Rats cats& Elephants

Hunter63 points out that some things we purchase and eat from fast food restaurants in our advanced, civilized country are really pretty unusual and strange, at least as strange as muktuk and balut. I find it hard to imagine eating beaver tail but fur trappers and mountain men seemed to enjoy it. It is all a matter of culture and upbringing.

The State of California, in its wisdom, has prohibited the use of horse meat for human consumption while other countries consider horse meat to be good eating. Americans manage to eat lime Jello, cottage cheese and chitlings but cannot imagine drinking blood as a food item. We are all culinary captives of our upbringing. :clover:

Outside of typical game for my region, I have ate rattle snake, octopus, squid, alligator, grasshoppers, and chipmunk.

Then there was that time a visited that cannibalistic tribe! Just kidding on that one.

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Originally Posted by Natertot

Then there was that time a visited that cannibalistic tribe! Just kidding on that one.

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I'll bet you ate that up. (Oh, man. I slay myself!)

I forgot to mention goat and lamb. Pretty much a staple meat source in the Middle East.

Just as an aside, who the hell first thought, "Hey! That oyster looks good..."

And Crash, Balut? You're sick.

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Originally Posted by natertot

Outside of typical game for my region, I have ate rattle snake, octopus, squid, alligator, grasshoppers, and chipmunk.

Then there was that time a visited that cannibalistic tribe! Just kidding on that one.

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While teaching in Papua New Guinea, I worked in the same province where a tribe is known for eating the brains of deceased family members - perhaps a religious ritual and a sign of respect for the family lineage. Because I do not belong to that culture, I cannot understand it but it seems logical to them. The practice became known to Westerners because it seems to be a method of transmitting a particular disease.

Other cultures might eat a dead enemy's flesh to absorb his courage or eat lion meat to become as brave as a lion. :clover:
Even American mountain men have the story of Liver Eating Johnson, who was supposed to eat the livers of his foes.

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Originally Posted by Faiaoga

Hunter63 points out that some things we purchase and eat from fast food restaurants in our advanced, civilized country are really pretty unusual and strange, at least as strange as muktuk and balut. I find it hard to imagine eating beaver tail but fur trappers and mountain men seemed to enjoy it. It is all a matter of culture and upbringing.

The State of California, in its wisdom, has prohibited the use of horse meat for human consumption while other countries consider horse meat to be good eating. Americans manage to eat lime Jello, cottage cheese and chitlings but cannot imagine drinking blood as a food item. We are all culinary captives of our upbringing. :clover:

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There's a way of preparing walrus meat, called igunaq. You bury meat and blubber, and allow it to ferment, then freeze. It's considered a delicacy by those who enjoy it...when I was a boy we lived in a hamlet where they made what is supposed to be really *great* igunaq. I've never met an non-inuk person who has eaten it. It smells to high heaven for one. But, on the other hand, i love blue cheese, which is also pretty weird when you think about it, and kind of smells like feet. So different strokes, really.

Alligator, Buffalo, Ostrich, Tuna Steak, Haven't done Squirrel a real lost opportunity!

I didn't even consider goat/lamb as exotic meat, my local grocer sales it!

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Originally Posted by natertot

I didn't even consider goat/lamb as exotic meat, my local grocer sales it!

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I didn't consider goat myself, since we ate them regularly, but I had never had lamb before till in the Middle East.

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Originally Posted by MrFixIt

I didn't consider goat myself, since we ate them regularly, but I had never had lamb before till in the Middle East.

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if lamb and goat count, do duck and rabbit? I've met people who were really freaked out that I'd eaten rabbit.

For some reason this reminds me. i forgot musk ox and buffalo.

Well, I guess I better post this Recipe for elephant stew.

I first saw it in Remington Christmas Recipe Box Gift of Game recipes.
Not home right now....and this one is pretty close.
http://www.dailyvowelmovements.com/2...cipe-joke.html

First get yourself an elephant....African are best, the ones from India are being worked, so are tougher.

Elephant Stew

1 medium sized elephant (African are best)
500 bushels potatoes
200 bushels carrots
100 kilogram tomatoes
2 wheelbarrows onions (heaped)
100 kilogram salt
100 kilogram pepper
10 liter vinegar
1500 gallons brown gravy
3000 sprigs parsley
1-16 oz box of macaroni

Cut elephant into bite sized pieces(this will take about 2 months).
Cut vegetables into cubes (another 2 months).
Place meat in pan, cover with the brown gravy and simmer for 4 weeks.
Add the salt and pepper to taste.
When the meat is tender, add the vegetables. Simmer for another 4 weeks.
Garnish with parsley.

This will serve 3800 people, but if more are expected, add 2 small rabbits. This is optional, as many people dislike finding hares in their stew.

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Originally Posted by tundrabadger

Walrus. Raw and cooked, both. It makes delicious stew, I do warn he uninitiated against eating the liver raw....it can be a bit much for the untrained stomach. Ringed seal. raw and cooked. You really know you've been eating it, but it's pretty good. Also muktuk. Beluga in my case Kind of tasted like rubber bands dipped in blood, I'm told it's good with soy sauce but I've never confirmed it.

I don't think caribou should count as strange, but what the hell. Caribou is absolutely delicious. Eat it raw....I always thought that raw caribou was best frozen, and then you cut thin slices of it and they kind of melt in your mouth. Stew it. Roast it. It makes a decent burger, or what i believe to be the best curry ever. I even used to have a friend whose mother learned how to cook chinese food at one point, and adapted the recipes to use caribou meat. It was out of this world...partially because caribou is delicious, partially because my friends mother was and possibly still is an incredible cook. And now i want some caribou meat, which I'm not going to get, because there's a temporary hunting ban on them back home, so I can't ask my buddy to hook me up. Darn.

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I only have a bit over a layer of caribou left in the small freezer. I don't consider bear exotic either but have had it as well as moose.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pswtyswibi.jpg

People eat caribou..........like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? EEEEEEEEEWWWWW:clover::clover:

Yes and he's, I mean it's delicious.

I hope you enjoy your caribou, and I hope you are not offended by my weird sense of humor. As I have already stated, food preferences seem to be completely based upon culture. I recently gave a friend some baked breadfruit. He said "it must be an acquired taste". He is correct - if you grow up in Samoa, you will acquire the taste or you will go hungry.

I did not know that California had banned human consumption of horse meat until I looked on the internet and found out about a successful ballot initiative (check Proposition 6 in 1998????) Every culture seems to have particular food taboos - foods that are not accepted as "kosher". :clover:

mabey exotic is a bad choice of a word but i wrote this post from a perspective
of a mid westerner where things such as caribou,walrus,dog,or friuts such as strawberry guava,breadfriut
jack friut and mangosteen are yes exotic cause they don sell that here or for that matter eaten.
around the world these are normal fare.it,s all culture and location .

in hawaii,mexico,puerto rico,and even keywest i,ve been fortunate to eat things i never did before.
and i feel the better for it.

One "common" thing that I do miss up here in Alaska is fresh okra. It's not common here and most Alaskans don't even know what it is. It doesn't grow up here and it was my favorite thing to eat for many years.

Okra!? Ug, snot city.

1sttimestar okra is down home food like in gumbo for instance ,fried okra and so on.
gettcha some seeds an plant a few bushes.