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Thursday, March 28

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Fuel

MikeH / November 15, 2005 2:09 PM

'Shrooms taste pretty gross. The fact that they supposedly grow on cow shit only serves to make them that much more unpalatable...

Andrew / November 15, 2005 2:12 PM

Natto, hands down, although I will allow that I may have gotten some that had gone bad. It's a short trip from "fermented soybeans" to rancid soybeans, and picking out the spoiled stuff is especially hard when even the good stuff would fail the smell test.

Andrew / November 15, 2005 2:13 PM

Mike, another name for cow shit is fertilizer -- what do you think your tomatoes grew in?

robin.. / November 15, 2005 2:17 PM

froot loops & ants. didn't want the sweet, sweet loops to go to waste just because the container wasn't airtight...times were tough in the rainforest that year.

Leah / November 15, 2005 2:18 PM

For my 26th birthday I was in Tokyo and I had Chonko (chunko) Nabe. It is sumo wrestler soup made with gelatin noodles (look like long strands of snot) and chicken liver.

You eat a bunch of it and then go to sleep and get fat.

Tied was octopus sashimi--I couldn't stop thinking that it wasn't quite dead and might suction itself to my throat and crawl back up. I was at a formal dinner and had to swallow, but it took ages to do.

Hal / November 15, 2005 2:19 PM

An eggplant and sausage casserole my mother made when I was a kid. The only time I ever saw my father refuse to eat something she made. Prepared poorly, eggplant can be a horrible, horrible thing - it was her first attempt, so...

Grant Patterson / November 15, 2005 2:27 PM

tie between buttered popcorn flavor jelly-bellies and vegemite.

Naz / November 15, 2005 2:27 PM

Easily maggots. Years ago, my parents bought one of those hot dogs in a croissant type things and they were fresh that day. We had put them in the fridge immediately because the tropical climates of South East Asia do not bode well for food left out.

Two days later, I go to the fridge and get one out. I microwave it and then take a bite. I look at the hot-dog-croissant and notice white things around the meat. I then realize they are maggots and I immediately eject all content of my mouth and dig up what I can from the ol' stomach for good measure.

To this day, I have no idea why this happened.

Ugh.

Stephen / November 15, 2005 2:35 PM

Not a food, but rather a drink: squid ink.

I am a vegetarian, and logically this is no different than drinking any other sort of animal product like milk, but STILL! This just made me feel icky, salty, kinda gooey, and overall feeling like I had violated some sort of unspoken vegetarian law regarding the consumption of squid ink.

p / November 15, 2005 2:45 PM

A Pockets sandwich- THE worst. Or Nutella.

Carrie / November 15, 2005 2:50 PM

Dry seaweed. It tasted how the dry, flaky fish food smells. It was horrible. I was so mad.

Grant- thanks for bringing back memories of those horrible buttered popcorn jelly beans. I couldn't get rid of that taste for a day. They are so gross.

j / November 15, 2005 2:55 PM

i got a box lunch at the Y one day that was pretty gross: a hairy fish taco with little bits of cheese. yech.

i also once ate scorpion in bangkok from a street vendor i could smell a mile away.

Cinnamon / November 15, 2005 3:15 PM

Rocky Mountain Oysters

They were good till I found out what they actually were. Set me off real oysters for a long time, but thankfully I got over that.

But thing I ate which I had to choke down? Natto, or anything with eggplant. And hopefully I'm not the only one who thinks eating dried coconut is akin to eating small bugs. The crunching texture icks me out.

C-Note / November 15, 2005 3:27 PM

I drank a bottle of olive oil shot by noxious, oily shot. Worse than the taste is the fact that instead of being digested, the olive oil lubricated my entire colon, and leaked out drop by drop over the course of two days, all the time smelling like the old shit that it helped remove from the walls of my intestines. Nice, I know.

spiraljetty / November 15, 2005 3:39 PM

A whole bottle of olive oil??? They have laxatives now, you know.

