Exotic animals

[pharmamarketer]

I am going to a restaurant tonight that does not serve steak, chicken or pork. Only exotic cuts. I am looking forward to it. Has anyone eaten ostrich, snake, turtle, squirrel, brains, sheep balls, etc? there is a sampler that I may dive into. Can't wait. Any recommendations are welcome.

[SP1966]

Any recommendations are welcome.

Be safe, bring a barf bag!

[pvsampson]

Ostrich is a dark meat,rich and tastes a bit like chicken.Snake is light of course,has a strange soft texture,IMO,and tastes a bit like chicken.Brains,(sheep) are the f#cken worst thing I have ever tasted and are squishy,and have a taste a little like squashed,rotten chicken.Haven't eaten sheep balls,but I have eaten calf nuts,"Bush Oyster",straight out of a branding fire.Texture is soft and a bit grainy,very salty and taste nothing like chicken.

[pharmamarketer]

if given the opportunity I would pelt Andrew Zimmern with rocks ....


that sob will eat anything ....
F

done be like THAT GUY !

No intention long term. Just trying something new.

[pharmamarketer]

Ostrich is a dark meat,rich and tastes a bit like chicken.Snake is light of course,has a strange soft texture,IMO,and tastes a bit like chicken.Brains,(sheep) are the f#cken worst thing I have ever tasted and are squishy,and have a taste a little like squashed,rotten chicken.Haven't eaten sheep balls,but I have eaten calf nuts,"Bush Oyster",straight out of a branding fire.Texture is soft and a bit grainy,very salty and taste nothing like chicken.

I am leaning towards ostrich and squirrel. Thanks for the info

Edit-I am trying balls for the first time

[nebraskaheat]

Edit-I am trying balls for the first time

wow, already decided to put out to the guy taking you to dinner? Slut!

hehe

I've tried "Rocky mountain oysters". Didn't like it and I'm an adventerous eater who usually likes all kinds of strange foods.

I'd recommend some snake, I love it personally.

[paolo59]

Battered, deep fried rattlesnake is delicious! I've had an alligator gumbo as well that was pretty tasty. Ant eggs, (escamoles) is good too!

[dungeonmistress]

[Corbi]

I've had ostrich, alligator, elk, moose, bear, horse...yep in Italy horse is big. One of the grossest things was conch fritters, little slimy snot balls basically. Would not eat snake no matter what.

[pvsampson]

Geoduck. Supposedly delicious.

[Phattso]

I'll stick with chicken, thank you very much.

I have had squirrel as a kid, but not for me anymore. I would try ostrich, though.

[paolo59]

Hope you enjoy the restaurant!

[pharmamarketer]

Had snake, elk, brains,ostrich, balls, ox and bacon. . Yep, the ox came wrapped in bacon. It was fantastic. I hated the brains but liked everything else. Even the balls

[StressMonkey]

[Keltron]

Ive had:
ostrich
alligator
deer
bison
mealworms
cricket
balut (a fertilized duck egg cooked before it's hatched - fukking disgusting!)
beef heart
beef tongue
deep fried quails
snails

want to try:
bear
camel (no canibal)
snake or any kind of reptile
live mini octopus
more insects and larvae
haggis
dinuguan (Filipino pig blood stew)


I'm pretty much down to try anything except for any kind of rodent, cat or dog.. Well, if it's a big cat like a lion I might be down but anything like a bobcat or smaller would just seem too close to a housecat lol.

[Mindi912]

Ostrich is good

[GuyJin]

Ostrich is a bit tough...not bad.

Loved haggis when I went to Scotland. Everyone else passed on it, glad they did. It was great!

Tried snake once--like dry chicken. Chopped chicken liver and goose liver was nice.

Ate Rover once in Korea...will never do it again.

Bambi is good.

[Mindi912]

Ostrich is a bit tough...not bad.

Loved haggis when I went to Scotland. Everyone else passed on it, glad they did. It was great!

Tried snake once--like dry chicken. Chopped chicken liver and goose liver was nice.

Ate Rover once in Korea...will never do it again.

Bambi is good.

Ostrich is good when cooked properly
eewwww haggis lol
snake is meh
Liver isn't exotic
Bambi is excellent meat

[superman713]

Ive had:
ostrich
alligator
deer
bison
mealworms
cricket
balut (a fertilized duck egg cooked before it's hatched - fukking disgusting!)
beef heart
beef tongue
deep fried quails
snails

want to try:
bear
camel (no canibal)
snake or any kind of reptile
live mini octopus
more insects and larvae
haggis
dinuguan (Filipino pig blood stew)


I'm pretty much down to try anything except for any kind of rodent, cat or dog.. Well, if it's a big cat like a lion I might be down but anything like a bobcat or smaller would just seem too close to a housecat lol.

My ninja!

Balut and Dinuguan were staples of my diet for years. (Filipino GF)

While I was in SE Asia I ate so many new things that to this day, I still cant identify. Ive had pretty much everything on
your list except the Haggis... No sure about that one.

