bizarre. America's just cow-pig-chicken country. We do turkey once a year. Duck only exists in east-Asian restaurants.
My dad's fairly midwest parents had a beloved recipe for mock fried chicken. It includes veal.
As an American raised in West Virginia, thinking of goat as exotic feels funny as well lol. When I was a kid, my mom had a goat to eat the grass on the hill that was too steep to mow.
when I was a kid
Heh
Side note: I want to try goat mowing.
Now I'm mad that I didn't even make that pun on purpose lol
And the secret to goat mowing is you gotta move the stake that the goat is tied to around the yard so the goat can get all the grass and not just one circle
I love lamb but every time I try goat I’m disappointed that it’s tougher and bonier.
It’s definitely ‘exotic’ in the US but I don’t see the appeal.
I once ate a baby camel. Had some rice with it as well.
Green sea turtle. Apparently the the conservation organization that was breeding them was allowed to serve them on site only. I had it in a sandwich. The meat was green and tasted like turkey
I had some moose that was given to me by my friend who was present at his friends moose hunt. They had to break the animal down at the location and make multiple meat sack trips to the game warden for tagging. The warden said they hadn't seen someone do it like that for a century.
Fun facts, back in the day people would often move their entire camps to the site of a moose kill rather than trying to transport the body any distance, it was easier to pack up and move everyone than drag a moose through the forest and brush
I believe it. Once big work horses were more available, people stopped tearing down the moose on-location and just dragged it home. In more modern times, they'll use a 4x4. This particular area was extremely rutted so they couldn't get anything wheeled back there, and where do you even find a Clydesdale rental service this day and age?
Crocodile. It was fine. A bit like seaweed wrapped chicken.
Horse, I think. It’s quite delicious, and quite common place here too
Where is here...asking for a friend
Italy lol
growing up in back country Montana I had a lot of things. hunting/trapping/fishing is still a way of life for folks, less so now but growing up I had bison, squirrel, gopher, wild turkey, grouse, beaver, bear, deer, elk, moose, antelope once when we visited the other side of the state, basically all species of fish, even snake a few times.
I think the most exotic of all of it was probably the beaver tail. it's really fatty/oily. it wasnt bad but I wouldnt eat very often even if it was readily available. venison or bison is more my style, or smoked brook trout.
Squirrel is tasty and the bastards should be eaten more often
Sawagani - Japanese river crab. They're tiny; about the size of a US nickel and you eat them fried whole, shell and all. Apparently they aren't exported any more, but I had them at a sushi restaurant in Austin around 2000. They were delicious, like extra-crunchy crab-flavored popcorn.
All sorts:
Cat & Dog in SE Asia
Horse, Donkey, Zebra, Crocodile, Sheep's brain in Europe
Kangaroo, Emu, Ostrich, Possom, Rabbit, Cricket, Goat, Huhu grub, almost all offal? etc in New Zealand
Something I have no idea what it was in Russia
Edit:
Moose and reindeer in Northern Europe
Lots of seafood at home in NZ, both raw and cooked
Russia was probably just pork offal. It tends to be most of their mystery meat.
Again corny
Something I have no idea what it was in Russia
Here in Russia we eat very simple food because... because of the climate.
I don’t even remember anything unusual; the rest is imported from abroad, countries with a favorable climate.
As the other poster said it may have been pork offal, It was from a street vender in one of the large markets
Had bear once. Was smoked and actually delicious.
It is not recommended to eat a bear at all, no matter how properly it is cooked, there is always a risk of infection from it. In Russia (Siberia) I generally prefer not to touch, kill, etc. Is the meat disgusting in taste and texture same with wool and skin? It stinks like a dog and you can't get rid of it anywhere, Only young animals for the skin....
Well, or to sell Chinese, they are able to give special magic to various organs, bile, horns, hooves, etc.
"Lengua", or beef tongue. Makes for some killer tacos
Huh. Interesting. You can buy tongue in cans, it's pretty normal. The can is disturbingly tongue shaped, but it basically is just potted meat.
Huh that's interesting. I've only had it fresh.
Trite
I tried Whale once. Honestly? It wasn't that great. It's a bit like a very dry, very though Tuna
Very, very poorly made in that case, probably. Properly prepared whale is honestly closer to beef than any other fish, and should be juicy and easy to chew.
Whales are not fish tho?
Exactly. Hence me comparing it to beef instead of Tuna.
Hitler apparently only had one human ball, and since he was a vegetarian I doubt he ate many nonhuman balls. I'm very curious as to the source of this joke even though I don't get it lol.
Adolf Hitler farted uncontrollably, used cocaine to clear his sinuses, ingested some 28 drugs at a time and received injections of bull testicle extracts to bolster his libido.
The startling revelations come from Hiltler's medical records, now up for auction at Alexander Historical Auctions of Stamford, Conn.
@nieceandtows@BigAngBlack The only one of these I didn’t learn in school was the bull testicles. These “startling revelations” were all common knowledge in the 1960s. People talked about them all the time.
It's not really exotic here, as you just get it at the supermarket with the other meats, but people find it fascinating that Kangaroo meat is widely eaten in Australia. It's a lovely and rich ted meat. Very lean.
Yep, tastes like venison. I eat kangaroo all the time too, but I suspect a lit of overseas people would find it peculiar.
Camel, crocodile, kangaroo, horse, whale, puffin…
Your ellipses make me think you have tasted an entire zoo. What part of whale did you eat?
Not sure what part it was, but it was very blubbery, and I don’t recommend it. I had it in Iceland. Horse and puffin are delicious though!
A patty from McDonald's; I'd rather not do that again.
