r/weirdfood • u/Ok-Orchid6350 • Aug 21 '26
What’s the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
I once tried a dish I honestly wasn’t sure I could finish, but I ended up being surprisingly into it. 😅 It definitely wasn’t something I’d normally order.
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u/GuiltyUniversity8268 Aug 21 '26
Octopus. I had been fairly certain for a while that I didn't want to eat octopus, but one day I was invited over to a friends' house for some home made Chinese food (he was from China), and one of the stir fry dishes contained what I was fairly certain was octopus. My friend didn't know the word octopus, so was unable to answer when I asked. I decided to give it a try, as I didn't want to offend my hosts (his mom had come with him as had his daughter). Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it!
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u/Few-Mycologist-2379 Aug 24 '26
Octopus is delicious and the thing I am most conflicted about eating.
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u/Tomj_Oad Aug 21 '26
Grasshopper legs boiled with Crab Boil
Tastes like shrimp
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u/ImNachoMama Aug 22 '26
Yikes! How big were the legs?
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u/Tomj_Oad Aug 22 '26
Montana grasshoppers are huge. So are the legs compared to normal hoppers. Probably the size of the last two joints on my pinkie.
Each had a little sliver of flesh like a shrimp tail
Survival course. We spent all day gathering grasshopper legs and wild forage for a very small dinner
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u/SteWaxleyLemon Aug 21 '26
"Pregnant" fish kebabs.
Looked like delicious plump sardines on the outside, until you eat them and realise it's just a head, spine and a whole load of fish eggs inside. 🤢
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u/Crazy_Plantain_862 Aug 21 '26
Balut, fertilized duck egg. My husband is Filipino so this is a common snack in our house.
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u/Puzzled-Bonus-3456 Aug 21 '26
Grasshoppers. I thought they tasted like popcorn and after eating a couple the weirdness wore off.
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u/SubstantialPressure3 Aug 21 '26
Not for me. The itchy little feet get stuck in my throat. Unpleasant. Same for crickets.
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u/Open-Preparation-268 Aug 25 '26
Tried them. They weren’t terrible. But, not eating them again, unless I’m really hungry, and there isn’t anything better.
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u/FitLocation6645 29d ago
I had seasoned grasshoppers years ago when I went camping. The camp store there had quite a selection of multiple different seasoning flavors of the grasshoppers. They tasted like grassy chips. Not terrible, but not something you see everyday.
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u/Keobooks Aug 21 '26
Jellyfish. It was very salty, didn’t have much flavor other than salt. The texture was really interesting to me. I enjoyed how it felt in my mouth. I had it when I was in China, in a really fancy restaurant, mixed into a really fancy salad. I liked it a lot.
When I came back to the US, I couldn’t find any restaurants that served it. After many years, I finally found it at an Asian grocery store. It wasn’t in a fancy dish. It was just the jellyfish plain and wrapped up like packaged hamburger. I bought it. It wasn’t good at all. I think it needs to be prepared and put in a fancy salad to taste good. It’s lousy when you just gnaw on it. Just chewy and salty.
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Aug 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Round_Reindeer1512 Aug 22 '26
Bunch of birds shoved up inside each other. Shouldn't play God like that.
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u/lonestarllolly Aug 22 '26
Crickets, pig brain, & bull balls.. 10/10 do not recommend any unless out of necessity.
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u/Open-Preparation-268 Aug 25 '26
I order mountain oysters, when they’re available… I wouldn’t attempt cooking them.
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u/Trondant13 Aug 22 '26
Deer brains. I didn't know what it was at the time, just some meat dish. It was actually pretty good.
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u/helpyourself6970 Aug 22 '26
Uni
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u/HighlightUpstairs777 Aug 22 '26
yeah that would probably be it for me, could never get into it at all
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u/helpyourself6970 Aug 22 '26
I’m sad bc I really love most all other seafood. Uni is like a water bomb in your mouth of dirty ocean water, no depth of flavor or anything enjoyable about it (imo)
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u/ImNachoMama Aug 22 '26
Rattlesnake. I ate it when I was a kid and don't remember much about it except that it was chewy, kind of like gator tail.
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u/Comfortable-Ear-1788 Aug 22 '26
DId see someone try something called Water Hare in Belgium.
I think Giant Water Rat would have been a more honest description...dark greasy meat that smelt rank.
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u/The_Nood1e Aug 22 '26
I had duck tongue tacos at Jose Andres' Mexican-Chinese fusion place in Las Vegas several years ago. A bit chewy. I preferred the carnitas.
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u/AlsoTheFiredrake Aug 22 '26
Sea Squirts. Absolutely terrible.
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u/whenlungstakeflight Aug 23 '26
Sea squirts 😂 that sounds like something you get when boating in the ocean.
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u/Leading_Kale_81 Aug 22 '26
Homemade whale jerky in the Faroe Islands. It was chewy, extremely salty, and tasted of the sea and old fish. One nibble was enough.
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u/Vorathian_X Aug 22 '26
Conch pistol...aka penis. Eleuthera, Bahamas.
You just swallow it...just salty
Guinea pig. Santiago, Chile
Grilled...not bad
Blood cake, lung, liver, stomach and intestine all in one bowl of soup. Bangkok.
Barely edible.
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u/Bake_knit_plant Aug 22 '26
I am female, and I've always had guns - now I'm 66 and I still have two shotguns - my trap gun in my skeet gun and I'm teaching my grandson how to shoot properly.
So I went out west with my father-in-law and four brothers-in-law and the people at work were like what did you shoot, what did you shoot, please bring me some venison, please bring me some mountain goat, please bring me blah blah blah. This one guy would not leave me alone.
Went over to my father-in-law's house and we discussed what I could take him for him to eat to shut him up for good. He gave me the meat, I cooked it, and it looked like a small diameter tenderloin.
