Naughty but nice.

[88V8]

A post in Beerpigs gave rise to the thought..... what have you enjoyed that you shouldn't have eaten?
Not from the pov of being bad for you, but ethically.

Whale; 1983, Reykjavik. Research whaling in full swing. Research my foot.
A business contact took me to a restaurant in the harbour that served nothing else.
OK, I thought. It will taste ghastly, blubbery, Then I can tell people that in addition to being quite 'wrong' it tastes appalling.

Oh dear. The best steak I've ever eaten. Dripping with flavour, no grain no gristle, not a trace of fishiness, like the best beefsteak you ever dreamed of. Oh dear o yum.

What's your guilty nosh?

V8

[johnstevens77]

Lobster sauce made with coral (eggs) from a live female lobster. Blend and sieve the coral and mix with butter to make lobster butter. Make a rich white wine fish sauce and "monter" with the lobster butter. I. E. whisk in lots of the lobster butter but do not reboil!That's how I learnt to make it in Gleneagles Hotel as a fish commis in 1968.

As I posted before, a set of brains from a new killed lamb is delicious pan fried and served with plain boiled broccoli and new potatoes. The sheikh I worked for in Saudi had his own slaughter house, we used 2 lambs and ewes a day for the sheikh and his family. Not only can't I get fresh lambs brains here, I can't even get mutton!

john

[James]

As I posted before, a set of brains from a new killed lamb is delicious pan fried and served with plain boiled broccoli and new potatoes. The sheikh I worked for in Saudi had his own slaughter house, we used 2 lambs and ewes a day for the sheikh and his family. Not only can't I get fresh lambs brains here, I can't even get mutton!

john

Spent large parts of my childhood on my grandparent's farm in NZ eating nothing but mutton. Lambs were too valuable to eat them ourselves. When working on a farm in my teens could never bring myself to eat mountain oysters, so the most egregious dish is pâté de foie gras. Oh, and kudu in South Africa, but it isn't endangered.

[sg31]

Lobster sauce made with coral (eggs) from a live female lobster. Blend and sieve the coral and mix with butter to make lobster butter. Make a rich white wine fish sauce and "monter" with the lobster butter. I. E. whisk in lots of the lobster butter but do not reboil!That's how I learnt to make it in Gleneagles Hotel as a fish commis in 1968.

As I posted before, a set of brains from a new killed lamb is delicious pan fried and served with plain boiled broccoli and new potatoes. The sheikh I worked for in Saudi had his own slaughter house, we used 2 lambs and ewes a day for the sheikh and his family. Not only can't I get fresh lambs brains here, I can't even get mutton!

john

Brains. As a young lad from a working class background I'd never eaten brains until I went in the merchant navy. I was a bit lare for lunch in the officers mess, I'd missed the soup by the time I sat down and the others at the table were halfway through the next course. The steward approached so I asked him to get me what everyone else was eating. He brought something covered in tartare sauce. I wolfed it down in record time and then someone said. "It looks like you really enjoyed those brains". My stomach let go of it's contents and I held it in long enough to get to the heads. I missed the rest of the meal.
The funny thing is all the brains didn't really taste of anything as far as I could tell, just an overpowering taste of tartare sauce. I couldn't eat that sauce for 20 or 30 years.

I'd happily try brains now. It was just the thought of eating brains,it seemed wrong somehow.

[MaraMan]

I do worry that I have eaten dog on one of my regular visits to S Korea. Oh well I guess it's best not to know sometimes.....

MM

[AleisterCrowley]

McDonald's

[James]

I do worry that I have eaten dog on one of my regular visits to S Korea. Oh well I guess it's best not to know sometimes.....

MM

A former lecturer of mine was working in Borneo and spent a week visiting a remote village. On the final night they held a feast for him where they served dog. He said it wasn't the fact that it was dog that mattered so much, as the fact that it was the mangiest looking dog that had been loping around the village all week.

[johnstevens77]

Back in the 1960's veal brains were still fairly popular in the UK. I cooked my first set in the old Central Hotel in Glasgow. I was a commis saucier and the French Chef de Cuisine, (called an Exeutive Chef nowadays), asked for veal brains vinaigrette for his lunch. I last ate veal brains at my sister-in-laws in France 4 years ago.

Foie gras; I prefer pan fried fresh foie gras to pâté, takes seconds to cook and is great with caramelised apple slices.

john

[kempiejon]

What's your guilty nosh?V8

Baby, so much nicer than the adult, 'cept eggs.

[stewamax]

No-one has yet mentioned tripe...
Looks like something out of Alien, has a texture of rubber, and tastes of nothing apart from the vinegar or onions in milk it used to be served with.
Ethically fine but a challenge to eat, especially for anyone with imagination who has read Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier

PS: On the other hand I once ate a fine intestine burger in Fergus Henderson's St John restaurant. Nice but not naughty. They probably serve good tripe there too.

[Mike4]

Who was it said "I like children, but I can never manage a whole one..."?

[feder1]

Idi Amin?

