'MeatEater': Fried sea cucumbers to herbivorous piranha, 5 of the strangest meals ever eaten by Steve Rinella
Get set to sink your teeth into Season 9 (Part Two) of 'Meat Eater', come February 17 on Netflix. Hunter, author, conservationist and cook of several highly unusual meals, Steven Rinella has gone to some of the most beautiful and most remote parts of the world to find the meatiest treats.
So what are the five strangest meals we have seen on the show? Well, "strange" is subjective and we're sure we all may have different opinions, but here are a set of meals that will intrigue and perhaps even interest you.
In case you want Steven's perspective on the strangest meals he has ever had in his life and not just on the show — here you go. "I've eaten many strange things. A few that come to mind immediately are beavertail, domestic dog, electric eel, porcupine, muskrat, the contents of a buffalo's gall bladder and the raw fat plucked from behind the eyeball of a caribou."
"But I always remind myself that these things are only strange in the context of contemporary American society. For other people, in other times, these items were staples, even delicacies. So to call them weird is to approach the subject from a somewhat limited perspective," Steven explains.
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Interestingly, Steven says the weirdest thing he's ever eaten is Doritos because they are "made with things you can't even buy from the store". Well, Doritos don't make any appearances on 'MeatEater' but plenty of other strange dishes do. So here's a look at the five strangest dishes on the show.
Fried Sea Cucumbers
This may not sound as strange as some of the other dishes that have been made on the show but when the show is called 'Meat Eater' 'and cucumbers are being eaten, well it's definitely off palate! It's a dish that certainly wasn't made by choice, however.
In Season 7 Episode 6 Steven hunts Sitka blacktails on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska with his friends Ryan and Mark but failing which they end up with a dinner of fried sea cucumbers instead.
Heart Ceviche of South Texas Nilgai
In Season 9 Part 1, Steve and chef Jesse hunt a nilgai, a large Indian antelope. Who knew you could find nilgai in America? Well, we certanly didn't till this show. The duo butchers the beast and dig into its unique nose to tail dishes including heart ceviche. This was new even for Steven who says on the show that he has had rare heart meat before but never raw.
Black Bear Bacon
They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and only Steven Rinella can show us all how to give breakfast a wild twist. In Season 4 Episode 14, Steven explains how breakfast is often a meal overlooked by wild game cooks and demonstrates how to cook a variety of breakfast classics using wild game ingredients, including black bear bacon which even Steven has never tried before.
Bear on the table just after you've had your own morning coffee! May not be everyone's cup of tea.
Herbivorous Piranha
Herbivorous and piranha generally don't go together which is what made this a strange-sounding meal to us. Also what added to the feeling that this was a fish out of the water was the way it was caught.
In Season 7 Episode 11, as part of the fourth and final leg of Steven's journey in Guyana, he and his party navigate their boats around rapids to bow fish for pacu, a herbivorous piranha.
Grouse Jalapenos and Fettuccine
Grouse jalapenos may lead some to have a grouse, but not Steven Rinella who in Season 3 of 'MeatEater' hunts the high ridges of South West Montana for dusky grouse and ends up making dusky grouse jalapeno poppers along with grouse fettuccine in a white wine cream sauce. The reason this one makes our strangest list is that the white wine cream sauce actually sounds rather fancy for the 'MeatEater' team!
So there you have it — those are some of the dishes that stood out for us from all the episodes of 'MeatEater'. Catch a look at the trailer below to remind yourself what meaty viewing you have to look forward to with Part Two of Season 9.
