Hijack: Exotic Foods

[Alexia Marzullo]

Bah! You people are cruel and evil and vile...
why not eat something uglier, like a cow?
Duckies are too cute to eat!

[Zem-El Vymes]

I am capable of eating pretty much any creature that is fit for human consumption. You're talking to a person who considers squirrels and rats "fair game" if in the woods for a few days.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Squirrel I'll try. But you know, rats... ugh.

Though we've got some crazy giant mutant rats that are as big if not bigger than footballs that hang out around the outside of the plant; I could try and bag one for you

[Cat X]

Bah! You people are cruel and evil and vile...
why not eat something uglier, like a cow?
Duckies are too cute to eat!

CUTE??? I dont think so, unless it's been honey glazed, slow roasted with apple sauce and mushrooms. Then it's delicious.

Damnit, hungry now

[Laodice Laos]

Bah! You people are cruel and evil and vile...
why not eat something uglier, like a cow?

Duckies are too cute to eat!

Cuteness is directly linked to how tender the meat is. Veal, anyone?

[Zem-El Vymes]

Squirrel I'll try. But you know, rats... ugh.

Though we've got some crazy giant mutant rats that are as big if not bigger than footballs that hang out around the outside of the plant; I could try and bag one for you

What is the difference? One has a bushy tail and one does not. Both are made of meat. As long as you bleed them and let the bodies cool so whatever vermin leave the kill, both are totally eat-worthy.

[Alexia Marzullo]

Bah! You people are cruel and evil and vile...
why not eat something uglier, like a cow?

Duckies are too cute to eat!

Cuteness is directly linked to how tender the meat is. Veal, anyone?

AHH! That's funny and wrong all at the same time!!!

I don't like a lot of meat, I usually just eat chicken or turkey... I do eat beef something... I dunno, I don't think I'll ever eat duck or veal or venicen (sp?)
I'm just not a big meat person

My family from more northern Florida eats all that crazy stuff... gator, too

[Zem-El Vymes]

Venison is one of the best dark meats you can have in your diet. It is incredibly lean, and has a great taste. Venison jerky is a heavenly thing.

As far as gator, well, I know we have a few pounds of alligator in our freezer right now. It's a very singular sort of food. Nothing quite like it.

[Alexia Marzullo]

I think I was forced to try gator at a family get together, but it was several years ago... I don't really remember it - but I don't think I liked it much

I'm sure venison is very healthy and good, like I said, I'm just not a big meat person.
whatever makes your mouth water, for you it's venison jerky, for me it's a smoothie!

[Zem-El Vymes]

Are you treating that smoothie as an entire meal? Every smoothie I've seen is a total calorie bomb. Don't have them on any kind of a casual basis. Most of them are incredibly full of sugar. While you do get vitamins and fiber in most, as well as benefit from calcium & protein in the yogurt, I'm not sure it's worth taking in all of the sugar that you find in those.

I know a guy who is a former bodybuilder who has a smoothie shop, and he is very careful to break down his smoothies into lots of macronutrient needs. I've had some of his protein-infused smoothies with creatine and glutamine, but those were relatively low sugar and I was on a bulking phase of my lifts, so I could handle the huge bulk of carbohydrates in it.

Just read the fine print, I guess. Places like Planet Smoothie are generally junk.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I think I was forced to try gator at a family get together, but it was several years ago... I don't really remember it - but I don't think I liked it much

I'm sure venison is very healthy and good, like I said, I'm just not a big meat person.
whatever makes your mouth water, for you it's venison jerky, for me it's a smoothie!

Here's a rundown of all the different meat I've had and what it tastes like:

Rabbit
Tastes like a clean, very lean chicken, and I've found that unless you marinate it it can be a little bland, but otherwise tasty meat. The times I've had it it's been very red, though not from any sort of undercooking. It just resembles dark meat in turkey.

Ostrich
The only ostrich I had was ground up, but don't get me wrong; it was fantastic. It'd been an ostrich burger, and darn it I loved it. Ostrich is a red meat, even though technically it's poultry/bird. Very lean, no fat that I can really remember.

Emu
Steak - Just like ostrich, emu is a red meat; tasting like a leaner beef. And, like rabbit, it tastes much cleaner. The fat content on the steaks I had was virtually nil. Very tasty, too. I can't really describe the taste other than to say it was delicious.