Jokes aside, I've had abalone and it was absolutely fantastic. A Singaporean colleague of mine got it for me from Singapore and I still remember how awesome it was.
Oh yeah, abalone is great. The Chinese way of serving the large sliced ones in golden sauce is quite good.
In Da Nang, I order small ones grilled, but availability is random. Depends on what that family finds on a particular week.
Jellyfish. A bit... enh?
My friend had us eat that Korean kind of octopus where it's still half-living when Koreans eat it. I wanted to leave so bad.
IDK if it's "exotic" but cariboo is f-ing excellent.
I guess exotic is relative, someone in here saying kangaroo is eaten all around Australia and Alligator is reasonably common here. Someone has goat as exotic but it seems common most everywhere.
I'm gonna go with the turtle soup my grandma got us at a restaurant when I was little (family very Louisiana on my dad's side), I remember it being good. Don't think I'd eat anything even remotely endangered now, they were not back then.
Husband still raves about Indonesian fried frog legs, he lived there for years growing up.
Yeah we Aussies eat kangaroo and crocodile, kangaroo is very normal here, they sell it in supermarket chains, but mostly it is wallaby not roo (labelled as roo). It just tastes like venison. I reckon you and I are the only ones who have eaten frogs legs in this list though.
Eh my local Coles has Kangaroo. Have to go to the IGA for Wallaby.
It's all called roo, but all the "kangaroo" meat in coles and woolies etc in Tassie is wallaby, none of it is roo, despite the label.
I didn't realise that.
All depends on the supplier, but there is no requirement for them to make the distinction.
Kangaroo, its meat is added almost everywhere, you won’t even know...
Rattlesnake
Sea Urchin
Reindeer Hamburger
Abalone
Cricket
Frog
Alligator
A family friend once invited us over to celebrate a promotion. To celebrate, they prepared an expensive meal and had expensive alcohols. The star of the meal was a thinly sliced piece of raw horsemeat. It was not particularly interesting, though it was very tender. I think it was more intended to "share the wealth" than for its actual appeal and flavor profile, though I was a kid and there was a cultural difference, so maybe I'm wrong. Either way, it was an interesting experience.
Horse meat is pretty good. There is a social taboo about it in the US, and it's all but illegal here, but horses raised for meat aren't bad.
I live in Vietnam. So, many things we eat would be unusual from the standpoint of someone on a North American or European diet. Mouse, alligator (called 'ugly fish'), frog, duck embryo, organ meats, and various insects are just 'normal food'. They're all quite good.
I suppose weasel comes to mind? That's something I've had that's not common locally. It's boiled with ginger until it just tastes like... mostly bones with ginger and very little meat. Not impressed.
A lot of people turn away from duck embryo, but it actually tastes pretty normal.
We used to eat a fair amount of dog here, especially in the North, but the new generation considers this fairly old-fashioned. I've had what's called "fake dog dish", which is the same dish made with pork. It's good. I've never bothered with actual dog meat as I'm concerned it might not be fresh -- it's expensive and not common anymore. So I'm worried someone might try to sell me meat that's spoiled to recover losses or something.
In neighboring Cambodia, you can get large roasted spiders. They look like black crabs, and people seem to eat them that way. It didn't look that good so I passed.
Hákarl, the Icelandic fermented shark - while not exactly pleasant the first time, it's nowhere near as bad as people make out.
Ostrich - looks like it would taste like beef, but actually it's more of a strong chicken-like flavour which makes sense really.
I guess you could say horse, but that's common in a lot of places in Europe. Like beef but less flavour, too lean, I'm not a fan.
Yak. Had a delicious yak goulash in a restaurant in Thimpu, Bhutan. Very similar to beef, hard to tell because of the spicing.
Horse- When I travelled to Uzbekistan, on airplane one of the meals was delicious meat with rice. I thought that its beef (it looked like it) but later I found out that its horses meat. Feel little sorry later because I enjoyed so much in meat of such a beautiful animal.
Do you know much about cows?
Aren't they all beautiful?
Goat. Ate it in Greece. Roasted with fine herbs. It was delicious.
Does jellyfish count? It's a bit boring to be honest!
Second would be sea snails and they were pretty nice.
I've had jellyfish several times. It's pretty great with toasted sesame seed oil. Sea snails are great too.
I once made tacos out of beaver meat. Pretty good stuff. It was like a very tender steak
Hmmm. I've had rabbit prepared 5 different ways at a very expensive restaurant once (had just gotten a bonus for the first time in my life and it landed on my wife and I's anniversary). It was fantastic, like dark meat from a turkey or chicken, but a tad gamey which I didn't mind.
Venison is delicious, as is elk. Buffalo burgers are solid, not much different than regular. I've had ostrich jerky but it's pretty much the same as most other jerkys by that point.
Had shark once, was very good and similar to swordfish.
Funnily enough all of these things I tried in the US, and none while actually traveling abroad despite adventures to most of the continents at this point.
No rednecks in here bringing up eating squirrel? For shame.
It's not exotic in the traditional sense, it's a pretty universal animal, but it's not commonly eaten so I'll share. It's pretty gamey and lean but the flavor is still pretty good. I think it's rather tasty pan fried and served with biscuits and gravy.
Fresh fried Moose heart. It was drenched in butter and seasoning and was actually pretty good. Little chewy though.
Also, smoked turkey gizzard. Fucking disgusting.
live sea urchin
How does that even work?
You crack open the shell and eat it right out of the shell still squirming. No desire to do it again, but it was a memorable experience.
