Weirdest Food You’ve Eaten in Europe

Escargot. As weird as I want to get, altho I might try goat. Guess my palate is NOT that sophisticated.

Had frogs legs in Antigo, Wisconsin. Guess that doesn't count?

In Beaune I ordered "andouillette", thinking it similar to Andouille sausage. It came with a vague odor of a used diaper. Taste was "OK" but it was hard to get past the smell. My wife was curious and took a bite and immediately spit it out in her napkin. I managed to finish half and stifled an urge to send it back. When we got home, I googled it, and came to a website titled "Things that stink".
Andouilette is a stuffed pig's colon. "The odor is distinct and in no way an indication of cleanliness, but of glands in the colon that give its normal contents its smell." Followed by many hilarious comments on people's reactions, sprinkled with the occasional protest that it is an acquired taste and a very traditional French dish.

In Finland....Kalakukko. Fish bread. Hard rye bread baked with a fish down the middle. My sons and I left our friends whom we were staying with in Turku to camp in Kuopio. All of them told us to bring back some Kalakukko which is where it is made, so we thought it must be really delicious. It WAS special that's for sure.

Also Mammi, a traditional rye pudding (!) served at Easter. They made it for us even thought it wasn't Easter. One description said it was dark brown and an acquired taste and further descriptions were unprintable in a cookbook.

Wonderful people, beautiful country with mostly delicious food.

These aren't that unusual, but I've tried the following in Sweden:

Älg (moose) burgers

Ren (reindeer)

Filmjölk - translates to sour milk, but that isn't quite right. It is a cultured dairy product that Swedes eat for breakfast. The closest thing I can compare it to is buttermilk. I hate it.

Korv med räksallad - A hot dog with shrimp salad (often an unnaturally pink color). It is very popular, but I prefer the korv med mos (mashed potatoes)

I've never tried (and never plan to try) Sweden's scariest dish... surströmming. It is fermented herring that evidently smells unbelievably bad. One of my coworkers recounted the time his school had to be evacuated after some kid opened a can and stuck it in the ventilation system.

Reindeer meat in Finland and Kangaroo in Australia.

After that, the next strangest food would probably be Nutella. I'm not very adventurous.

For me, food is by far the least interesting aspect of visiting another country. That's just me. Maybe in exchange I appreciate other aspects more than the typical foodie.

Haggis. I can eat it but I didn't enjoy it.

Escargot are yummy, frog legs taste like chicken & i ate those in Ohio. Nutella is like a cream Reese Cup. Nothing but haselnut creme and chocolate.
Have had reindeer, aligator, armidillo, rattle snake, moose, beef heart.

Where are they eating dogs and cats in Europe? Certainly not in Switzerland. China or Korea perhaps?

We frequently had horse at boarding school in Switzerland. Just needed salt.

I don't consider food weird, just different, whether it's calf fries in Texas or goat's eye in Yemen. Some appeal to us, others don't. There are foods in Europe that didn't work for me like kippers in England and tripe in France. But that's my taste. Their popularity there indicates it isn't shared.

Strawberry crab in Venice.

My husband and I were just talking about this a couple of hours ago. Part of the cultural experience for us is the food. We seem to be concentrating on animal and fish proteins here, so I'll limit myself to that.

He's more adventurous than I am. He's had horse heart in Paris, horse meat in Montreal and alligator in New Orleans. We both ate crayfish there, too. We both had Caribou (reindeer) in a French restaurant in Montreal and it was some of the best meat I have ever eaten. I fell in love with octopus and calamari in Greece and escargot in France.

But, compared to many, I was eating what might be called weird stuff from the time I was little. I can't remember ever not eating Mexican food, including cabrito (milk fed goat) cooked over coals. I don't do menudo, though. My folks gigged frogs, so I had frog legs early on. My dad hunted quail, dove and deer. We ate those. My favorite sausage is still the dry venison sausage from the hill country of Texas with its German heritage.

We fished in rivers, lakes and the Gulf of Mexico and ate what we caught. I still love fried catfish. We also crabbed off the piers and ate the boiled crabs (my mother's favorite). My mother also loved brains and eggs. I wouldn't try it. I regret that we didn't try the barnacles in Lisbon. Maybe next time. We did have a goat meal there, though.

