10 Foods I Love That You’ll Think Are Gross!
I get teased regularly by my Girlfriend about all the weird (and disgusting) foods I can’t seem to ever get enough of. What can I say? I grew up in a Russian household so organ meats and mayonnaise based concoctions aren’t as exotic and gross to me as they are to most westerners. But even growing up with this stuff, I’ll try almost any food. You take me to the restaurant and the first thing I do is scour the menu for the oddest thing I’ve never had and order it. If you think it’s gross, chances are that’s exactly what I’m ordering! Mmmm.
I was actually a vegetarian for a good 7 years and do you know what I missed most? Not steaks, not burgers, not fried chicken but rather all of this stuff listed below. Mainy because nothing you can do to a slab of tofu, tempeh or seitan can ever come close to faking the taste and texture or these delectable oddities.
So I’m bored on the plane and this is how I’m going to use my Wi-Fi freedom… listing the gross food I love!
• Fried Beef Liver Cubes
Man, oh man do I love liver! If liver is on the menu there’s a 90% likelihood I’m ordering it. Nothing comes close to it’s texture and the power of it’s taste. My favorite is Turkish style, fried with some onions and seasoning, Mmm, mmmm!
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• Holodets (Холодец)
Ah yeah! All my Russians know what I’m talking about with some Holodets! I know most of you are looking at this and wondering “what the fuck!??”. Well Holodets is basically meat Jello. it’s chicken, carrots and hard-boiled eggs in a gelatin (pig feet gelatin of course). You eat it with some beet horseradish and it jiggles about on your fork. There is also a fish version of this, that’s not as common but oh so scrumptious.
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• Beef Tongue (Язык)
A Russian appetizer classic, boiled or cured Beef Tongue. I usually love these with a dollop of seasoned mayo. You put a tray of these in front of me and they’re as good as gone! Beef tongue, like liver also has a texture that you won’t find anywhere else, tender, firm and chewy all at the same time.
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• Chicken Gizzards
Russians, Japanese, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans all know what it’s about with chicken gizzards. Skewered, fried, boiled… whatever’s clever I say! These things always taste good. Yet another organ meat whose consistency is like nothing else, tough, yet tasty! They’re actually the perfect snack.
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• Tripe Soup
Another dish of organ meat that crosses ethnic boundaries. Tripe are intestines in case you weren’t familiar with the term. They’re soft, chewy and flavorful. They also kind of look like strips of sponge. I usually tend to get them in a soup but you wanna make Haggis or Chitlins out of your tripe? I’m still game.
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• Cod Milt
What the hell is Cod Milt you say!? Well it’s a Cod’s sperm sack (no homo)! Yes, yes I know there is no easy way of selling this and that you don’t care how good it tastes, you’re never eating it. Well sucks to be you buddy! Like most of the food on this list, nothing even remotely tastes like milt… nothing! It’s indescribable and really good. Boiled, pickled, however… get in my belly!
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• Canned Cod Liver
First the Cod’s sperm sack, now it’s liver!? That’s right, no mercy for Cods! I eat it all! I’ve actually never had Cod Liver that wasn’t canned. I honestly have no clue if you serve it non-canned. What I can tell you though is that it’s oily and basically a tasty combination of liver, milt and Spam… since it’s canned and all.
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• Shuba (Шуба)
Another for my Russians. This pink delicacy is known as Shuba, which loosely translates to “Under Fur” or a “Fur Coat”. It’s kind of like a cold Russian Shepard’s Pie except the layers here include: mayo, beets, eggs, potatoes, onions and the clincher… pickled herring! Mmm, mmmm. See basically all of these ingredients are the “fur” coating the herrings. Russians love both Mayo and Herring It’s only natural they’d meet in a salad of some sort.
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• Headcheese and Other Cold Cut Oddities
You know all those weird cold cuts in the deli counter that you never touch? Well that’s exactly what I love in a sandwich. Headcheese which is various cured organ meats in gelatin is usually the most commonly found one but there are loads out there that you usually have to go to either Polish or Russian delis to get. Other favorites include tongue in gelatin or blood sausages which are bits of meat in congealed blood. Some mustard, tomatoes and bread, and we got ourselves a lunch party.
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• Chicken Liver Pâté
I love all Pâtés, from Foie Gras to the way cheaper Chicken Liver kind. I almost always order this as an appetizer if a restaurant has it on the menu. The reason chicken liver Pâté is my favorite is because unlike the pricier goose liver stuff which is more whipped with a delicate taste, chicken liver Pâté has a taste that’s just hits your taste buds like POW! I’ll eat this on a cracker or bread in a restaurant, but at home fuck all of that… I’m just putting a spoon in the jar and eating this shit straight.