For me it's ostrich. I've eaten a lot of elk and bison, but they're so easy to get in my area, I don't seem exotic (my mom's freezer is always full of bison hot dogs). I've eaten a lot of ostrich too. I had a roommate for several years who loved it and would cook with it all the time (mostly chilli, but he'd also make meatballs and other stuff with it).
My exwife and I once watched some people get served live shrimp at a fancy sushi restaurant. They were squirming around, trying to escape. They (the people) couldn't figure out what they were supposed to do with them. They asked the chef to demonstrate how to eat them, but he either misunderstood or was just like "lol, white people" and took them back, chopped their heads off, shucked their shells and returned them to the people.
Valloch.
But not on purpose.
What is even that?
It's the reason why zero point energy doesn't work.
I still have zero idea what you're talking about
I tried searching for that and...what?
Nothing shows up. What is that?
I feel like our man is just making up words here to mess with us
Alpaca.
I had a steak. It was fantastic.
I had clear, salty alpaca soup. It was food. I was in the Andes at some roadside truck stop. It was memorable, but the steak sounds much better.
When I served in the King's African Rifles, the local Zambezi tribesman called human flesh "long pig."
Never much cared for it.
Bison steak. I’m not a steak person so it was likely wasted on me.
It's not a steak meat, honestly, it's way too lean.
Moose and reindeer.
I forgot that I have had both of these in Northern Europe, mostly as they don't seem that exotic when you grow up eating 'wild meat'
"Exotic" meat's meaning animals besides the "normal" ones, are generally not great. They are novel, but the quality of the meat is low since normally the quantity of that kind of meat is low. Also there is a reason the meat is "exotic" in the first place. If it were particularly good, it would be mass produced since you can grow meat in a lot of places and the costs don't really vary that much.
I'd say if you want "exotic" meat, as in high quality beef or whatever, go for it. If you want "exotic' meat like elephant meat or something like that, it's not worthwhile.
i like bison and would eat it instead of beef if it didn't cost 2.5x as much
What about the forbidden meat
Are we talking about homo sapiens?
You are leading to the fact that initially the choice for the mass food industry was the choice of duck or chicken, the choice of chicken... That's how it happened.
Duck isn't really exotic though. At many super markets you can get duck meat just like you would chicken, and duck eggs. I'd say duck is also mass produced, just obviously not as much as chicken.
just obviously not as much as chicken
I had antelope tacos once. Tasted like taco meat
I don’t eat meat because I’m not a murderer or a cannibal.
I'm a vegetarian myself, but I don't judge. Evolutionarily speaking, without humans eating meat, there was no way for humans to spread across the globe. We don't need to eat meat now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't eat meat ever. I'm against the meat industry and their horrible animal abuse practices though.
Dragonfruit meat. Why are so many people here pretending it's normal to interpret this as being about animal corpses???
it's the usual definition of meat
Usual where? What kind of barbarians just thoughtlessly murder for fun?
it's the english word for animal flesh eaten as food
if you ask "is there any meat in this" you are not asking about dragonfruit
corpses aren't food though
yeah man I get it you're a vegan stop pretending you don't know what the word meat means.
if people eat it for sustenance it's food
just say you're morally opposed to eating meat these word games are some reddit tier shit
if people eat it for sustenance it's food
that's a pretty shitty definition of food which includes humans and dogs
yes to a cannibal humans are food. I morally disagree with people killing and eating other humans but if they do those people become food
while we're being all about definitions, let me point out that in English, the word "food" implies that something should be eaten, not only that it can be. for example, the classic finding nemo line, "Fish are friends, not food."
look man I don't think this conversation is going anywhere so I'm going to disengage.
Don't call me smuglord when you were the one pretending to not know the meaning of the word meat
im not "pretending" anything, im making a point about horrible crimes people here thoughtlessly commit. you're the one desperate to prove you're a big boy who knows the meanings of basic english words and "prove me wrong" about things that are not related to the point you and i both know im making.
Gator- tastes like chicken, kind of tough and chewy, but come on, have you ever seen an alligator? Of course it was going to be chewy.
Frog legs- pretty much a dead ringer for chicken wings if you didn't know what a wing was supposed to look like. Maybe just the tiniest hint of something fishy going on there.
Escargot - an excellent excuse to eat a bunch of butter and garlic and for some reason it's fancy even though you're eating a garden pest
Squirrel - kind of greasy, but not bad, darker meat than I expected. Not really enough meat on them to be worth it though, at least not the squirrels we have in my neck of the woods, I've seen some pretty big squirrels in other parts of the country though, so maybe they're a little more worthwhile. If you had a handful of squirrels I suspect they could make a pretty good soup or stew though.
Rabbit- tastes like chicken, I've had it a few different ways, I don't know that I would know the difference if you swapped rabbit for chicken in any of them, but I had a rabbit pot pie at a restaurant a few years ago that has been my happy thought ever since, probably the tastiest thing I have ever eaten.
Deer venison - very similar to beef, a bit gamey but I dig that.
Quail - tiny chicken, that's pretty much all there is to it.
Pigeon- much darker than chicken, a bit greasy, overall pretty tasty (these were country pigeons, I don't recommend eating city pigeons) a single pigeon breast is pretty much exactly the right size to make a pigeon nugget.
Bison- lean beef, maybe a bit stronger tasting but overall pretty well within the beef spectrum. If you didn't tell me it was bison, I'd probably assume it was either really cheap or moderately expensive beef.
Wild boar- pork but not, kind of hard to explain this one, and the way I had it prepared had a lot of spices and seasoning so I can't really give a straight appraisal of the meat itself.
Kangaroo- it tastes like it evolved on a different continent than any other mammal you've ever eaten. It's still very much in the red meat family but there's something else going on there that's kind of hard to place, sort of gamey and stronger tasting.