Emu egg - Sunnyside up, oh man. Fantastic; I've never had such an awesome egg in my life. I've got a picture floating around her somewhere of me cooking the thing, and it took up the entire pan. 5Tasted much like a chicken egg, but there was something else undefinable, that I couldn't exactly put my finger on. But whatever it was, hoo doggie it was glorious.

Alligator
I hadn't had alligator until about two or three weeks ago, but when I did it was quite yummy. It tasted like the perfect combination of fish and chicken.



And that's about it. Of course there are the normals; chicken, beef, lamb, pork, venison, chicken, all types of fish, lobster (my favorite food ) and crab, etc. Eventually I want to try rattlesnake, horse, and kangaroo. And a few of what might be socially taboo animals in the US. But eh.

[Parsideon Denix]

I've had rattlesnake, bison, opossum, and caribou.

Caribou is more or less venison. Lean and gamey. I had this at an "exotic animal" dinner years ago at a church. Fun times.

Opossum is fatty-ish, almost like pork. This was a "country fried" dish, so I imagine that had more to do with it really. Corn meal batter and so forth.

Bison is a very robust meat, very lean. I had it in a burger and it is basically everything good about ground beef with none of the bad parts.

Rattlesnake, hmm. The way I've had it was not very good. It was a chewy, bland thing. I had fried bits very similar to calamari, but it tasted sort of like fried clams, which suck. I imagine if they had prepared them better (maybe in a marinade and blackened them or something) then it would have been a better experience.

[Yog]

What is the difference? One has a bushy tail and one does not. Both are made of meat. As long as you bleed them and let the bodies cool so whatever vermin leave the kill, both are totally eat-worthy.

Well, the squirrel actually live in the woods (ok, some live in parks) eating nuts, seeds, and veggie stuff, while rats tend to live in sewers and such lovely places, feeding off exrements, trash and stuff, and they tend to carry a lot of diseases. If the meat is cooked / fried, it's not an inconceivable idea, but the mental barrier is of several orders of magnitude higher than it is for squirrels. Much like you though, I consider anything fair game if hungry enough.

Here is a list of stuff I have consumed:

Ducks (various kinds), rabbit, whale meat, raindeer / deer / moose, seagull eggs, octopuses (7 and 8 arm), snails, mussels / oysters of various kinds, bloody mary with snake blood, dried codfish prepared in potash lye, "old cheese" (norwegian dish), sheep head, turtle soup, shark fin, ox tongue, horse meat, aligator meat, emu meat / pancake, pork paw, all kinds of weird sushi, tequila with bug, fried and sugar coated ants (mmm... so crunchy!), + much more I am probably forgetting.

Feeling hungry yet?

Generally, if I see anything excotic in a restaurant I will jump on it

Also, opium seeds. No, not the drug, but dried seeds from the opium plant (it is completely harmless). They sold the stuff on ice cream in Turkey.

[Parsideon Denix]

Well, the squirrel actually live in the woods (ok, some live in parks) eating nuts, seeds, and veggie stuff, while rats tend to live in sewers and such lovely places, feeding off exrements, trash and stuff, and they tend to carry a lot of diseases. If the meat is cooked / fried, it's not an inconceivable idea, but the mental barrier is of several orders of magnitude higher than it is for squirrels. Much like you though, I consider anything fair game if hungry enough.

Squirrels are every bit candidates for vermin and nasty business. I mean it was recently that a squirrel up and had rabies and tore through Germany attacking everybody. Now this sounds scary and such, but microbes like viruses and bacteria are destroyed / nullified by pasteurization temperatures, well below that of what you get in a spit roast.

The only stuff that doesn't get fixed by a good cooking would be if there are any latent toxins in the animal's tissue, or if they have a prion disorder like Mad Cow, Kuru, Creutzfeld-Jakob, etc. As for parasites, leaving the fresh kill to "cool" for an hour or two is generally sufficient to solve this problem, as any parasites in a slain animal will leave the corpse rather promptly.

