Aquired Tastes
I have been intersted in trying a few of the world’s “aquired tastes”. I found such a list on Wikipedia. I will keep a list of what I have tried and a log of any new tastes I have tried.
- Absinthe, a high-proof herbal liqueur, typically emerald green in color
- Aloe vera, a type of plant whose inner pulp is sometimes used in drinks, very common in Japan.
- Anchovies, small fish, cured in brine, known for their intensely strong flavor, often used as a pizza topping
- Andouillette, a French tripe sausage
- Artichoke, an odd tasting vegetable
- Balut, a boiled, fertilized duck egg
- Beer, especially strong ales and stouts
- Bitter melon, an extremely bitter fruit similar to cucumber
- Blood Sausage, sausage made by cooking animal blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled
- Bugs, especially cockroaches and big worms
- Calamari, squid, very often fried
- Camel paw, a Chinese delicacy served in the Forbidden City
- Campari, a bitter Italian aperitif
- Capers, pickled and salted buds or fruits of the caper shrub.
- Casu marzu, a Sardinian cheese containing live insect larvae
- Caviar, a prized delicacy consisting of salted roe (fish eggs) from sturgeon
- Century egg, a specially preserved Chinese egg
- Strongly-flavored cheeses, such as Blue cheese, Gamalost, Goat cheese, or Limburger
- Chili pepper the common source of “hot” spices.
- Chitterlings (commonly referred to as chitlins), boiled or stewed pig intestines
- Cilantro, (also known as coriander)
- Clamato, a drink made primarily of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate and reconstituted dried clam broth, with a dash of high fructose corn syrup, and USDA Red 40 to maintain a ‘natural’ tomato colour
- Coffee, a bitter beverage prepared from roasted coffee seeds
- Cow Cod Soup, Jamaican answer to Viagra, basically bull penis soup
- Cow tongue
- Cup cheese, a Pennsylvania Dutch runny cheese, sharp or mild, having roughly the color and consistency of snot
- Dark chocolate, processed chocolate that has little or no added sugar or milk, and therefore has a bitter taste.
- Dijon mustard
- Durian, a pungent southeast Asian fruit
- Eel, seafood, an Anguilliform
- Feet, of cow, calf, pig, duck, chicken, camel, goat, etc.
- Fernet Branca, a particularly strong, grape based, herbal digestif
- Fish Sauce, a condiment derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment
- Guinness, an Irish stout
- Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish mainly consisting of minced sheep offal, boiled in a sheep’s stomach.
- Hákarl, putrefied Iceland shark
- Head cheese, a dish made of meat from an animal’s skull covered with gelatin (usually set in a mold)
- Huitlacoche, fungus-infected maize, popular in Mexico
- Insects, including gubs, ants, grasshoppers, locusts, etc.
- Islay whisky, Scotch whisky made on Islay, known for its distinctive peaty character
- Jiló, bitter fruit (cooked as a vegetable) popular in Brazil
- Kimchi, traditional Korean dish of fermented chili peppers and vegetables, usually made from Chinese cabbage
- Kutti pi, an Anglo-Indian dish consisting of goat fetus
- Liver and/or liverwurst
- Lapsang souchong, smoked Chinese black tea
- Lobster tomalley, the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of lobsters, that fulfills the functions of both the liver and the pancreas
- Lutefisk, Nordic lye-soaked whitefish
- Marmite, Vegemite or Cenovis, spreads made from yeast extract
- Moxie, a bitter carbonated beverage containing gentian root extract
- Natto, Japanese fermented soybeans
- Octopus, seafood, a cephalopod
- Olives, fermented or cured fruit of the olive tree, come in different varieties and have a salty, bitter, oily taste.
- Organ meats, whether tripe, brains, eyeballs, gibblets, liver, sweetbreads, etc.
- Pickled eggs
- Pickled pigs feet
- Pu erh, a compressed, aged tea dominated by strong, earthy overtones
- Rivella, a Swiss carbonated soft drink. It is made from whey, also known as milk plasma.
- Root beer, an herbal flavored soft drink
- Rocky Mountain oysters, testicles of bull or boar
- Prairie Oysters, testicles of a bull, calf, or deer
- Salmiak/Drop — Nordic/Dutch ammonium salt liquorice candy
- Sea Cucumber, a member of the sea urchin family
- Scotch whisky, a woody tasting alcoholic substance.
- Scrapple, a slab of leftover pork parts.
- Smalahove, the head of a lamb
- Stink Bean, beans bearing a rather peculiar smell, quite popular in southeast Asia
- Stinky tofu, a form of fermented tofu, which, as the name suggests, has a strong odor.
- Surströmming, Swedish fermented Baltic herring
- Sushi, a Japanese food sometimes made with raw fish
- Tempeh, a fermented food made from soybeans popular in Southeast Asia
- Tonic water, carbonated water flavored with quinine, giving the beverage it’s bitter taste.
- Uni, sea urchin
- Unicum, a Hungarian herbal bitter
- Wasabi, and similarly Horseradish, due to their pungent odors and strong taste
- Wine
Kimchi - Sunday September 23rd, 2007
Ah ha! My first aquired taste can be marked off the list. I had Kimchi last night and it was amazing.
It was not as sour or spicy as I was expecting. The flavor was almost like that of Hot and Sour Soup with a little cabbage to taste. Alright, one down, many to go.
Islay Whisky- Saturday September 29th, 2007
I am a bit late recording this lovely devil of a drink. While I was in Colorado for the CU/OU game we stopped at a bar called Pints Pub. While sampling their “Education” I was introduced to a fine glass of Islay Whisky. I liked the flavor of the this complex whisky. I plan to drink some more next time I’m in a Scotch kind of mood.
The taste was, as has been stated everywhere, peaty. There was also a hint of saltiness that was like that of sea salt. I believe the peat is at some point during the year covered with seawater. Yummy.
Century Egg - Saturday February 24th, 2008
Jake, Michael and took part in a century egg taste test this weekend. I say taste test because ‘eating’ is not the proper word. We did manage to get our respective eggs in our mouths but they didn’t make it much further. I believe that the combination of the strong smell of ammonia, the sickly looking egg color and unfamiliar flavor caused our troubles with eating these. I think I’ll try these again in the future, see what comes up. Until then my next egg-based strange food will be tea eggs. Bring it!
Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg and thousand-year-old egg is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste. The transforming agent in century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of egg from around 9 to 12 or more.[1] This chemical process causes an “inorganic version” of fermentation, which breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats into simpler, flavorful ones.
Here is a video of Mike (not Michael from the above tale) being a greater man than all three of us combined. Then he washes it down with The Dew. Beastly.