U.S. May Lift Ban On Haggis?

[DaisyDay]

Kim Chee is just cabbage preserved with spices (prominently chili pepper). I've cooked goat, lamb's tongue, squid (what calamari is made of), cuttlefish, octopus & shark. I've eaten ants, aardvark (not as yummy as you'd think), various testicles (lamb being the best), calve's brain (before the mad cow disease scare), pickled pig's feet, duck feet, kishka (cow intestine stuffed with matzo meal) - oh, and durian (think stinky Jackfruit) more than once.

I've never had dog, cat, monkey, people or the eyeballs of any creature.

I guess the oddest thing I've eaten is muk tuk - fried whale blubber (homemade by a woman from Yellow Knife, served at a garden party).

Shark is pretty common in the fish markets in NYC. Once I kept a piece a bit too long before cooking it - at first, I thought someone had left the cap off a bottle of ammonia the smell was so strong, but it was the degraded shark meat. Man, totally ruined the soup, but I could've cleaned the stove with it.

Isn't cow skin leather before it's been tanned? Fried pig skin is pretty popular in the US.

Those pictures sure make haggis look tasty. I would eat that (but not the canned stuff).

 

[jayem]

Additionally, I've eaten prepared monkey brain; not bad, actually. Tasted like a meaty tapioka pudding. The coloring is quite different from tapioka, of course, but all in all, it was delicious.

That's kinda risky. Mammalian central nervous system tissue, especially of primate origin, can contain those nasty prions. Which cause the spongiform encepahlopathies (like Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.) Even thorough cooking doesn't inactivate them.

Edited to add: The retina of the eye develops as an outgrowth of the CNS, and it can also harbor prions. So eyeballs are also best avoided.

 

[RETS]

That's kinda risky. Mammalian central nervous system tissue, especially of primate origin, can contain those nasty prions. Which cause the spongiform encepahlopathies (like Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.) Even thorough cooking doesn't inactivate them.

Edited to add: The retina of the eye develops as an outgrowth of the CNS, and it can also harbor prions. So eyeballs are also best avoided.

Well fortunately, neither are on my regular diet! lol

Both took place at a one time, "exotic foods" experience. Since it required them to get a special permit AND the nod from the FDA, I have to believe that all possible precautions were taken. This was also over ten years ago.

Appreciate the info, though!

 

[wanderingone]

I'll admit I'm a complete ugly American when it comes to food.. - and yes when I was a meat eating sort I preferred my meat chopped up on a little styro tray so I could pretend I had no idea where it came from, I'll call no one's food disgusting.. because had I been served a bigger variety as a child perhaps I wouldn't be so picky, but this is one person with roots (and family) in Scotland who won't touch haggis, and much of the other things described by folks with far more adventuresome palates than mine on this thread!

 

[marshlewis]

When I was young I gave myself credit for being worldly enough to try anything once. I fell over at the first hurdle- snails in paris yech.