Goose- kind of like a mix of duck and turkey, leaning more duck-like, and yeah, that tracks, you could probably just about assume that from looking at a goose.
I wouldn't really consider these to be exotic, but a surprising amount of people don't seem to have tried them, and they're some of my all-time favorite meats.
Duck- its more like a red meat than chicken, can be kind of greasy/fatty but in a good way
Lamb- red meat, kind of a strong gamey taste (that again, I personally really like) oddly somehow gamier than venison despite venison actually being a game meat and lamb being domesticated. You could probably serve me deer and tell me it was beef and slip it by me, but I don't think you could pull it off with lamb.
Goat- lamb, but moreso.
Liver- it's kind of hard to describe liver in any way but livery, but iron-y and minneral-y are probably the best adjectives I can come up with. I've had beef liver and chicken liver, beef is definitely a stronger flavor but both are recognizably livery. Chicken liver is probably mild enough that as long as it's prepared well most people could enjoy it, beef liver is definitely more of an acquired taste.
Chicken hearts- stronger flavored and tougher than regular chicken, but still recognizably chicken, imagine dark meat but lean. Little bit of a irony/mineraly taste, but not in a livery way, can be a little tough/chewy, and if you're inclined to batter and fry them, they are the perfect size to make sort of a popcorn chicken thing with, or if you want to have little bits of meat for a stir fry or something and don't feel like chopping up the meat yourself. They are also dirt cheap, at least around me.
Tripe- a bit chewy, honestly not too much going on flavor-wise, there's something going on that tastes/smells of a barnyard but in a very pleasant way, but it's almost more of a suggestion of a taste than an actual flavor.
Beef tongue- recognizably beefy, but definitely has something going else on, not quite livery but leaning that direction. Definitely something you need to braise or sous vide or something for a long time because it will be damn near impossible to chew otherwise, and it has its own unique texture, it will probably make you think a lot about your own tongue while eating it.
Chicken feet- look, there's really no meat worth speaking of on a chicken foot, it's basically all skin and connective tissue which is tasty and an interesting texture, but not worth it to me to eat themselves, some people do, but it's not for me. ut if you want to take you chicken stock to the next level, use some chicken feet.
And these are probably the opposite of exotic, just weird or have bad press
Pickled pigs feet- salty vinegary vaguely porky jello with bones in it. I like salty vinegary things, so that's not a bad thing in my book.
Scrapple- local delicacy for those of us in the Delaware valley, if you've ever heard spam described as everything but the oink, well scrapple has some oink in it too. It's soft and mushy and fries up to a real nice crisp on the outside. Taste is sort of in a similar vein as a breakfast sausage, really nothing too wild about it.
Pork roll (you north jersey folk calling it Taylor Ham are crazy, it says pork roll right on the package, you're wrong) is basically just spam with a better PR department, less salty, slightly different spices, doesn't come in a can.
And on that note- spam, it's delicious but very salty. If you like ham you'll probably like spam.
Wow, that's quite a list.
I agree with most of that but would not mistake rabbit for chicken.
Rabbit is much leaner, much sweeter, and has a different grain to the muscle, closer to very tender pork. Good eating but needs to be cooked in some fat.
Agreed. Rabbit doesn't taste like chicken to me either. I live close to a rabbit farm, so I get it fairly regularly. To me, it's best as a filler in sausage. I like to make rabbit sausage with apple or cranberry. It's pretty lean so I also add a bit of fat - either pork or beef.
For squirrel I had good luck slow cooking a few at a time, picking all the meat, and using it in casserole. Kinda like dark meat chicken. They have lots.of tiny bones so it is a bit of work.
This guy eats
Ostrich is delicious. I’ve eaten it in a restaurant once and cooked it myself two or three times. It tastes like a red meat, but cooks like white meat, so you have to be careful because it can overlook in a snap.
I had a roommate who used to make ostrich chili all the time. It was pretty good. Still prefer beef though.
100% agree. I was at a festival, saw a stand selling “ostrich steak” sandwiches, which I’d never heard of before. I figured I’d try it. The meat, which was served on a hoagie roll, looked and tasted like London broil. Good stuff! I’m surprised it’s not more common!
Years ago, we got a huge case of Slim Jim's that said they were made with ostrich, instead of the usual beef and pork. Tasted like Slim Jim's. So there's that.
I used to compulsively rip chunks out of my fingers using my teeth as a form of anxiety driven self harm. I'd say it's close to pork, but I haven't tasted raw pork
That's enough Internet for me today, but hope you are doing better now.
Long pig, they called it
You win my favorite internet comment of the day.
My personal cuticles need more seasoning.
I don't know if you are looking for meat analogues, but I got to eat hand made seitan once. Really great texture. It isn't something I see anywhere in places I tend to be so it was exotic to me. It was pretty labor intensitto make, I thought. It took a lot of water!
I used to make this myself. It was a mission to make.
Indeed. I used to have friends who would make tempeh but I don't remember ever having theirs and it is more available anyway.
That's very interesting. I had no idea this existed.
I don't use facebook anymore but iirc there is a group called the seitan society which tries the most ridiculous recipees with seitan. just the images alone were stunning.
Just don't say it's new to the religionists No Gluten, Glutng Poison, etc. My grandfather passed through Berlin during World War II, thanks to a crust of bread.
If you can find this, it's really good. I have never met someone who did not like it. Rinse it off, marinate it, throw it in curry, whatever. My ex used it, or real duck in fresh spring rolls. Available at many Asian markets.
