Whale Meat and other rare foods

[OgreBattle]

Anyone tried whale meat before? Minke whale is the one they eat in Norway and Japan.

Other than that, what's the most uncommon food you've enjoyed?

[ACOS]

Kegogi.
Uncommon? Check. Enjoyed? Mostly only for the novelty factor.

[Meikle641]

I've had moose, bison, kangaroo and camel. Camel was as vile as their temperament. Everything else was incredibly tasty.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I eat bison burgers fairly frequently; they're really good. I've also eaten ostrich burgers, which I didn't enjoy as much.

[Koumei]

Kangaroo meat isn't rare or unusual over here, but on an international scale I imagine it is, what with them not being that common in America and Europe. It's really tasty, and doesn't have masses of fat to chop off. Still juicy, and the flavour is... I think it's what people mean when they describe something as "gamey".

[erik]

I don't know about uncommon but deer ain't bad. I've had it as sausage and as burgers (I think some fat had to be mixed into the ground burger since deer meat is too lean to hold together in that way).

[Doom]

I've had donkey, and rattlesnake.

Both are pretty forgettable, donkey being a bit like tough beef (though not as gristly as goat), and the rattlesnake is about the same as alligator tail...or does alligator count as exotic?

[Schleiermacher]

I've never eaten whale, although I've had the opportunity several times (I'm Norwegian), but I have eaten bear.

I've also eaten lagopus and capercaillie (those being tasty, tasty species of grouse).

And while the fish themselves aren't especially rare -cod and trout respectively- I eat lutefisk and rakfisk, which are pretty unusual dishes outside of Scandinavia. (Not everyone is fond of them here either.)

[Koumei]

Not sure how rare it is, but I've gotten into habanero recently. It's rare enough here that you can only get bottled habanero-based sauce from specialist stores.

I tried Mega Death Sauce (550K Scovilles), didn't read the label, and squirted it onto a sandwich the same way you would with tomato or barbecue sauce. I thought it'd perk me up (I had a cold). Technically it did - I have never felt quite so alive as when I was dying.

But adding Blazing Saddles habanero sauce (280K) to burgers and pasta is delicious, with just enough heat to make the whole mouth feel nice.

[DEBO]

The only thing I can think of that might count is gold.

[Shatner]

Sea Turtle Meat

The Cayman Islands is the only place in the world where it is legal to eat sea turtles. This meat is supplied by the world's only sea turtle farm, where they raise two populations of turtles: one for release into the wild to help conserve the species... and one for slaughter.

Once upon a time, the Caymen Islands were the largest turtle breeding ground on the planet, and so the locals made a habit of eating them. And just because a species becomes endangered doesn't mean the locals are gonna stop eating them. So the farm was built to provide a steady supply of meat to the locals to disincentive poaching; why steal and risk punishment when you can just buy it.

The farm is, for the most part, a tourist destination and a kind of mini-Sea World where you can learn about turtles, swim with turtles, and get pictures of your kids wading alongside turtles. But there is a section in the back where the other turtle population is kept. It doesn't show up on the map they hand out in the front, nor are there any tourist-accessible paths back there. They used to sell turtle meat in the farm's cafe, but that started freaking some people out so that stopped. Now, instead of the cafe, you go across the street to a tiny shop with a tiny sign that says they sell the stuff. And since it's illegal for them to sell the meat outside of the island, if you want to (legally) eat a sea turtle you have to go to the Caymans.

[darkmaster]

You know, that's a damn shame, I bet seat turtle is delicious. And if farming the things is sustainable I see no problems with eating humanely grown and processed sea turtle.

[Shatner]

Well, farming them is theoretically sustainable, but it's not really profitable, which prevents it from being attempted much at all.

It takes decades for sea turtles to reach sexual maturity. The Cayman Islands Turtle Farm was founded in 1968 and only recently has their first generation of domestically raised turtles (those born and raised in captivity) gotten old enough to themselves breed. Plus, depending on the species, the females don't always breed every year. So what you have is a really long pipeline you need to fill so that you have enough turtles of every age (except those too old to reproduce... you don't have a use for them in this scenario); you want turtles that are reproducing NOW as well as turtles that will replace your current breeders once they age out, and turtles that will replaces THEM once they age out, and so on, in addition to the ones you actually slaughter for meat. Filling that pipeline would require a huge number of individuals and, because of their conservational status, you can't just round up 500 sea turtles without the Planeteers showing up because you have then become a Captain Planet villain. So you have to start with an acceptably small number of rounded up or rescued turtles and build up your population from that. As the farm has demonstrated, just getting one generation from shell to breeder takes longer than Jimi Hendrix's entire life.