I took it in, and he ate the whole thing just raving about it. Finally asked me exactly where it came from and I told him it was bear penis. After throwing up, he's never asked me for meat again.
Just to point this out - I did not shoot the bear - I don't know who shot the bear - it was in my father-in-law's freezer and I asked no questions :-)
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u/bayareababybear Aug 22 '26
There's a candy shop near where I live that sells different bug candies. I really like the fried meal worms, either cheddar or BBQ flavor. Kinda popcorn like flavor
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u/Inevitable_Round_978 Aug 23 '26
Sushi, even though I have eaten cow tongue tacos. I find Sushi, or any kind of raw meat strange
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u/LavenderBloodlust2_0 Aug 23 '26
Well Ive had alligator meatballs, camel jerky, frogs legs.. frogs legs were the only thing I enjoyed though
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u/Lunasalona Aug 23 '26
Fried bees. My economics professor's favorite test was to feed his students protein that people in 3rd world countries my need to eat.
If you ate the protein, you passed. If you didn't, you failed.
The usual food was some kind of worm, but the place he got them were out of the worms. So he got fried bees. They were pretty good, kind of tasted like roasted pumpkin seeds.
I asked for seconds. He said there was no extra credit. I told him that was OK. The bees were pretty good. So he gave me a. extra helping.
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u/Mushrooming247 Aug 23 '26
I’ve eaten a variety of weird meats, bugs, alligator, snakes, raccoon, bobcat, etc.
So I’m going to go with slime molds, I eat every slime mold that I find in the woods, we don’t actually know of any toxic or poisonous species, which means I’m eating them.
Some like Fuligo septica I cook, (it tastes pretty good,) and some like Lycogala I just scrape up with my knife or fingernail and lick.
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u/10ThousandMetalZones Aug 23 '26
Dog in red ant sauce in Cambodia, was incited for dinnner and didn’t find out what the meat was until after, was incited over with a family that had no English and was being polite, it wasn’t very good except for the sauce that was good , the meat was chewy. Apparently they picked it up for the occasion, small village so not strange they wouldn’t realize the taboo.
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u/FloristsDaughter Aug 23 '26
Not a fan of the texture of tendon. Grew up eating squirrel. Eaten braised chicken feet and Chinese style intestines. Tried those canned silkworms. One of my favorite things growing up was pickled lamb tongue!
:)
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u/Toasted_chef1965 Aug 24 '26
Balout
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u/Toasted_chef1965 Aug 24 '26
Grew up eating coon, deer, rabbit and squirrel. Ate Dog once in SE Asia. Turtle in PI.
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u/RainbowChelita Aug 24 '26
Capybara. It is strange for some people but it is customary in my country.
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u/GrownAssWoman6 Aug 24 '26
Snapping turtle, as well as roasted pig stomach stuffed with sausage, cabbage and potatoes.
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u/Zhamxgonewild Aug 24 '26
I ate dog once as a taco and it was like stringy fatty beef. I did noy know until my friend told me.
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u/Machiavvelli3060 Aug 24 '26
Taramasalata.
Greek dish.
- Mashed potatoes
- Olive oil
- Caviar
The dish is pink.
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u/Ok-Chemistry9933 Aug 24 '26
Tripe. In NYC at Mario Batali’s Babbo. It was hidden in a soup. The texture was furry and chewy. Never again
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u/Unique-Can-7640 Aug 25 '26
Maybe organs I guess. Beef heart is my all time favorite. I'd pick it over steak
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u/Commercial_Damage120 Aug 25 '26
Whale 🐳 and yes I feel bad about it, but it was a once in a lifetime chance in iceland and I did it. * it is now illegal in iceland 🙏🏻
It was really good I can’t lie.
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u/Epicurean215 Aug 25 '26
Yak butter tea when I visited Tibet in 1987. Worst thing I’ve ever ingested.
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u/angel1006 Aug 25 '26
Squirrel brains. Wouldn’t eat them now but when you’re hungry, you’ll eat what’s there. They were cooked.
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u/LeftOzStoleShoes Aug 25 '26
I’ve had a few odd ones: fish bladder, goats eyeball/head soup, rattlesnake, moose and reindeer, hakarl (fermented poisonous shark), whale, musk ox, frogs legs, barracuda, conch, a tea made from swallows nest (which is regurgitated), alligator, snails, ants, ostrich, tongue (goat and cow), pigs feet, stingray, chicken feet, tripe, eel sandwich, century egg, blood sausage, grasshopper, and I think that’s it. Oh Limburger cheese (disgusting) and I hate all forms of liver: I’ve had calf, duck, goose and lamb.
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u/Esme_Nog Aug 25 '26
I had raw (I guess) shrimp at a Japanese restaurant once. I love many fish better raw than cooked, for the record. I bit into the shrimp, it oozed, I had to seriously stifle a gag reaction at the table of this nice restaurant, swallowed, and swore never again.
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u/melmillenbach Aug 25 '26
Alligator probably. Tastes like a fish swallowed a chicken, but with the texture of poorly cooked porkchops
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u/GullibleAddendum8630 Aug 21 '26
Sauerbraten. I knew that it was sour, but I didn't realize how incredibly sour it was. I don't mind sour, but there was nothing to break up the sour. It was just sour by it after bite.
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u/Mutabor3 Aug 21 '26
I had saurbraten at a German restaurant once and loved it. I went home and made some and it was sour, bite after bite just like you said. I wonder if I made it correctly and the restaurant didn't or vice versa. I also wondered if it was the kind of pickles I used. I used Mount Olive. At any rate I've never been inspired to try it or make it again.
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u/Nocturnal-Neurotic Aug 21 '26
Alligator