What's unusual? I know that there are people on this forum who have never eaten rutabaga nor rhubarb nor parsnips, and some who have never eaten okra nor avocado, but to others that's everyday stuff....while loquat, or nopal are exotic to others.
I know people who consider beets to be unusual.
Not sure what you are looking for.
Linda C

My favorite one is Mamey, but I also like its cousin, Zapote. They're great just by themselves, but I used to get Licuado de Mamey in Mexico (made with milk), and it tasted very much like a strawberry milkshake. The only thing I've made with them is sorbet, which I make by freezing chunks of fruit in a plastic bag and then I process it in a blender with either a bit of syrup or yogurt.

I also like guanábana, AKA soursop (which doesn't sound as nice), and I do the same with it - freeze chunks of it and add sugar syrup. It's good in ice cream also, but I primarily like it as a juice or licuado.

I can't think of any unusual vegetables that I eat, except for perhaps wakame or seaweed, but I really don't consider that unusual. I love Japanese seaweed salad, but I don't have a recipe for it, although I know it has fresh red chili, sesame seeds, and vinegar. Here's a recipe from a site with Japanese characters in the web address (try link below which may not work):

"I love seaweed salad and always wanted to make it myself since the ready-to-eat ones are pretty expensive (over $5 for a small tub). When I first tried to make this dish a few years back I was faced with 2 problems, 1) I couldnÂt find anything recipe on making this dish, 2)I couldnÂt find the type of seaweed for making this dish. Nearly all the seaweed salad recipes I found uses wakame, and thatÂs the only type of Japanese cooking seaweed I could find in a Chinese or Japanese grocery store. I gave up trying until one day I found another type of seaweed labeled as seaweed stem while browsing at a Korean grocery storeÂ

"They are packed in a foil package. The one I bought is preserved in salt, there are fresh ones too but the salted one worked out cheaper ($3 for 250g). The salted one needs to be rehydrated by soaking it for several hours before use. Rinse it twice during the soak to get rid of the salt. The seaweed will double in size after soaking so only one handful would be enough for two. For the sauce I come up with my own recipe, inspired by its Chinese name and ingredients listed on the ready-to-eat ones. It has soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce, white/rice vinegar, red chili and roasted sesame and sesame oil. Be generous with the vinegar, the sauce should taste a little sour. The red chili has to be fresh ones, I tired using chili oil once when I ran out of fresh chili and the oil fail to mask the "fishiness" from the seaweed, not nice. Marinate the seaweed for at least 2 hours before serving."

I personally don't find seaweed to taste fishy, but then perhaps I like a bit of a fishy taste. I'll have to experiment with this recipe to see if I can get something I like. I agree that $5 for a small tub is a bit expensive.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: Wakame salad recipe

Probably Mora. It's called a South American blackberry but it doesn't really taste at all like a blackberry.
I like it in smoothies.

Linda C:

What's the most unusual fresh fruit or vegetable that YOU eat?

Joe

I don't want to eat anything unusual -- certainly not deliberately!

I think for me it would have to be wild leeks. I live in Northern Michigan and the woods are full of them in the spring.

Nancy

I scavenge local parks and urban green spaces to pick Nangking cherries. This is a common ornamental grown here for its springtime blossoms, but not many (especially not my neighbours) harvest the fruit which contains a BIG pit for its small size. But it makes very tasty jelly, and it's FREE!

Still not sure what you want....
Probably to someone in California morels are unusual , but to those living in the upper mid west, that's pretty mainstream.
Linda C

Well, I like to hunt for morels, but I don't like to eat them. I forage for elderberries and make jelly, but probably the most unusual vegetable I eat is purslane. After years of pulling it from the garden and cursing it as a weed, I read that it was edible. Now I regularly add it to coleslaw and green salads, along with lambsquarter, another common garden weed.

Annie

Linda C:

I think the word "YOU" is the key here.