It's rooted in a Chinese Taoist vegetarian festival called 'the Nine Emperor Gods'. It has become quite big in Thailand.
Seitan is soooo good. I had it in a curry in London and loved it. Haven't had anything as good since.
It's essentially just pure Gluten right?
I think l so, the two people making it referred to "vital wheat gluten" and it was the primary ingredient by far. There were other ingredients, too. I think they used some nooch and tamari. Unsure on seasoning.
Rattlesnake in the wild, thanks to an insane ex-military Scout leader I had that was trying to prove a point to us (his Scout troop).
It was actually a lot better than I expected, but I wouldn't recommend it for a number of (hopefully) obvious reasons.
Same, reminded me of somewhat greasy chicken.
I've eaten a rat.
In my youth I was trekking in Thailand and we arrived to our next destination late at night and we were starving. The only option to get food was a street grill which served only two foods: rat-on-a-stick and some kind of a fried jellyfish-on-a-stick.
The rat was actually pretty good. My friend chose the jellyfish and regretted this instantly.
LOL, I'm getting Discworld vibes. The vendor wasn't Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala by chance?
Things were pretty crazy, but not Ankh-Morpok-level crazy ;)
Alligator. Chewier than chicken. Tasted kinda like chicken. Would try again, I guess.
Also had ostrich burgers a couple of times. I'm told I was shitfaced and enjoyed them immensely, but I couldn't tell you for sure, for I was shitfaced.
Ostrich burgers are excellent. There used to be a sports store near here that served burgers (bison, elk, ostrich) and the ostrich was the best. Also deep fried alligator nuggets, but honestly once you bread and deep fry something they're pretty much all the same.
Is it just me or is this diet sounds extremely australian?
Nah crocs not gators for Australia.
Rattlesnake. Not bad, but totally unremarkable - tasted like chicken. Still, I’d recommend it, because the best thing about it is getting to say you’ve eaten rattlesnake.
Pretty much sums up my experience with rattlesnake, as well. The novelty of it was the most interesting part, really.
Though that really applies to just about every "exotic" meat I've had. They all taste like a slightly worse version of other, more conventional meats, and it's immediately made clear why it's not more popular in the first place.
I think I had grilled blow snake once. I was camping with a bunch of other kids and somebody caught the thing. You're right it tasted like chicken.
Dog, it was chewie and not tasty at all, no wonder most people don't eat it.
I wonder if it's because it's a carnivore. Are there any other carnivores people generally eat? Hmm..
lots of kinds of fish. most other carnivores are not cost effective to be eaten regularly.
I heard something somilar about why cat doesn't taste good.
Bears supposedly have very distinct tastes depending on whether they've been eating meat and fish or fruits and honey.
Think you meant to reply to the other guy.
Where dogs are eaten they are usually omnivores. Lots of scraps mixed with rice, at least in Southeast Asia.
Chicken
Bear. I’ve never had it but I’m told it’s super greasy
It can be really good, though undeniably gamey.
What's your favorite breed?🙂
I have no idea, as far as I know there are specific meat dog breeds.
Snake ate the ducks we were going to eat so it was allowed to digest them then we ate the snake.
Not bad, tasted a bit like duck weirdly. Lots of bones.
So like a turducken but a snuck?
This. Should not be possible. Snakes are so strange.
😀 👍
Bear, when travelling in Sweden. It was smoked, I believe, and served on a sandwich. No particularly distinguishable taste, but it was very lean and easily fell apart when bitten. Turned vegetarian not long after, lol.
Lol a meat so exotic it turned you vegetarian.
I can get you exotic meats. Hippo steaks, giraffe burgers…
It'll all be goat.
Got any goose grease?
Believe it or not, also goat.
No, I’ll have to take a trip to the store for a can of expensive goose grease.
Flamingo, but the meat is a bit tough...
Ate a platter of 3 different fried insects. I think it was wood worms, bees, and crickets. The bees were the best.
None of them were horrible. Would do it again.
Horse. A friend of mine brought some from Iceland and was kind enough to share. Its somewhere between pork and beef to me.
The fermented shark he brought back on the other hand, was the worst thing I have ever tasted. The smell alone cleared the room, and as one chef instructor said, “it smells like dirty pussy”.
I also ate horse in Japan and didn’t enjoy it
I had horse steak from the UK, it was superbly tender and a lovely mellow taste. I was quite surprised.
You have to chase hákarl with brennivin. Although brennivin itself makes me gag.
What is brennivin? To be honest I’d try it again if theres a better way to eat it
It's a particularly gross Icelandic liquor. Some people enjoy it apparently. Wikipedia says that it has hints of the flavor of fresh rye bread. I strongly disagree.
Gator, croc, moose, ostrich, caribou, elk, cow brain, squid ink.
The cow brain was bland and I did not care for the squid ink. The rest were great.
Ate ostrich and kangaroo. Were alright.
For some rabbit and horse is exotic, or even deer, elk, reindeer, but I wouldn't count that.
While visiting Norway, I had a reindeer burger which was simply awesome. I also had reindeer meat prepared like they prepare antilope in the country the cook was from. Expensive and worth it.
Horseshoe crab in Ho Chi Min city. It was alright. Not much meat.
Mind you I've eaten a lot of stuff that could be considered exotic. Jellyfish is pretty good.
I had a duck egg containing a baby duck in HCM. It was ok. I stopped when it got crunchy.
Balut. I was going to try it
It's pretty normal tasting. If you're a bit leery of it, try getting the quail version, you may find them easier to start with. We call them cút lộn. Watch your tonal pronunciation or you'll ask for a "large feces".
Never tried the horseshoe crab here, I actually forgot that we eat that.