I used to eat lots and lots of insect larvae in Korea. It's cooked in a briney stock and sold in outdoor markets as a snack. I don't know if they were butterfly larvae or silkworm larvae, but it's pretty sad as well as gross.

Dee / November 15, 2005 3:42 PM

Squirrel.

Yes, really.

paul / November 15, 2005 3:54 PM

Natto is without a doubt the grossiest thing I've forced myself to eat. I've accidentally bitten into one or two things that have gone bad, but no way could you get natto past your lips by accident.

Take this from some one who's eaten things like seagull, cicada and possum.

And Nutella is one of the greatest things on earth, don't believe p.


van Moxie / November 15, 2005 3:59 PM

Olive oil shaken with an equal amount of grapefruit juice (about a cup and a half of each). Drink as quickly as possible. It's a remedy for gallstones that doesn't work.

sky / November 15, 2005 4:20 PM

I actually have a few.....
*When visiting a friend in Scotland I had Haggus with is some kind of beef cooked in an intestine that is marinated in the intestine juices or something else foul.
*While studying in South Africa, I stayed with a family where food was scarse, so turning down something was not an option, so much to my dismay when this lumpy sour milk was placed infront of me in a healthy portion. I just gagged thinking back and writing that. seriously.
*In america? Brussel Sprouts, for sure.

Andy / November 15, 2005 4:25 PM

My very irish friend's family served black pudding for breakfast. Disgusting.

Leelah / November 15, 2005 4:26 PM

When we were in Oklahoma for vacation (don't ask), we went to some restaurant that had something called a trailburger. I still don't know what the hell it was, but it was all kinds of nasty. I'm a vegetarian now, and the trailburger definitely put me off of hamburgers for years before I made that decision.

Erica / November 15, 2005 4:29 PM

Reading these posts has given me a gag reflex. To think I used to watch Fear Factor.

Anyway, unagi -- eel sushi whatnot -- is gross. Maybe it was the place I ordered it from. I'm super particular about sushi.

Caviar is nasty, too, in my white trash opinion.

I found some sort of wormy thing in a canned artichoke once, so I'm funny about my artichokes.


Erica / November 15, 2005 4:52 PM

Duh. I just remembered I went to this crazy event at the Peggy Norbert Nature Museum last year where they were serving SCORPION and other weird foods. The scorpion was the most memorable because it was disgusting even when chased with the delish wine. I ate two just to show off.

The orchid tempura rocked, though.

printdude / November 15, 2005 6:29 PM

Three-Bean Salad.

Bleech!

I ate a beet once, too.

That's about it on the list of things I won't eat. I am mocked weekly by wife for my love of fuzzy cheese. I am, however, happy in the memory that the French love me for that exact same reason.

Kevin / November 15, 2005 6:39 PM

C-Note, you know, the the Italian Fascists used that as a sort of torture pre WWII. Only, they used castor oil instead of olive oil. There's actually a funny (but gross) scene in the new Umberto Eco book involving that. He described something similar to what you experienced.

Personally, I'm not sure what the grossest thing I personally ever ate was, but having lived in what was East Germany for a year, I'm sure there's something that would have made my stomach turn. They'll grind up nearly anything, stuff into casing and call it a sausage.

Ralphie / November 15, 2005 6:41 PM

So, this guy I work with just accidentally swallowed bong water (don't ask), and declared it to be the most disgusting thing he's ever tasted.

Earla / November 15, 2005 7:12 PM

Haggis? Black pudding? NUTELLA? I feel like I'm in an upside-down land where tasty things suddenly become unpalatable. I mean, if you've ever eaten a sausage and enjoyed it, then what's the problem with haggis and pudding? Same thing, basically.

I once had a meat cake thing at Tank Noodle that smelled like a wet dog and tasted the same; I do believe that was the one and only time I have ever been defeated by food. I like EVERYTHING.

Dutch 101 / November 15, 2005 7:42 PM

Rocky Mountain Oysters? Tastes like home.

Unagi and Nutella are good too (probably not together).

Rattlesnake, 'gator, all kinds of squid and octopus too, and thouroughly enjoyed it.

I have eaten some stuff in China town that makes me cringe a little, though I can't recall exactly what they were.

Probably the grossest thing I have eaten in a long while is a Twinkie. Really. Totally repellent. And the first time I had eaten one, that I know of.

Rick / November 15, 2005 9:40 PM

Raw sea cucumber. Imagine biting into cold, slimy solid cartilage. Luckily it came with booze.

http://www.caribdiveguide.com/sample_sidebar.htm

Ali / November 15, 2005 9:52 PM

-Anchovies
-Mayonnaise
-Mushrooms

april / November 15, 2005 10:26 PM

An aloe vera plant*.

*d-r-u-n-k

nico / November 15, 2005 10:48 PM

celery -- or anything celery related. sadly, this goes for bloody mary's as well. i'd like to think i can smell it a mile away, but would rather not try to prove it -- yuck! while it doesn't exactly induce vomiting -- it still smell and tastes like "EWWW!!!"

e_five / November 15, 2005 11:11 PM

Normally, I have a cast iron stomach. But just last night, I decided to get creative with pasta sauce. I put a one pound bag of clam meat from a cheap Chinese grocery in a pot with olive oil, basil, and clam juice. I served it over linguine, and almost missed work today.

Attrill / November 15, 2005 11:55 PM

In high school a friend of mine used to put SoCo in bongs all the time, we drank it once and puked like crazy.

I drank Soya Lecithin straight from a 55 gallon drum when I worked at a paint factory to win a $20 bet (it's used as a thickener in paint and it's also in just about every processed food out there).

I had a soup with loads of fish eyes in it in Korea that was actually really good.

The grossest things I ever ate were made by some of my older aunts when I was growing up. They made these awful salad things like diced Spam, Jello, and Mayo or Raisins, Boiled Eggs, and Mayo - basically whatever they had lying around buried in Mayo. To this day I can't eat Mayo without getting sick.

waleeta / November 16, 2005 8:54 AM

If it's gross, I don't eat it. So nothing!

slb / November 16, 2005 8:56 AM

many years ago, some friends of mine scraped all the crust off the top of the stove and mixed it with maple syrup, then bet me $1 i wouldn't eat it.

i won the dollar, but they tried to welch on me when it came back up.

other than that, spam.

SG / November 16, 2005 9:02 AM

Rancid bacon. Some friends & I visitied their grandmother when we were kids and she made some bacon that had obviously gone bad. I remember hanging our heads out the bedroom window (in winter) to get away from the smell, but she swore it was fine and made us eat it. I didn't eat bacon for years and now I'm a vegetarian. Coincidence?

Paula / November 16, 2005 9:13 AM

I was in Germany a few years ago and I was served a 'delicacy'. Fresh boar's head stew. It had a watery broth and bits of wild pig head floating around - it was particularly gross to be able to pick out the snout and ears. Grosser was one of the other lunch guests picking out and chewing merrily on one of the ears. I can't even admit to eating any because I was so repulsed - I just moved my spoon around alot and ate side dishes.

Mo / November 16, 2005 9:28 AM

Haggis is delicious! and so is nutella!

When I was a kid, my friend tricked me into eating Cherry Jello mixed with mashed potatoes from the cafeteria, and it tasted like evil and I almost threw up.

When I was in Hawaii several years ago, I tried poi (two-finger consistency), and it was just awful, but maybe it's just because I expected it to be sweet since it's a beautiful lavendar pudding type food, and it was salty and tasted like snot.

squash / November 16, 2005 9:41 AM

SQUASH

Sarah / November 16, 2005 9:48 AM

I don't have much to add to the gross food topic, I just had to let Carrie and Grant know that I love the buttered popcorn jelly beans. Everyone else I know detests them, but I think they're delicious!!

m / November 16, 2005 9:58 AM

Disgusting, but tastes good: Scrapple

Scrapple was invented to make use of the parts of slaughtered animals not suitable to be served on their own. It contains the meaty parts of hog heads, hearts, some liver, and other scraps. The proportion and spicing is very much a matter of the region, family, and the cook's taste. Scrapple is affectionately known to be composed of "everything but the squeal". Scrapple is typically cut into thin slices, fried until the outsides form a crust, and eaten at breakfast in a similar manner to bacon or sausage. Scrapple is particularly associated with Philadelphia but is popular in eastern Pennsylvania, and elsewhere in the southern portion of the Mid-Atlantic.

Disgusting and tastes disgusting: Lutefisk
Lutefisk is a traditional food of the Nordic countries. It is made from air-dried whitefish (normally cod), prepared with lye, in a sequence of particular treatments. The first treatment is to soak the stockfish in cold water for five to six days. The saturated fish is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish will swell during this soaking, regaining a size even bigger than the original (undried) fish, but the protein content paradoxically decreases, causing its famous jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish is full of lye, has a pH value of 11-12 and is poisonous. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days (and nights) of soaking in cold water (changed daily) is needed. Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be used for cooking. In Scandinavia, the "season" for lutefisk starts early in November and is typically served throughout Christmas. Lutefisk is also very popular in Scandinavian-American areas of the United States, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

printdude / November 16, 2005 10:01 AM

Sarah, I am quite fond of the Sardine Jelly Beans, especially when combined with the Black Pepper Jelly Bean.

Yea! for Berties Botz!

sarah / November 16, 2005 10:07 AM

when i was in college i studied abroad in paris for a semester. the family i stayed with, however, had spent 6 years in london, and had picked up some of great britain's finer delicacies.

well, mushrooms are the one non-meat food that i truly find repulsive. one night, the dish that was served was basically a little cup filled with sliced mushrooms and uncooked egg. refusing any food was not an option (they were already incredibly freaked out at my vegetarianism), so i had to leave my body and just_eat_it.

I think that for people who hate mushrooms, it is cruel to make us eat them. it's like someone making you eat bugs or shit.

davin / November 16, 2005 10:11 AM

well, this one time i was on fear factor and...

oh, you know the rest.

mar-mar / November 16, 2005 11:19 AM

My host mom in Guatemala in 1997 was a terrible, terrible cook. She got up every morning at 5am to inflict her cooking on the family. I had to eat every meal with them except for a few dinners, so when she announced a "special" meal in honor of the local priest I prayed it would be palatable for once.
Microwaved pot roast--ok, fine, stringy dry and tough but I could manage it.
Boiled potatoes--tasteless but whatever
Steamed green beans--Yay! I watched her toss them with a big spoon and licked my chops. Then I watched her open a giant jar of DEHYDRATED MAYONNAISE, stir in some oil and a bunch of raw eggs, and MIX IT WITH THE BEANS.
There was nowhere to hide.
Closest I ever came to vomiting at the table.

Klatt / November 16, 2005 11:35 AM

I would have to say papaya is the worst fruit I have ever eaten. I never imagined I could dislike any piece of fruit but papaya is poison. The only other thing I can think of is curds. If not only because they are disgusting, but just for the name itself. Say it aloud - "curds" - yuck.

Klatt / November 16, 2005 11:36 AM

I would have to say papaya is the worst fruit I have ever eaten. I never imagined I could dislike any piece of fruit but papaya is poison. The only other thing I can think of is curds. If not only because they are disgusting, then for the name itself. Say it aloud - "curds" - yuck.

CB / November 16, 2005 11:39 AM

Dried cricket on some kind of pate thing served inside a filo dough cup. The cricket was supposed to be there. This horrible culinary horror occurred at a gastronomically challeneged event at the Nature Museum last year.




The cricket looked a lot like the mini-cockroaches that would scurry under the oven in a bakery that I worked at in highschool.

leah / November 16, 2005 11:56 AM

I ate octopus once in Mexico. The bartender was fixing some fresh arms up for himself and offered me some.