Here is a list of stuff I have consumed:

Ducks (various kinds), rabbit, whale meat, raindeer / deer / moose, seagull eggs, octopuses (7 and 8 arm), snails, mussels / oysters of various kinds, bloody mary with snake blood, dried codfish prepared in potash lye, "old cheese" (norwegian dish), sheep head, turtle soup, shark fin, ox tongue, horse meat, aligator meat, emu meat / pancake, pork paw, all kinds of weird sushi, tequila with bug, fried and sugar coated ants (mmm... so crunchy!), + much more I am probably forgetting.

I would eat all of this. I might give pause at the bloody mary, simply because I hate bloody marys, and I am unsure about the codfish & lye, but the rest is in bounds.

Also, opium seeds. No, not the drug, but dried seeds from the opium plant (it is completely harmless). They sold the stuff on ice cream in Turkey.

Countdown until Christin comments on this

[Yog]

Oh, I am aware squirrels are no saints. But you gotta admit, the thought of eating something living in a sewer is pretty gross.

I would eat all of this. I might give pause at the bloody mary, simply because I hate bloody marys, and I am unsure about the codfish & lye, but the rest is in bounds.

You are wise about pausing on the codfish & lye. Imagine a jelly grey transparant substance, which you basically have to flush down with mustard and liquor to hide the taste.

Countdown until Christin comments on this

The seeds are completely free of stimulants. You cannot even trace it in a laboratory. It is about as stimulant as your regular oat meal. They even bake bread of the stuff. The plants are grown as part of their pharmacy industry, and that ice cream thing is just a gimmick for tourists, but it makes for a good story. I love people's WTF reaction

[Parsideon Denix]

Oh, I am aware squirrels are no saints. But you gotta admit, the thought of eating something living in a sewer is pretty gross.

If you find this gross, we shall not go into water procurement

You are wise about pausing on the codfish & lye. Imagine a jelly grey transparant substance, which you basically have to flush down with mustard and liquor to hide the taste.

I imagine it tasting soapy.

The seeds are completely free of stimulants. You cannot even trace it in a laboratory. It is about as stimulant as your regular oat meal. They even bake bread of the stuff. The plants are grown as part of their pharmacy industry, and that ice cream thing is just a gimmick for tourists, but it makes for a good story. I love people's WTF reaction

It was a rather famous story arc on an episode of Seinfeld.

[Cat X]

Kangaroo is pretty good, but it must be cooked right and must be rare - do NOT well done it.

Deer is neat

I LOVE Oysters kilpatrick

And if you want to win my heart ladies... make me some chili octopus. Best damn thing ever

Emu..... meh

Snake is okay

Rabbit I dont really like.

Koala SUCKS

Crocodile now... THAT's an unusual meat. It's amazingly like white chocolate in texture and quite sweet. Very much the most unusal and yet great tasting meat.

[Yog]

If you find this gross, we shall not go into water procurement

Please do. I am intrigued..

I imagine it tasting soapy.

Well, not quite, but it's awful nonetheless, IMO. I can't comprehend why some people like it. You either love it or hate it, I am in the latter group.

This story pretty much describes some people's first experience of it (some NWS language)
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/ic/lutefisk.html

And this is a more "neutral" description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

It was a rather famous story arc on an episode of Seinfeld.

I GOT to see that episode! Do you know the name / number of the episode?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I GOT to see that episode! Do you know the name / number of the episode?

The Shower Head; episode sixteen, season seven.

The whole exchange between Elaine, Peterman, and Kramer is damn priceless

[Parsideon Denix]

I LOVE Oysters kilpatrick

Not familiar with this dish, but I occasionally eat raw oysters. I have to be somewhere rather near the coast, because I will only eat fresh. They're an experience. Best with good beer and an endless supply.

And if you want to win my heart ladies... make me some chili octopus. Best damn thing ever

Forgot about octopus. It was more or less calamari to me. Good mind you, but nothing special.

Please do. I am intrigued..

Fresh water of generally any source is within bounds. It can be dirty as hell and full of microbes, and will be summarily filtered and purified. Stagnant pools, muddy rivers, who knows what. And you will drink it and like it.

Well, not quite, but it's awful nonetheless, IMO. I can't comprehend why some people like it. You either love it or hate it, I am in the latter group.

This story pretty much describes some people's first experience of it (some NWS language)
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/ic/lutefisk.html

And this is a more "neutral" description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

I would try it once, at least. Jellied meat kind of scares me.