I added raw oysters to the mix in my late teens. I continued the raw shellfish fascination until I got sick from raw clams in Brussels. And I'm not fond of caviar. Speaking of raw, I used to eat steak tartare, but not anymore (sorry Paris and France in general), and my husband got a bit sick from some beef carpaccio in Arnhem this spring.

Eating those cute little bunnies freaks a lot of people out, but I ate fried rabbit growing up and one of the best meals I've ever had was a rabbit stew in a small restaurant in Toulouse. If rabbit is available on a menu, I'm likely to go for it.

So, I'm not sure what's weird anymore, but I will say that if it smells bad, I probably won't try it, so those stinky or fermented things, be they animal or fish, are not likely to go into my mouth.

Edit: Thanks to Tex I remembered the calf fries. Love 'em with mustard or gravy.

I'll have to think about the food question some more, but for now I just wanted to give a big 'Howdy!' to Doug ;-)

"What about dog or cat in the farmlands of Switzerland?" Source? Switzerland is probably the most dog-friendly country in Europe. Maybe in years past they ate Fido and Fuzzy, but I doubt this practice still exists.

Sam beat me to the andouillette. I ordered it thinking it was just a smaller version of the rather delicious Louisiana andouille. Nope, not at all. Unlike him, I couldn't eat more than a bite or two.

I had lutefisk at restaurant in Trondheim. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever eaten, but I wouldn't order it again.

My in-laws brought a can of Surströmming back from Sweden. The aroma that came from the opened tin smelled like old vomit, and I couldn't get past this smell. But once they cooked it with some onions and potatoes, it was actually rather tasty.

I forget what it was called, but I had some kind of sweet cheese and cloudberry dessert in Finland. Unlike any dessert I've previously eaten, but it was delicious.

Also in Finland... the overall dish itself wasn't odd, just one ingredient: tar. It was a broiled fish with various seasonsings and sides. Yes, I could taste a slight hint of tar. Smoky and a little bitter, but in a pleasent way.

The salty, sour and extremely bitter liquourice varieties they sell in the Netherlands, known there simply as 'drop'. My wife loves it, tastes like harsh medicine to me.

I had all sorts of offal in Paris. It was at several different meals, so it all runs together now. I remember sheep brains. There were kidneys and hearts from a smaller animal, but I don't remember which one. At Au Pied de Cochon I had pig tail, pig tongue, pig snout, and pig trotter. I highly recommend that restaurant in Les Halles. There are plenty of less adventurous items on the menu. Also in Paris I had steak tartare, head cheese, and bone marrow. I particularly recommend bone marrow head cheese. Both are creamy and savory.

Sam wins, no contest.

Hmm,, I don't think Europe has much in the way of "weird foods". Perhaps as North Americans we are a bit limited in what we consider normal?

I think "weird" would be the fermented duck egg fetuses in south east asia... and definately dog would be weird.. but I have never heard of that being served in Europe.. is someone perhaps thinking of during very bad times of the wars??

I have had alot of the things people have mentioned as "weird".. but not just in Europe but here in Canada.

I have had calfs brains, horse, all seafood( octopus is just calamari for goodness sake, you can get that at fast food places in the food fairs at malls here) seems fine to me.. although I have not had eel yet. I have had chicken hearts( my mom loved them , we ate them here, never in Europe) and my grandmother ( the one here) used to make something we called "head cheese" sort of jellied pigs feet I believe. We poured vinegar on it and ate it cold.

I have eaten snails, and raw oysters since childhood.. they are yummy yummy treats..

Had Ostrich here,, its like filet.. very good ( and $$$) . Have had some game animals, rabbit, deers , quails, , etc.. haven't had moose hear its very good.

I think eating canned spaghetti on toast is weird.. so guess it takes all types to make the world go round.. lol

Ps.. Still find the "dog in Switzerland" hard to believe..

My wife ordered a horseburger in Paris. Obviously she didn't know what "Burger ala Trigger" on the menu meant.