What do YOU -- Linda C -- think is unusual? I'm not asking Californians as a whole, nor midwesterners as a group. I'm asking annie1971 (who must not eat too many fruits and vegetables) and Nancy and bumblebeez and Lars and YOU, Linda C. This is aimed at individual people with individual opinions about what EACH of them eat.

What does Linda C think is unusual that she has made/prepared/cooked in her kitchen? What do YOU think is unusual for YOUR repertoire?

Joe

What? I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Are they unusual -- No! You single me out as someone who is "obviously" fruit and vegetable deprived! Please explain!

Maybe "uncommon" would have been a better choice of words? Even so, I'm not sure why this is a hard question. Maybe a loose guideline could be to do a search on the fruit or vegetable on this site and if it never or barely comes up, it might be unusual. Try Lars' mamey or wakame, and he seems to be the only one talking about them. Morels, maybe not, that gets 18 hits. Rhubarb, certainly not. 102 hits, and I'd venture a guess that most everyone on this forum has heard of rhubarb pie even if they've never eaten it.

As for me, I really can't think of any. I don't think my usual grocers carry much in the way of F&V that would be considered unusual. I'll keep my eye out.

They are not unusual across the country but they are in my little corner...persimmons. I absolutely love them. None of my family or friends will touch a persimmon. 'Course I grew up in CA & they were deprived & didn't. :)

/tricia

The only thing that I've had lately is jicama. I'd heard of it before, but never tried it. It was awesome! A crispy delight that tasted like a combination of water chestnuts and a pear. I don't think it can be cooked - it's a root like a large brown/gray turnip that you peel, slice into strips and eat raw or in a salad.

I also buy malanga in the spring, but not to eat, to plant! It grows into an elephant ear and it's a lot cheaper buying the roots in the grocery store than the garden center! I saw they have batata roots as well, but since I usually buy chartreuse or burgandy varieties to add to planting groups, I haven't tried growing those as I have no idea what color leaves will come out.

Lisa

annie1971:

I didn't "single you out". I didn't use the word "obviously". My apologies for seemingly implying something awkward.

I'm thinking that someone who does eat lots of fruits and vegetables must also eat something "unusual". I'm thinking that someone who posts on this forum regularly, as you do, must have one fruit or vegetable item that YOU consider unusual. I'm surprised that you don't think you eat anything unusual.

Maybe "uncommon" IS the better word.

I think I'll just go away now.

Joe

I thought your question was pretty straight forward and easy enough to answer.

I grow kohlrabi, and a lot of people find it unusual. I just eat it raw or make kohlrabi pickles.

I really grow it for the memories it brings back. When I was little, my dad and I would walk down to the garden after he got home from work. He'd pick a kohlrabi, and take out his pocket knife, peel it and cut it up. We'd share bites of it as we walked around, talking about school or weeding or just looking at stuff. It was great quality time with my dad. And I still mail him some every spring!

Yes, I did too and I immediately thought that I didn't know ANYONE else who eats purslane.

Annie

Right now I'd have to say dandelion greens. What's unusual about them is that since they're only at their peak for about a two to three week annual season before blossoms form on the plants, there's a flurry (on second though, make that a blizzard) of ham & dandelion dinners.

Last weekend, there were about a dozen church, grange or fire company fund-raising ham & dandelion dinners I was aware of and probably an equal number this weekend. A typical menu is baked ham, potato filling, dandelion greens served with a sweet-sour hot bacon dressing or mustardy cream dressing with hard boiled eggs or sometimes both ways, applesauce and/or pepper cabbage and pie for dessert.

I love shiso or perilla. I grew it last year and hoped it would take over...it didn't. I'll have to buy new seeds. Its a leafy aromatic used in sushi. Think basil, cilantro, and you are on the right track but it has its own flavor.

I use it in

In summer I use it in a grilled veggie dish - I liked the recipe so much I bought the book, now out of print, 'The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen' by Eric Gower.

