Uncommon meat selection

See Scott Rea for inspiration.

Since moving to Colorado, we have eaten elk and bison on occasion. Elk is nothing more than big honkin’ deer that walk through on our property on occasion. There is a bison, elk, and yak ranch a couple miles from our home that sells to restaurants. At home, we make burgers, but in some of the restaurants, we have ordered elk medallions and bison steaks. They are pricier than beef, though. Haven’t had yak; it’s not in the grocery stores and I haven’t seen it in any restaurant so far.

I think the most unusual meat I've ever eaten was in a really fancy restaurant in Nantong, China, where I was eating with the client of a friend I was visiting. I speak no Mandarin, read no Mandarin and this was before you could use a phone to translate text... so I had no idea what was on the menu.

We weren't paying and the boss of the organisation ordered all the food for the table, as is the style and a million dishes came out. One was a bunch of 1 inch transparent discs in a beige soup. I was encouraged to eat one by someone else at the table. Chewy, firmer than it looked, slightly salty and essentially tasteless without the broth or soy sauce:

jellyfish. It was... fine.

Also at this meal: birds nest soup, abalone, sharks fin soup. These are things I wouldn't order myself, but the business situation compelled the person paying to get the most expensive, prestigious meals. If anyone is wondering, my uncultured, out of place palate found all of these to be generally bland, carried by a rich (very tasty) broth.

The rest of the meal was fantastic though.