Michael,

I'm not usually too "adventurous" when it comes to food, so can't match the dining experiences related by the others here. I'm not too interested in having a "cultural experience" with local foods, but rather just getting something I like and getting on with my touring.

My Dad was a hunter, so I grew up with Venison, Moose, Trout and Salmon, along with the usual supermarket fare. However, I have tried Octopus in Italy, Bull's tail in Spain and Foie Gras in France, but that's about the extent of the unusual foods I've tried. I didn't get a chance to sample Haggis when I was last in Scotland, but I'd like to try it on a future visit (provided there's a tall glass of good Scotch Whiskey to wash it down). The local Scottish fraternity holds a Robbie Burns dinner here each year, so I suppose I could also try it locally also.

There are a few things that I absolutely "draw the line at", which includes (among others) raw Oysters, Prairie Oysters, Horse, Steak Tartare, Frog's Legs, Offal, deep fried Fruit Bats or Guinea Pigs (apparently common in South America), Snake or other reptiles and ABOVE ALL, Sheeps Eyeballs! I can guarantee that I won't EVER be ordering Andouillette or Lutefisk!

Interesting Thread....

PS- I thought Schweinhaxe was a bit weird when I first encountered it, but now it's become one of my favorites. Not something I eat often, but a special treat to indulge in occassionally.

And I never thought I would develope a taste for these things, but I love Blutwurst (and it's British cousin, Black Pudding) and Leberknödel.

Now that I've had some time to think about this a little further... some kind of roasted bird heart served on a sword at a Brazilian-themed restaurant in Sofia, of all places.

Saumagen is traditional food of the Pfaltz region of Germany (roughly, the upper Rhine plain south of Bingen to Karlsruhe). I've read it described as "German hagis", but I don't think it shares much in common with the Scottish dish, other than perhaps the animal parts used. It tastes like bacon to me, with the texture of a crispy hot dog.

Just a watery soup made from omul, a whitefish found only in the waters of Russia's Lake Baikal.
I don't eat fish, but when you're a starving tourist in recently-post-Soviet Siberia, you'll just about eat anything they put in front of you. Come to think of it, I guess technically I was in Asia at that point, so I guess it doesn't count.

I was also surprised to read about farmers in Switzerland eating dog and cat meat, but that’s what was reported in a Huffington Post piece from earlier this year. I doubt it’s a very ubiquitous practice these days, and I’m sure it’s not legal to sell dog meat there. At any rate, I’ve been to Switzerland twice and had no idea. Would I try dog meat if a farmer offered it to me? Yep…why not? In fact, I may actually try to seek it out very soon just for the heck of it when I return to Asia.

I don’t normally eat much meat, but I’ve tried many of the “weird” food already mentioned. Most of it was here and not in Europe (not really very weird at all): deer, pheasant, wild turkey, quail, elk, buffalo, alligator, frog legs, Haggis (at a Robert Burns celebration), goat (Muslim friends), suet pudding (old English relatives), rattlesnake, wild boar, and all of the other game-type things. I’ve had pig’s ears in Spain and blood sausage in Austria. The strangest things for me have been in Asia – platter of mystery meat that I know included intestine, kidney, liver, and ears. The riskiest things have been from the seas of East Asia (unknown, fresh raw fish…not sushi type or grade). I really don’t need a liver fluke, but what the hell…everyone else was eating it, and I didn’t want to offend.

So, is eating dog okay regardless of where it’s eaten (Switzerland, Seoul, Hanoi, or elsewhere)? I really don’t have a problem with it. We seem to assign value and even intelligence to some animals yet not to others. In Cameroon, gorilla is widely eaten. Would you eat gorilla? Idk about that one…DNA is too close to humans. If I end up trying dog meat soon, I'll report back on my thoughts about it.

I agree with Sasha...Sam wins so far. Nasty!

The they-eat-dog-in-east-Switzerland thing in the international press can be traced back to an article in an Soviet magazine in the early 50s that proclaimed that poor workers in capitalist Switzerland were forced to eat dog meat.

