oh, dear doG, is tripe *always in menudo?? i've eaten menudo several times [belated gag reflex].

dr bill, you really need to get to a sushi joint ~ as kev suggested, unagi is readily available (and a favorite for those who like the social aspects of sushi but hate the thought of consuming raw fish). i'm not a huge unagi fan; the 'eel sauce' that they put on top is a bit too sweet for me. besides, stuff like california rolls, ebi (shrimp) and unagi (eel) defeat the purpose of sushi, since they don't have that wonderful raw texture and taste.

the weirdest thing i've eaten (besides reindeer, in dusseldorf (blech!)) is probably uni. uni is served in most sushi bars, and looks a bit like orange caviar ~ but what most folks don't know is that it's actually the gonads/ovaries of hermaphroditic sea urchins. yumyum! to make it worse, the first time i tried it we didn't even get them at the sushi bar ~ we just walked down and harvested the urchins from the tidepools. we even fed the prepared uni (prepared by cutting up the urchin, scooping out the roe and squeezing on a bit of lime) to the neighborhood kids. they all seemed to think it was neat =)

oh, i almost forgot the other gross thing. the first time i ever tried sushi: when i was still a teenager, my husband took me to a sushi bar and ordered me giant clam. it looks just like a chunk of gelatinous white stuff, but here's the rub: the shokunin (sushi chef) slams it down in front of you to show that it's "Fresh". the proof? it wiggles on its own. bottoms up!!!