what is the absolute worst "food" you've ever tasted?

MisoSoup - Both of your stories have literally almost made me sick!

I guess one of the worst things I've eaten was prepared by my dad. haha. I *thought* he was making a peanut butter and banana sandwich one day and said, "Oh dad, will you make me one?" He said sure and then brought my plate over to me. I bit into it and it was...MAYONAISE AND BANANA! I did chew. I just spit it on my plate. It's one thing to eat something thinking that it's something else....but mayonaise and banana. That is disgusting! I hate mayo anyway. When I make chicken salad, I have a hard time putting the mayo in....

I'm a fan of trying new things, especially abroad. I love to hear what people think is the worst tasting thing they have ever eaten!

I'll go first.

An Icelandic delicacy is fermented shark fin. They cut the fin off the shark and let it ferment for days. They cut it into itty bitty pieces and serve it on toothpicks. It is traditionally chased with Icelandic Schnapps. This was by far the worst tasting "food" I've ever tried! When it hit my tongue, I couldn't bring myself to chew it even once - I swallowed it and chased it with the Schnapps. Four hours later I burped fermented shark fin and thought I was going to die! :sick:

Served with Black Death shots, right?!? A coworker was just telling me about this the other day and how disgusted he was by the shark and Black Death.

I saw this on bizzare foods, they say the shark is poisonous because of some acid or something so they let it ferment! I'm like apparently that shark is NOT ment to be eaten!

Yeah, I have to agree... NOT meant to be eaten! But kind of like the Japanese eating live octopus as a show of what, "manliness" or machismo, I guess consuming fermented shark fin kind of earns you a degree of respect - and especially as a foreigner who is completely disgusted by the smell of the tiny little pieces from 20 feet away.

I say I'll try anything once. Anything, that is accepted as "food" by a culture and deemed safe to eat. However, I would never bring myself to try dog on purpose. If I ate it not knowing what it was, that would be another story.

I have tried other odd dishes, like blood sausage, beef hearts, various livers and kidneys (none of which I enjoyed) and others I've forgotten about. I liked the blood sausage and I loved lard when I finally tried it. There are plenty of everyday foods I won't touch, like baked beans... any kind of beans really (esp. lima beans!). The texture of beans makes me feel so sick. I can't eat crustaceans because the meat sort of "bounces" around in my mouth... also making me feel ill. Tapioca pudding? Forget about it.

Anyone ever heard of mountain oysters? :laugh:

Never had them, but seen them fried and eaten. :sick:

I can't remember the name of it, but it is a drink that is made by floating a living fungus in the water. so it is basically a fungus "tea". My parents had a big pitcher of this stuff in their fridge (sans fungus floater), and I poured a big glass, thinking it was apple juice (had the right color), but when I took the first big gulp, it was like liquid mold. Gag:sick: I'm still mad at my mother for that one.

and another story to send y'all over the edge:

we had chickens when I was young, and one of them was my favorite pet. her name was arlene, she would let me hold her and pet her, she was all white and pretty like the chickens in cartoons. well we'd had her for a long time, and she was getting old and blind. cut to the dining room table: I am trying to eat a chicken leg, which I cannot bite because it is so tough. I start to cry, and my mother asks "what's wrong?" I tell her, I can't bite this chicken, it's too hard! and she tells me, "that's okay, she was blind, too". yes, thats right, my mother made me eat my own pet chicken.

A cooked pig on the spike with the apple in it's mouth. Full animal. Head and all.
The caterers took my plate, carved off the side of this animal in front of me, handed me my plate of meat back.
(This was a rehearsal dinner for a wedding, btw.)

I became a vegetarian for about 3 years after that.
Still don't eat a lot of meat these days.

OMG... There is a festival in a town called Wittlich in Germany. It's called the Pig Fest. And they roast whole pigs on a spit for 3 days prior to the start of the festival. While it was disturbing to me to still see the heads attached, I have to admit, it was the best tasting tender pork I've ever eaten in my life... I don't mean to be cruel, but I feel certain animals were meant to be eaten and I do enjoy them. I just wish our methods of raising and killing these animals was more humane.

A cooked pig on the spike with the apple in it's mouth. Full animal. Head and all.
The caterers took my plate, carved off the side of this animal in front of me, handed me my plate of meat back.
(This was a rehearsal dinner for a wedding, btw.)

I became a vegetarian for about 3 years after that.
Still don't eat a lot of meat these days.

OMG... There is a festival in a town called Wittlich in Germany. It's called the Pig Fest. And they roast whole pigs on a spit for 3 days prior to the start of the festival. While it was disturbing to me to still see the heads attached, I have to admit, it was the best tasting tender pork I've ever eaten in my life... I don't mean to be cruel, but I feel certain animals were meant to be eaten and I do enjoy them. I just wish our methods of raising and killing these animals was more humane.

I have no problem with raising animals for slaughter. I wish they would knock them all unconscious via chemicals first or a good stun or SOMETHING so they don't feel it, but that is another story. I'm completely cool with raising farm animals for meats.

But I was totally grossed out by SEEING THEM CARVE THAT ANIMAL. It was barbaric.

That said, I still eat pulled pork but if I EVER saw the pig it came from, I would revert back to being unable to eat it.