Gator- tastes like chicken, kind of tough and chewy, but come on, have you ever seen an alligator? Of course it was going to be chewy.
Frog legs- pretty much a dead ringer for chicken wings if you didn't know what a wing was supposed to look like. Maybe just the tiniest hint of something fishy going on there.
Escargot - an excellent excuse to eat a bunch of butter and garlic and for some reason it's fancy even though you're eating a garden pest
Squirrel - kind of greasy, but not bad, darker meat than I expected. Not really enough meat on them to be worth it though, at least not the squirrels we have in my neck of the woods, I've seen some pretty big squirrels in other parts of the country though, so maybe they're a little more worthwhile. If you had a handful of squirrels I suspect they could make a pretty good soup or stew though.
Rabbit- tastes like chicken, I've had it a few different ways, I don't know that I would know the difference if you swapped rabbit for chicken in any of them, but I had a rabbit pot pie at a restaurant a few years ago that has been my happy thought ever since, probably the tastiest thing I have ever eaten.
Deer venison - very similar to beef, a bit gamey but I dig that.
Quail - tiny chicken, that's pretty much all there is to it.
Pigeon- much darker than chicken, a bit greasy, overall pretty tasty (these were country pigeons, I don't recommend eating city pigeons) a single pigeon breast is pretty much exactly the right size to make a pigeon nugget.
Bison- lean beef, maybe a bit stronger tasting but overall pretty well within the beef spectrum. If you didn't tell me it was bison, I'd probably assume it was either really cheap or moderately expensive beef.
Wild boar- pork but not, kind of hard to explain this one, and the way I had it prepared had a lot of spices and seasoning so I can't really give a straight appraisal of the meat itself.
Kangaroo- it tastes like it evolved on a different continent than any other mammal you've ever eaten. It's still very much in the red meat family but there's something else going on there that's kind of hard to place, sort of gamey and stronger tasting.
Goose- kind of like a mix of duck and turkey, leaning more duck-like, and yeah, that tracks, you could probably just about assume that from looking at a goose.
I wouldn't really consider these to be exotic, but a surprising amount of people don't seem to have tried them, and they're some of my all-time favorite meats.
Duck- its more like a red meat than chicken, can be kind of greasy/fatty but in a good way
Lamb- red meat, kind of a strong gamey taste (that again, I personally really like) oddly somehow gamier than venison despite venison actually being a game meat and lamb being domesticated. You could probably serve me deer and tell me it was beef and slip it by me, but I don't think you could pull it off with lamb.
Goat- lamb, but moreso.
Liver- it's kind of hard to describe liver in any way but livery, but iron-y and minneral-y are probably the best adjectives I can come up with. I've had beef liver and chicken liver, beef is definitely a stronger flavor but both are recognizably livery. Chicken liver is probably mild enough that as long as it's prepared well most people could enjoy it, beef liver is definitely more of an acquired taste.
Chicken hearts- stronger flavored and tougher than regular chicken, but still recognizably chicken, imagine dark meat but lean. Little bit of a irony/mineraly taste, but not in a livery way, can be a little tough/chewy, and if you're inclined to batter and fry them, they are the perfect size to make sort of a popcorn chicken thing with, or if you want to have little bits of meat for a stir fry or something and don't feel like chopping up the meat yourself. They are also dirt cheap, at least around me.
Tripe- a bit chewy, honestly not too much going on flavor-wise, there's something going on that tastes/smells of a barnyard but in a very pleasant way, but it's almost more of a suggestion of a taste than an actual flavor.
Beef tongue- recognizably beefy, but definitely has something going else on, not quite livery but leaning that direction. Definitely something you need to braise or sous vide or something for a long time because it will be damn near impossible to chew otherwise, and it has its own unique texture, it will probably make you think a lot about your own tongue while eating it.
Chicken feet- look, there's really no meat worth speaking of on a chicken foot, it's basically all skin and connective tissue which is tasty and an interesting texture, but not worth it to me to eat themselves, some people do, but it's not for me. ut if you want to take you chicken stock to the next level, use some chicken feet.
And these are probably the opposite of exotic, just weird or have bad press
Pickled pigs feet- salty vinegary vaguely porky jello with bones in it. I like salty vinegary things, so that's not a bad thing in my book.
Scrapple- local delicacy for those of us in the Delaware valley, if you've ever heard spam described as everything but the oink, well scrapple has some oink in it too. It's soft and mushy and fries up to a real nice crisp on the outside. Taste is sort of in a similar vein as a breakfast sausage, really nothing too wild about it.
Pork roll (you north jersey folk calling it Taylor Ham are crazy, it says pork roll right on the package, you're wrong) is basically just spam with a better PR department, less salty, slightly different spices, doesn't come in a can.
And on that note- spam, it's delicious but very salty. If you like ham you'll probably like spam.
I've eaten a rat.
In my youth I was trekking in Thailand and we arrived to our next destination late at night and we were starving. The only option to get food was a street grill which served only two foods: rat-on-a-stick and some kind of a fried jellyfish-on-a-stick.
The rat was actually pretty good. My friend chose the jellyfish and regretted this instantly.
