As travelers one of the important and enjoyable factors of moving around the world is to learn about, appreciate, participate and enjoy other cultures. An essential tenet of a particular culture is the cuisine of that culture.

A definition of weird is: Of a strinkingy odd or unusual character, strange.

So for example shark's fin soup or pickled duck's feet to a Chinese; or grilled sea slugs or sea cucumbers to a Japanese; whale fat to an Eskimo; assino (donkey) seen in the cuisine of Northwest Italy; sweetbreads, tripe, squid, octopus or snails to a French and/or an Italian person, etc. are not strange or weird to the people in those particular cultures. I think to say that such things are weird, I believe, abbreviates one's understanding and appreciation of a culture.

Perhaps--even those people of a reference culture, say France, may not like the flavor, appearance or aroma of sweetbreads, for example, but even though not suited to his or her palate, that person most likely wouldn't consider this food wierd. So why should we as those who love to travel, and are considered to be cosmopolitan, do so?

By the way, there are thousands of people in the US who don't think rabbit is weird cuisine, and the same goes for opossum, goat, conch and alligator meat.:-) How about those Easter chicks that grow to be chickens?...

Peter