That produced such an ruckus that in 1953 there was a parliamentary investigation in Switzerland, which came to the conclusion that such things indeed existed in some rural areas. But the dogs weren't slaughtered primarily for their meat, but for their fat which in the local traditional medicine was considered therapeutic. The meat was just a byproduct which would be sold very cheaply.

Most non-yellow press reports seem to agree that this practice has died out some decades ago (due to modern medicine and a ban on sale), but the story seems to be destined to be recycled forever.

Mark: Are you sure about that? It seems like eating dog meat may still be occurring there, at least to some small degree.

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/standard/Schweizer-sollen-keine-Hunde-und-Katzen-mehr-essen/story/19945914

Foods brand new to me in Europe that I thought were strange, even weird, and made me ask the question "what is this?" were quark, herring, Leberknödel soup, veal kidneys, even buttermilk in Sweden. The first time was strange, acquiring a taste for the thing, some easier than others. Now no problem at all in ordering these.

I remember seeing venison on menus in Poland but didn't have a chance to try it. In Lyon I had something like a sausage that was, say, pungent. That must have been the thing decribed by Sam.

Michael, could one still find a handful of old farmers in Switzerland who privately slaughter dogs for their own consumption? Yes, probably.

But that is IMHO a totally different ballgame from specialties like horse meat, andouillette, or lutefisk, which aren't staples, but nevertheless freely available at markets, shops or restaurants.

Probably the weirdest in Europe are scabs, although they go by the name "black pudding".

The real weird food is in Asia...don't get me started.

Agree with Brad's comment on "weird foods in Asia".

My mind went to Asia immediately and I couldn't think of anything in Europe weird in comparison to China, and food and restaurants are definitely a part of our vacations. The Polvo (octopus) we had in Potugal sounded and looked adventuresome, but tasted awesome. Still remember the restaurant on the Douro and luncheon experience where we ate Polvo.

Howdy, Eileen!

Didn't have to travel 12,000 miles to experience weird food. Not so fond childhood memories of jellied ox tongue.

Ok, I will bite... been lurking here a while and haven't posted - had to chew on this a bit.

Cinghiali (wild boar) in Assisi; pizza with clams (whole clams) in Perugia; roasted rabbit in Florence; fresh marinated anchovies in Sorrento. However, I agree with a lot of contributors here saying they think more exotic foods come from Asia. 25 years living in Hawaii gave me a real appreciation for the cuisine from the South Pacific, the Far East, and Portugal. My ex in-laws from Portugal used to make a pickled roast pork dish, not sure the spelling, vinge dolche (?). It was delicious with the roasted potatoes served with. They also tested me with blood sausage. How about the luau foods: kalua pig, lomi lomi salmon, squid luau, chicken long rice and poi. Also there was raw fish of almost every conceivable species: ahi, aku, octopus, tiny white beach crab (raw) and let's not forget opihi (limpit).

Now living in the Northwest, I can't pass up my share of raw oysters in the Winter. I don't consider oysters weird in any way, but suppose others do. Today, I will be up to my elbows digging for razor clams on the coast. Wish me luck, they are quick buggers...

Buon appetito! Linda

Linda thank you for reminding me.. one of the worst foods I ever tried was POI!

We were at a friend of my dads in Hawaii back in 70s.. big party.. many buffets set up. I was just a child.. maybe 8 or 10.. saw a table with what I thought were bowls of pudding,,( chocolate I thought maybe) .. I chose one of the fullest bowls I saw in my greed.. .

OMG.. wallpaper glue in a bowl..

Ha, we had poi at church a few weeks ago. I declined to taste it and went for the less exotic pita bread. :) When I was a student in Germany, we used to get a porcelin pot filled with organ meats in a sauce. We ate it over Spaetzle. I'm not sure that we ever came to love this option, but we did come to accept it--we were burning energy like mad so would never miss a meal! Other than the pig colon and any cats or dogs, I'm willing to try a bit or two.

