The cheapest, nastiest, most horrible food you've experienced

[German_EE]

Chocolate covered bananas, and the bananas had gone soft and brown inside.

That experience put me off them for life.

[JPortici]

Pizza margherita in france had an olive in the middle.
AN OLIVE
 

[JPortici]

jokes aside, italian food cooked by brits, french and germans aside... one of the worst things i ever ate was crispy bacon i once had for breakfast in arizona. seriously, how can you eat that thing? a brown-reddish crust that may resemble bacon (but only because i have tv that tells me it should be bacon) with no taste other than charcoal.

and beef jerky too. horrible.

[SeanB]

Pineapple. Used to eat it till I spent 3 months in training in the military, where the Mess hall had gotten a large ( as in 40 tons) shipment of them in. Thus we had a typical menu for the day being :

Breakfast.
Pineapple chunks in the cereal, pineapple chunks in the scrambled eggs, ditto in the bacon ( or worse in the canned sausage surprise!  they did 3 days a week), same in the soggy toast, same in the spread for said soggy toast. sliced pieces on the oats. Juice was, you guessed correctly, pineapple juice, freshly ( same week) made in the large mincer. Coffee has little decorations of the cursed things in the powder, and the milk, due to being in the same fridge, and using the same urns as well, tasted of it. the tables were decorated with them as well, and there were lots of decor there.

Lunch.
Take out sandwich, containing bread, the spread from breakfast ( complete with  the smell), and whatever they had around, all tasting of pineapple, plus a fruit slice of pineapple.

Dinner, same decor as breakfast, but you had pineapple flavoured dessert, and fruit cocktail consisting of pineapple and possibly an apple chunk or two per serving tray. All served with that lovely aroma.

Local KFC did a roaring trade from us, except for the one item that nobody ever bought, the Hawaiian burger, which they never sold to us.

They also got 40 tons of oranges, which we, as free labour, were told to pack in pockets for distribution elsewhere. Still like oranges though.

Aside from pineapple I did not eat the mystery meat, as I knew, from having a neighbour who was a military chef, just what went into each batch. 

Did quite like the liver though, even if most people there would not eat it at all, that was one thing they almost always got right, and it was always served nicely done. Another good thing was the chicken a la landmine, which was always good.  Corned meat was great as well, in almost every form, but when they mixed it with the canned sausage ( our nickname for it is not printable here) it was best avoided.

[joseph nicholas]

The stuff they serve in Hawaii, its called "Poi".  Tastes and looks like wall paper paste.

[Vtile]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/M%C3%A4mmi-2.jpg 

That is actually good, like a beer concentrate.

Worst food: FDF tin can veggie MRE.

[SeanB]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/M%C3%A4mmi-2.jpg 

That is actually good, like a beer concentrate.

Worst food: FDF tin can veggie MRE.

Was this part of a 7 day ration pack, which was the size of 4 slices of bread, and which also contained 10 tea bags as well, along with 10 fuel pellets to "cook' your meals over. Remember a MRE is really good when you are hungry, just depends how hungry you have to be before it is good, and if you can find anything else ( like birds, rats, mice, dogs, cats, mopani worms, termites, old boots) to eat first. Only good thing is that a 20 year old MRE tastes the same as a brand new one, and still is better tasting than the meal from the golden arches.

[Vtile]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/M%C3%A4mmi-2.jpg 

That is actually good, like a beer concentrate.

Worst food: FDF tin can veggie MRE.

Was this part of a 7 day ration pack, which was the size of 4 slices of bread, and which also contained 10 tea bags as well, along with 10 fuel pellets to "cook' your meals over. Remember a MRE is really good when you are hungry, just depends how hungry you have to be before it is good, and if you can find anything else ( like birds, rats, mice, dogs, cats, mopani worms, termites, old boots) to eat first. Only good thing is that a 20 year old MRE tastes the same as a brand new one, and still is better tasting than the meal from the golden arches.

They said that it keeps you from dying from hunger, but I doubt if anyone can keep it inside long enough.  Luckily it were inside only in one ratio bag assortment. 

Couldn't eat chicken for a few years after service trip. Uh... yak. They have to had that 30 metric tons for cheap. Also the meat soup without meat were interesting as some miserable cook in supply division managed to spill the firts patch to ground and only what they had left were potatoes, salt and water. .. Ah, now I remember the potatoes with meat in first weeks, some jerk put to my meshkit (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Bundeswehr_Feldessgeschirr_2.JPG) so big potatoe that there were no room for meat and the potatoe only had about half of an inch edible layer on top, core had some deformation. 

[Assafl]

Right now jellyfish is taxing my palate.

Unfortunately I have a rule that for me to disqualify a food I have to try at 4 times at four different restaurants who are praised for preparing the ingredient/dish.

That Said - I really dislike vegan meat substitutes. Calling it a burger begs for disappointment. Call it a saitan croquet and maybe it'll disappoint less. Tofu is great as tofu. Not as a steak.

[Gyro]

Right now jellyfish is taxing my palate.

Ughh, been there too.    Don't pass up the Limpets.

[igendel]

One time I got a local "just pour hot water into this plastic cup and wait" thing, I think it was called "Noodles with mushroom sauce". Everyone knows these products are horrible but I had no choice, under the special circumstances it was either that or nothing.

So when the time came I followed the instructions, poured the hot water, stirred as much as I could, waited, and gave it a go. It was the saltiest, most industrial-flavored, most tongue-numbing thing I have ever tasted. I actually resorted to picking the noodles out and washing them, there's only so much salt and Monosodium Glutamate even a hungry man can take.

And then, as I approached the bottom of the cup, I saw there a huge lump of the powdered "sauce". Apparently I didn't stir it enough, and only about a third of the stuff actually dissolve in the water.

[Cerebus]

Surprising lack of E-numbers. But what the hell is "British Chicken" ?!

It's six foot tall, has a Scottish accent, and currently has its beady eye coquettishly pointed at you.

I'd run if I was you old chap. Fast. Now.

[Halcyon]

[Monkeh]

American so-called apple pie.

[helius]

American so-called apple pie.

I assume it was some factory oversugared product? I think those are bad everywhere.

My personal animus is for terrible pizza, which is unfortunately too common. Pizza Hut must be among the worst: I'm convinced their "Mozzarella" is mostly lard.

On New Year's day 1999 when I was visiting the USA, driving through eastern Washington State, we couldn't find anything open at lunch time in some town (Yakima?) except a Taco Bell. My god, it was foul.

Incidentally Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are both owned by the same corporate parent. A parent that instills a fear and loathing of its cooking.

[Monkeh]

American so-called apple pie.

I assume it was some factory oversugared product? I think those are bad everywhere.

Apple pie is meant to be tart, not sweet. But yes, this was one of the truly horrific all sugar types.

[helius]

Apple pie is meant to be tart, not sweet. But yes, this was one of the truly horrific all sugar types.

Some regions of the US (like the South) are known for making everything shockingly sweet, from tea to desserts. The amounts of sugar in recipe books are predictably twice what is really needed. It may have to do with the climate. (Mexico is also known for super-sweet foods)

[Monkeh]

Apple pie is meant to be tart, not sweet. But yes, this was one of the truly horrific all sugar types.

Some regions of the US (like the South) are known for making everything shockingly sweet, from tea to desserts. The amounts of sugar in recipe books are predictably twice what is really needed. It may have to do with the climate.

Well, I was in NC. The barbecue made up for the apple pie.

[helius]

Has anyone here tried Balut? Something about it seems so appealing (or horrifying?)