Seeking Exotic and Weird Foods

[gundamwing4132]

Hey fellow foodies 

I'm hoping to find some exotic foods in the area and hope to contribute some of my own findings 

ex:

Blowfish - Sushi Taro and Kaz Sushi Bistro (mid-December through March) / Washington, DC

Blowfish Fin Sake - Yuraku / Germantown, MD

Turtle soup - Acadiana / Washington, DC

Pickled Water Beetle (Pre-packaged from Thailand, I think) - Wat Thai DC (Songkran Festival aka New Years) / Silver Spring, MD

Simba dish (Scaloppini of Lion) - Serbian Crown (now closed) / Great Falls, VA

Let me know if you find something weird to eat 

-Jeff

ps: This Saturday (11/9) is the 2013 Annual Danish Christmas Bazaar / Rockville, MD

11am-3pm

[cheezepowder]

In case you don't already know, Oyamel has grasshopper tacos.

[Fishinnards]

Pickled Water Beetle (Pre-packaged from Thailand, I think) - Wat Thai DC (Songkran Festival aka New Years) / Silver Spring, MD

Glad you like this. In Thai it's called maeng da. You can find them in the freezer section of any Thai grocery. I have seen them at Bangkok 54 (in Arlington) and Duangrat's (in Falls Church). You can also buy jars of prepared Nam Prik Maeng Da (water beetle chili sauce) or you can make it yourself. Here is a video. The video is in Thai but the procedure is pretty straight forward. The ingredients are water beetle, garlic, shallots, cooked shrimp, Thai chillies and fermented shrimp paste (kapi). This sauce is eaten with raw and blanched vegetables. I actually enjoy the flavor of these bugs. The Vietnamese harvest the essence from the females to put in nuoc cham (fish sauce and lime juice dipping sauce) and some Vietnamese markets sell fish sauce with the bug essence already in it. They have also synthesized the maeng da essence and sell small bottles of the artificial flavor. Thais just eat the whole bug (mostly in the Issan region).

Incidentally, Maeng Da Talay, which means Meang Da of the sea, is horseshoe crab. Thais eat the row. This I have not yet tried.