Ok, wierd topic, I admit, but two things happend lately that bring this up.

A Norweigan friend of mine got a package from back home delivered via plane the other day; two kinds of "fish". In this case, "fish" does belong in quotes. One of them was called Lutefisk, I forget the name of the other, and I think I blocked what the one is made of, but the one I remember (and the only one I actually smelled) was made by taking shark meat, covering it in ash, and burrying it until it putrifies. Yes, rotten, ash-rubbed shark. I couldn't try it, but Sean says its great if you grew up with it. I'll trust him on that...

... On a better note, tho; I just got some fresh, wood-smoked venison sausage from a friend; this stuff smells SICK when opened up from the package, and disgusting when it first starts frying, but then, after 45 minutes or so, it smells delicious and I can't stop eating the damn stuff.

Anyone else got a food that is barely tolerable at first but ends up yummy?

That's easy: Haggis.

I’ve always had a thing for offal, or what my kids call “awful.” The various innards of the critter. My favorite is lengua (tongue) done up in various ways – from tacos to sandwiches to sliced with a side of green beans. I can drive the entire family screaming from the house when I cook up a batch of my menudo (tripe soup). Since the mad cow scare, I’ve given up on scrambled brains and eggs for Sunday brunch (making my wife and children much happier).

The Japanese part of me loves raw seafood. Sea urchin innards is my favorite.

The grilled sea slug that I had in Korea was also nice.

I can pass on the Korean dog soup, though. Twice was once more than I needed to try it.

I really love a Greek food called "kokoretzi." I think I am the only non-Greek on the planet who loves the stuff, but I do love it. It is sheep innards (kidney, liver, heart... and what ever they scrape off the butcher shop floor) wrapped in sheep intestines. But the wrapping is NOT like sausage stuffed inside the intestine, it is like the intestines are stretched and wrapped... it looks like a bunch of rubber bands, on a rotisserie spit.

I also like Spanish "morcilla" (blood and rice sausage), menudo, sushi of all sorts, and the most primitive sorts of jerkey.

A close Nisei friend of me brought me a quart of Kimchi. After I opened it, the odor was so bad I tossed it in the garbage outside. I wasn't brave enough to try it.

On the other hand, I found lots of dead rats after their exposure to the Kimchi

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:08 am A close Nisei friend of me brought me a quart of Kimchi. After I opened it, the odor was so bad I tossed it in the garbage outside. I wasn't brave enough to try it.

On the other hand, I found lots of dead rats after their exposure to the Kimchi

Ah ha! You can market the stuff as environmentally safe rat poision!!!

(OK maybe scratch that "environmentally safe" part...)

Kimchii is great! All it is is pickled and fermented Cabbage with various chilli's and spices. Staple dish in Korea and other asian nations. Trust me it tastes fantastic in fact if you had some that smelled it was to fresh hadn't "cured" yet. Kiko my cousin 's wife used to make it all the time sweet Korean girl haven't seen them in years.

Okay "gross" by US standards but as an old Swede rotmos med fläsk and fiskbullar is up there as a favorite. And as a snack the good old sile on vasa bread with some lingenberry is a taste treat! A nice winter warm up is cod head soup with some Absolute!

Stir fried meal worms and crickets over rice is a tastey treat as well as fried June bugs.

Andrew Zimmerman is my hero bringing so called bizzare foods to the fore front of american culture of late.

Some may consider it gross, but I'm a huge fan of sushi, including the raw fish. I even have lost my taste for cooked salmon, since it's so good raw. I'll pass on the sea urchin though. Had it once, the taste wasn't too bad, but the texture/mouth feel was distinctly double-plus ungood.

Haven't managed the courage to try tripe, offal, or any of the more extreme bits. Just something I'm better off trying before I know what it is, I suppose. Kimchi isn't bad, and I rather like sauerkraut.

I suppose I have it easy in some ways. The only definitive 'Canadian cuisine' I can come up with off the top of my head is poutine. French fries covered with cheese curds and either brown sauce or gravy. Not exactly gross to anyone except vegans and cardiologists.

Many of my other favourites also fall into this category. Bangers and mash, toad in the hole, etc.

Actually, there is one food that is a guilty pleasure that most would lump into the 'gross food' category. Tuna noodle casserole. One box mac & cheese, one tin tuna, one tin mushroom soup. Plus a number of odds & ends if you're feeling adventurous.

I don't like tripe. But the rest of the innards: liver, kidney, heard, tongue are great. Also faggots (yuky bits ground up and shapped like big meat-balls wrapped in caul fat), black (blood) pudding, white pudding.

Last week I had stuffed pig's trotter for lunch one day, which was a first.

Raw fish can be great, sushi style or cured. I make gravadlax quite often.

And salad tiede de gesier... warm salad of preserved gizzard (usually duck or goose, but occasionally chicken).

Thankfully it's 7 minutes to lunch time as thinking about all this has made me inordinately hungry.

Vegemite, the Ozlandia treat!