my folks went vegan in the 80s, when it was really difficult to do that. I’ve eaten a lot of things of questionable, even suspicious nutritional value. the absolute weirdest, one that haunts my memory to this very day is seitan.

seitan is basically wheat gluten. it’s got little to no flavor and has the texture somewhere between a wet sponge and cotton balls (ever chewed on a cotton ball? would not recommend). one memorable thanksgiving, mom made a loaf of seitan, and it was off or I was getting sick but i felt unwell after eating it, so she prescribed me some charcoal pills. an hour or so later I was puking up pitch black chunky bile. it’s the sort of thing that sticks with you…

seitan: 0/10

next weirdest is brussels sprouts - not because they’re bad but because there’s a species of moth that lays its eggs in the sprouts. this is why you always want to boil the hell out of them or sear them on the grill (or in bacon fat, which is my favorite). cant really recommend eating moth larvae, it’s not vegan.

I went on a 100% carnivore diet for years after I turned 18.

I quite like water melon salads. Refreshing and salty together.

This one is good: https://www.nigella.com/recipes/watermelon-feta-and-black-olive-salad

I think adding prosciutto to that works too.

Well this was way before I went vegan but when I was younger, my dad would buy me balut. Balut is a delicacy in the Philippines and it’s basically boiled fertilized duck egg. One has to crack open the top part of the shell and drink the juices first. Then the whole shell is peeled off. The yolk would be the most edible part and I’ve known many Filipinos who just drink the juice and eat the yolk. Sometimes they’ll even eat a white part which has similar texture with very tough cartilage. Others go a little bit further and eat the tiny duck embryo. It’s commonly dipped in spicy vinegar or salt to give it more flavor. It’s definitely the furthest thing from healthy and I definitely wouldn’t eat it ever again

I’ve eaten jellyfish.

Dragonfruit. How do people eat that shit? It tastes like you drank a glass of water someone farted on.

Rocky Mountain Oysters! I cannot recommend it. Edit: Oh, and peanut butter pickle sandwiches (better than I expected)

Must be somewhat alike to the beets, quinoa and goat cheese salad I made once. Good stuff! I loved it, but I was pretty much the only one. My family’s difficult with food :/

I’ve had aligator and frog’s legs in Florida. I’ve had chocolate covered crickets somewhere in Boston.(I forget where we got them). I had whale during a visit to Norway.

Sweet and salty things are good! I haven’t tried the watermelon feta salad myself but I can understand the reasoning behind the concept and I did mention it to someone else who thought it was an odd mix and they ended up loving it!

I can’t think of the weirdest combo I’ve eaten at the moment but I know what you mean about being surprised by food combos.

It was a waygu-centric restaurant, and I want to say it was turtle soup with a waygu foam. The foam could have been on another dish though. I liked it, it was salty and a bit earthy, and just tasty. Wife hated it though.