Reindeer in a restaurant in Helsinki. It was good, a lot like beef. The reindeer were farmed, so it wasn't too tough or gamey.
Alligator - oddly enough as fritters at a Margaritaville in New Orleans. Like most say, flaky like fish, tastes like chicken.
Horseneat served and packaged like baloney in Sweden, eating with crisp bead and breakfast cheese. Was not a fan.
Moose in Sweden. Like beef, only the "grains" of the meat were really large.
Reindeer in Sweden. Like venison, but I am told "less gamey." I say I am told, because apparently I cannot taste the "gamey" in meat. That is, I have had gamey venison and non-gamey venison and can't taste whatever gameyness is.
Cicada - tastes like weak shrimp.
The love and respect we give horses vs. other farm animals kind of makes me sad.
deer - clean but mineraly, also lean
goat - like lamb but more barn flavor
alligator - like chicken pork fish
frog legs - like chicken fish
goat testes - like the white of an egg but kinda musty (would not eat again)
snails - chewy
crawfish - tastes like a "muddier" lobster
shark fin soup - had it once in a restaurant decades ago, it was kinda gelatinous but slightly sticky
sea urchin - I didn't like this, but the ones I've seen in sushi restaurants look different (paler) than the ones I see fresh from the ocean, so it might be a freshness thing
eel - fatty and denser meat similar to the texture of mahi mahi
wagyu - I've had a few slices of this before, and I find it overrated (I find steak in general overrated). However I had it seared on a pan and it was thinly sliced already so it might've just been too nuked to taste good
Gator sausage is pretty good, it either has a bit of a natural spice or takes well to spices, not sure cause I only had it once
I had fried gator and it was actually a pretty nice meat all considered - it had that "freshwater fish" taste that I kinda dislike but otherwise it was sort of a softer-textured chicken.
Very low end: goat. There was an Indian restaurant near a museum we visited, and I saw it as an option and figured why not. Turns out it's mostly like lamb. Quelle surprise.
Haven't had it since. It's hard enough finding anywhere that serves lamb, in the US. It's just not on our radar. I think everywhere I've seen it is either some kind of ethnic cuisine (mostly Indian and Greek, since a few years in Bavaria had quite an impact on my palette) or some upscale restaurant treating it as exotic. Otherwise you have to buy a shoulder and slow-cook it yourself.
As an Indian myself, thinking of goat as exotic feels funny. I guess in a sense it's true though.
Like I said, it's not exactly bizarre. America's just cow-pig-chicken country. We do turkey once a year. Duck only exists in east-Asian restaurants.
My dad's fairly midwest parents had a beloved recipe for mock fried chicken. It includes veal.
As an American raised in West Virginia, thinking of goat as exotic feels funny as well lol. When I was a kid, my mom had a goat to eat the grass on the hill that was too steep to mow.
Heh
Side note: I want to try goat mowing.
Now I'm mad that I didn't even make that pun on purpose lol
And the secret to goat mowing is you gotta move the stake that the goat is tied to around the yard so the goat can get all the grass and not just one circle
I love lamb but every time I try goat I’m disappointed that it’s tougher and bonier.
It’s definitely ‘exotic’ in the US but I don’t see the appeal.
I once ate a baby camel. Had some rice with it as well.
Green sea turtle. Apparently the the conservation organization that was breeding them was allowed to serve them on site only. I had it in a sandwich. The meat was green and tasted like turkey
I had some moose that was given to me by my friend who was present at his friends moose hunt. They had to break the animal down at the location and make multiple meat sack trips to the game warden for tagging. The warden said they hadn't seen someone do it like that for a century.
Fun facts, back in the day people would often move their entire camps to the site of a moose kill rather than trying to transport the body any distance, it was easier to pack up and move everyone than drag a moose through the forest and brush
I believe it. Once big work horses were more available, people stopped tearing down the moose on-location and just dragged it home. In more modern times, they'll use a 4x4. This particular area was extremely rutted so they couldn't get anything wheeled back there, and where do you even find a Clydesdale rental service this day and age?
Crocodile. It was fine. A bit like seaweed wrapped chicken.
Horse, I think. It’s quite delicious, and quite common place here too
Where is here...asking for a friend
Italy lol
growing up in back country Montana I had a lot of things. hunting/trapping/fishing is still a way of life for folks, less so now but growing up I had bison, squirrel, gopher, wild turkey, grouse, beaver, bear, deer, elk, moose, antelope once when we visited the other side of the state, basically all species of fish, even snake a few times.
I think the most exotic of all of it was probably the beaver tail. it's really fatty/oily. it wasnt bad but I wouldnt eat very often even if it was readily available. venison or bison is more my style, or smoked brook trout.
Squirrel is tasty and the bastards should be eaten more often
Sawagani - Japanese river crab. They're tiny; about the size of a US nickel and you eat them fried whole, shell and all. Apparently they aren't exported any more, but I had them at a sushi restaurant in Austin around 2000. They were delicious, like extra-crunchy crab-flavored popcorn.
All sorts:
Edit:
Russia was probably just pork offal. It tends to be most of their mystery meat.
Again corny
Here in Russia we eat very simple food because... because of the climate. I don’t even remember anything unusual; the rest is imported from abroad, countries with a favorable climate.
As the other poster said it may have been pork offal, It was from a street vender in one of the large markets
Had bear once. Was smoked and actually delicious.
It is not recommended to eat a bear at all, no matter how properly it is cooked, there is always a risk of infection from it. In Russia (Siberia) I generally prefer not to touch, kill, etc. Is the meat disgusting in taste and texture same with wool and skin? It stinks like a dog and you can't get rid of it anywhere, Only young animals for the skin.... Well, or to sell Chinese, they are able to give special magic to various organs, bile, horns, hooves, etc.