While wintergreen is a common flavor if you like gum and candy the berries I've never seen in a store. Mostly found in late fall early winter before the snow gets deep.

I had good luck with kohlrabi and plan on growing them again. Ate them all as snacks.

As I recall Annie is a dandelion fan. Thinking I may give them a try in cole slaw. Probably some fresh if I went for a walk... if not within a few days now.

Really waiting for the local mushrooms! Frogs came out of hibernation this week so it won't be long.

I don't eat anything I think is unusual. Some may think collard and turnip greens are unusual and I eat those. I also like turnips, both cooked and raw with dip.

I can't get Kolrabi here, would like to try it.

When I was living in the Netherlands, yellow summer squash was unusual and considered "exotish" by the Dutch. I bought some at a USAF base in Germany and made a summer squash soup and served it to my Dutch landlords. I had to show my landlady the end piece of a summer squash to explain to her what was in it and she had never seen one. Zucchini are very common there, but not yellow squash for some reason. The Dutch also considered sweet potatoes and winter squash unusual.

Of course, that's not exactly what you asked. So now that we're home in Massachusetts I guess perhaps fennel, bok choy, and chard might be a few. They're not exactly mainstream vegetables here. I don't see them in many grocery carts. Fiddleheads will be showing up soon but I have to confess I've never been too keen on trying them.

seagrass

Oooh! I forgot about fiddleheads! I had them for the first time a couple of years ago. To me, they tasted just like asparagus. They were really good! Of course, I love asparagus so I loved them as well!

Lisa

Nasturtium leaves and flowers.

Every year I say I'm going to stuff and fry up my day lily blooms but I never do. I have some orange ones that I keep around specifically for eating. The unopened buds are supposed to taste like asparagus. Maybe this year I'll actually do it.

Annie, I've tried purslane a time or two. Not my favorite thing. They sell it down here at the garden centers.

Yes, I eat nasturtium flowers and squash blossoms as well. Forgot about those, because I don't buy them but take them from my garden. I cook with daylily buds and tree ear fungus in stir fries, but those are dried, so I guess they don't count.

When you think about it, a fresh artichoke is pretty weird lol. I love them.

seagrass

I've always wondered how the first person to eat an artichoke decided to give it a try....

I shop at ethnic markets where there are lots of "unusual to the American palate" ingredients.

Jessy I also love the perilla leaves. You can buy them fresh or prepared kimchi-style at the Korean market. The fresh leaves I use to add to soy dipping sauce - chopped fine, along with minced jalapeno. Good for dipping gyoza.

Persimmons. I made persimmon cookies this winter and many co-workers had never had a persimmon.

Korean fernbrake/fernbracken - a brown, woody, weedy thing. Used in soups or boiled and spiced. Kind of strange but it grows on you.

Seaweed - I like the roasted sheets ("nori" in Japanese). You can buy them already prepared this way (the packages keep in the freezer), or buy it in sheets ready to roast. You use a brush and paint each sheet with Korean sesame oil, then cook quickly in a very hot, dry frying pan, then salt both sides. Or do as Koreans do - pass each sheet quickly over the stove's gas flame.

The resulting crunchy, savory, salty sheets are used to wrap around morsels of rice, or eaten as a beer snack.

I also like Korean seaweed soup. I don't like cold seaweed salads.

When I went to Amalfi for a week of cooking school, we ate salmon grilled on lemon leaves (everything was done with lemons there). Using lemon leaves was a first for me.
Delicious, too.

jo

I like wilted dandelion salad. Greens can be harvested for only about 2 weeks in early spring. They have to be young and tender with no flower buds. Fry some cut up bacon crisp, add a dash of sugar and some vinegar and pour the hot mixture over the greens. Delicious

Fiddleheads! Yes, I forgot about them. Usually a mid April thing in my area. I refuse to harvest my own ferns so I only eat these when somebody else prepares them. Fiddleheads are the emerging fronds of ostrich ferns. They are harvested when about 1" to 1-1/2" tall. Considered a delicacy in northern Maine, Vermont, & New Hampshire. Not quite such a big deal here in CT.