It would've been rude to refuse and I chewed on those little suction cups for 10 minutes like a champ.

le nast.

Reverend Lab Rat / November 16, 2005 12:12 PM

I was bumming around New Orleans with some streetkids a few years back and we got into this stupid punk rock pissing contest.

"Lick that shit up off the ground."

Now I would never advise anyone to lick anything off the ground in New Orleans, even before it got dusted with mold and petro, but I didn't even know what this shit was. It had the color and consistency of tapioca pudding and it lying there in a blob on the ground in that park off Decatur where all the street performers and junkies hung out. I didn't want to be outpunked so I took my lumps and lapped it up and tried to keep it from passing over my tongue.

Best case scenario: it was tapioca pudding. I've never tried it on account of its aesthetic grossness, so it's only vaguely nasty. Most likely scenario: alcoholic smoothie vomit. Worst case scenario: I don't even wanna fucking know

p / November 16, 2005 12:22 PM

Many of these gross-outs it seems have occured over-seas or out of the country. Pockets, however, is a terror happening right in our OWN BACKYARD. "Make no mistake"- it is not an isolated shop of horrors but, I've learned, A CHAIN. And Mar-Mar wins Joe Rogan's corny affection, cuz that shit's Nasty. And I'm staying with a host family in Guatemala in a few weeks so I'm a little bit freaked out by the mayo beans.

sarah / November 16, 2005 1:05 PM

i love that multiple people thought to post about pockets. it does totally suck. i used to live near one, so i tried it, and i was like, are you kidding? how, HOW! does that place stay in business? especially more than one of them?

daruma / November 16, 2005 1:10 PM

Nico - I call celery "smellery." Bad stuff.
Waleeta - I'm with you. If it's even a little bit gross I don't need to eat it.
My friend Michele lives for natto.
Only thing I ever spit out - flavored coffee drink from Dunkin Donuts.

Tina / November 16, 2005 1:39 PM

Ah yes....warm papaya juice in Cancun. Worst part was that I had a little hangover brewing...yuck!

steven / November 16, 2005 1:51 PM

black olives

Emerson Dameron / November 16, 2005 1:56 PM

Peanut butter. In a taco shell. With a packet of taco seasoning.

Emerson Dameron / November 16, 2005 2:02 PM

I also advise against downing an entire fifth of vermouth, no matter how funny your ER tech pal thinks it is or how many pills he just gave you.

red / November 16, 2005 2:04 PM

vegemite...I don't know how the Australians eat that crap.

JP / November 16, 2005 2:08 PM

Dog Shit and i'm not telling. Nuff said.

Leelah / November 16, 2005 3:54 PM

Oh hell! How did I forget MARMITE?

Benjy / November 16, 2005 5:53 PM

Another vote for Vegemite. Do Australians actually eat the stuff... or is it just one big national practical joke to play on the tourists? There can't actually be people who like it? Are there?

Irene / November 16, 2005 7:04 PM

The worst ever was cow brains - I am Mexican and they were my dad's fav. My mom (she has since passed away) "made the best ever" according to my dad. Is that possible? I have even had baby eel in Spain (In the hot garlic oil they wiggle as if still alive.) They were much better tasting than the brains mom made. My fav gross food was in Mexico there it was squid in a very, very hot sauce - I think it was something called pupla - Does anyone have the receipe? Needless to say, I am not a picky eater. My fav of all time is Sushi.

Nuxrs / November 16, 2005 7:13 PM

I have to say, it's quite refreshing to see how many people here agree that Pockets is gross.

Alex / November 16, 2005 9:14 PM

Hey Irene! I'm Mexican too, so let's not forget these other "favorites" we were probably both subjected to as children:

- Tripas (Intestines)
- Menudo (Tripe)
- Lengua (Cow Tongue)

But the grossest thing I ever ate and enjoyed was definitely head cheese. I mean, how can anything with the word "head" in it
possible be not gross?


