Food That Sounds Gross But Is Actually Good

Have you ever tried a meal that sounds absolutely disgusting but turned out to be great? My daughter offered me a slice of Mac & Cheese Pizza. My initial reaction was, yuck! But it was actually very delicious.

 

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I find it interesting that you found the idea of Mac&Cheese Pizza "disgusting". Out of the ordinary, yes, but not something I would have considered disgusting just from its name. I mean, its nowhere along the lines of Fish Head Stew.( which I have tried, and it is pretty good.)

 

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I've always thought that Reese's peanut butter cups sound disgusting. I like chocolate and I like peanut butter but if there were ever two things that do NOT go together, it's them . They don't taste as bad as they sound but to this day the very idea of them is so revolting that I would never eat one.

 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis

 

I love those things. Butter Fingers are good too.

 

It just sounds gross to me. She also has a line on Mac & Cheese Burgers, though I haven't had one yet.

 

And then there is the rare delicacy known as "stuffed camel". Bedowins can't seem to get enough of it, and Instagram or post pictures of every mouthwatering bite to all of their oil shiek friends on social media.

Bet it would make a scrumptious roll-up stuffed crust pizza, too. Excuse me; an image of someone eating this has already shown up on Facebook and made me feel both nauseous and with an overwhelming desire to become vegan.

A mac and cheese pizza is, yes, a huge improvement.

 

Well, to a vegan a meat lover's pizza will sound disgusting, but so will some of the food from Greenland that I like.
An example would be raw whale blubber (with seasoning).

Or the extremely dried out fish called (I can't spell this, but it might give a hit on google) angmasset.
I usually eat everything except the head.

 

This sounds gross, and it probably is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hákarl

They basically bury a shark in a gravelly beach until it "ferments".

Or this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surströmming

 

I really enjoyed this thread. My own diet has become increasingly restricted since conversion to Judaism, followed closely by my younger stepson's family deciding to go full tilt vegan. Thankfully, there are vegan alternatives to most of the food I used to enjoy, some of which are a distinct improvement over my previous diet. But there is one food everyone in the world seems to have a recipe for, that no one seems to be allergic to, and is in fact so tasty, that even non-vegans serve it in some manner to complement their carnage-laden meals, with or without gravy. In some respects, this is pretty much a perfect food for a human being. Pity those of us who must subsist on a diet of rice. Too much arsenic to my taste, and also, rice was the side dish with the picture of the stuffed camel; an image now burned into my near vegan brain.

I don't believe I was ever hungry enough to eat all or part of a stuffed camel, even if the camel spit all over me, knocked me down and stomped me to a pulp in middle the desert. What does someone need to do to work up that kind of appetite? Perhaps it's just entertaining watching vultures pick over the leftovers. Watching "angry chef" fight over how best to prepare it might be marginally entertaining too, in about the same amount and for the same reason.

Great job, everyone! Thanks especially for not posting pictures of prepared food, which, courtesy of Weird Al, we all now understand to be 'tacky'.

As a reward, here's a raw potato in an interesting shape:

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It is.

 

The Germans have something that sounds like glue-wine, but it's great.

 

Here's one that always tickled me: "Mueslix". Why in the world would someone give a breakfast cereal a name that sounds more like something you cough up in the morning?

 

Norwegians consume close to 3000 tons of lutefisk each year (during Christmas holidays).

Lutefisk is made from stockfish, usually cod, slowly air-dried in the cold autumn air.* After drying, the fish is reconstituted in cold water for a week, then soaked in a lye (caustic soda) solution for two days. The name “lutefisk” literally means lye fish. The lye dissolves the muscle proteins, causes the fish to swell to more than its original size, and makes it very poisonous. To make the fish edible again, it needs to soak in several changes of water for another ten days.

Lutefisk is actually very easy to cook; it contains enough water to boil itself! Simply put it in a pan with a tight lid and cook it over medium heat for 10 minutes. Lutefisk is actually quite healthy. It contains very low salt, some vitamin D and B, and plenty of selenium. Most of the fat has been washed away in the preparation, so 100 grams of fish contains only 50 calories.

There are also a few different types of lutefisk available on the market. The real lutefisk is made from fish that has been dried in open air for several months, then matured in a storage shed for another few months. This helps give the lutefisk its particular flavour and yellow colour. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking you are buying “fresh” lutefisk – it doesnt exist. Real lutefisk will have been dead for at least six months, and possibly more than a year.

Nobody knows for sure when or how lutefisk was invented, but the myth is that a storage shed full of stockfish burned down after being struck by lightning. The stockfish was left lying in the highly alkaline ashes that became wet from the rain. Not willing to let the food go to waste, the fishermen washed the fish thoroughly in water to clean off the ashes. And with that, lutefisk was born. It is mentioned in book dated 1555!

* I think it may be salted to speed drying, but my link did not mention this. I know Norwegians do salt dry a lot of cod fish. 500 or more years ago ships full of it went to Portugal and returned home with olive oil. They now sell tons of salt dried cod to Portuguese speaking Brail. - Major food habits die slowly, but Brazilians do NOT eat lutefisk. - Only Norwegians do that.

PS - You can not be in Norway in late December, without being forced to eat some lutefisk. Some say that is why so many Norwegians migrated to the US north mid west. Actually for one who did not grow up in the culture, it is more "tasteless" than "bad tasting."

 

A passover delicacy is gefilte fish (a sort of whitefish meatloaf) usually served with horseradish. I liked it almost instantly, although most Christians, I am told, converted or not, are repulsed by this particular traditional dish. I for one can't stand the thought of eating sushi, but gefilte fish is about as close as I get to it. A good strong fresh horseradish, I think, is also better tasting than wasabe.

 

Speaking as a Jew with Japanese relatives, it's no contest, gefilte fish is gross but sushi is divine. Most Jewish food is pretty nasty. I think we are meant to atone with it, not enjoy it.

 

I prefer sushi* to gefilte fish, and both to lutefisk. I once helped make a massive quantity of Gefilte fish: My graduate school girl friend and I with the help of his mother prepared a 40 place wedding dinner for a Jewish couple we were close friends with. (We were too poor to buy an appropriate gift for them. This was it.)

My girl friend baked 20 Cornish hens (a half for each plate). I cleaned 10 good size carp, and his mother did things to them in large pots. The guest were seated at the table watching them get married by the rabbi under small canopy with towel on the floor to catch the stomped upon wine glass pieces. Then they joined their guest at the table and we began to serve the meal. After placing the last two plate in front of two adjoining empty chairs, we sat there and enjoyed our handy work. It was a two main course feast, with salad, potatoes and green beans but no dissert - just after dinner liqours.

* Mainly for the variety of flavors usually available.

 

"Bread of affliction", yes.

 

Bloodwurst... I had it once in Germany while stationed there. I didn't know exactly what it was at the time, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. A sergeant explained it to me after my meal. I admit that it was good, but I'm not certain I would eat it again.

 

Me too, it wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't terrible. Of course anything with that much pork fat in it couldn't be all that bad.