One woman's durian is another woman's balut, or so it's been said...right now on this website. Basically, people eat weird stuff, as anyone who watches the Travel Channel knows. It's easy to get grossed out watching someone chow down on chicken feet or pound pig's blood; sometimes it's just the name itself that causes the shivers. But with a little bit of knowledge—and a whole lot of fortitude—you can become that daring diner who'll eat anything and then brag about it all over social media.
Brace yourselves, future tarantula eaters. Here are the ostensibly gross foods you need to get over and put in your mouth.
TONGUE: Yup, you're eating something that another animal used to eat. But if you can get past how surreal (or hyper real?) tongue looks in its raw state then you'll be treated to an exquisitely beefy and tender cut of meat that highlights the reason we eat cow in the first place: it tastes awesome. You can find it boiled, cured, fried, sauteed, smoked; it all depends on your cooking preference. Beside its great taste (really!), tongue is high in iron and zinc—good for boosting the immune system and fighting anemia—and B-12, which is good for the nervous system and also curing hangovers.
Next time you've tied on one too many, take a walk down to Katz's Delicatessen (or most Jewish delis), where they serve their cured tongue cold on a sandwich; or let April Bloomfield seduce you with Oxtail and Beef Tongue in broth with mushrooms, radishes, crispy ramp and habanero at The Breslin.
HAGGIS: The Scots know a thing or two or 6.57 million about sheep—seeing as they outnumber people in the country—so let's give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to creating a dish out of sheep offal. It's hard to look at haggis, a bloated sheep's stomach (traditionally) stuffed with sheep pluck (heart, lungs, liver) and savories then boiled. What could be less appealing than a bulging ball of animal organs? But brave diners know not to judge a dish by its casing (you eat hot dogs, right?) and they're rewarded with a savory pudding full of rich, mineral flavors.
It's not a popular dish in New York City except around Burns Night, which celebrates Robert Burns's poem Address to a Haggis. If you can't wait until then, Highlands offers the dish with "neeps n tatties" (turnip and potato) all year long.
HUITLACOCHE: I've extolled the pleasures of huitlacoche before and now will do so again. Also known as corn smut—which doesn't help its case either—huitlacoche is a disease caused by a kind of fungus that afflicts corn. It's not pretty to look at, but it's damn tasty, with a deep, earthy flavor and just a hint of funk to make things interesting. It's a big mushroom, people; just eat it. Also, the name is really fun.
Its most common application is in quesadillas, and you'll find them at any Mexican eatery worth its salsa. Try it with oaxaca cheese on a corn tortilla at Spanish Harlem's El Paso, in tacos at Bushwick's Carreras or in Queso Fundido at Hecho en Dumbo in the East Village.
CHICKEN FEET: I'll admit that chicken feet are an acquired texture; gelatinous and squishy with bones and chicken toenails and all sorts of gnarly stuff. If they're prepared well, however, they can be very delicious, especially fresh from the cart at a generous dim sum meal. The feet are often steamed, then bathed in a sweet and sticky sauce. Plus, they're super Instagrammable.
The version at Golden Unicorn in Chinatown are steamed in an Abalone sauce, a type of shellfish; at Hunan Kitchen in Flushing, they're pickled and tossed with hot peppers.
SWEETBREADS: There's no delicate way to put this so I'll come right out and say it: sweetbreads are the pancreas or thymus of baby animals, specifically cows and sheep. It's one of the great culinary winks, perfect for tricking an unwitting friend into eating something they'd otherwise deem "gross." But the joke is on you, friend, because you're missing out on one of the gems of organ meats. When properly handled—which typically involves some kind of milk soak—the sweetbreads develop a soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture with a slightly sweet and meaty flavor. Eating hormone sacs never tasted so good.
Sweetbreads are everywhere these days, from the cow offal-centric Takashi to Gabrielle Hamilton's seminal restaurant Prune in the East Village. Newcomers haven't shied away from the meat either, including an incredible fried version at Union Square's All'Onda and an unusual "Buffalo"-style at The Gander.
CRICKETS AND OTHER INSECTS: You can't Fight the Future forever, Fox Mulder, so you may as well get on board with bugs while it still makes you look daring and badass. People all over the world practice entomophagy (aka insect eating); in addition to being high in protein, iron, calcium and amino acids, it's also a far more sustainable, less expensive, and ecologically sound method of sustenance over animal proteins. Some people even like the taste.
If dry roasted crickets dusted with seasoning sound a little too hardcore there are other ingestion options, like protein bars and cricket flour, which can be used in certain baking applications. If whole bugs—antennae and all!—don't freak you out, you can snack on some Chapulines (dried grasshoppers) tacos with onion and jalapeno at Toloache or Dug-darr Gub Thuggatan Tohd (Fried Silk Worm and grasshoppers) seasoned with soy and pepper at Qi Esarn Thai Kitchen.