Pam

On our first trip to Vienna in 2001 my wife ordered a plate of Gebackenes Hirn. A little after ordering she said "Oh oh, I think I just ordered fried cow brains." This was during the mad cow scare...well she ate some of it and I also did because we would live or die together. Wasn't too bad and we both are still around today to tell the story.
Also MANY years ago in another life I indulged in sheep's eyes wrapped in grape leaves in a small town in Greece...this was during the years of the military junta who had forbade the breaking of plates while dancing. After imbibing much Retsina wine and ouzo we consumed the eyes and joined in with the local populace in the breaking of many plates. Great memory, if a little fuzzy.
On the other hand one could consider the Philippine delicacy known as Balut...Google it if you dare.

Pat, I actually really enjoy poi but it definitely needs to be paired with something flavorful like the kalua pig or Lomi salmon. Oh, I forgot to tell everyone about the fried minnows that were paired with lake perch I enjoyed on Isola Maggiore on Lago Trasimeno. Now those were interesting!

Not weird, but fun for us. We were staying in Gimmelwald and were told you can buy food from the farmers in the village since there is no grocery store. We bought sausge, cheese, bread, etc. and were told to come back for milk after the evening milking. We did, and we got a bottle of warm fresh milk straight from the cow!

It wasn't in Europe, but instead in graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin. I was invited to a party at a faculty member's house. Took some benign looking stew from the buffet, which tasted pretty gamy. Turns out it was rat stew. The faculty member's wife hated to see waste so she would pick up "control" animals from the labs and recycle them as dinner. I became a vegetarian shortly after that experience.

In Europe the strangest thing I ate was a ham salad in England. A slab of ham on a plate topped with dressed greens, served with fries and coleslaw that was really heavy on the mayo.

The oddest "vegetable" I've ever eaten was in India, called drumstick in English. It is a 2 foot long thin pod like fruit that grows from a huge tree, and they chop it into pieces and cook it like a vegetable in stews or curries. The skin is inedible, so you use your fingers to pry it open, then scrape out the fleshy insides with your teeth. It's really very tasty.

Sam wins.

I ate grilled pigeon in Barcelona (a dining companion had cock's combs), black pudding (blood sausage) in England, escargot in France, and calamari in Italy; nothing squeamish about any of those. I will seek out jellied eel the next time I am in England. I saw guinea pig offered live in Peru, but could not find it served in restaurants. A foreign exchange student in Chile was given a special meal of cow udder.

SHERRY WINS....!!RAT STEW !! made from LAB RATS.. sorry.. andouillete is at least made from animals that were intended to be food.. who knows what the hell those labs rats might have been exposed to..

I have to agree with Pat on this one…Sam was the winner until Sherry chimed in. I’m sure most of us might agree that university faculty can be a little weird, but this one takes the cake. First, I hope the hosts were good enough to inform guests about the type of meat before serving it up. Second, what the hell?!? Lab rats are poisoned, filled with illegal drugs, tortured, etc. How would she have known if they were okay to consume or not? How about a little bit of tumor with your rat stew? What about peppering him with plutonium sprinkles, or garnishing him with bent chromosomes? Good grief! PhD doesn't always = smart.

OK. Give me another shot! In Pamplona, I walked into my first genuine tapas bar. I pointed to some tasty looking morsels. The barman raised one eyebrow in the international body language "Are you sure?" I indicated yes, and his expression changed to the international "Have at 'er, pal." It was kind of crunchy. It was a breaded, deep-fried sparrow.

I am of Chinese descent and have eaten all types of offal as well as snake soup, roast pigeon etc. Snake soup is a bit of a rarity, but it actually tastes nice. Pigeon is also nice. All the posters so far are speaking from a western perspective. Chinese traditionally do not eat dairy food, though I understand that is slowly changing. I know that my late parents never really acquired a taste for cheese especially the smellier varieties. From an old school Chinese perspective, cheese is weird. After all it is made from milk that has gone off.

Not Europe but Huevos del Toro (bulls balls) in Honduras. Originally from Europe but found in most American Delis...Head Cheese.

