Man, my whole family (on both sides) as far back as I can remember are all picky eaters. They never ate anything really weird. At least not more than once.

I, however, am a big fan of things like sweetbreads and chicken feet. My family can't handle that.

cow brains .. chicken feet .. racoon .. all luved by me grand parents ....

At the risk of turning this into a "chicken feet thread" ... I love chicken feet.

I eat a lot more of the 'weird' stuff than my parents or grandparents did. Baccalau is one of the exceptions, though, since we don't need to salt fish to death in order to preserve it anymore.

Now, if you want to see some weird shit that people actually eat. there's always Hákarl:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl

I love to try exotic dishes, but there's not a chance in hell I'd be sampling that stuff.

Most Asian markets will have chicken feet.
I find them delicious and weird at the same time.
Duck feet are very gelatinous but have a great flavor.

Ang

Can't say I know much about what my grandparents ate, but in moving to Mexico, have learned they let nothing go to waste. I have married a local Mexican woman, and normally eat authentic Mexican cuisine. I have now learned to have a strict don't ask don't tell policy about what I am eating. An example of why this has happened was when we were eating menudo (which I don't find too bad tasting) I bite into something so hard I can't even begin to chew it, so I take it out and place it on the table. She proceeds to tell me, I guess they left a tooth in there (I now make her prescreen my menudo for no teeth).

Very popular down here are tacos (duh), but not just tacos de asada (beef), they have (and people will order these before the beef tacos) cabesa (head), lengua (tongue), and a favorite of the wife tripita (stomach). I have watched them raise and kill the pigs, and yes, they cook all pieces of it, and don't even make bacon. So yes, Americans overall are picky eaters and only eat the best cuts.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, chickens feet, also very popular down here, I haven't had any because I can't get past the way they look.

As Hog Farmer will tell you, the bigger hands are better served at the other end of the hog.

My paternal gramps' palette was tempered, rather than expanded, by WWI. There wasn't a chicken dish lovingly prepared enough for him to eat it after the unending rations of grey simmered chicken slopped on his plate in the War. The most 'out there' he got was salt on his Grapefruit or ice in his milk.

My maternal grandma was too good of a cook for there to be a call for anything but southern comfort food. biscuits from scratch with butter and blackstrap molasses, and a mix of breakfast meats. They did do head cheese [actually Souse, because it was spicier] but the local market made souse so tasty, we'd load up a few pounds to take back home with us.

Did have an uncle who LOVED mayonnaise on a saltine.

My own quirky taste is green olives on cottage cheese, delish.

When times were bad my dad would put together rice, miracle whip, mustard, and tunafish. It wasn't that bad.

For the past 5 years I have been practicing head to tail.

I make my own bacon, sausage and cured meats.

Head cheese when made right is fantastic.

Ang

My wife’s family is from the Ozarks around Plad and Wendyville close to Lebanon. They still get together every once in a while to enjoy biscuits and coco gravy. I love sausage, hamburger or even chipped beef but can't handle the coco. I guess it was a treat that satisfied the kids sweet tooth. They lived in a Army surplus tent for over a year so they didn’t have a lot. In fact you all talked about tripe, stomach, etc. well my mother in-law loves it all. Nothing went to waste when they butchered something.

Chitterlings! The nastiest crap I ever saw. It's smells like he'll when you clean and cook them and they look so gross when done.

lengua tacos are awesome, buttermilk and cracker/biscuits are a horrible southern tradition.

We have pickled eggs on occasion.

my grandpa used to take thanksgiving leftovers and put it all in a blender and make like a leftovers spread and would make sandwiches outa it. It actually wasn't that bad.

I had this once in the Navy. Granted, Navy cooks can **** up just about anything, but that was one of the nastiest things I ever tasted - like chunks of rubber in greasy vinegar. Oh the humanity.

:Lin: