After a chat with Eugene today, I started thinking about the worst foods I've ever had. I can only think of 4 things I've eaten that were absolutely disgusting. I'm not sure which was the worst, so these are in no particular order...
1. Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans - vomit flavor
I originally got these from the snack bar while Harry Potter was in the movie theaters. At the time, I didn't know they were for real - I thought they were the standard Jelly Belly flavors (whose flavors I had memorized on sight, since my mom used to buy them a lot), but that they just relabeled them as gross flavors for fun. Wrong. unluckily for me, the first one i had was Vomit, which I ate thinking it was going to be strawberry cheesecake. And yes, it tasted like vomit. I spit it out.
So I did what any sensible person would do and brought the rest of the box to work, where me and my coworkers sat around a trash can and tried every flavor. :) booger was disgusting. mud, earwax, sardine, and grass were all gross, but not nearly as bad. Lucky for me, i think i must've had an early edition, because now there are many
more flavors... the most disgusting of which is Toe Nail. BARF.
2. Natto
This is another case of eating something thinking that it was something else. For the record, natto is fermented soy beans. I was at a breakfast buffet at a hotel in Japan, which had a mix of eastern and western breakfast foods. I'd never seen, nor heard of natto before, so I thought it was some sort of oatmeal or cereal. And you know, when you eat oatmeal, you take a big spoon and dig in. Wrong. Barf. it tasted like barf. much like the vomit jellybean.
3. Durian
I'd always been aware of durian, and always steered clear. My first taste of durian flavor was at a friends' house - somebody had brought durian flavored marshmallows. I'd always been curious about durian, and i figured in marshmallow form, it couldn't be that bad. Wrong. It tasted like someone farted in my mouth. seriously.
Fast forward to 2009, in Bali, Indonesia. My friend really wanted to try fresh durian, and wanted us all to try it too. So we stopped on the side of the road and bought one from a fruit vendor. I have to say - the flavor wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. However, the smell definitely was. And the fact that the smell lingers on your lips FOREVER... oh man. I think I ate 5 altoids, and even rubbed them on my lips, and the smell still didn't go away. nasty.
4. Scallop guts
When I was working in NYC for a few weeks, I used to frequent
Sushi Yasuda. Since I was by myself, I'd sit at the sushi bar. I asked the sushi chef for some recommendations. He noticed that much of what I was ordering was on the creamier side, like uni. So he recommended scallop guts. It sounded pretty disgusting, but since he thought I would like it because I liked uni, I gave it a try. So now, think about eating the intestinal tract of any animal - that firmness mixed with the sliminess, and imagine how remnants of the animal's waste might still exist in that mushy, chewy, gushiness.... yeah. i couldn't get over that thought when eating it. maybe it was more mental, but i just couldn't eat it (also, it was hard to chew and didn't really break down in my mouth). i tried to just swallow it in one big gulp of water, but it was just too big. it is the only time i have spit out sushi... and they only had cloth napkins, so i had to spit it in my cloth napkin and hide it in my lap. i tried to hide it from the chef, but i think he noticed. i don't think he liked me much after that, he was much less friendly. i think that was the last time i went too.