/tricia

Yes, Michael, I'm a dandelion green fan, although Grandma used to make a hot dressing with lots of bacon grease that she poured over it to "kill" the greens, and anything covered with bacon is probably going to be pretty good, LOL.

I didn't think dandelion greens were all that unusual, though, and I love kohlrabi, I've grown it a couple of times, but I can buy it at my local organic farm market, usually 3 bulbs for a dollar so I stopped growing it.

Annie

Oh my, I eat so many Asian vegetables that many people might find unusual. Bok choy, gai lan, gobo root, mizuna, gai choy, yu choy,shingiku,winter melon and others I don't know the names of.

Jessy,I love Shiso (Perilla) too, and copied your recipe to try it out. When I make tempura, the Shiso leaves make an interesting and attractive tempura.

I like seaweed too, the crisp Nori sheets, the Wakame, and also Hijiki. Not too many people I know (who aren't Japanese) have had Hijiki. One buys it dried and I have found that the Japanese brands are of better quality than some less expensive, non-Japanese brands I have bought in Chinese markets. I don't use a recipe, since I have been making it for years, but I found this one on the net, and the proportions sound about right. My only quibble with the recipe is the part about soaking it for 30 minutes. In my opinion, that would make it far too squishy. I soak it for about 10 minutes, and then rinse it repeatedly to make sure it's clean of sand and grit. It will soak up plenty of moisture from the other ingredients and still retain a bit of crunch.

NGREDIENTS

* 30g dried hijiki
* 1 piece abura-age (thin fried bean curd)
* 1 small carrot
* 150ml dashi
* 2 tbsp sugar
* 1 tbsp sake
* 2 tbsp soy sauce

Hijiki no nimono
HOW TO COOK

1. Rinse the hijiki well until the water runs clear, then soak in plenty of water for 30 minutes.

2. Put the fried bean curd in a sieve and pour boiling water over it, to remove excess oil. Cut in half lengthways and then into strips.

3. Cut the carrot into fine strips.

4. Place the hijiki, fried bean curd and carrot in a pan, then add the dashi, sugar and sake, and bring to the boil.

5. Cut out a round of cooking foil slightly smaller than the diameter of the pan, and cover the hijiki with it. Simmer for 5 minutes.

6. Add the soy sauce, then simmer again until the hijiki absorbs the broth.

I love fiddleheads, but can get them only rarely around here. But there is a bracken fern that grows in areas on the coast that is very good to eat. You pick the fern shoots in the Spring when they are still quite tightly curled up.

I use a good number of edible flowers in salads. Right now I've got alyssum, roses, nasturtiums, and pansies.

I can't think of a fruit I would consider unusual, maybe Lychees? I do have a penchant for Moroccan preserved lemons.

Tricia, I was reading this, thinking persimmons are probably the most unusual food I've eaten. And there you are :) Must go with ice cream cake...
xx
Nancy

Jessy and Gina, my Korean neighbor grows Perilla (she calls it Sesame) and she fries the leaves in tempura. It's delicious!

The "sesame" reference for perilla leaves is a persistent mistranslation. The Korean markets here now label it correctly as perilla leaves.

Speaking of leaves, I also like curry leaves. They are good, of course, in Indian recipes. I haven't tried them in other recipes yet.

So that is what those leaves were I bought at the asian market. They wre marked sesame also and I just used them in a centerpeice for the lemon challenge. I had no idea.

And rats, I tossed them out!

I'm pretty deprived........garlic scapes where unusual for me last spring. Looking forward to them again this year.

I eat some unusualy things, but they're not fruits & veggies so we'll leave it there.

Deanna