Ate a platter of 3 different fried insects. I think it was wood worms, bees, and crickets. The bees were the best.
None of them were horrible. Would do it again.
Flamingo, but the meat is a bit tough...
Horse. A friend of mine brought some from Iceland and was kind enough to share. Its somewhere between pork and beef to me.
The fermented shark he brought back on the other hand, was the worst thing I have ever tasted. The smell alone cleared the room, and as one chef instructor said, “it smells like dirty pussy”.
While visiting Norway, I had a reindeer burger which was simply awesome. I also had reindeer meat prepared like they prepare antilope in the country the cook was from. Expensive and worth it.
The love and respect we give horses vs. other farm animals kind of makes me sad.
Ate ostrich and kangaroo. Were alright.
For some rabbit and horse is exotic, or even deer, elk, reindeer, but I wouldn't count that.
Gator, croc, moose, ostrich, caribou, elk, cow brain, squid ink.
The cow brain was bland and I did not care for the squid ink. The rest were great.
Alligator - oddly enough as fritters at a Margaritaville in New Orleans. Like most say, flaky like fish, tastes like chicken.
Horseneat served and packaged like baloney in Sweden, eating with crisp bead and breakfast cheese. Was not a fan.
Moose in Sweden. Like beef, only the "grains" of the meat were really large.
Reindeer in Sweden. Like venison, but I am told "less gamey." I say I am told, because apparently I cannot taste the "gamey" in meat. That is, I have had gamey venison and non-gamey venison and can't taste whatever gameyness is.
Cicada - tastes like weak shrimp.
deer - clean but mineraly, also lean
goat - like lamb but more barn flavor
alligator - like chicken pork fish
frog legs - like chicken fish
goat testes - like the white of an egg but kinda musty (would not eat again)
snails - chewy
crawfish - tastes like a "muddier" lobster
shark fin soup - had it once in a restaurant decades ago, it was kinda gelatinous but slightly sticky
sea urchin - I didn't like this, but the ones I've seen in sushi restaurants look different (paler) than the ones I see fresh from the ocean, so it might be a freshness thing
eel - fatty and denser meat similar to the texture of mahi mahi
wagyu - I've had a few slices of this before, and I find it overrated (I find steak in general overrated). However I had it seared on a pan and it was thinly sliced already so it might've just been too nuked to taste good
Reindeer in a restaurant in Helsinki. It was good, a lot like beef. The reindeer were farmed, so it wasn't too tough or gamey.
growing up in back country Montana I had a lot of things. hunting/trapping/fishing is still a way of life for folks, less so now but growing up I had bison, squirrel, gopher, wild turkey, grouse, beaver, bear, deer, elk, moose, antelope once when we visited the other side of the state, basically all species of fish, even snake a few times.
I think the most exotic of all of it was probably the beaver tail. it's really fatty/oily. it wasnt bad but I wouldnt eat very often even if it was readily available. venison or bison is more my style, or smoked brook trout.
Very low end: goat. There was an Indian restaurant near a museum we visited, and I saw it as an option and figured why not. Turns out it's mostly like lamb. Quelle surprise.
Haven't had it since. It's hard enough finding anywhere that serves lamb, in the US. It's just not on our radar. I think everywhere I've seen it is either some kind of ethnic cuisine (mostly Indian and Greek, since a few years in Bavaria had quite an impact on my palette) or some upscale restaurant treating it as exotic. Otherwise you have to buy a shoulder and slow-cook it yourself.
Cuy , a large hamster rodent. Better than rabbit. In Bolivia.
I don't remember the name but fried ants and spiders in laos .
Surströmming , fermented herring In Sweden. Properly served it's great.
Alligator, crocodile pretty ok.
Just to say I have eaten long pig. I cut off a piece of myself and ate it.
Bear sausage ,reindeer ,elk,deer etc..
Most seafood, shark , crawfish .
Callos ( not recommended )
Someone mention beef tounge , smoked and thinly sliced on a sandwich is great if you don't overthink it :)
Green sea turtle. Apparently the the conservation organization that was breeding them was allowed to serve them on site only. I had it in a sandwich. The meat was green and tasted like turkey
Crocodile. It was fine. A bit like seaweed wrapped chicken.
I once ate a baby camel. Had some rice with it as well.
Sawagani - Japanese river crab. They're tiny; about the size of a US nickel and you eat them fried whole, shell and all. Apparently they aren't exported any more, but I had them at a sushi restaurant in Austin around 2000. They were delicious, like extra-crunchy crab-flavored popcorn.
All sorts:
- Cat & Dog in SE Asia
- Horse, Donkey, Zebra, Crocodile, Sheep's brain in Europe
- Kangaroo, Emu, Ostrich, Possom, Rabbit, Cricket, Goat, Huhu grub, almost all offal? etc in New Zealand
- Something I have no idea what it was in Russia
Edit:
- Moose and reindeer in Northern Europe
- Lots of seafood at home in NZ, both raw and cooked
IDK if it's "exotic" but cariboo is f-ing excellent.
