Tripe, kidneys, very bitter Italian aperitifs. Several things that are not unpopular here but seem to be elsewhere eg Marmite, porridge and real ale not served freezing cold.

"Although many lovely flowers grow outside the beaten path".....I just too easily cringe at culinary eccentricities. My stomach just doesn't do weird.

Depends on one's definition of 'weird'. One person's 'weird' can be another's 'everyday'.

I love chicken livers, hearts, and gizzards.

Can't buy them in many places that I know, but I forage for several types of mushrooms when in season. Morels, Chanterelles, Oyster, Lobster, Lion's Mane, Reishi, Hen of the Woods and also ramps. It's about time for Hen of the Woods hunting.

Sherry - I use those chicken parts for catfish bait ;-p. I like gizzards but they stink up the house so I only eat them from 'Go Chicken Go' or other places that serve them.

chicken livers - also calves liver when I can find it

kippered herring filets ('kippers')

fruitcake - like English style Christmas cake

rutabagas

I couldn't think of anything, but chicken livers and rutabagas aren't unpopular here.

So are flowers.. Thanks, Hobbitmom, for the inspiration. I don't do pansies--they have no flavor-- but I love hibiscus (jamaica (said ha-MAI-ka in Spanish) and have a whole canister of dried. Great in water or tea, candies, ice cream, etc. Also rose water and orange blossom water, and crocus stamens (i.e. saffron, one of the star flavors/scents of my childhood). These are just groceries here.

So is my newer toe curler, but somewhat obscure outside its native cultures, is fenugreek. I have seed, preground, an Ethiopian style blend in which it figures prominantly with some heat, and dried leaves. It has a stong presence but eats delicately and doesn't overpower, and I LOVE IT! And it costs a lot less than saffron!!

Yes, obscurity is mostly a cultural reference. I guess there are various Asian foods that I like, which might qualify as unpopular or obscure - but only if you don’t shop at Asian markets. For example, pork sung, pigs feet, Chinese sausage, fish balls, mackerel, etc.

And all the organs! It is wonderful, truly, to pick up a package of chicken hearts or gizzards, fry them, and eat them like candy. Yum!

A good friend of mine shared this liking for organ meat. He used to come to our dinner parties, back when we had big dinners with lots of booze, a day of cooking, many courses, and washing up until midnight. I____ was one of the few guests ”allowed” to hang out in the kitchen, drinking his Scotch and attentively refilling mine. We would make plans for the organ meat feast we’d inflict on our friends, starting with fried chicken skin and gizzard hors d’oeuvres and moving inward through courses of tendon soup, stuffed heart, feet in sauce, and maybe, just maybe, culminating in something made with pig faces, which you can also buy at the Asian market. We’d award prizes to friends who stuck it out to the pig spleen gelato. Our schemes got more delicious, or revolting, as we drank.

Sadly one day I___ was diagnosed with end stage pancreatic cancer and refused to see anyone in the short weeks before he died. Never being able to see him again, I never really processed his passing, and find myself still thinking “ I should really have a Scotch with I____ ”.

His widow, A____, passed this spring. I have been thinking about having a memorial organ meat dinner party for I____ and A____, even if A____ most decidedly did not share her husband’s taste for the stuff, but another friend’s passing means that we basically only have one friend left who really knew either I___ or A___.

So I think the organ meat extravaganza will never happen, and that’s probably for the best :-)

plllog: great!I've seen pictures of nasturtiums in salads too. They're so pretty.

I’m sorry about your friend’s passing, John.

I have never eaten many things, including:

jellyfish

sea cucumber

sea urchin

eel

brain, lung, sweetbreads

chicken feet

tongue

Fenugreek is in my cupboard as standard.

We regularly have nasturtium leaves and flowers in summer salads. They grow more easily for me than lettuce.

I love chicken and lambs' liver, lambs' kidneys, don't mind heart or tongue. I have also enjoyed tripe and chickens' feet, although one time I ordered tripe in an Italian restaurant and didn't finish it because somehow they had made it taste like lobster, which I don't care for.

Also John Liu reminded me how much I like kim chee.

Candy corn. (I'm kidding. I don't dislike them, but I also don't like them very much.) I cannot think of anything that qualifies for this topic--at least yet.

Gyr, I was going to post candy corn. I happen to like it, especially mixed with salted peanuts.

HA-HA! I remember years ago eating a delectable mix of heavily buttered popcorn and M&Ms. Washed down with rootbeer. Yum.

I love corned beef tongue, but haven't had it in years. I used to be able to buy one pretty easily and corn it myself but I haven't seen it in a store in many years. It's a classic deli sandwich meat too, at least in NYC. I also really like liverwurst and chicken livers, but I would never eat anything made of liver from industrial raised animals.

I'm not sure everything on my list would qualify as 'weird', but it's all things most people I know dislike.

Liverwurst and Braunschweiger.

Beef heart and beef tongue.

Calf liver.

Chicken and turkey giblets.

Rattle snake meat.

Alligator meat.

Limburger cheese.

German pumpernickel.

Brussel's sprouts.

Fruitcake (such as Collin Street).

Rusty

My lother used to eat lamb's brains. You get them in little trays - I have no idea how she cooked them. I really couldn't.

I love oysters that many people won't try in the UK. I think they're just so expensive that most people haven't had the opportunity so assume they won't like them.

My husband loves tripe and calf's head - neither could I stomach!

I don't care for rabbit...... they were childhood pets! Like eating your cat!!! Husband loves it....

I can't face things like bought fish soup because I'm sure there are eyes blended in there.....

I don't think I eat anything strange!

I was just having a conversation with someone and realized that mussels might qualify as something many people wouldn't eat. I was resistant to trying them, but many years ago I became friends with a person who owns a mussel farm and she convinced me to try some. I've been a fan ever since and am lucky to have a source for free, fresh harvested mussels.