[stewamax]

I like Johnny Foreigner [nice]...
...spit roasted: you put one on a Rotisserie and spit on them [naughty].

[johnstevens77]

No-one has yet mentioned tripe...
Looks like something out of Alien, has a texture of rubber, and tastes of nothing apart from the vinegar or onions in milk it used to be served with.
Ethically fine but a challenge to eat, especially for anyone with imagination who has read Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier

PS: On the other hand I once ate a fine intestine burger in Fergus Henderson's St John restaurant. Nice but not naughty. They probably serve good tripe there too.

Tripe and onions, ug! However, in France I have eaten and enjoyed tripe a la mode de Caen. It is braised with cider and tomatoes, we even had it on the staff menu in the hotel where I worked. Tripe can be found in most big supermarkets in France, so it must still be eaten over there.

john

[stewamax]

Tripe and onions, ug! However, in France I have eaten and enjoyed tripe a la mode de Caen. It is braised with cider and tomatoes, we even had it on the staff menu in the hotel where I worked. Tripe can be found in most big supermarkets in France, so it must still be eaten over there.

From very distant memory, it needed to be cooked for hours and hours - one started cooking after breakfast to serve at dinner, and that was after an initial 'deep clean'.

Cow heel was another offal speciality, but one I never (knowingly...) tried.
But cow cheek I have eaten in Germany and very nice it was; in texture it was a bit like the moist flaky meat on a lamb shank.

[sg31]

Tripe and onions, ug! However, in France I have eaten and enjoyed tripe a la mode de Caen. It is braised with cider and tomatoes, we even had it on the staff menu in the hotel where I worked. Tripe can be found in most big supermarkets in France, so it must still be eaten over there.

From very distant memory, it needed to be cooked for hours and hours - one started cooking after breakfast to serve at dinner, and that was after an initial 'deep clean'.

Cow heel was another offal speciality, but one I never (knowingly...) tried.
But cow cheek I have eaten in Germany and very nice it was; in texture it was a bit like the moist flaky meat on a lamb shank.

In Yorkshire it was cooked for about 15 minutes in milk together with onions. it was also eaten raw with vinegar and saly and pepper. I'm not sure if it had been cooked before being bought, it didn't look like it to me but I was just a child at the time. I did thry it 'raw', it was very watery and just tasted of vinegar to me.

Tripe and onions was regularly served as a school dinner up to the mid 60's, maybe later.

I also remember cow heel and thick seam both very well liked by my father but a bit mor expensive. There was allso what we knew as bag, I've no idea what that was, udder was another one from those days,. I've never seen them since I left Sheffield in 1981.

[Mike4]

Tripe and onions, ug! However, in France I have eaten and enjoyed tripe a la mode de Caen. It is braised with cider and tomatoes, we even had it on the staff menu in the hotel where I worked. Tripe can be found in most big supermarkets in France, so it must still be eaten over there.

From very distant memory, it needed to be cooked for hours and hours - one started cooking after breakfast to serve at dinner, and that was after an initial 'deep clean'.

Cow heel was another offal speciality, but one I never (knowingly...) tried.
But cow cheek I have eaten in Germany and very nice it was; in texture it was a bit like the moist flaky meat on a lamb shank.

In Yorkshire it was cooked for about 15 minutes in milk together with onions. it was also eaten raw with vinegar and saly and pepper. I'm not sure if it had been cooked before being bought, it didn't look like it to me but I was just a child at the time. I did thry it 'raw', it was very watery and just tasted of vinegar to me.

Tripe and onions was regularly served as a school dinner up to the mid 60's, maybe later.

I also remember cow heel and thick seam both very well liked by my father but a bit mor expensive. There was allso what we knew as bag, I've no idea what that was, udder was another one from those days,. I've never seen them since I left Sheffield in 1981.

The only tripe I've ever (knowingly) eaten was heart which my mother fed us regularly when I was a brat. Tough and chewy but really meaty and tasty and very enjoyable from memory.

Dunno what animal it would have been from, but fairly sure it counts as tripe. Or does it?!

[swill453]

The only tripe I've ever (knowingly) eaten was heart which my mother fed us regularly when I was a brat. Tough and chewy but really meaty and tasty and very enjoyable from memory.

Dunno what animal it would have been from, but fairly sure it counts as tripe. Or does it?!

No, tripe is stomach. The more general term is offal.

Scott.

[kempiejon]

I had a tripe and pig's feet dish in Madrid, Callos a la Madrileña, it's a traditional dish presumable trotted out for the tourists...
I've seen more offal in restaurants abroad than in the UK. When I was still eating quadrupeds I slow cooked ox cheek and occasionally heart, usually stuffed with rice or lentils. I made a pie once and didn't tell anyone it was pig heart, everyone thought it was steak and it was very well received until the diners learnt the truth, it was some months before my pies' contents were trusted.
My local Morrisons sell pigs' trotters and heart, tripe and several species of kidney and livers.

[Mike4]

The other way to eat tripe and all the other unrecognisable bits of the animal is to have a doner kebab, sausage, pork pie, chicken nugget, or any other highly processed meat product, I suspect.