Well, thanks a lot, Sam. We never did know what is was we tried to eat that evening in Burgundy. Ignorance actually may be bliss after all. Good gravy! (No pun intended). We thought we'd made a fairly safe choice, too. We'd been to New Orleans dozens of times...what could go wrong? I am fairly adventurous and have tried lots of foods, but I guess I would count the horse meat meatball in Verona in the top ten. I will try just about anything, and it kills me not to eat what I have paid for. Other than Spam in Hawaii, the only dish beside our Burgundian sausage that I could not get down was a plate of shimmering black pasta with squid ink I ordered in Florence...it smelled like a bait bucket on a hot July afternoon. Florentine ambiance notwithstanding, it ended right there.

And oh yes, it was many years ago in Jaffa , but even as kids we had the presence of mind to avoid the "Ox eggs, fully extended" on the menu. Getting older doesn't always mean wiser.

Like Sam and Tom, I too made the andouillette mistake in St. Malo. Ordered it on a pizza. Once I bit into it, I remembered reading a passage from "The Sweet Life In Paris" about a pig butt sausage and realized...whoops. I would say the TASTE isn't bad, really, just fairly uh, earthy, but the smell is awful, and it was so oily. Even after I removed the sausage, the oil lingered on my pizza. I did get my husband and father in law to try it first, though. My MIL is a very picky, fearful eater, and she thought the whole thing was hilarious, it was me getting my "just desserts" for being an adventurous eater, I guess.

In general though, most of the "questionable to Americans" foods I've had in Europe have been great. Swabian blood sausage is delicious. Black pudding is delicious. (Guess I like blood?) Foie gras is one of life's great pleasures as are raw oysters.

I'm not sure I would call this weird, but it was rather funny.

In 1987 I was with my coworker in Germany, near the French border. We were being "escorted" by the companies local salesman, who happened to have a degree in botany. We were ordering dinner and my coworker asked the salesman about one of the salad choices. The salesman couldn't think of the name in English but said my coworker should try it. I wasn't paying much attention when the salads came, but my coworker commented that it tasted rather strange. I looked over at his salad and recognized it immediately. Dandelion (Löwenzahn or lion's tooth, in German). My back yard is like a salad bar every spring!

Not Europe. Years ago I was working just outside of Nashville. We went to a local diner and the special that day was barbecue sandwiches, so I ordered one. The waitress asked if I wanted coleslaw with it. I said, "OK". It came with the bun open and a scoop of barbecue on top of the lower bun. On top of the barbecue was a scoop of coleslaw.

I said, "I'm glad I didn't order soup with it."

It's funny, I've lived in Europe for about 15 years and yet the only "weird" thing I can ever remember eating here was tripe. And that was by accident. Didn't taste bad but I felt nauseous upon finding out what it was. I have an aversion to eating organs.

On the other hand, we have a vacation home in the Philippines and I've tried balut a few times. I'd say that's probably the strangest thing I've ever eaten. It actually isn't too bad, sort of like a hard boiled egg.

Tripe a la Caen is a speciality in Normandie. You can find beef tripe in Chinese dim sum restaurants. I prefer the pork ones instead.

I have a great photo of my husband eating a spleen sandwich at the market in Palermo. He liked it!

Lee,

Dandelions were one of my favorite food choices during Air Force survival school. The flowers have an almond taste. The leaves taste more like some of the exotic salad greens that are popular now.

Other favorites from survival school: Wild rose hips (taste like chewable vitamin C's), and black ants (taste like lemon heads).

Growing up, I've eaten more than my share of rattle-snake - which really isn't bad.

I've had both horse and tripe many times in Mexico (and authentic Mexican food restaurants in San Diego), I don't even consider them wierd.

At a wedding reception in Korea, we were served pickled dog-tongue. It came in two colors, white and turquoise. Even though I don't have food aversions, I didn't partake. The jelly-fish that was cut to look like noodles, however, did take some time to choke down.

Steak tartare in Paris. I have always been skeptical about eating raw meat, but on the road in France we were listening to one of Rick's podcasts where he praised it. The waiter pleasantly warned me that it was "cold"; I told him I knew. On the plate it looked like a chunk of hamburger meat from the supermarket, but it was delicious, and filling, too.

Also, not really weird, but escargot, which I had had before in the States. Love it. The surprising thing is my very picky daughter had the guts to try it, and enjoyed it too.