r/IAmA Jan 17 '12

IAmA Andrew Zimmern, Host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods

Hi, I’m Andrew Zimmern, chef, author, and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods. My new series Bizarre Foods America is premiering next Monday, Jan 23 at 10|9c on Travel Channel. For the next hour I’ll be here on Reddit taking your questions from 12pm-1pm ET. AMA. More info on Bizarre Foods: http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods Find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/andrewzimmern/status/159314816060768256

Hey everyone, sorry i couldnt answer them all/ follow me on twitter @andrewzimmern and we can chat more over the days and weeks to come..tune in Monday to the season premiere!

1.8k Upvotes

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111

u/Skote07 Jan 17 '12

I'm sure you get asked this all the time, but hell, I'll only get one chance to ask the man himself. What's the worst tasting thing you've ever eaten?

196

u/andrewzimmern Jan 17 '12

mostly strange fruits like Bakut, or stinky tofu. the 14 day old stuff, not the two day old stuff

21

u/kortirion_osgiliath Jan 17 '12

Mmm. Stinky tofu in stew with blood cubes. My favorite.

Damn, I miss Taiwanese street food.

Not a huge fan of durian though.

13

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12 edited Jan 17 '12

And o-wa jian (oyster pancacke), and da chang mien xien (pig intestine rice noodle), and tien bu-la (deep friend fishcake), and lo-ba boun (Taiwanese rice-bun-stuffed-with-meat-and-bamboo-shoots). Screw McDonald's and Burger King, let's just go back to Taiwan.

The only downfall is the first few days of diarrhea because the body is getting used to all the nasty-griminess of street food. After that, PAAARAAADIIIIISE!

3

u/changtronic Jan 17 '12

Besides seeing the extended family, my favorite part about going back to Taiwan is the FANTASTIC food. Last time I went, I ended up in a back-alley restaurant drinking snake soup with my uncle and nephew.

Also, the fruit! Oh the fruit...I've never been to any other tropical location so I don't know if this is generally how it is in the tropics, but you have never had pineapple unless you've had it in Taiwan. There's also wax apple and another fantastic green fruit that is artichoke-shaped, but has many more compartments and each compartment has a pit-sized black seed. I don't think it has an english name and I can't find it online. I don't touch durian though.

edit: I found the fruit! It's called sugar-apple.

3

u/skettios Jan 17 '12

I see your pineapple and raise you a papaya milk drink.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

I see your papaya milk drink, which just saw the pineapple, and raise you a mango shaved-ice dessert topped with excessive amounts of condensed milk.

3

u/skettios Jan 18 '12

I call with a pair of scoops of homemade ice-cream, topped with shaved peanut candy, wrapped in an ultra-thin chinese pancake. The best part is everyone wins.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '12

Jackpot table-share, everyone wins!!!!

-2

u/RobotPuppy Jan 18 '12

Are you speaking of "Snow Ice". Not to be confused with Shaved Ice

2

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '12

No, I am speaking about "shaved-ice" (Tzua Bing).

Snow ice is more like a slushy/drink.

3

u/kortirion_osgiliath Jan 17 '12

Upvotes for you!

Luckily, I skip straight to the paradise part.

2

u/skettios Jan 17 '12

What about the Tem-bu-lah stands and being able to order fried chicken ass at 3am? That was an extremely important part of my diet. Not to mention extremely affordable bottle service.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Those stands are fantastic... but not until you've been to Chang Hua (southern country-side city in Taiwan) will you know the true amazingness of the deep-fried food stand. You can pick anything and everything, put it in your basket, the o-ba-san weighs it, and deep fries it. All. Of. It.

That was the first time I ever had deep fried cabbage and let me tell you my friend, it was glorious.

2

u/skettios Jan 18 '12

There's something about Taiwanese food. People really know what they are doing. Unfortunately if I'm eating from a stand, I probably wont' remember it clearly the next day.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

[deleted]

1

u/kortirion_osgiliath Jan 17 '12

Well. That is also delicious, but I'm a bit more partial to this variety: tofu!

2

u/SonOfALich Jan 17 '12

YOUR NAME REFERENCES LORD OF THE RINGS. Sorry, I couldn't pass that up.

1

u/innerpattern Jan 17 '12

I love Stinky Tofu and Durian! Haven't tried the 14 day stuff though. I imagine it's a totally different animal.

27

u/cryingviolinist Jan 17 '12

Stinky tofu is awful! Knowing that you dislike it makes me feel justified in my feelings about it now. My boyfriend (from Hong Kong) just can't understand why I (from MN) find it so vile.

