Wednesday, 03 February 2010
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Daily Q: What Exotic Foods Have You Eaten?
When I tell people I’ve eaten certain exotic foods, I quite often get the same reaction; a scrunched up face, a gasp and then a resounding “Eeewww.” I know people think I am crazy but I just can’t help myself. I am excited to try a new or unusual food.
I recently ate three delicacies and can’t wait to consume more of them.
Zucchini Flowers
For some reason, people can’t get passed the fact that these beautiful, bright yellow edibles are flowers, so they are deemed unpalatable; however, they are very popular fare in the Mediterranean.
I tried them at Caffe Positano, a wonderful restaurant in Positano, Italy with an incredible view and incredible food to match. The flowers were stuffed with rice, ham and mozzarella, breaded and lightly fried in olive oil. I expected them to be a little heavy because they were breaded and stuffed but they were surprisingly light. The blossoms had this wonderful just-picked freshness.
I decided I’d try to make them at home, so I paid a visit to my local Farmer’s Market and purchased a huge bag for just $5!
Since there were so many in the bag and I feared they would meet their demise soon, I decided to fry some of them up to feed my husband and I for dinner one night and put the rest in my morning omelet. In both meals, I experienced that same fresh and delicate flavor as I did in Italy.
If you are lucky enough to come across Zucchini flowers, be sure to try them!
Bone Marrow
I would not recommend this dish for the faint of heart as it is served right on the bone. I know many people have tried them and have a great aversion to their texture but I believe the texture is what makes them so appealing.
Bone marrow is an airy, gelatin-like fat. It possesses a very delicate taste. It is unlike any flavor I’ve ever had, so it is hard to compare it to other dishes but it has an oily-like essence about it.
Sweetbreads
The name is deceiving. Sweetbreads are most definitely not related to the carb-family nor are they sweet. They are the thymus (throat glands) of a calf or lamb.
Sweetbreads are tender and have a mineral flavor to them. I recently had some at Ilili, a Lebanese restaurant in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. They were fried and covered in a garlic sauce and embraced in a tiny lettuce cup. The combination of flavors was unimaginable. I almost couldn’t share a bite of one of the three on my plate, selfishly wanting to keep every last bite all for myself. Since sweetbreads tend to be a little heavy, the lettuce really provided a refreshing crunch.
What types of exotic foods have you tried?
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- From: GinaG@xanga
- Name: gina
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Comments (43)
It's hard for me to determine "exotic" from "ordinary" these days (especially after watching so much Bizarre Foods and No Reservations). Very few foods seem strange now.
I ate my husband's cooking once...
i loveeeeee BONE MARROWW!!!
i love bone barrow too. my parents always said eating it will help strengthen your bones.
i've had frogs (not exotic to the french), chicken feet (not exotic to any chinese person), ostrich eggs, rabbit, horse...
monitor lizard, fox. very nice!
@LauraG0929@xanga - lol!
these all look good but i'm a vegetarian.
To me there's very little I consider "exotic" since I grew up eating food that most Americans deemed "exotic" or heck, even "gross" or "disgusting" and etc...
I've never had the thymus by itself but I have eaten it before. The flowers of most vegetables are edible: zucchini, squash, bitter melon, tayota, etc... and they are all delicious. I'm more used to them just blanched and dipped in a little fish sauce (diluted with water, with garlic, chili pepper, lime, and a little sugar added in) as well as eaten sauteed, tossed like like a salad.
Bone marrow is very good! It is one of the few sources of "fat" Vietnamese people eat. We mostly use bones to make stock for broths, but we also eat the marrow before throwing the bones out after cooking.
Great posts btw - I'm looking forward to more from you. They're interesting, thought-provoking, and actually have substance (unlike many other on Xanga's -ish sites)!!!
Huh interesting. The first one sounded really good to me- the Zucchini Flowers, the middle one creeped me out- but you mentioned gelatin-like and that grosses me out a bit, I must confess (Though I'm pretty sure that bone marrow might be the same stuff used to make all jello as well... hmmm). The last one I'm intrigued, but slightly afraid.
Bone marrow grosses me out! My Slovak grandmother cooks it for Easter, and it makes my stomach churn :p
I probably haven't eaten anything deemed "exotic", but I'd give things a try.
I've eaten fish eyes o.O
I've had pig and chicken intestines once. Tastes good man.
Octopus pizza was good too.
I think I've been tricked into eating a lizard once. *sob* Nooooooo~
D:
- Kunoichi
I dunno what's really considered exotic.
I eat Chinese food. Hahaha.
We've bought an entire pig's head and eaten it once... The entire head. I have pictures to prove it too!
@tigerdauphin@xanga - i totally agree.
@HollowTendencies@xanga - what were those like? I am intrigued!
@GinaG@xanga - A lot of people like them. They have too much of a fish flavor to me, I thought they were pretty disgusting. I gag just thinking about it.
I adore foie gras, sweetbreads, and uni, among other delicacies :)
deer? X.x
Ooh I want to try the flowers!
Kangaroo.
I am South African. Most foods are exotic. Exotic for me would be chiken fried steak and biscuits.
I LOOOOVE bone marrow. Chicken gizzard, liver, intestine, feet, heart. Balut. Turtle (when I was a kid. I cried when I found out what it was). Carabao milk (really thick stuff). Does sea urchin (which I love) and jellyfish count?
I also love to eat the eyes and brain of fried fish. Does that count as exotic? XD
in response to the writer's thoughts on creamy, rich animal parts i would suggest trying crab, shrimp and lobster heads--there is a goo in the heads that seems to be a mixture of the eggs, fat, and innards of the crustaceans. it's what Chinese people love, the goo is way tastier than the meat of those animals
i've eaten ostridge, ankimo (monkfish liver), pig trotter, foie gras, uni (sea urchin), aligator (in a soup), shark fin soup, shark steak
@LauraG0929@xanga - lol, i hear you on that one. it was more weird that anything i listed above
I like all three of these. I wouldn't consider any of them to be exotic though.
Monkey's brain. That's exotic.
I've eaten a chicken foot at a chinese restuarant once!
Oh man, the sweetbread looks delicious. Do you have the name of the Lebanese resturaunt you ate at?
The most exotic food I've had was jellyfish, goose intestines, snails, and i guess octopus is kinda exotic, no?