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Disgusting Food

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Many regions have contributed to the creation of the most disgusting food ever, and mine leads the pack. St Louis area is famous for the infernal concoction called “toasted ravioli”:

This deep-fried atrocity acquires the consistency and the taste of red brick. Why it is necessary to make a pasta dish hard and dry is a mystery. Another mystery is how I managed to avoid chipping a tooth on these gravel-like ravioli.

There are whole eateries around here where people get together and consume this kind of rock-solid, desert-dry fare. I believe they do it to avoid having to speak to each other.

What are your region’s most disgusting culinary exertions?

Pictures are welcome.

17 responses to “Disgusting Food”

  1. ShadowsCollide Avatar
    ShadowsCollide

    That actually looks pretty good, but then again I had three Scotch and sodas and three glasses of wine today since I don’t have to go to work tomorrow, I love greasy food after drinking. But seriously, where I live in northeastern New Jersey is pretty good culinary-wise, we have authentic Italian red-sauce cuisine and most every ethnic food known to man. I imagine the US Midwest is not going to have the best cuisine, but it could be worse, you could be around people who think ketchup is spicy

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  2. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Since I’m in Korea right now I’ll choose the only dish in this country that I am not fond of.

    Naengmyeon. It’s cold buckwheat noodles that taste fine on their own but they’re served in literally a bucket sized bowl with a partially frozen slightly sweet broth. I and my friend once went to an all you can eat pork BBQ in Gangnam and at the end they served this as a sort of dessert, in a gallon sized serving bowl lol. Like how can you even look at this carb bomb after pigging out on BBQ, but it’s standard to have them at the end of a meal. I’ll never be able to understand this.

    https://www.koreanbapsang.com/naengmyeon-cold-noodles/

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  3. methylethyl Avatar
    methylethyl

    https://pioneerbrand.com/2019/08/26/southern-biscuits-sausage-gravy/

    I have actually never tried it, and it’s probably good. I can’t get past the part where it looks like a dog just barfed on a plate of biscuits. 

    For actual grossness rather than just a total disregard for aesthetics… hmm.

    That’s tough. Chitlins are another one I’ve never been brave enough to try. Oysters are, of course, a matter of personal preference. I’ve tried them and they’re not terrible, but they’re basically giant sea boogers. Yellow crookneck squash is, in all forms, revolting and has no reason to exist. And, you know, banana pudding… why?? I understand people like it, but I think a lot of us were traumatized by exposure in daycare settings, so that and the nilla wafers come with a clenching of the stomach and a vague feeling of cheapness and abandonment.

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    1. methylethyl Avatar
      methylethyl

      I don’t know what region it comes from, but it is some other part of the US’s answer to southern biscuits and gravy:

      https://izzycooking.com/shit-on-a-shingle/

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    2. TomW Avatar
      TomW

      I grew up eating biscuits and sausage gravy. It is one of those things that can be great, but it easily goes from great to vile if anything about it is even slightly off. The biscuits need to be good quality and fresh out of the oven, the gravy needs to be properly spiced and piping hot. It must be eaten immediately after the gravy is poured over the biscuits. It’s been years since I had it because I do not trust any restaurant to do it right and it’s just not worth the effort to make a single portion for myself.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        I don’t get this thing called gravy. It looks weird. But hey, I eat boiled buckwheat which makes Americans blanch. So I get it.

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  4. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Toasted ravioli looks and sounds awesome! Just the textural contrast from the fried exterior and the soft interior with the filling, and then dipped in marinara, what’s not to like?

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  5. Benzion Chinn Avatar
    Benzion Chinn

    As an Ashkenazi Jew, I hate jarred gefilte fish and p’tcha. :p

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Yes, the jarred gefilte fish sold in stores is an insult to every Jew.

      I make mine myself, and it’s a beauty.

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  6. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    Where I’m from: Probably fried catfish. I’ve never understood the popularity of this… I can deal with some fried fish but catfish has a muddy salty combination that’s yuck…. and then some souls, surely cursed by god, like to pour gravy over it… this is the closes picture I could find though ime it was more often biscuit gravy (which I can handle on its own)

    Catfish and Gravy, New Orleans, LA

    where I am now: probably fried carp, a required part of Christmas Eve dinner (single most important holiday here). Many imagine this is a very very very traditional thing but as something everybody has it only dates back to post WWII years. It’s basically poverty food elevated to holiday icon…. it usually tastes like fried mud. People used to keep a live carp in their bathtub a few days before the holiday to try to wash out the muddy taste. now that’s illegal so it’s pan-fried mud for Christmas.

    Worst meal I’ve ever been served in a restaurant…. tie (no pictures though) in chronological order

    cowinner 1: at a Greek restaurant in Florida: I ordered a squid dish and it was a massive pile of little boiled squid… I could have dealt with one or two but a pile of 15 or more was out of the question. Got a doggy bag where most of them went and doggy was happy to scarf them down no questions asked.

    cowinnter 2: in a farmer’s diner in Kansas: I ordered the “vegetable plate” and it was mixed canned vegetables dumped over a couple of slices of plain white bread and then smothered in brown gravy.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I don’t know what you have against the carp. I like the carp. And yes, I still remember how it was sold live, and it was a great feat to find it at a store. Once, my mother bought several, and as we were crossing the highway, they escaped and started jumping around. And we are running after this escaping live fish, trying to catch it. Then my mother had to bring them home and murder them. Fun times in the USSR.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        “don’t know what you have against the carp”

        If it’s cleaned out enough of the muddy taste… it’s okay. Soaking it in milk most of the day helps…. but…. I’m not going to say that I spend a lot of money to go to Malta for Christmas to avoid carp…. but I’m not really going to deny it very strongly either.

        The best carp I ever had was at a Vietnamese New Year celebration (held in a Vietnamese restaurant closed for the evening and there were a bunch of Vietnamese professional cooks so the chef really wen that extra mile).

        Did Ukrainians keep it in the bathtub and feed it bread?

        “mother had to bring them home and murder them”

        ….no comment……

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          We were too fussy of a family to keep the carp in the bathtub. We didn’t even have a dacha, we were so far removed from that kind of stuff. But other people did. Come on, it’s like having a pet with a surprise ending.

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  7. Avi Avatar
    Avi

    St Louis, T S Eliot’s hometown (Locust Street: is the house still standing? I wonder.): So sad.

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  8. Demotrash Avatar
    Demotrash

    Between goetta and “Cincinnati chili,” it’s hard to choose. Both tend to look and sound revolting to anyone who isn’t from here.

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  9. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “Cincinnati chili”

    I made it once using a recipe I found online…. I liked the taste (nothing like chili but interesting) but way too much sauce. The first time I just dumped on top of plain spaghetti (as Americans do) but it felt like the wrong kind of pasta for it.

    The second time I made far less sauce and prepared it a little more in the Italian manner, mixing the pasta (cavatappi) in with it. Much better. The sauce should highlight the pasta not drown it.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I never found the courage to try it when I was in Cincinnati.

      I was promised a real cacio e pepe for dinner today, though, and I’m looking forward to it.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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