Ok, now I’m hungry! I shouldn’t have written this before having lunch. You can proceed to making fun of me and replying with “groooosssssss” in the comments now.
- My Pal the Crook
February 19th, 2010 at 10:37 am
“Well it’s a Cod’s sperm sack”
February 19th, 2010 at 10:42 am
maaan…Im russian (but live for most of my life in Prague (Czech Republic) and I hate all these things since my childehood :D and livers the most, all kind of them…holodets is very important :D can be very bad and very good :)
February 19th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Before I went vegan years ago, my dad used to make chicken hearts and gizzards every weekend and we’d go to town on those bad boys. Have you ever had blood pudding before, or even turkey necks?
February 19th, 2010 at 11:19 am
i just threw up in my mouth.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:35 am
i actually thought this was cool, ive never heard of any of this shit.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:40 am
I’ll eat anything that is Liver…Liver is fucking BOSSNASS. And I just had tripe soup last night at this polish place in Greenpoint and it was mighty good. I tend to just eat shit and not ask questions though.
Actually now that I think about it I have also had the Gizzard at a puerto rican place way down in Bushwick. I would just go there and say “cut it up”.
Alright, third edit. After staring at the rest of those pictures, i’ll bite, where can I get all of it? Especially the Chicken Liver Pate(I want that on my Matzo…YESTERDAY), The liver Cubes(MeatCubes + Rice = BestMeal), and the Beef Tougue (I’ve had tougue before but it sure as fuck wasn’t cured). Restaurants would be better as I am lazy as fuck.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Nick: I’ve had Turkey necks loads of times. Blood Pudding I have not. I was suppose dto in Sweden, but alas we never did.
Doc Dino: You can probably find Chicken Liver Pate in some of the polish delicatessens in and around Greenpoint. There’s also a guy who sells fresh jarred versions of it at the Green Point Food Market that’s in the Church by McGolrick Park.
Christina’s and Lomzynianka on Manhattan ave both have Fried liver entrees on their menus. Actually I bet every Polish restaurant in Greenpoint does. But they usually do it with chicken liver, not veal. Gotta go to either Russian or Turkish joints for the veal liver cubes which are way better.
February 19th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Alright Zimmerman have fun with your meat jello and fish sperm. I’ve actually had tripe (menudo) and organ meats, I still can’t stomach it. You officially have THE iron gut of the office.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
You know you’re poor when…..
In all seriousness, It was dope when we went to that Russian spot in Little Odessa. The beef tongue was really good.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Mike,
There’s some horrifying things in any Finnish cookbook as well, maybe you’d like some of them.
One casserole has Pickled Herring, Milk, Raisins, Beets and liver all stewed down to a porridge-like slurry.
they also make a salmon-cream soup which gives off the worst smell I can even think of, something about combining warm fish with the fatty sweetness of cream that makes me want to reduce my diet down to bread and water.
Anyway, search out some traditional Finnish cooking if you can you’ll be in for a ride.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Is blood pudding just like British Black pudding? Everytime I have a full cooked breakfast, I gotta have me some meat in congealed pig blood. You gotta get on that. A cod jizz sack? I have to try that.
February 19th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Looking at the cod milt, at first I thought I was grossed out, but then it just kind of made me sad to think about. You’re tough as nails, I gotta say. No way in hell fish jizzbags are going in my mouth. Maybe that makes me a wimp, but I’m okay with that.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I guess the blood pudding is in a few cultures. Blood stew with pig entrails is a Flip favorite before a Pacquiao fight in my family called Dinuguan. There’s also Ballot eggs which is basically a chicken abortion. Mmmmm
February 19th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Shuba sounds good to me. fuuuuuuck.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
[...] the sports flip! Mmmm mmmm, my bread & butter (well besides chicken liver pâté of course). We had to give the team whose home is just a hop, skip and a jump from the shop a [...]
February 21st, 2010 at 11:50 am
if you dig this r00skie style cow tongue you gotta peep the Basque Setup- wherein it is included with an acidic dressing- shits pretty dank and you can theoretically order as many plates of it as you like for the price of your setup… if you’re like wtf is a Basque Setup well… its usually bomb bread, soup, beans, salsa, spaghetti, marinated tomatoes, cow tongue, sometimes fried chicken… and then you can also order an entree that would include the setup if you like… i usually go w/ lamby lamb… shits mad popular in bakersfield oddly enough
February 21st, 2010 at 4:49 pm
all of these are quite common for any russian, not exotic at all ;P
February 25th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Yop tvau matz!!!! I mess with all thats stuff too..you left out Borshe homie..Tashkent to Mami..one
February 25th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
there’s nothing disgusting about Borscht. It’s just beet soup, it’s been pretty westernized and common to get on the east and west coasts.