Odd Foods

[Outdated]

I’m curious about culturally unique foods, things people have in their local area that no one in the rest of the world has. I live in a bit of a weird place so I have a few but I want to start with this one:

Fritz. It’s a germanic type of sausage commonly used as sandwich meat. It looks similar to Polony, Strasbourg and Devon but they all taste like crap. Fritz is the only one I like.

I grew up with Fritz and Sauce (ketchup) sandwiches, also Fritz and Lettuce. Even just slices of Fritz with a happy face drawn in tomato sauce on them. You can fry it too but that’s not so nice.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04...-iconic-smallgood-delicacy-bung-fritz/8460960

 

[Angular Chap]

Speaking of sausages, we have mini skinless pork sausages rather dubiously named Wee Willie Winkies.

Perfectly innocent! Named after the character from the famous nursery rhyme!

 

[Storm Hess]

Mac and Cheese with ketchup. Whipped cream on pizza. Recently, avocado on buttered toast with drizzled Golden Syrup.

 

[Mary Terry]

I live in the American South, near New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, and there are many foods here that others would find "weird":

Boudin (rice, pork, onion and pepper sausage)
Kool-Aid pickles (dill pickles soaked in red Kool-Aid)
Pickled anything (boiled eggs, pigs' feet, watermelon rinds, okra, etc.)
chocolate gravy (good on biscuits)
red-eye gravy (coffee and pork drippings gravy)
pig ear sandwiches (fried pig ears on a bun)
slugburgers (ground beef or pork mixed with ground soybeans, deep fried)
Fried alligator tail meat
chitlins (small intestines of pigs, usually deep fried and added to gravy or mixed into cornbread)
pork rinds (fried pig skin, reminds me of Mexico's chicharrones)
grits
hominy
fried stuff like chicken gizzards, green tomatoes slices, frog legs, Rocky Mountain oysters which are pig or goat testicles)
boiled peanuts
Polk salad (made from wild polk plants and poisonous unless properly prepared)
Souse (hogs head cheese like a turrine of jellied hog head parts)

Then there are the weird combos:
chicken and waffles
cornbread and buttermilk
shrimp and grits
fried catfish and spaghetti
watermelon sprinkled with salt

Ok, I'll quit now that I've grossed out half of the audience.

 

[Forest Cat]

Lutefisk (lye fish) is always a little weird. It's white fish that goes through a time consuming process where it is saturated with lye. Also known as caustic soda, which is usually used for paint stripping and unclogging drains. Mmmmm, caustic soda, yum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

 

[Progster]

Here, nothing goes to waste. They eat just about every part of the animal - its brain, its eyes, its testicles, its intestines. I'm quite sensitive to texture in food and like predicable textures, so this stuff just grosses me out. There's no way I would eat it.
They drink coke mixed with white wine. I've tried that but didn't like it much.

 

[Magna]

Lutefisk (lye fish) is always a little weird. It's white fish that goes through a time consuming process where it is saturated with lye. Also known as caustic soda, which is usually used for paint stripping and unclogging drains. Mmmmm, caustic soda, yum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

Do you like Lutefisk?

 

[Forest Cat]

They drink coke mixed with white wine. I've tried that but didn't like it much.

People mix Coca Cola with white wine where you live? Huh, what planet do you live on?

 

[Forest Cat]

Do you like Lutefisk?

It's not my favorite but it's not bad, I think it's an acquired taste.

 

[Mary Terry]

@Progster - Aren't you in Greece? Ouzo tastes like paint stripper to me but maybe I've never had a good quality brand of it.

 

[Progster]

@Progster - Aren't you in Greece? Ouzo tastes like paint stripper to me but maybe I've never had a good quality brand of it.

Ouzo's ok, I very rarely drink it, though.
You're supposed to add ice and water, not such a great idea to drink it neat IMO.

 

[Mary Terry]

Ouzo's ok, I very rarely drink it, though.
You're supposed to add ice and water, not such a great idea to drink it neat IMO.

I didn't know you're supposed to dilute it. It was always served neat to me in Greece. Now I know!

 

[TBRS1]

In the kitchen lab I'm growing tempeh... which...(wait for it)...is...moldy beans (usually soy, but garbonzos are easier to get where I live).

Tastes like... chicken(?).

 

[Angular Chap]

@Outdated speaking of weird Australian cuisine, I always remembered beer called Kangabrew, way back to probably the late 90s. I have no idea why I still remember it, but I think it was on a TV show with a compilation of banned TV ads from around the world. Maybe it was just the punny tagline: "Kangabrew, made with real hops."

A quick Google search shows a few different Australian beers with the name Kangabrew, including one made with char grilled kangaroo fillet.

 

[MC1Rcat]

Since Mary Terry already shared a lot of the weird things from the New Orleans area, where I am from...I don't live there now...(not sure what is unique to NYC, since there are so many cultures here and a lot is imported.) I thought I would share something that is yummy that is only made in NOLA... the muffuletta sandwich. I used to live down the block from Central Grocery, where the sandwich was created by Sicilian immigrants over 100 years ago. It's so huge that you can pretty much only eat a quarter of it at a time.

From their website: "Each sandwich is made on a 9″ round Sicilian sesame loaf that stays crusty despite all it’s messy fillings. It’s stuffed with ham, salami, mortadella, swiss, Provolone and a signature briny marinated olive salad filled with Kalamata and green olives and other tasty pickled veggies."

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I like eating chicken gizzards and hearts. Lengua Tacos. Rare beef. Sardines. And Other yum yums.

 

[AdamG]

I cook the oddest food one can find in my neighborhood. Healthier, too.

 

[Mary Terry]

Since Mary Terry already shared a lot of the weird things from the New Orleans area, where I am from...I don't live there now...(not sure what is unique to NYC, since there are so many cultures here and a lot is imported.) I thought I would share something that is yummy that is only made in NOLA... the muffuletta sandwich. I used to live down the block from Central Grocery, where the sandwich was created by Sicilian immigrants over 100 years ago. It's so huge that you can pretty much only eat a quarter of it at a time.

From their website: "Each sandwich is made on a 9″ round Sicilian sesame loaf that stays crusty despite all it’s messy fillings. It’s stuffed with ham, salami, mortadella, swiss, Provolone and a signature briny marinated olive salad filled with Kalamata and green olives and other tasty pickled veggies."

I love muffalettas. Italians know how to make a great sandwich. Sadly, Central Grocery permanently closed during the Covid pandemic but continues to sell the sandwiches online.

 

[Mary Terry]

I like eating chicken gizzards and hearts. Lengua Tacos. Rare beef. Sardines. And Other yum yums.

I like chicken livers. The best ones are fried and sold at gas stations in the South!

I grew up occasionally eating cow tongue which makes delicious sandwiches (lots of mustard!) and have eaten taco lengua in Mexico. I love sardines, especially the ones packed in Norway or Portugal.

We're adventurous eaters.

 

[AdamG]

I like to make chopped liver (chicken liver and egg salad) but 1 lb of livers are too much so some always goes bad. I can't get them in smaller amounts.