There are many foods that I do not care for, all I have tried, and could eat again. I wanted to hear what foods you have never tried and never will. I am not talking Phobias here Phobia Thread and am not talking about dislikes, allergies, dietary restrictions or “never agains”. These are foods that will never be experienced! (OK never say never)

My list is short....

1000 year old egg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg
Large eye balls of any type
Partially developed embryos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut
Monkey brains in the skull (ala Indian Jones) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_brain_%28cuisine%29

I'll second balut and the egg

I'll add:

Natto simply because I like tofu, soybeans, and miso and this would ruin it for me.
Birds nest soup

and of course
"Donner, Party of 1"

I'm a "try something at least once" person, but the one thing I would never. ever. eat is a rocky mountain "oyster".

Welcome Phoqueen! Glad to have you on board!

With the exception of anything penis related, I will try anything edible.

I third the balut and the egg. Also eyeballs, tongue, brain- most organs actually. I once ate lung accidentally, I don't recommend it. Marrow. Feet.
ETA: No rocky mountain oysters either!!!

You are missing out on some of the greatest culinary treats, and feet are a great addition to stock or soup. These bits are a bit daunting, but are very tasty.

Softshell crab.

Wolverine nipples.

I think a lot of the hype/notoriety around natto is overblown. Yeah, it's a pretty gnarly texture/smell, but I think there's far worse things out there than that. I'm actually thinking about getting some to try again because it's actually a very healthy food.

Something I probably will never try are sheep's brains, which I'm pretty sure my grandmother tried to serve me once and I was like "this isn't happening."

I also refuse to eat fish eyes, another thing my grandmother wanted me to eat.

Horse meat...thank God I didn't wind up with THAT family when I did my study abroad year (or else I would have been forced to eat sheep brains too - which, like ladikailemoni, are on my list too).

1. Hákarl (fermented or rotten shark)
2. Surströmming (fermented Baltic herring in a can - you know it's ready when the can is puffed up like a softball)
3. Lutefisk - no no no no no
4. Stinkfish (This Inuit delicacy from eastern Greenland described as such:"The elders liked stinkfish, fish buried in seal bags or cans in the tundra and left to ferment."

I have heard that anyone one of these dishes can be detected by the human nose a half mile away. No thanks.

Through the eons of time and across cultures, humans seem to have an affinity for the taste of fermented fish: think garum, nuoc mam.

I agree with all of the above. Just reading this thread made me feel a little nauseous.

I once saw a guy eat the still-beating heart of a cobra on the TV. I am pretty damned sure I wouldn't ever do that-- he sure didn't seem to enjoy it.

I know it isn't appropriate to this thread, but one of my "never agains" is uni (Sea Urchin). The texture/flavor combo was such that I almost threw up in this nice little sushi joint. I am generally a pretty adventerous person, but this stuff was just terrible. Does anyone else just love the stuff and feel I should give it another go?

Here are the salient facts: 1) I was brought up to eat what was ever presented to me, and; 2) barfing at the table was never allowed under any circumstances. So, here was a situation whereby my family was introduced to a French Air Force Officer. My parents entertained him (who was without his family) at our home in El Paso, Texas. Several months later, both of our families were stationed in Germany (ours in the American sector, his in the French sector). We would exchange visits from time to time--my parents always brought a carton or two of American cigarettes when we arrived at their apartment--his wife was particularly fond of Salems. The French spouse was a wonderful cook and presented food in the French fashion; i.e., in several courses.

There came the time when she made escargot. And thus was my dilemma. I was about 13 at the time, for those of you who are counting. I stared at that snail shell on my plate, knowing what was inside. I also knew that I would barf if I was forced to eat it. What to do, what to do? Fortunately for me, He recognized my problem and stated "Well, more for me!" Exactly.

No, I don't eat snails under any circumstances. And, there are some French people who can understand why. Bless them all.

Uni is one of those things where, if it's really good and fresh, it's surprisingly mild and inoffensive. If it's bad, it's BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. My hunch is that your uni wasn't so good, and I'd give it another shot the next time you're at a place where you can be absolutely assured you're getting good stuff. Even places that have very nice fish, in my experience, often have trouble getting good uni.

For the record, I adore uni. It may be my favorite standard sushi bar item (killer bluefin otoro aside, of course :-). I've always thought it was somewhat reminiscent of egg yolks, actually... slightly briny egg yolks.

All of the above (lungs were the first to come to mind--blech!) plus cuy and ortolan. Oh, and whale blubber.

This is top of my never going to happen list. It took about 5 months to get rid of the phantom smell of blubber after the one necropsy I assisted with. It also confirmed I didn't want to work on whales.