"Lengua", or beef tongue. Makes for some killer tacos
Huh. Interesting. You can buy tongue in cans, it's pretty normal. The can is disturbingly tongue shaped, but it basically is just potted meat.
Huh that's interesting. I've only had it fresh.
Trite
I tried Whale once. Honestly? It wasn't that great. It's a bit like a very dry, very though Tuna
Very, very poorly made in that case, probably. Properly prepared whale is honestly closer to beef than any other fish, and should be juicy and easy to chew.
Whales are not fish tho?
Exactly. Hence me comparing it to beef instead of Tuna.
Whale and fermented shark in Iceland.
Buffalo testicals
Did it give you the power to invade Poland?
Hitler apparently only had one human ball, and since he was a vegetarian I doubt he ate many nonhuman balls. I'm very curious as to the source of this joke even though I don't get it lol.
From here https://www.livescience.com/20118-adolf-hitler-medical-records.html
Fuck that's funny lmao, thanks for the info!
@nieceandtows @BigAngBlack The only one of these I didn’t learn in school was the bull testicles. These “startling revelations” were all common knowledge in the 1960s. People talked about them all the time.
It's not really exotic here, as you just get it at the supermarket with the other meats, but people find it fascinating that Kangaroo meat is widely eaten in Australia. It's a lovely and rich ted meat. Very lean.
Yep, tastes like venison. I eat kangaroo all the time too, but I suspect a lit of overseas people would find it peculiar.
Camel, crocodile, kangaroo, horse, whale, puffin…
Your ellipses make me think you have tasted an entire zoo. What part of whale did you eat?
Not sure what part it was, but it was very blubbery, and I don’t recommend it. I had it in Iceland. Horse and puffin are delicious though!
A patty from McDonald's; I'd rather not do that again.
Jokes aside, I've had abalone and it was absolutely fantastic. A Singaporean colleague of mine got it for me from Singapore and I still remember how awesome it was.
Oh yeah, abalone is great. The Chinese way of serving the large sliced ones in golden sauce is quite good.
In Da Nang, I order small ones grilled, but availability is random. Depends on what that family finds on a particular week.
Jellyfish. A bit... enh?
My friend had us eat that Korean kind of octopus where it's still half-living when Koreans eat it. I wanted to leave so bad.
IDK if it's "exotic" but cariboo is f-ing excellent.
I guess exotic is relative, someone in here saying kangaroo is eaten all around Australia and Alligator is reasonably common here. Someone has goat as exotic but it seems common most everywhere.
I'm gonna go with the turtle soup my grandma got us at a restaurant when I was little (family very Louisiana on my dad's side), I remember it being good. Don't think I'd eat anything even remotely endangered now, they were not back then.
Husband still raves about Indonesian fried frog legs, he lived there for years growing up.
Yeah we Aussies eat kangaroo and crocodile, kangaroo is very normal here, they sell it in supermarket chains, but mostly it is wallaby not roo (labelled as roo). It just tastes like venison. I reckon you and I are the only ones who have eaten frogs legs in this list though.
Eh my local Coles has Kangaroo. Have to go to the IGA for Wallaby.
It's all called roo, but all the "kangaroo" meat in coles and woolies etc in Tassie is wallaby, none of it is roo, despite the label.
I didn't realise that.
All depends on the supplier, but there is no requirement for them to make the distinction.
Kangaroo, its meat is added almost everywhere, you won’t even know...
A family friend once invited us over to celebrate a promotion. To celebrate, they prepared an expensive meal and had expensive alcohols. The star of the meal was a thinly sliced piece of raw horsemeat. It was not particularly interesting, though it was very tender. I think it was more intended to "share the wealth" than for its actual appeal and flavor profile, though I was a kid and there was a cultural difference, so maybe I'm wrong. Either way, it was an interesting experience.
Horse meat is pretty good. There is a social taboo about it in the US, and it's all but illegal here, but horses raised for meat aren't bad.
I live in Vietnam. So, many things we eat would be unusual from the standpoint of someone on a North American or European diet. Mouse, alligator (called 'ugly fish'), frog, duck embryo, organ meats, and various insects are just 'normal food'. They're all quite good.
I suppose weasel comes to mind? That's something I've had that's not common locally. It's boiled with ginger until it just tastes like... mostly bones with ginger and very little meat. Not impressed.
A lot of people turn away from duck embryo, but it actually tastes pretty normal.
We used to eat a fair amount of dog here, especially in the North, but the new generation considers this fairly old-fashioned. I've had what's called "fake dog dish", which is the same dish made with pork. It's good. I've never bothered with actual dog meat as I'm concerned it might not be fresh -- it's expensive and not common anymore. So I'm worried someone might try to sell me meat that's spoiled to recover losses or something.
In neighboring Cambodia, you can get large roasted spiders. They look like black crabs, and people seem to eat them that way. It didn't look that good so I passed.
Hákarl, the Icelandic fermented shark - while not exactly pleasant the first time, it's nowhere near as bad as people make out.
Ostrich - looks like it would taste like beef, but actually it's more of a strong chicken-like flavour which makes sense really.
I guess you could say horse, but that's common in a lot of places in Europe. Like beef but less flavour, too lean, I'm not a fan.
Yak. Had a delicious yak goulash in a restaurant in Thimpu, Bhutan. Very similar to beef, hard to tell because of the spicing.