Oddly enough, I really did like brain though...

waleeta / November 16, 2005 9:40 PM

Benjy,

Having been to Australia (half of my family lives there) - they really do eat it. A lot. For breakfast. There I was, sitting in the morning with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, with a traditional Middle Eastern spread of cheeses, eggs, bread and tea, and right smack in the middle, VEGEMITE.

Assimilation....gotta love it.

geezer / November 17, 2005 4:12 AM

A few weekends ago I stopped at a drive thru Dunkin Donuts for some much needed coffee and water. I was having one of those hungover mornings where you oversleep, jump into the car, and realize your body is crying out for hydration. So the woman passes me a bottle of water and a vat of coffee out the window and I drive away while clawing open the Aquafina. I take a big slug and realize it's BERRY FLAVORED. I spit it up immediately but, out of circumstance, forced myself to finish the bottle off.

Lisa / November 17, 2005 8:01 AM

Vegemite

Baldeesh / November 17, 2005 8:18 AM

I have a friend from Austraila - I've only smelled vegemite, and that's enough for me.

I might try it if someone offered me a dollar or something...

Moon / November 17, 2005 9:07 AM

First of all, peyote it the worse tasting stuff ever.

For a liquor that is really repugnant, try Malort.

And Pockets are like eating cardboard, but they don't really taste like anything.

Norm / November 17, 2005 9:16 AM

Your Mom

Erica / November 17, 2005 9:59 AM

I'm Bogarting this one. Sorry. Those Violet Mints are terrible. Like spraying perfume into yr mouth. YUCK.

Norm. You nasty.

Jeigh / November 17, 2005 10:50 AM

I run about 16 hours a week, and in the warm summer months when the bugs are out I'm sure I eat dozens of bugs. Once I inhaled a huge bumble bee. I tried coughing it up for a few seconds because I inhaled it pretty far back. Once I realized I couldn't get it out I decided to drown the thing, so I gulped as much water as I could to wash it down. I don't know, what if I'm allergic and never knew? Better to get that little feller down to my stomach before it stung my throat.

Staci / November 17, 2005 11:28 AM

My mom made a casserole once that combined boiled potatoes, pork chops and yellow mustard, which was horrible and put me off casseroles for years. I also don't eat beets or ribs, although I will admit that ribs probably taste good, I just have problems eating meat off of the bone.

slb / November 17, 2005 11:50 AM

Oh - I forgot about those awful violet mints! just the thought of those things make me ill!

Thanks for reminding me of a horrible taste I had forgotten...

printdude / November 17, 2005 12:03 PM

I like those too, those Violet mints, even though I get razzed by Y A J for buying them.

At least they don't taste like beets!

Ohgal / December 16, 2005 11:55 AM

Interesting lawsuit where a lady claims her fiance fed her blended up rats. Aren't rats a delicacy? She claims they are poisonous. Anyone know? Here is the newspaper article.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/local/crime_courts/13420205.htm

Melissa Corey / January 17, 2006 12:59 PM

Nutella is THE BEST! What is this Pockets I keep seeing in this list?

ron / February 14, 2006 11:35 PM

On a bet, i ate sink salad, heres the receipt...
Do a whole pile of dirty dishes, pull the plug(strainer style) then take the plug and dump all the nasty goodness into a small bowl.Serve at dish water temp.
Bit of a crap shoot, mine was gagalicious!soggy birthday cake smothered in tomato sauce, drizzled with palmolive.MMMMM

Bob / April 11, 2006 3:47 PM

This goes out to "Ohgal" from an old post last year about the "blended rats"....

Who puts the "Rat" in Ratatouille?

Click to find out!

juicyfruit / May 5, 2006 11:16 PM

What is pockets?

Jamie / August 23, 2006 10:09 PM

For me,I'd say a tie between jelly fish tenticles and popcorn flavored jelly bellys.

Hayley / November 7, 2006 7:30 PM

Eww Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans. Vomit Flavored, Booger, Grass, Earthworm. I dont know what the real things taste like but they can't be any worse than the jelly beans.

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