Bizarre Foods of the Middle East
Monday June 22, 2009
I am going to be honest here with you. I am not really into strangely exotic foods or what could really be considered delicacies. You won't find me voluntarily munching on rattlesnake or even eating escargot. Call me boring, but I am a comfort food kind of guy.
I was flipping through the channels this morning and just happened to stop at a show called Bizarre Foods on the Travel channel. The host, Andrew Zimmern, I have deducted is either being paid quite generously for eating such foods or truly has a strange interest in eating, ummm, well bizarre foods to say the least! The episode I caught this morning featured Zimmern enthusiasticly searching a market for bull testicles. Lo and behold, he found them and ate them after they were fried in olive oil, of course. I was sickened by it, yet I still watched. He moved onto eating the entrails of steamed crabs. Heavily piled onto what appeared to be a cracker, the green mush of digestive bliss was comsumed by Zimmern without hesitation. And that is when I had to turn it out. You see, I have eaten the entrails of steamed crab. As a child, someone put one on my plate. They forgot to tell me how to eat the thing. Little did I know that the stuff in the belly of the crab was off limits. A taste I had forgotten, but brought back by viewing Bizarre Foods.
What kind of bizarre foods have you eaten? Let us know in the "Comments" section below!
I was flipping through the channels this morning and just happened to stop at a show called Bizarre Foods on the Travel channel. The host, Andrew Zimmern, I have deducted is either being paid quite generously for eating such foods or truly has a strange interest in eating, ummm, well bizarre foods to say the least! The episode I caught this morning featured Zimmern enthusiasticly searching a market for bull testicles. Lo and behold, he found them and ate them after they were fried in olive oil, of course. I was sickened by it, yet I still watched. He moved onto eating the entrails of steamed crabs. Heavily piled onto what appeared to be a cracker, the green mush of digestive bliss was comsumed by Zimmern without hesitation. And that is when I had to turn it out. You see, I have eaten the entrails of steamed crab. As a child, someone put one on my plate. They forgot to tell me how to eat the thing. Little did I know that the stuff in the belly of the crab was off limits. A taste I had forgotten, but brought back by viewing Bizarre Foods.
Bizarre Foods of the Middle East?
The show did get me thinking about bizarre foods in the Middle East. While you can find sheep's brain and testicles in some markets, its not as if people eat them daily or even are popular. Personally, I have no interest in eating those parts of animals. But could find such things if I truly wanted to. I guess taste in is the mouth of the beholder.What kind of bizarre foods have you eaten? Let us know in the "Comments" section below!
Comments
Sorry Saad, I am a bit of a chicken as far as “Bizarre”foods go….I have taken a bite of Mumbar, found them oily and unappetising, and that was before I watched them being made!!
Some people here talk about Mish, which is a weird aged smelly cheese. Never tried that either, but have heard there are several different sorts of it. Me I prefer to stick to what I know, and have benefited from many of your recipes in the newsletters. Thank you for such a useful site.
I have eaten “100 year old eggs” in a Chinese restaurant in Winnipeg and water bugs in a market in Vietnam. I much preferred the latter – a nice snack but the shells do stick in your teeth.
I will try most anything once.
My brother LOVES chicken testicles. Says they’re the most delicious of the “nugget family.” I never knew there was such a thing until he educated me. For the record: I abstained.
I have been a bit adventerous in my life and have tried rattlesnake(tastes like chicken), escargot (tastes like garlic chicken, alligator (again, tastes like chicken), testicles (tastes like tender steak),rabiit(tastes like chicken), caviar(salty fish taste), beef tongue (tastes like tender roast beef, Frog legs(tastes like a combination of fish and chicken). Given that most of these taste like chicken, I prefer to stick with the authentic animal. The mind games I had to play with myself to try and consume these more exotic forms of nutrition were not worth my while.
Always a fun challenge when traveling to a new place! What sort of weird food can we consume? Usually on the losing end of a bet, here are some of the most memorable ones..
Wild boar in Laos (quite tasty!)
Scorpion, cricket, worms and other bugs in Thailand.
Dog in Vietnam.
Bulot (fertilized chicken egg) in the Philippines, as well as various dishes with a variety of organs cooked in blood.
Fried Cockroach in Cambodia.. This may have been the worst!
As a child, I ate lamb brains and loved them. They were first boiled and then eaten in pita bread with a slice of raw onion and sprinkled with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find them now; however, given the chance to have them again, I would do it in a heartbeat. By the way, this was not in the Middle East…this was in good old New Jersey.
Hello Saad,
I am teaching Middle Eastern and German cuisine in Alaska, but growing up in both countries nothing sounded more bizarre to me than German Bloodwurst…
Of course on the Syrian side i will also never forget being invited to a little restaurant in Damascus where a couple dozen songbirds/deep fried, were being served to us on a platter…all i remember were the little heads…there was no meat on them…
I have been an avid bird watcher/bird lover ever since i moved to the US…perhaps from that ghastly experience
sincerely,
camilla
How about some exotic foods that are not gross? Every time I eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, I finish off my meal with avocado ice cream–very rich, but not overly sweet. I recently enjoyed a beautiful rose-colored scoop of beet ice cream at a local high end gourmet restaurant while at a business dinner. Believe it or not, both of these desserts are delicious!
