Weirdest thing you’ve been served at someone’s house (or at a restaurant)

[Anonymous]

A family member showed up at my house with fried cicadas and insisted I try them because they were high in protein. They looked worse than the ones I saw dead on the ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I have an Asian parent and a European parent and have eaten many interesting things in my life: haggis, snails, frog's legs, horse meat, various game, braised eel, fish still alive, whale, angel hair with fish eggs, the whole roast piglet served at Viet weddings, pungent Durian ice cream, etc. Long ago, my mother was invited to my father's Asian country, and to honor her Western origins, she was served soft-boiled eggs... and chopsticks to eat them with.

Anyway. I really came on here to add to a poster's tuna pizza comment: that I LOVE canned tuna on pizza!!! In a few European countries, that's perfectly appropriate as a topping.

Interesting, but…live fish? How does that work? How was the durian ice cream?

PP you replied to. Like another poster described, taken live, prepared and put on your plate still moving in its death throes, poor fish. The durian ice cream was good! The whale was too fatty. Insects and maggots - I don't care how good they taste, it's hard to get past the visual. I've never been able to try that Corsican cheese with tiny live maggots in it: it's illegal these days, but if you ask around the island, someone will give you a taste. They have it in Sardinia also.

[Anonymous]

Nothing immediately jumps to mind but the thread about the "backyard head party" would probably be at the top of my list if it were irl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I have an Asian parent and a European parent and have eaten many interesting things in my life: haggis, snails, frog's legs, horse meat, various game, braised eel, fish still alive, whale, angel hair with fish eggs, the whole roast piglet served at Viet weddings, pungent Durian ice cream, etc. Long ago, my mother was invited to my father's Asian country, and to honor her Western origins, she was served soft-boiled eggs... and chopsticks to eat them with.

Anyway. I really came on here to add to a poster's tuna pizza comment: that I LOVE canned tuna on pizza!!! In a few European countries, that's perfectly appropriate as a topping.

Interesting, but…live fish? How does that work? How was the durian ice cream?

PP you replied to. Like another poster described, taken live, prepared and put on your plate still moving in its death throes, poor fish. The durian ice cream was good! The whale was too fatty. Insects and maggots - I don't care how good they taste, it's hard to get past the visual. I've never been able to try that Corsican cheese with tiny live maggots in it: it's illegal these days, but if you ask around the island, someone will give you a taste. They have it in Sardinia also.

I have eaten the cheese with the maggots. It is an acquired taste. When did it become illegal? It was probably back in the 1970s or early 1980s when I had it. I have had monkey brain soup around that time. It was not my favorite, either.

The grossest thing I ever saw, and I drew the line at is, was live smelt pulled straight from the creek and eaten there. I am fine with catching them, putting them in breading and frying them, but live was a no go for me.

[Anonymous]

As a child, I traveled “on a shoestring” (anyone remember when the Lonely Planet books were called that?) with my hippie parents all over the world and have therefore tried some truly weird foods. However, a dish that stands out as terrible was served by my high school boyfriend’s mother at brunch: frozen strawberries and canned mandarin oranges in sweetened sour cream. All these years later, the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach. I still barely tolerate sour cream and I HAVE eater the maggot cheese.

[Anonymous]

For a first grade Valentine’s Day party, the mother in charge of snack brought in Rice Krispie treats. She mentioned that she made them “healthy” and used coconut oil rather than butter. The kids hated it. Why do that for a classroom party?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Side dish was whole boiled onions. The big kind.
Host also served a pork tenderloin cooked to death and boiled potatoes.
The potatoes were nice 😊

Eastern Europe? My great-grandmother used to serve boiled onions. It was understood that you sliced them into bites and ate them with the meat dish (like a piece of onion and meat on the fork together).

We used to eat boiled onions. My mom is Irish. They are tasty though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in England for a few months in the 90s and every pizza was topped with corn. Literally every pizza I saw, even the ones at the chains like Pizza Hut.

This is so funny! Can any other Englishmen verify if this is a common thing

It may have been a thing in the 90s, but not that I can recall. I've just taken a look at the menu at Pizza Express, a popular pizza chain in the UK, and there's not a corn kernel in sight. Toppings on Pizza in the UK tend to be different to the US. And other countries have corn on pizza.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was a child we were invited over to a family friend’s house. They served pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Both were unsweetened because the host said pumpkin is “so naturally sweet.” While it’s not as bad as many stories in this thread, it stuck with me my whole life as a cruel bait & switch on my 6 yr old self.

That's not weird, that's normal.

You must be the family friend

Unsweetened whipped cream on unsweetened pie does sound like a cruel joke for a 6yo.

I've never put sugar in whipped cream. Why would you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My goodness! This thread makes me feel better about what we have been doing during these pandemic days. You know how businesses are experiencing staffing shortages these days.

The last year or so, when we have friends over, we have just been buying frozen pizzas and heating them up at home. That way we don't have to wait 3 hours for our pizzas to get delivered, or find out there is no pizza coming at all. We also serve salad.

It feels a little tacky, but at least it's not ketchup squirted on ritz crackers.

Funny, when we have guests, we make them dinner.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My toddler and I were invited over to the house of one of his friends for a "pizza party" The pizza had tunafish and corn on it. Unbelievably, my toddler (who hated everything) ate it. Even more unbelievably, the mom who invited us announced she had to go to a meeting and I needed to stay an extra hour bc it was her nanny's day off.

These toppings are considered acceptable in England. So super gross!!

Same in Japan. They put everything on pizza!

How is tuna and corn gross? I've seen Americans put tuna and corn together in a sandwich.

[Anonymous]

Here’s a Domino’s UK menu—both sweetcorn and tuna are topping options. It’s a thing.

https://www.mermaidquay.co.uk/website/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mq-Dominos_menu.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was a child we were invited over to a family friend’s house. They served pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Both were unsweetened because the host said pumpkin is “so naturally sweet.” While it’s not as bad as many stories in this thread, it stuck with me my whole life as a cruel bait & switch on my 6 yr old self.

That's not weird, that's normal.

You must be the family friend

Unsweetened whipped cream on unsweetened pie does sound like a cruel joke for a 6yo.

I've never put sugar in whipped cream. Why would you?

To make it sweet as whipped cream should be. Your feigned ignorance is annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was a child we were invited over to a family friend’s house. They served pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Both were unsweetened because the host said pumpkin is “so naturally sweet.” While it’s not as bad as many stories in this thread, it stuck with me my whole life as a cruel bait & switch on my 6 yr old self.

That's not weird, that's normal.

You must be the family friend

Unsweetened whipped cream on unsweetened pie does sound like a cruel joke for a 6yo.

I've never put sugar in whipped cream. Why would you?

A little bit of powdered sugar brings out the sweetness of the cream and serves as an stabilizer so it stays whipped longer.

But I think the unsweetened pumpkin is the real issue here. Unsweetened whipped cream on normal pie would be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was a child we were invited over to a family friend’s house. They served pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Both were unsweetened because the host said pumpkin is “so naturally sweet.” While it’s not as bad as many stories in this thread, it stuck with me my whole life as a cruel bait & switch on my 6 yr old self.

That's not weird, that's normal.

You must be the family friend

Unsweetened whipped cream on unsweetened pie does sound like a cruel joke for a 6yo.

I've never put sugar in whipped cream. Why would you?

A little bit of powdered sugar brings out the sweetness of the cream and serves as an stabilizer so it stays whipped longer.

But I think the unsweetened pumpkin is the real issue here. Unsweetened whipped cream on normal pie would be fine.

+1
I like it both ways.

My in laws served me salmon that was foil cooked in the dishwasher.