What foods are "shiboleth" foods, i.e. only people from a particular culture like them?

Certain foods are enjoyed by members of the culture that invented them, but the rest of the world finds them repulsive. For example, few people who are not Mexican like Menudo. Few people who are not Jewish can eat gefilte fish. Few people who are not English can eat anything English except Fish and Chips and Roast Beef with Yorkshire pudding. What are the other dishes?

I am American, born and raised in LA, and I think one such food is a Chili Burger. People who are not from the USA or LA may find a really sloppy, greasy chili burger to be disgusting, yet us locals find it to be heaven on earth.

Haggis surely qualifies (Scotland). I like it, but most people can't hold it down...

Witchetty grubs definitely qualify (Australia).

Can't think of any more at the moment, but I'm sure that just about every culture has one.

Nutria Rat?
Alligator?
Hog Head Cheese?

or a supposed Chinese delicacy I had...

Candied Rock Fungus?

That was by far the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in my life.

Alligator's good, not really an acquired taste at all, if you like chicken you'll probably like alligator meat.

Candied rock fungus, on the other hand...

I'd need a lot beer to wash that down. Yuck!

It totally ruined the dessert for the dinner I had made at the time. I blame the man at that shop in China Town in Seattle. He told me it was a delicious dessert, and even wrote down the recipe...

So while I had my hubby at the time distract the guests (including my CEO), I made an emergency run to the QFC Grocery to buy a Mrs. Smith's Cherry Pie, and some vanilla ice cream.

Maktaaq and Seal Liver both qualify, and they're both eaten raw.

I worked in the north for two winters and the Inuit would chew the blubber off of whale skin like it was candy. I tried it a few times only to have the children laugh at the faces I made as I tried to swallow something my body just wanted to reject.

The liver of the ringed seal was a particular delicacy that I just could not stomach.
I imagine it's very good for you, and provides good protein and vitamins needed to survive in the harsh climate, but just the fact of putting a bloody piece of warm liver in my mouth from a fresh kill would just gross me out.

The Inuit are some of the most gracious people I've ever met, but they do like to have a little fun with outsiders when it comes to their diet.


EDIT: They would also eat the eyes of the seal, but I could never bring myself to try that.



[edit on 2/1/2007 by anxietydisorder]

"Mountain Oysters" - calves' testicles, chicken fried (of course)

Actually, MOST non-western meat-eating cultures consider testicles a delicacy and aphrodisiac . . .

Caviar . . . the symbol of wealth in the united states; it's seen as being subculture-specific.

.

I'd have to say one is most deffinately Lutefisk, it's cod fillets soaked in brine. I haven't met anyone that wasn't scandinavian who likes it. Another is Crawfish, most definately a southern/cajun dish, mostly because there aren't many crawfish that are big enough to eat in the northern US.

There is some Tex-mex that pushes the envelope.

Quail breast stuffed with a habanero pepper stuffed with cheese, and wrapped with a piece of bacon.

Not exclusive though; I like it and I'm not a native.


Oh, here's one. Peole up in the Northeastern US don't eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. they eat peanut butter with marshmallow filling on a sandwich. I'm sure someone on ATS knows what that goop is called, and probably swears by it.

.

Kimchi: a korean dish which is basically fermented cabbage preserved in salt. There are lots of types of kimchi, but its basically a fermented vegetable of some sort or another with lots of salt (sometimes spices or chilli's are added too). It has a strong odour and taste, its not really eaten much outside of korea.
Making cabbage kimchi usually involves stacking layers of salt and cabbage leaves together and then leaving the whole lot to ferment for a week or two.

Natto (fermented soybeans): A Japanese dish, smells pretty bad and has a strong taste. Some people liken it to marmite (you either love it or hate it), but even a lot of japanese find it difficult to stomache.

Site on bizarre Chinese recipes (like horse penis and testicles with a chilli dip);

www.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2006/02/17/wfood17.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/17/ixnewstop.html

Then you have to consider the wacky world of japanese ice cream- to name a few types of japanese ice cream, you can get Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream (Basashi Aisu), Goat Ice Cream(Yagi Aisu), Whale Ice Cream(Kujira Aisu), Shark Fin Noodle Ice Cream (Fukahire Ramen Aisu), Oyster Ice Cream(Kaki Aisu), Abalone (Awabi Aisu), Seaweed Ice Cream (Wakame Aisu), Deep Sea Water (Umi no Mizu Aisu), Spinach Ice Cream(Horenso Aisu), Garlic Ice Cream(Dorakyura Aisu) etc etc...See here for more info;

mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp...

....

Not much can beat a balut.

Some seemed to gravitate towards this "delicacy," I tended to focus on other diversions.

Originally posted by Mirthful Me
Not much can beat a balut.

Some seemed to gravitate towards this "delicacy," I tended to focus on other diversions.

Balut looks pretty gross, the idea of eating a duck foetus is just not my cup of tea so to speak.

Oh, wow... some of this stuff. Incredible!

I have to add goat's head and pig snout (something to be said for food that looks back at you) to the list, both quite good.

I've always had a personal philosophy that you should try everything twice, the second time in case you messed up the first. Not sure I could go for that balut, though.