Haggis is delicious, and when I first had it, I assumed I wouldn’t like it, but had to try, only to really love it.

A lot of stinky cheeses taste really good, but if you’ve never given then a chance, it’s hard to make yourself eat. Humboldt Fog is a favorite of mine, but basically none of my peers will try it.

Deep fried cicadas seasoned with Old Bay. Co-worker gathered a bunch a few years ago when they were around and fried them up. They were fine, and if you had not told me they were an insect I wouldn’t even have known. Nothing I wanted to eat again afterwards though.

The Corsican version of Casu Marzu, sheeps milk cheese with fly larvae. It’s delicious.

Maple sap, direct from the bucket. The flavor is quite complex compared to syrup since the volatiles haven’t been boiled off.

Prahok, fermented fish paste. Used as an ingredient, condiment, and main. It isn’t terrible, it’s just not very good. I expected I would love it, but meh.

Some sort of venomous snake in snake alley Taiwan. I also did a shooter of snake venom and whiskey

The snake wasn’t very good, was very oily and kind of rubbery

Edit: added link

I got tricked into trying stinky tofu in Taiwan before the smell was able to hit me and I admit I liked it, but not enough to make up for the smell once it did hit me.

Also tried horse nigiri in Japan. Definitely the gamiest thing I’ve ever tasted

Chocolate covered crickets. What made them interesting is they tasted nothing like chocolate and I kinda suspect the person who gave them to me of having sucked the coating off them first.

And the legs were scratchy on the way down.

Deep fried haggis is much nicer than it sounds. I tried it a few years ago in Edinburgh on a rugby weekend.

I had what I thought was fried squid in Spain once. I’d tried squid a few years before, and it was flavourless and rubbery, but I later learned that it had been overcooked. When I saw Calamari on the menu in a seaside restaurant, I thought I’d try it again.

It had a longer name, but a badly translated conversation with the waiter convinced me that it was the same dish.

The same waiter brought out a plate of what looked a lot like deep fried baby squid or octopus.

It was very nice, but I got filthy looks from my young niece for ‘eating all the babies’, so I haven’t had it since.

Had deep fried brain in Spain. Also snout which was not palatable really, i could see nose hairs in it. Crocodile in Cambodia. Are chicken feet interesting?