The fact that your return on investment, barring intermediary sources of income like tourism, is going to take decades, that right there makes it a non-starter for virtually all investors out there. But then you have the issue that since no one has ever actually raised turtles for commercial aquaculture, no one knows exactly HOW to raise turtles for commercial aquaculture. In the wild, only about 1% of all turtle eggs will make it to adult turtledom, and a single clutch contains between 50 and 200 eggs. You could have a population explosion within a single generation if you could get that percentage somewhere north of fifty. But how to raise masses of turtles from shell to whatever age they become ideal for butchering within an artificial environment without reducing your profit margins by too much in the process is something that's simply not known. You can go out there and buy a book on how to raise rabbits or pigs or shrimp or catfish for commercial enterprises. You can go out and hire people who have spent decades doing just that and have them convert your pile of investor money into a functioning crab farm. But no such books or experts exist for sea turtles. So you have to figure it out yourself, with all the risk and expenses that entails.

And then you need to actually get the world to buy your turtle meat at a price which will have made it all worth it. Heck, rabbit doesn't sell particularly well or for particularly much in the States despite the fact that raising rabbits is dead simple and extremely cheap (as these things go); enough people feel squeamish eating a cute little rabbit that demand is muted and so you don't find cuts of rabbit in the grocery store, or available on most restaurant menus. Now imagine trying to sell what, second only to the panda, is probably the poster child for the animal conservation movement.

With sufficient technology, patience, capital, expertise, marketing, and the right market conditions, you could turn turtles into the Filet Mignon of the Sea... but good luck. Some animals lend themselves to profitable domestication more so than others, and for reason similar to why you won't find elephant steaks available at your local meat market (until someone invents vat-grown meats, anyway), you aren't gonna see sea turtle tacos on sale outside of the Caymans.

[Shrapnel]

I eat pig's feet; does that count as exotic?

[RedstoneOrc]

I have had squirrel. They aren't rare but no one eats them cause they're cute so finding someone that has eaten one is. Also had bison, and jellyfish neither are that good and squirrel is like rabbit.

[OgreBattle]

I eat pig's feet; does that count as exotic?

I thought westerners didn't eat them but had Austrian style pigs feet, was crispy and delicious. What style did you have it in?

[codeGlaze]

@Shatner : ~10 years ago keeping, breeding and raising bearded dragons was a rare exotic pet. These days they seem just as common, maybe more so, than iguanas.

So really since that farm has seemingly found a sustainable practice via tourism, they're visionaries. Not only that, but if they find a way to substantially increase hatchling survivals, they could do wonders for conservation. Thay entire operation sounds awesome and I hope they flourish (obviously in a naturally sustainable way).

The more they learn and the more turtles from each clutch they can bring to reproduction age... the easier it will be to get other farms started.

[Lago PARANOIA]

What insects and arthropods taste good and are relatively convenient to eat? When I move out of my apartment, I'd love to start my own, say, juicy grasshopper hive and munch on them. However, I don't want to do any extensive food preparation and I don't want to be picking exoskeleton out from between my molars. Ideally, I'd have a Lion-king style thing where I picked up a juicy grub from the hutch and chowed down on it.

[Koumei]

Ant says honey ants would be palatable to humans. Whereas a regular ant nearly killed Stephen Fry when he tried to eat it, it was that bad. Even covered in chocolate.

People say "one day we won't have room for cattle, we'll need to eat bugs coated in toffee". I propose a solution: never mind the bugs, just eat toffee. It doesn't have to have wasps in it (though if left outside for any length, it will).

[shadzar]

what's the most uncommon food you've enjoyed?

Does McDonald's count? No idea what is in that or even if it is classified as "meat".

snake, bear, beaver, deer. not that i enjoyed them all because i always eat mostly beef or pork and have only eaten those others once.

[Koumei]

Does McDonald's count? No idea what is in that or even if it is classified as "meat".

I don't think it counts as rare. Or, for that matter, food. But full marks for your cynicism there.

[AndreiChekov]

I eat pig's feet; does that count as exotic?

I thought westerners didn't eat them but had Austrian style pigs feet, was crispy and delicious. What style did you have it in?

Pigs feet boiled with cabbage is a traditional english food. And it is amazing. It is by far my favourite food.

For the USA, I've eaten some stuff that is "exotic" but they totally have it in other countries.

I've eaten grey squirrel, horse, and lamb's liver.

[shadzar]

Does McDonald's count? No idea what is in that or even if it is classified as "meat".

I don't think it counts as rare. Or, for that matter, food. But full marks for your cynicism there.

but it said "most uncommon food you enjoyed". i actually enjoy chicken nuggets and a plain old cheeseburger from there.

is lamb considere4d rare or exotic? i had that once and know aussie's that seem to eat it like mericuns eat beef.

[rampaging-poet]

My family eats bison and venison semi-regularly. Both are farmed locally, but fairly expensive. My family hunts, so most of the venison we eat is from wild deer we shot ourselves.

[Ravengm]

The weirdest I've had is scorpion a while back. It tasted strikingly like lobster.