Horse- When I travelled to Uzbekistan, on airplane one of the meals was delicious meat with rice. I thought that its beef (it looked like it) but later I found out that its horses meat. Feel little sorry later because I enjoyed so much in meat of such a beautiful animal.
Do you know much about cows?
Aren't they all beautiful?
Goat. Ate it in Greece. Roasted with fine herbs. It was delicious.
Does jellyfish count? It's a bit boring to be honest!
Second would be sea snails and they were pretty nice.
I've had jellyfish several times. It's pretty great with toasted sesame seed oil. Sea snails are great too.
I once made tacos out of beaver meat. Pretty good stuff. It was like a very tender steak
Hmmm. I've had rabbit prepared 5 different ways at a very expensive restaurant once (had just gotten a bonus for the first time in my life and it landed on my wife and I's anniversary). It was fantastic, like dark meat from a turkey or chicken, but a tad gamey which I didn't mind.
Venison is delicious, as is elk. Buffalo burgers are solid, not much different than regular. I've had ostrich jerky but it's pretty much the same as most other jerkys by that point.
Had shark once, was very good and similar to swordfish.
Funnily enough all of these things I tried in the US, and none while actually traveling abroad despite adventures to most of the continents at this point.
No rednecks in here bringing up eating squirrel? For shame.
It's not exotic in the traditional sense, it's a pretty universal animal, but it's not commonly eaten so I'll share. It's pretty gamey and lean but the flavor is still pretty good. I think it's rather tasty pan fried and served with biscuits and gravy.
Fresh fried Moose heart. It was drenched in butter and seasoning and was actually pretty good. Little chewy though.
Also, smoked turkey gizzard. Fucking disgusting.
live sea urchin
How does that even work?
You crack open the shell and eat it right out of the shell still squirming. No desire to do it again, but it was a memorable experience.
For me it's ostrich. I've eaten a lot of elk and bison, but they're so easy to get in my area, I don't seem exotic (my mom's freezer is always full of bison hot dogs). I've eaten a lot of ostrich too. I had a roommate for several years who loved it and would cook with it all the time (mostly chilli, but he'd also make meatballs and other stuff with it).
My exwife and I once watched some people get served live shrimp at a fancy sushi restaurant. They were squirming around, trying to escape. They (the people) couldn't figure out what they were supposed to do with them. They asked the chef to demonstrate how to eat them, but he either misunderstood or was just like "lol, white people" and took them back, chopped their heads off, shucked their shells and returned them to the people.
Valloch.
But not on purpose.
What is even that?
It's the reason why zero point energy doesn't work.
I still have zero idea what you're talking about
I tried searching for that and...what?
Nothing shows up. What is that?
I feel like our man is just making up words here to mess with us
Alpaca.
I had a steak. It was fantastic.
I had clear, salty alpaca soup. It was food. I was in the Andes at some roadside truck stop. It was memorable, but the steak sounds much better.
When I served in the King's African Rifles, the local Zambezi tribesman called human flesh "long pig."
Never much cared for it.
Bison steak. I’m not a steak person so it was likely wasted on me.
It's not a steak meat, honestly, it's way too lean.
Moose and reindeer.
I forgot that I have had both of these in Northern Europe, mostly as they don't seem that exotic when you grow up eating 'wild meat'
"Exotic" meat's meaning animals besides the "normal" ones, are generally not great. They are novel, but the quality of the meat is low since normally the quantity of that kind of meat is low. Also there is a reason the meat is "exotic" in the first place. If it were particularly good, it would be mass produced since you can grow meat in a lot of places and the costs don't really vary that much.
I'd say if you want "exotic" meat, as in high quality beef or whatever, go for it. If you want "exotic' meat like elephant meat or something like that, it's not worthwhile.
i like bison and would eat it instead of beef if it didn't cost 2.5x as much
What about the forbidden meat
Are we talking about homo sapiens?
You are leading to the fact that initially the choice for the mass food industry was the choice of duck or chicken, the choice of chicken... That's how it happened.
Duck isn't really exotic though. At many super markets you can get duck meat just like you would chicken, and duck eggs. I'd say duck is also mass produced, just obviously not as much as chicken.
I had antelope tacos once. Tasted like taco meat
I don’t eat meat because I’m not a murderer or a cannibal.
I'm a vegetarian myself, but I don't judge. Evolutionarily speaking, without humans eating meat, there was no way for humans to spread across the globe. We don't need to eat meat now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't eat meat ever. I'm against the meat industry and their horrible animal abuse practices though.
Dragonfruit meat. Why are so many people here pretending it's normal to interpret this as being about animal corpses???
it's the usual definition of meat
Usual where? What kind of barbarians just thoughtlessly murder for fun?
it's the english word for animal flesh eaten as food
if you ask "is there any meat in this" you are not asking about dragonfruit
corpses aren't food though
yeah man I get it you're a vegan stop pretending you don't know what the word meat means.
if people eat it for sustenance it's food
just say you're morally opposed to eating meat these word games are some reddit tier shit
that's a pretty shitty definition of food which includes humans and dogs
yes to a cannibal humans are food. I morally disagree with people killing and eating other humans but if they do those people become food
while we're being all
about definitions, let me point out that in English, the word "food" implies that something should be eaten, not only that it can be. for example, the classic finding nemo line, "Fish are friends, not food."
look man I don't think this conversation is going anywhere so I'm going to disengage.
Don't call me smuglord when you were the one pretending to not know the meaning of the word meat
im not "pretending" anything, im making a point about horrible crimes people here thoughtlessly commit. you're the one desperate to prove you're a big boy who knows the meanings of basic english words and "prove me wrong" about things that are not related to the point you and i both know im making.