I guess exotic is relative, someone in here saying kangaroo is eaten all around Australia and Alligator is reasonably common here. Someone has goat as exotic but it seems common most everywhere.
I'm gonna go with the turtle soup my grandma got us at a restaurant when I was little (family very Louisiana on my dad's side), I remember it being good. Don't think I'd eat anything even remotely endangered now, they were not back then.
Husband still raves about Indonesian fried frog legs, he lived there for years growing up.
My friend had us eat that Korean kind of octopus where it's still half-living when Koreans eat it. I wanted to leave so bad.
Yak. Had a delicious yak goulash in a restaurant in Thimpu, Bhutan. Very similar to beef, hard to tell because of the spicing.
- Rattlesnake
- Sea Urchin
- Reindeer Hamburger
- Abalone
- Cricket
- Frog
- Alligator
Jellyfish. A bit... enh?
A family friend once invited us over to celebrate a promotion. To celebrate, they prepared an expensive meal and had expensive alcohols. The star of the meal was a thinly sliced piece of raw horsemeat. It was not particularly interesting, though it was very tender. I think it was more intended to "share the wealth" than for its actual appeal and flavor profile, though I was a kid and there was a cultural difference, so maybe I'm wrong. Either way, it was an interesting experience.
I live in Vietnam. So, many things we eat would be unusual from the standpoint of someone on a North American or European diet. Mouse, alligator (called 'ugly fish'), frog, duck embryo, organ meats, and various insects are just 'normal food'. They're all quite good.
I suppose weasel comes to mind? That's something I've had that's not common locally. It's boiled with ginger until it just tastes like... mostly bones with ginger and very little meat. Not impressed.
A lot of people turn away from duck embryo, but it actually tastes pretty normal.
We used to eat a fair amount of dog here, especially in the North, but the new generation considers this fairly old-fashioned. I've had what's called "fake dog dish", which is the same dish made with pork. It's good. I've never bothered with actual dog meat as I'm concerned it might not be fresh -- it's expensive and not common anymore. So I'm worried someone might try to sell me meat that's spoiled to recover losses or something.
In neighboring Cambodia, you can get large roasted spiders. They look like black crabs, and people seem to eat them that way. It didn't look that good so I passed.
Hákarl, the Icelandic fermented shark - while not exactly pleasant the first time, it's nowhere near as bad as people make out.
Ostrich - looks like it would taste like beef, but actually it's more of a strong chicken-like flavour which makes sense really.
I guess you could say horse, but that's common in a lot of places in Europe. Like beef but less flavour, too lean, I'm not a fan.
I once made tacos out of beaver meat. Pretty good stuff. It was like a very tender steak
Kangaroo. Not great. Overall despite being an omnivore I'm not a "meat person"
For me it's ostrich. I've eaten a lot of elk and bison, but they're so easy to get in my area, I don't seem exotic (my mom's freezer is always full of bison hot dogs). I've eaten a lot of ostrich too. I had a roommate for several years who loved it and would cook with it all the time (mostly chilli, but he'd also make meatballs and other stuff with it).
My exwife and I once watched some people get served live shrimp at a fancy sushi restaurant. They were squirming around, trying to escape. They (the people) couldn't figure out what they were supposed to do with them. They asked the chef to demonstrate how to eat them, but he either misunderstood or was just like "lol, white people" and took them back, chopped their heads off, shucked their shells and returned them to the people.
Goat. Ate it in Greece. Roasted with fine herbs. It was delicious.
No rednecks in here bringing up eating squirrel? For shame.
It's not exotic in the traditional sense, it's a pretty universal animal, but it's not commonly eaten so I'll share. It's pretty gamey and lean but the flavor is still pretty good. I think it's rather tasty pan fried and served with biscuits and gravy.
Fresh fried Moose heart. It was drenched in butter and seasoning and was actually pretty good. Little chewy though.
Also, smoked turkey gizzard. Fucking disgusting.
Hmmm. I've had rabbit prepared 5 different ways at a very expensive restaurant once (had just gotten a bonus for the first time in my life and it landed on my wife and I's anniversary). It was fantastic, like dark meat from a turkey or chicken, but a tad gamey which I didn't mind.
Venison is delicious, as is elk. Buffalo burgers are solid, not much different than regular. I've had ostrich jerky but it's pretty much the same as most other jerkys by that point.
Had shark once, was very good and similar to swordfish.
Funnily enough all of these things I tried in the US, and none while actually traveling abroad despite adventures to most of the continents at this point.
When I served in the King's African Rifles, the local Zambezi tribesman called human flesh "long pig."
Never much cared for it.
"Exotic" meat's meaning animals besides the "normal" ones, are generally not great. They are novel, but the quality of the meat is low since normally the quantity of that kind of meat is low. Also there is a reason the meat is "exotic" in the first place. If it were particularly good, it would be mass produced since you can grow meat in a lot of places and the costs don't really vary that much.
I'd say if you want "exotic" meat, as in high quality beef or whatever, go for it. If you want "exotic' meat like elephant meat or something like that, it's not worthwhile.
I had antelope tacos once. Tasted like taco meat