Amy
Oh, and I forgot: here in Kentucky we call sheep’s testicals “mountain oysters.” They are great breaded and deep fried with milk gravy!
Well,I have traveled around the world.I have seen and tried many bizarre foods in many countries:
China:stinking beancurd;it tastes like rotten cottage cheese.
Japan:Pufferfish sushi; the pufferfish meat is poisonous,only professional cooks know which part of this fish is edible.
Korea:dog soup;dog meat provides with stamina.
Vietnam:snake gall bladder;it is said to remedy sickness!!!
Thailand:fried bugs and silkworms;these crunchy snacks provide protein!!!
Pakistan:grilled ram testicles kebabs;it looks like large beads on skewers.
Morocco:lamb brain stew;it tastes good and delicious!!!!
USA:deep-fried Bull testicles in Texas!!!
Someone said ‘above’, that rabbit tastes like chicken but it doesn’t. Rabbit has a taste all it’s own. The strangest thing I’ve ever eaten was when my father’s hungarian friend made fried grasshoppers when I was 5 years old, and I ate them and they were good and crunchy. Now, I would NEVER eat them or anything strange. I would eat rabbit again. My grandmother was from Germany and she used to make Hossenfeffer (Rabbit Stew) and it’s delicious. However, I still believe that chicken is the best all-around food.
I’ll never forget coming home after school, when I was about age 11, some 63 years ago.
A delicious aroma permeated the air and I knew something good was cooking. I went into the kitchen and saw a large pot with steam coming out from under the lid. I was a picky eater then, but I knew this was going to be really good bewcasuse of the smell. I grabbed a towel and lifted the hot lid of the steaming pot, peaked in and saw three pairs of eyes staring at me from skulls floating in the boiling water. I was shocked by the sight, dropped the lid and ran aout of the house. I was told these were lambs heads being prepared for dinner. Needless to say I did not partake of trhis supposed delicacy. I love Tarama, Kalamari, greek sausage but I am still picky about eating some of the exotic bizarr foods.
It all comes down to how hungry you are.
Traveling with my husband and two boys (aged 7 and 9) was an adventure in itself. During the first 10 days in Hong Kong, one morning we had an Indian breakfast of tiny crunchy dried fish and peanuts seasoned with cayanne and served over rice. We all liked it. One whole day, 3 meals of vegetarian fare at a Buddhist monestary was great–must have had about a dozen different kinds of mushrooms. On the way there I met an Aussie lady who begged me to turn back cause the food was terrible.
Dim Sum lunch was an adventure–point and eat. Usually the boys were to have a taste of every thing. Toward the end of the meal we ordered a pale orange offering. It was segmented and looked rather like a Satsuma peeled with the white netting left on. My husband and I tasted of the delicate creamy filling, looked at each other and proceeded to finish without giving the boys a chance eat. Maybe it was a Sea Urchin? Any ideas.
By the time we got to our 10 days in Japan, the 3 guys were ready for Big Macs but I stuck to my dining adventure. They had to cooperate one day when we were getting hungry and were off the (American) beaten path. We found a simple neighborhood eatery and ate many strange things cooked in a large trough of broth. I think one item may have been Sea Cucumber or Octopus. The guys were sure that anything they did not recognize by sight or taste was tofu.
I also had middle eastern stuffed sheeps stomach in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia. It was wonderful. I was the only one at the party to induldge in the actual stomach.
How could I forget about Alaska? Muktuk, whale blubber, is tasteless but chewy–harder to get rid of than a plug! Beaver, muskrat, porcupine, lynx, seal, and moose head soup added to the buffet of bear, sheep moose caribou, and several kinds of fish. The meal was finished off with Eskimo or Indian Ice Cream. This is made preferably with seal oil or lard but with slim pickings shortning is used. The fat is whipped to a froth and blended with berries (usually Lingonberries or blueberries) and in these modern times sugar is added. I learned I was commiting a social error in eating the moose head soup because moose head is too strong for a woman. I never ate it again.
Regarding bizarre foods….well the Lebanese certainly enter into the picture with raw Kibbe and stuffed grape leaves. Growing up eating this never seemed strange to me but in telling friends about it I got weird looks and comments— “You EAT grapeleaves?” “The meat is RAW?” Ahhh well to each their own delicacy.
Cow tongue and pig tongue is good.
Mexican barbecue made with cow’s heads
ain’t bad, watch out for the eyeballs.
Menudo made with cow stomach and hominy
and spices is very tasty.
Simmered pig brains sliced and breaded
then fried can be eaten.
I draw the line at kidneys.
Anyone ever eat Machos?
Another Mexican treat.
Sliced liver, lung, pancreas, heart, sheep intestines etc wrapped in a layer
of goat fat much like a huge blunt.
Then wrapped with a thin layer of the intestines of a goat.
Toss them into the oven to roast.
Yum.
-Eggplant jam, a Syrian speciality. Whole baby eggplants preserved in syrup. You can’t taste the eggplant, just sugar.