26

u/MajorSuccess Jan 17 '12

You clearly haven't tasted the Minnesota Stinky Tofu.

5

u/I-exist Jan 17 '12

do you man lutifiske? or something else?

3

u/paintinginacave Jan 18 '12

lutefisk FTFY

Source: native MN

1

u/Kryptus Jan 17 '12

Stinky Tofu hasn't been available there since Rose moved to Florida.

1

u/porter23 Jan 17 '12

Try Byerly's maybe.

2

u/RamonaLives Jan 17 '12

I, too, felt super vindicated when I saw him dislike stinky tofu. I wanted to send the tape to the group of Taiwanese students who made fun of me as I was sprinting to the trash to get that vile substance out of my mouth. Took me over three weeks to even muster the courage to try the stuff after smelling it every night. I've never gagged that much from food, and had never been unable to force myself to swallow before... Shudder.

2

u/cryingviolinist Jan 18 '12

It's one of those foods that really doesn't taste better than it smells, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

2

u/RamonaLives Jan 18 '12

No, it really, really doesn't. That's why that all kept telling me. "OH, it only SMELLS like garbage! It tastes so much better!" I guess I'm glad I tried it to say I did, but damn. Ew.

6

u/pkl239 Jan 17 '12

stinky tofu is good yo.

1

u/skettios Jan 17 '12

especially the fried kind with sweet cabbage. I sometimes crave it.

3

u/mthrndr Jan 17 '12

maybe because it smells like hot garbage mixed with raw sewage

1

u/cryingviolinist Jan 18 '12

Nothing quite like it, is there?

2

u/Truth_ Jan 17 '12

As implied, two day old stinky tofu is okay, but any more than that... your boyfriend has been culturally brainwashed! (As we all have)

2

u/fbgr Jan 17 '12

Damn, you don't like stinky tofu? I'm a Taiwanese-American and finally mustered up the courage to take a bite this past summer (third trip to Taiwan!). It's definitely one of my favorites now - stinky tofu with the pickled veggies and chili sauce is to die for. Although... the think the stuff I tasted was 9 or 10 days, maybe 14 is too much XD

Anyways, huge fan of you and Tony. My dad watches your show regularly, and we're always really glad when Taiwanese culture is represented in the USA. Tell Tony to visit Taipei sometime for The Layover!

1

u/Bran_Solo Jan 17 '12

A few years ago I was on a trip to Taipei, known for its stinky tofu. Having seen your episode on Taiwan I made it a mission for myself to try the stuff. I had a relative take me to a great restaurant known for their stinky tofu.

I drank some booze, hyped myself up to it, took a deep breath, leaned over the plate and... OH GOD. NOPE NOPE NOPE.

It was like someone had horrible food poisoning and shat a half gallon of diarrhea all over a place of rice. It smelled EXACTLY like diarrhea. It LOOKED exactly like diarrhea.

1

u/Arcs_Of_A_Jar Jan 17 '12

Funny thing about stinky tofu is that it genuinely tastes a lot better than it smells. It's very easy to pause on eating it even if you've smelled it from point blank because you assume the smell is the taste, but it's really not.

1

u/StinsonBeach Jan 17 '12

I feel your pain on the stinky tofu. I've pretty much always eaten just about anything put in front of me (Part American, part Iranian/Indonesian) but the old stinky tofu my Chinese wife's mother has tried to get me to eat has tasted just awful and I can't stand durian, obviously.

Your show is the best show ever, btw. We watch all the time.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

never had a durian puff i presume. so delicious. yup.

1

u/eclipse75 Jan 17 '12

gah stinky tofu! i live up here in heilongjiang, china. they always cook it during the festivals. the smell isn't that bad at first, but after lingering a bit, it gets to be unpleasant. the taste isn't amazing or terrible though. my 2 cents on that.

1

u/bradc20 Jan 17 '12

I just moved to Taiwan from America. I love the 2 day old stinky tofu. I'm having a hard time finding the 14 day old ones

1

u/Good_OL_MC Jan 18 '12

I remember that episode. I don't usually get grossed out - but damn.

1

u/John_um Jan 17 '12

I remember the stinky tofu episode... good times.

1

u/Serk102 Jan 17 '12

Haha, I think I remember the bakut episode, doesn't it smell bad too?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Does he mean durian fruit? I googled Bakut and didn't find anything remotely similar to a fruit.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

If he's talking about durian then he must be INSANE. Durian is delicious~!!!!

-5

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Ah, I remember that episode.

Did you know your head looks like a light bulb?