[DJ]

So this is an idea I had a little while back when Psiga and I were batting around a list of "Acquired Tastes" on Wikipedia. Some of them were pretty basic (Coffee) and some were pretty fucking amazing. So. List foods that are supposedly an acquired taste of some kind, lemme see if I (or anyone else who's into this sort of thing) can track it down somewhere around here and try it.

I'm going from a basic American taste palate here, so if you've got some local stuff that foreigners are supposed to hate or whatever (See: Vegemite), put it up.



Food Eaten: Vegemite

Country of Origin: Australia

Type: Yeast paste.

Fashion Consumed: Spread on some toast (2 slices).

Cons: Looks like poo. Putting even a little too much becomes overwhelmingly salty and drowns out any other flavor it might have. Ditto if you eat too much of it. Halfway through my second slice of toast it just tasted like I'd dumped a teaspoon of salt in my mouth.

Pros: Provided you don't spread too much on there, it's pretty good. If you're the kind of person who likes Salt Bagels, you'd probably like Vegemite.

Overall Impressions: Well, this stuff is supposedly legendary for the dislike it inspires in some people. I don't really get that; it tastes fine provided you don't cover the bread in the stuff. At worst it's just really really salty, which honestly isn't too bad.





Food Eaten: Natto

Country of Origin: Japan

Type: Rotting soybeans.

Fashion Consumed: Over room-temperature squid slices, with some wasabi mixed in.

Cons: Genuinely distressing odor. It looks like a small pile of rabbit turds covered in mucus. Smells almost exactly like it looks. You stir the stuff with the chopsticks before you eat it, which not only brings up all the stringy mucusy stuff but also kicks up the odor. It was making other people at the table slighty ill just to smell it. Then there's the mental knowledge that that stringy stuff is just rotten soybean gunk. Bit much to wrap your head around, especially with that smell in the air.

Pros: Doesn't taste at all like it smells, which is weird and kind of awesome. Worth it for the looks on your friend's faces when you put a glod of this stuff in your mouth and then slurp up the rotting strings of goo like spaghetti. Funny thing is, it honestly tastes really really good. It's really hard to describe, though. Vaguely nutty, kindasorta. If you've had steamed edamame, that's about as close as I can explain it. I like this a lot better, though. Once you wrap your head around the stench, this stuff is actually pretty damn good. I'd eat it every day if I could.

Overall: As this is SB, I'm sure, like, everyone has tried this stuff already. If you haven't, though, definitely give it a shot! When I ordered mine, the waitress kept warily asking if I knew what it was and if I was sure I wanted it, so apparently this stuff does not mix well with the gaijin. When I was done she almost apologetically went "Did you like it?" and cringed. Seriously, though. Shit be tasty. Just don't breathe through your nose.






Food Eaten: Canned Caterpillars (I can't find a link for these)

Country of Origin: Haiti

Type: Caterpillars (not sure what kind) in tomato sauce, headless.

Fashion Consumed: Eaten right out of the can with a fork -- supposedly you can also heat them up in a saucepan.

Cons: As nasty as these things look, they honestly don't taste like much. What I tasted the most was the tomato sauce. The caterpillars were just these squishy things I chewed on. I kept waiting for some kind of gross flavor, but it was sort of like eating a shittake mushroom: Chewy, but doesn't taste like a whole lot. If they do have any kind of nasty flavor, the sauce masked it pretty well.

Pros: Meh? I mean, they barely tasted like anything. Sort of a letdown. I'm told they taste more strongly without the sauce (you can get them in some kind of brine, maybe pickled?), but this was a gift my co-worker brought back from visiting family to try to gross us out a bit, so all he had was the one can with tomato sauce.

Overall: I was let down by this. One of those things where if they were cheap I'd probably get a bunch of cans for pure shock value, but other than that, pretty unremarkable. If I had to eat them again, I'd at least warm them up first, probably have 'em over some pasta. Make for a slightly more interesting sauce component than meatballs.




Somebody else add some. DJ wants to try new stuffs, yo.
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[DJ]

Meh. Beer's so common as to not count as an acquired taste.
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[DJ]

[DJ]

Oh yeah, two more that I didn't mention:


Food Eaten: Rocky Mountain Oysters

Country of Origin: USA

Type: Deep-fried bull testicles.

Fashion Consumed: With some tobasco sauce and pepper, eaten by hand.

Cons: Not many! They tend to be kinda pricey, though ($6 for one, I'm pretty sure?)

Pros: Pretty tasty! Doesn't look like a giant bull nut. Resembles a big piece of falafel (it's flat, not round). Once you get around the fact that you're eating a cow's balls, it's all good.

Overall: Tastes like a weird cross between a clam cake and a hamburger. Not exactly something I'd hunt down, but good enough if you can get 'em. I'm not a big fan of deep fried stuff in general, though, so!




Food Eaten: Haggis

Country of Origin: Scotland

Type: A sheep's lungs, heart, and liver, diced with vegetables and cooked in its stomach.

Fashion Consumed: With some mashed potatoes on the side.

Cons: This stuff is fatty as hell. I'm not even a big beef fan, I generally find even regular hamburgers to be too fatty for me, so yeah. Haggis has about eight billion calories per serving, and most of it is animal fat. Hoo-rah.

Pros: Tastes, uh...Well. Tastes like lamb.

Overall: Not as good as I was kinda hoping it was. Also, the wikipedia entry for this shows a bunch of sausage-looking things: Mine was just stuff on a plate, looking sort of like chili. It didn't come in any kind of sausage form, so I guess they sliced it open when they were preparing it. Honesty, this stuff didn't really do it for me. If I'm going to eat lamb, I'll just get regular lamb. I'll pass on Haggis in the future, most likely.
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[DJ]

[DJ]

[DJ]

[DJ]

Alice: Yes, I did really like it! A lot! But, revulsion isn't exactly uncommon for that stuff.

Klik: LIVING octopus? Holy shit. This I really, seriously have to try. Specialty sushi shops have it, you think?
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