Ever eat anything you wish you hadn't?

[DaveBrown74]

In my opinion, the ONLY reason Escargot gets eaten is because of the fancy French name as well as the product is served in ornamental shells that look nothing like the common yard snails' shell. I thoroughly believe that if the menu said, "Snails.......$15.95" and they were served in their original shell, the majority of people would never eat them. However, I do respect the fact that people eat (and enjoy) things I'd never eat. Try as I may, I don't think I could eat frogs' legs, but I know a lot of people love them. Dittos with sheep's head, rocky mountain oysters, etc. I get a kick out of a local tradition in Syracuse held every October called the "Riley's Testicle Festival" where testicles are served en masse (deep fried). Interestingly, a lot of women have zero problem eating testicles, but there's very few men that want to eat them...LOL

https://www.syracuse.com/restaurants/2015/10/rileys_balls_testicle_festival.html

FWIW, I genuinely enjoy escargots. I wouldn't eat them everyday or even once a month, but once in a while (once or twice a year maybe), as part of a French bistrot type meal, I do enjoy them as an appetizer. I honestly don't think it's just because they have a fancy-sounding name. I know I'm eating snails when I eat them.

If anything I would argue that a raw oyster is conceptually a trickier thing to get over for a first time eater than a cooked escargot. In any case, I very much enjoy both. Escargots have never made me sick though. Oysters have.

I don't think I have ever tried rocky mountain oysters, and I have no plans to. If I saw them on a menu I wouldn't order them. If I'm going to order a bunch of unhealthy deep fried food, I'll stick to the classics that I know I love like calamari, chicken tenders, onion rings, etc. No need to fix what isn't broken there.

A lot of foods that we eat regularly would give anyone second thoughts if they really pondered not only what they were eating, but also the whole process of getting the food from its original form to their plate. I'm not going to get into lots of detail here, but there are plenty of "normal" foods that we wouldn't think twice about eating that have processes that would make most people squeamish if they really looked at them closely.

[DaveBrown74]

I found this article. Amusing, interesting, and disgusting to read, all at the same time. For full disclousre, among these foods, I have tried:

1. Durian (as discussed). That was gross. I have nothing positive to say about it and would not recommend that to anyone who does not already have an acquired taste for it.

2. Kopi Luwak. I knew what it was but had never seen it before until I was at a hotel in Turks and Caicos (of all places). It was stupidly expensive (think around $20 or even $25 for a cup or a small pot), but I was very intrigued so I decided to just go for it. It just tasted like good quality coffee, but certainly not worth the price. Was a bit of a non-event. I know that it is considered to be very high quality, hence people's tolerance of the way it is procured.

3. Natto. Fermented beans. I had that once in Tokyo on a business trip. We were at a nice restaurant, and my hosts handled all the ordering, and that was among the items they selected. I didn't want to be rude, so I tried it. Defintely not my thing. Gross taste and texture. I love Japanese food, but that particular part of their cuisine is not for me and never will be.

I haven't tried any of these other foods and don't plan to. I have seen a documentary on casu marzu which included Gordon Ramsay trying it. Bugs gross me out, and so does rotting food, so no thanks. Perhaps the grossest thing on this list though is the mice wine, especially given people actually eat the rotted mice when they're done with the "wine." That is absolutely horrifying. I would eat anything else on this list before I tried that.

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/10/10-of-the-worlds-most-disgusting-foods/

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I found this article. Amusing, interesting, and disgusting to read, all at the same time. For full disclousre, among these foods, I have tried:

1. Durian (as discussed). That was gross. I have nothing positive to say about it and would not recommend that to anyone who does not already have an acquired taste for it.

2. Kopi Luwak. I knew what it was but had never seen it before until I was at a hotel in Turks and Caicos (of all places). It was stupidly expensive (think around $20 or even $25 for a cup or a small pot), but I was very intrigued so I decided to just go for it. It just tasted like good quality coffee, but certainly not worth the price. Was a bit of a non-event. I know that it is considered to be very high quality, hence people's tolerance of the way it is procured.

3. Natto. Fermented beans. I had that once in Tokyo on a business trip. We were at a nice restaurant, and my hosts handled all the ordering, and that was among the items they selected. I didn't want to be rude, so I tried it. Defintely not my thing. Gross taste and texture. I love Japanese food, but that particular part of their cuisine is not for me and never will be.

I haven't tried any of these other foods and don't plan to. I have seen a documentary on casu marzu which included Gordon Ramsay trying it. Bugs gross me out, and so does rotting food, so no thanks. Perhaps the grossest thing on this list though is the mice wine, especially given people actually eat the rotted mice when they're done with the "wine." That is absolutely horrifying. I would eat anything else on this list before I tried that.

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/10/10-of-the-worlds-most-disgusting-foods/

Casu Marzu cheese disgust me as well. Don't like eating live (or dead) larvae/worms in my cheese.

I had to look up the way Kopi Luwak is "procured" and that too disgusts me  (for those not wanting to bother Googling it, it's basically coffee...but the coffee beans are first eaten by a large rat looking creature called an Asian palm civet who eats the beans whole, then craps them out. The coffee is then made from the rat's feces....YUM

[LennG]

Lenn,

Very fair point, and I don't disagree in principle. It's just a line I haven't been able to cross.

And to be honest, insects as food don't seem to come up as often as escargots, which I see on menus at least one or two times a year.

We cruise a lot (when cruising was available) and on most cruise lines they have escargot on the menu every day as an appetizer and the people who do like it, order it every day. As we say, to each its own.

[LennG]

Not to get off the track here, but I watch several of these 'survival' type shows on TV, and when people are hungry they will eat just about anything, from worms, to any type of insect, toe ven trying stuff from dead animals.
I guess it's a lot different than going into a restaurant and just ordering things. Point is, if you are starving, no matter how gross something may seem, people will eat it.