Non-Middle Eastern stuff:
-Deer, a friend from work had gone hunting and made it into a teriyaki jerky.
-Fried squid (calamari) though it’s tough to call it exotic anymore if its on the Olive Garden’s menu.
-Raw oysters, I would’ve enjoyed it more if it didn’t have so much tabasco sauce.
-Steamed crab, the yellow fat is good.
-Sushi, I particularly like the eel, its very sweet.
-Caviar, tastes like salty little beads of fish juice
This reminds me of a conversation I had when I first moved to South Carolina. An older gentlemen walked up to me as I was shopping at a local fruit stand, and, offering me something from a wrinkled brown paper bag, he said (what I thought was) “Bull Penis?” I looked askance and asked him to repeat his request, and he said again (I thought rather clearly) “Bull Penis?” I didn’t want any of this “delicacy” he was offering, but couldn’t resist the urge to look into the open bag.
Imagine my surprise when there were peanuts inside! PEANUTS! Apparently, his southern accent threw me, as he was actually saying “Boiled Peanuts”.
Raccoon…tastes like ham.
Squirrel…not much to it, a little like pork. Goat, too. Both were a long time ago and this was in Arkansas.
Didn’t like sea urchin.
Seafood soup in a back street NYC Asian restaurant had MANY odd looking items in it, but it was so good I didn’t care. I’ll try anything at least once.
Jellyfish was like chewing on a rubber band. Ostrich is yummy, very lean and kind of beefy.
Chocolate covered ants, kind of rice krispie treat-like. Would love to try scorpian, frog,or alligator.
Well I must admit that many of the items mentioned are only exotic if you are in US or UK. I was brought up on haggis -Sheeps stomach stuffed with minced up liver and lights (lungs) with oatmeal and seasonings. Pickled herrings (Scotland) have eaten horse in France as well as frogs legs amd snails. In South Africa Ostrich, Giraffe, Buck – many kinds. Octupus is not unusual check the mediterranean countries and rabbit and hare are old fashioned foods we just lost touch with. Home made pressed tounge and brawn are delicious as is steak tartare. Favourite food is champagne with blini and caviar. Or how about raw salmon marinated in wine and vinegar and then eaten after 24 hours (minimum) As a child I also hated eggs but loved them raw whisked up with milk and sugar or honey.
Maybe exotic food will now be butter amd salt as they are such no nos with food police
I love the taste of lamb brain marinated in pepper powder, coriander powder,salt and turmeric and then sauteed in oil until well cooked…..yum….I had cravings for this food when I came to UK and was three months pregnant at that time. I went to all shops here in the locality asking for it and I remember people looking at me out of surprise when they heard me asking for brain!!!Never knew people in UK never have them.
But I got them when I went back to Dubai.
I also eat shark!!!Baby shark….Its made in kerala style:boiled with plenty of water,then crumbled it ans spiced with chilli, sauted garlic&onion and then adding grated coconut. You will not even imagine that its shark. Its that tasty.
I have eaten bull testes, they are prepared once in a while in currys back home in India but never knew it was them when i ate it!!…..only later i knew it was bull testes!.but it tasted so good….even then wud never eat them again.Just feel yuck.
You haven’t lived until you have prepared and eaten Pacha! It is the entire head of a lamb. Yum!
I married into a Middle Eastern family that emigrated to America in the 80’s. My mother-in-law does cook some dishes that I think are a little off, but only marginally so as we live in the Southwest where Mexican quisine is HUGE and so good (regardless of content) that loving authentic Mexican cooking prepared me for the most unusual of the Middle Eastern dishes I’ve eaten. I’m adventurous and willing to try virtually anything once. The only thing I can think of that I absolutely would not eat would probably come from the insect family. Other than bugs, anything goes…
Should try the live crabs at the BOM-BOM bar in Hong-Kong or crickets in the streets of Saigon, or dog meat stew in Vietnam or Korea ( to be sure it is real dog meat, bring your dog along he will just smell it but will refuse to eat).
Saad, I am Maltese, it is a mixture of Arabic and Italian. us maltese people we eat octupus,and some people may find it strange.
Kangaroo is very good, but very lean. Eaten underground somewhere in Australia.
Kangaroo is now becoming available in many Australian supermarkets. I have never had the kangaroo steaks, but have tried kangaroo stew – this had a very strong gamey taste.
Stuffed vineleaves are delicious – both the Lebanese and Egyptian styles I have eaten.
A friend of mine travelled to Bali, where her friends who lived there cooked ‘chicken’ for her last meal before she flew home, but ‘confessed’ to her just before she boarded the plane that she had in fact eaten flying fox (bat). While she had thoroughly enjoyed it at the time, once she knew what it really was, she threw up for the next three days. Interesting what happens if we ‘know’ what we are eating.
Amsterdam Holland: Pigeon, which was very good..like chicken.
BBQ’s Eel, skewered straight up a long stick…Yummm!
Fla Keys: Shark, Flakey and I didnt like it at all!
(13) Hoca has it right! These foods are borne of need. Testes and Brains were what was left over after people richer than you took the loins and the chops, etc.
Fun to try. Not so fun when they are staples.