I hate going to eat with people who order the same thing over and over.... Live a little! While I was in Japan I was in Culinary heaven!!!!!!

[superman713]

Hope you had a blast at the restaurant Bro! Kudos to you for trying new things in regards to food. Too many don't take the plunge... sad!

[GuyJin]

Ostrich is good when cooked properly
eewwww haggis lol
snake is meh
Liver isn't exotic
Bambi is excellent meat

--

Yeah, liver isn't exotic...but prepared Hungarian-style it sure tasted that way.
Snake...an acquired taste.
Haggis...that'll put hair on your chest!

Oh, wait...sorry.
(Armageddon reference, Minderz)

[Mindi912]

--

Yeah, liver isn't exotic...but prepared Hungarian-style it sure tasted that way.
Snake...an acquired taste.
Haggis...that'll put hair on your chest!

Oh, wait...sorry.
(Armageddon reference, Minderz)

hahahahahaha xxx

Never going to touch that stuff lol

[BalhamBeast]

Ostrich is more like beef, really. It's read meat. I've also eaten kangaroo (which is another red meat and good). Venison is lovely. I've also had wild boar which is a bit porky but leaner and more gamey.
Gator/croc is like a fishy sort of chicken.

Weirdest thing I've eaten were silkworm pupae in Korea. A bunch of us rocked up to a restaurant where they spoke no English and there were no English menus or photos to point to. We just indicated we wanted to eat and the waitress brought us a selection of dishes. The pupae looked like beans, sort of - that's them in the bottom right corner.



They didn't taste bad actually. We finished the bowl (mostly out of politeness but they had a nice umami sauce so they were actually quite tasty) and the waitress brought us another! But we figured we'd had enough by that point. We did take one back to show to our tour guide and she explained what they were. (We were pretty sure they were some sort of bug so we weren't horrified or anything).

[DocHoss]

I hope the snakes are farmed! Snakes are really in decline in my area - too many of them get run over in the spring.

Like PV says, most things taste much like chicken. Though ostrich is more beefy.

Beef tongue is not exotic - my mother used to make it and it was one of my favorites. Beef heart is OK, but not something I'd go out of my way for. I would like to figure out how to skin and prepare squirrel as we have far too many in our neighborhood. Could really help cut down the grocery bill! Wild boar is delicious, though like BB said, tough.

If blood soup is anything like blood sausage or blood pudding, I'm ready for it! But I have no intention of trying the balut.

I've had bee larvae in Japan - a bit of a honey flavor - as well as crickets. And live 'opihi (limpets) in Hawaii - we'd use our thumbs to push them out of the shell and pop them in our mouths. The hardest part was prying them off the rocks. Also fresh sashimi from a fish still flopping around. Very tasty, but rather cruel, I suppose. And fresh frog legs up on a ranch - the paniolos (Hawaiian cowboys) would shoot them in the stock ponds. Not much left but the legs after that.

Are piranhas considered exotic? They are delicious, but extremely bony. We used to fish for them in Peru.

..

I really wish you hadn't posted that. Really, really, really. Most barbaric practice I can think of (though I think this from a film and not the real thing).

[pvsampson]

Fresh water turtle,short neck not those muddy long necks,Echidna,best meat ever(spiky for a reason),Roo/wallaby,witchetty grubs cooked,moths cooked,possum not so good to me,some parrots,wild duck,swan,skinned ibis,goanna,various lizards,reptile and bird eggs,emu meat and eggs.Then there are feral animals,water buffalo,wild pig,rabbit,wild cattle,venison.Eaten all this and there are more I just can't think of at the moment.

[DocHoss]

Fresh water turtle,short neck not those muddy long necks,Echidna,best meat ever(spiky for a reason),Roo/wallaby,witchetty grubs cooked,moths cooked,possum not so good to me,some parrots,wild duck,swan,skinned ibis,goanna,various lizards,reptile and bird eggs,emu meat and eggs.Then there are feral animals,water buffalo,wild pig,rabbit,wild cattle,venison.Eaten all this and there are more I just can't think of at the moment.

Parrot? I've never heard of those being eaten - how were they?

How about bogong moths? I saw those heading out for the night from their roosting crevices at Mt. Buffalo (I think) in Victoria - what a spectacle!

[StressMonkey]

I really wish you hadn't posted that. Really, really, really. Most barbaric practice I can think of (though I think this from a film and not the real thing).

It's a picture from Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom.

[pvsampson]

Parrot is a bit chewy,standard poultry taste. Bogongs are actually crushed into a paste and then cooked into flat cakes traditionally. I used to get big moths and place them into some coals raked from the fire.You have to be quick,just as the body extends pull them out and munch away.All the hairs and wings are singed off.The head is quite meaty and reminiscent of peanuts,the body a crunchy soft centre.A couple of dozen is a good feed.

[pharmamarketer]

I had some venison sausage yesterday. Not very "out there" as they mixed it with pork but it was damn good