Having done a variety of dissections, the idea of eating organs just creeps me out. I'm sure it doesn't help that dissections aren't done under the best smelling conditions and the textural element just isn't right.

There was one even better. I just tried to Google up this book with no luck, but the guy went to four wilderness areas in the world for sport and to write about it. Africa, Borneo, Greenland and one other place. In Greenland he described the single most revolting thing I've ever read about. Land travel in Greenland is mostly by dog sled. He had a day before his narwhal expedition was to start and was invited to a party. He described the odor as the sled approached the party as gag-inducing from several hundred feet away. He had no idea that the odor was the main dish being feasted upon. It consisted of seal that had been stuffed with sea birds WITH THEIR FEATHERS STILL ON, buried in the ice for 9 months to ferment. When he finally got up the courage to approach the table, the hostess apologized that there was none left. She did slice him a generous hunk of fermented whale liver, though, as consolation. I would have passed on that one, too.

Many of these would be disgusting to eat, of course, but I can only remember one thing that disgusted me just reading about it. I won't mention it directly, and advise against going to this link, but for those of you who can't resist ... click.

Bon appetit,
Rocks.

Might not be so bad provided he was on a steady diet of fermented seal and seagulls.

and I thought picking one's nose and eating it was bad.....

And here I thought that you were going to link to the Mircle Whip site.

I'll eat almost anything, but it has to taste and smell good. Some things I doubt I will ever try are testicles of any sort, brains of any sort and rotten anything (even if it is meant to be that way). Most other organs are fine (probably even eyeballs) and I LOVE marrow.

Never say never. Many years ago in a small restaurant in the Watergate Hotel, we used to serve Chestnut and foie gras soup with "white kidneys". "Those were delicious. What was that?" "We'll tell you on the way out". Couilles de canard -poached and sliced.

I had always written off eating testicles as well, but at a dinner hosted by JoeH at Laboratorio, we had a duck stew with all kinds of innards. I commented how much I liked the kidneys, yes they were white, and they were delicious.

My cafeteria at work has a special today of "Jalapeno Cheese and Bacon-Wrapped Deep-Fried Hot Dogs". Defibrillator available for separate purchase.

I hate to admit this about myself, in this distinguished company, but I pose this question: am I the only one here who thought to himself, "Damn, I'm gonna make that one at home (maybe tonight)..."?

You know, normally I would agree with you. However, I saw what this thing looked like and, trust me, it was pretty...disturbing.

On my first trip to India in 1971, I was befriended by the proprietor of a little canteen, where I often went for tea and the Indian equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich. One afternoon Godridge, the proprietor, called me over and said, "Bald one, I've made something very special for you". He presented my a basket of chapatis and a plate of what appeared to be a very nice yellow curry, so I dug in. After the first bite, which can only be described as a sort of soft crunch, I asked my friend what this was. "Curried goat brains. How do you like it?" Needless to say, not at all....but I smilled and told him how nice it was to have prepared such a thing for me. And I finished it.

I will never knowingly eat another brain, liver, kidney, heart, gizzard, tongue, intestine, stomach.......ever again.

Sounds like our cafeteria. "Chili-cheese-dog-tacos". I think it's a speciality of Chef SysCo.

Ah yes, the reknown Citroneteria.

I usually am willing to try anything once....but this thread reminded me of exceptions.

I agree with balut. I have no intention of trying it -- but I recently was on the phone for tech support with my satellite TV connection, and I asked the person on the other end of the line where he was from. He said he was in the Philippines, so naturally, I asked what he liked to eat. He responded with balut as the first choice.

I once asked Bob Kinkaid what he didn't serve in his restaurants and he answered "sea urchin" which is mentioned in this thread. For some reason I never tried it and thanks to Bob, I probably won't.

Then there's the Andrew Zimmern show on TV where he eats just about anything. The one thing he came across that he couldn't handle was that stinky fruit in Indonesia -- durian. I never had the opportunity, but I noticed that Anthony Bourdain tried it and liked it. Maybe I will , maybe I won't....

I used to cook at the Seacatch in Georgetown many years ago. Once, when I was outside by the dumpsters having a smoke, I caught a homeless man digging through our trash for fish scraps. I had to ask him what he did with them...did he cook them? Did he eat them raw? I was curious, you know?!

He replied that he collected raw fish, chicken and meat scraps from various restaurants and then sealed them in clear plastic bags that he also found in the trash. These bags would then be taken and placed on a high rooftop in direct sunlight for about a week, or until they were "cooked". He kept a steady rotation so he always had food.

I'm certainly not amped to try that.

I would never under any circumstances eat dog.