Exotic Foods from Ethnic Menus?

[Francis Daignault]

Exotic foods in the salt chuck commonly present themselves in the wild. When I was a kid we ate everything, probably because edibles had value. Can you think of some critters you ran into while fishing that surprised you as to how yummy they were. We used to walk all over mussels now we eat them.

[RobS]

I can't think of anything I don't currently eat, that I'd want to try, including so-called "junkfish" (e.g. sea robin).

I know jetty guys who kept stargazers for the tail meat, window pane for whatever they can flake off that paper thin carcass. I haven't seen anyone take an oyster cracker but someone must have tried it.

OTOH, I ran into "oyster crabs" when shucking a dozen that came from the Chesapeake, fed them to my aquarium tautog at the time, who loved them. I subsequently found out they're a bay delicacy down south and wished I had kept them. I'm pretty sure some keep mole crabs and cook them up somehow for snacking, as well.

oyster crabs:

[Francis Daignault]

In my "20 Years" book we ate dabs which I think are also called "windowpane". If we didn't have enough fish to go off the eleven mile beach we had dabs with Franco-American spagetti. The fillets are thin but nice eating. You can't eat English muiffin pizza all the time.

Toby Lapinski had a nice article in the Fisherman about eating sea-robins recently. Many exotic foods come from homely animals.

[RobS]

My boss's daughter recently went to South Korea with a friend, and sent back a movie of *moving* food served over there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYgL-Z16v00

That isn't her video but it's a similar one.

Apparently, as the consumer, it's up to you to chew them extremely well because patrons have died eating them, when they've swallowed without chewing and one of the suckers "sticks" to your throat, choking you!

I'm pretty sure I had *fried* octopus in a greek restaurant, and of course many eat "bait" ... squid... in various ways.

[Francis Daignault]

Calamari, aka squid, is awesome food. It is often served with hot peppers we have it all the time in gin mills. It is so popular that joints buy it in bags of individually frozen product (IFP). They just throw it in boiling oil. Don't we have an Italians around here? A Frenchman has to tell you that?????

[SALMONMEISTER]

Originally Posted by RobS

My boss's daughter recently went to South Korea with a friend, and sent back a movie of *moving* food served over there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYgL-Z16v00

That isn't her video but it's a similar one.

Apparently, as the consumer, it's up to you to chew them extremely well because patrons have died eating them, when they've swallowed without chewing and one of the suckers "sticks" to your throat, choking you!

I'm pretty sure I had *fried* octopus in a greek restaurant, and of course many eat "bait" ... squid... in various ways.

Rob, your last line reminds me of a T shirt I saw in Newport Rhode Island, "In California they call it sushi...in Rhode Island we call it bait!"

[Francis Daignault]

One time in P-town apparently a school of goosefish, aka tails, came down thru the rip because a lot of guys plugging caught them and left them to rot on the beach. I went around picking them up and sold them at the dock which averaged around $5 apiece. Dock owner said the tails are cut off and kept and sold as a popular food fish. He said they have a flavor similar to lobster. The huge, toothy mouth is cut off because it has no food value; only the tails. The waste some guys impose is disgusting.

[RobS]

Frank,

My wife is "eye-ta-lian" and I've had Calamari since day 1 meeting her.

Also "tripe", scungilli, and some other relatively bizarre things. My wife relates how the snails escaped the pot one Christmas at her home and were found crawling up the walls in the kitchen

[Francis Daignault]

I have been happy with my Irish Joyce for 61 years, but I always had this nagging feeling that I wanted an Italian girl. There is something dirt-under-the-fingernails about them; something earthy. They don't complain if you droll on their shoulder or fart in church. I'll bet that many Italian girls are good shots like their fathers. Though I must admit my Irish wife can shoot the nuts off a field mouse on horseback Hey, be happy with what you got I always say. I would caution our members to get a girl that has her babies one-at-a-time.

[Merlin]

I have eaten a product called spam, didn't know what it was or even if it was from this planet but it was mushie and tasted like pure salt. I was told it will keep you alive but tastes like sheet.

[RobS]

Yes, Frank, those are sold in the markets as "monkfish"

[Francis Daignault]

Maybe I should have cut off the tails myself and eaten them instead of selling them. I like good fish. Of course in those days had there been a buyer I would have sold roadkill. Today's Mr. Smarty is not the same one of yore.

[Francis Daignault]

I had an Italian teacher friend* who we would meet after work at a gin mill, who used to order snails eating them with a tooth pick. He loved them; had them with beer. In those days, I was beginning to appreciate calamari.

* Everybody in Providence is Italian.

[Francis Daignault]

Some people view venison as an exotic food. They say odd things like, "you have to acquire a taste for it." Or, "can you really eat a wild turkey?" They are so homely. I remind them of those big bugs, that look like cockroaches -- lobsters.

[Francis Daignault]

I always envied people who knew mushrooms enough to pick them without getting poisoned. We are in the woods a lot and see bushels of them but don't know which ones to eat. Fried in butter and onions with venison, mushrooms are good but we buy them which takes some of the fun out of it. I like free stuff from the woods.