Unusual Food You Should Try

As a child I was a finicky eater, but I wasn't afraid to try new and unusual food I saw others eating. Although I wouldn't eat lima beans, I ate oysters, limburger cheese, and other unusual food others wouldn't dare try, and to this day I'm willing to try food that many people would consider unusual and quite often repulsive.

The following unusual delicacies are food items I've found in local stores and restaurants. Most of these unusual food items I've tried, and one other I plan on trying in the very near future. I'm willing to try almost anything at least once, and the following are some of the unusual food items I've had over the past couple of months. Check your local stores and restaurants for the following unusual food, and once you try these tasty delicacies you might just decide they're really not that unusual!

Limburger Cheese

Most people have heard of limburger cheese. This uncommon cheese is best known for its pungent odor, and until you've smelled it for yourself, there's really no describing it - at least not accurately. If you can get it past your nose, it's really not as bad as it smells. I ate limburger cheese with my great uncle when I was barely out of kindergarten, and I thought it was great.

Recently while browsing one of the local grocery stores, I discovered the food section next to the deli that contained unusual cheeses and other fare. When I spotted the characteristic foil-wrapped package I was thrilled. I hadn't eaten limburger cheese in years, but I was about to become reintroduced to a taste from the past - and that trademark odor. I paid just a little over $5.00 for that small block of limburger cheese, but the odor alone brought back childhood memories, and that's a small price to pay for a trip back in time, even if it's only in the mind.

Limburger cheese is encased by an edible rind, and the rind is the main source of the heady odor. The inside is smooth and exceptionally creamy, and the texture is a lot like brie. If you can get past the preconceived notions and the strong smell, give limburger cheese a try. You have nothing to lose but a few friends, even your dog - if you don't remember to wash your hands and brush your teeth!

Buffalo Burgers

I'm not much of a meat eater, especially beef, but I have tried buffalo meat. As a teenager in the upper peninsula of Michigan, I tried buffalo burgers. The local grocery stores carried various cuts of buffalo meat wrapped in white paper, and I was anxious to try something new, exotic, and unusual.

My mom fried the buffalo burgers for my dad and I, but she wouldn't try them. I thought they were good, but she said they didn't even smell good as she fried them, and claimed they smelled like piss. My mom would eat almost any type of food on grocery store shelves and every unusual fruit salad known to man, but she wouldn't try the buffalo burgers. This food was far too unusual for her taste.

I've since had buffalo at a local Bass Pro Shop restaurant, and it was the same as I remembered. Buffalo is very lean, and it has a very meaty flavor, for lack of a better description. I paid about $10.00 for my buffalo burger dinner with fries and a side dish of coleslaw, but it was well worth the price. I discovered that buffalo meat still tastes the same. It was good, but I truthfully don't care if I wait another 27 years to have another. It's unusual meat since it isn't readily available in restaurants and stores, but I'm not that thrilled with red meat in the first place. I won't go out of my way to try this one again.

Oysters

I absolutely love oysters, and I've been eating them since I was old enough to ask what those unusual things were in my dad's bowl of hot buttered milk covered in floating black pepper. I've had fried oysters, cold boiled oysters straight from the can, and of course I've had hot oysters in a bowl of hot butter milk covered in floating black pepper. I haven't had raw oysters, but I would try this unusual but well known food. I have yet to try oysters on the half shell, but the restaurant at the Bass Pro Shop serves oysters on the half shell, and in the very near future I plan on trying a plateful.

I'm almost 42 years old, but many people who don't know me assume I'm in my early 30's. I've never smoked, I don't drink, I don't roast myself in the sun, and you're probably wondering what I do. I attribute my love of oysters and other seafood to my younger looking skin, and I on average I have oysters about once a week.

What's considered unusual to some is not unusual to others, and I'll continue to eat seafood and oysters on a weekly basis until the day I pass on to the next life. Hopefully they have oysters and other seafood in heaven - at least something comparable!

Freshwater Eel - Raw

Do you consider sushi an unusual food? I used to consider sushi unusual food - until I tried it at my local Oriental buffet restaurant. Now I love sushi, and the sushi bar is the first place I head after the waitress takes my drink order.

I soon discovered how to get the sushi chef to offer the really good stuff, and no, I didn't have to flash the chef. Put a couple of dollars in his huge tip jar and he'll give quickly whip up a plate of the best sushi this side of California. I know how to get the very best sushi, and waving a couple of bucks in front of the sushi chef goes a long way.

Recently I was thrilled to find genuine sushi rolls at my local grocery store, and it was every bit as good as the sushi from my local Oriental restaurant. I didn't have to wave an extra couple of bucks in front of the lady's face to get the really good stuff either, but I did have to pay a little more than $5.00 for three avocado rolls or 12 eel rolls. Yes, I said eel rolls - as in freshwater eel.

My husband also loves sushi, but I have a feeling I shouldn't have told him what was in that sushi from the grocery store. Freshwater eel is a little too unusual for some, and he just couldn't stomach all six of the sushi rolls I gave him. He gave me his last sushi roll. Maybe it was a good idea to tell him!

Squid

Many people would consider squid an unusual food, and I used to be one of those people. I first tried squid at an Oriental restaurant buffet in northeast Indiana. It looked like a miniature octopi that was shriveled up, and it really didn't taste bad. Actually it didn't have much flavor, and it was very chewy. I'm sure I swallowed it long before it was properly chewed, but I finally gave up and swallowed.

I'm not fond of squid because of the texture, but since I'm a lover of unusual food I'll still eat it when it's available. My son has told me that a huge Oriental buffet in Schererville Indiana has squid, and it isn't a few tiny octopi mixed in with huge pieces of sliced carrots, bok choi, phony crab meat, and cauliflower. It's all by itself in a steaming tray, and I plan on trying this unusual food once again in the very near future.

Gator

I wonder if gator tastes like chicken. That's everyone's answer when asked how an unusual food tastes that has the same texture, color, and consistency of chicken. The Bass Pro Shop also offers an alligator appetizer, and when I go to this restaurant for my plate of oysters on the half shell, I'll be sure to place my order for the gator. I'm already sure I'll like it, and I'll be able to add this unusual food to my long and ever-growing list.

How About an Eating Partner for Andrew Zimmeran

If Andrew Zimmeran from Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel would like a female partner willing to try it all, contact me through Associated Content. No, the unusual foods I've tried aren't as unusual as those tried by Andrew Zimmeran from the Travel Channel, but I'm ready and willing. I'm not afraid to try anything new, and as Andrew says, "If it looks good, eat it!" I think Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel would benefit from a second unbiased opinion of the unusual foods Andrew Zimmeran tries, so I'll be waiting patiently for your email Andy.