History Main / AlienLunch

** According to Javik, [[{{Precursor}} Prothean]] cuisine contained, among other ingredients, [[ToServeMan salarian, asari, quarian, krogan, and turian]] (a pretty neat trick, considering the biochemistries involved...). He ''was'' pretty drunk, though, and one of the few pleasures in his post-[[HumanPopsicle Alien Popsicle]] life is making up outlandish stories about "his cycle" and [[{{Troll}} seeing what the "ignorant primitives" will believe]]. That being said, he did mention in passing while he was sober that salarian eggs were a delicacy.

** Earlier in ''Myth Conceptions'' he visits what is obviously a McDonald's and finds everything to be horribly disgusting, especially the strawberry shake which looks like some kind of pink sludge to him.

May be a subtrope of BizarreAlienBiology. Compare with ForeignQueasine, when the strange food is from our own planet, and IAteWhat, when the stuff that went down your gullet isn't food on ''any'' planet. If the unknown dish turns out to be ''homo sapiens'', then it's ImAHumanitarian instead, except for cases when man is a regular ingredient in the alien cuisine.

A character vocally enjoying a meal -- often provided for free -- has the unusual (to them) ingredients mentioned and is thoroughly disgusted. In other cases, the character [[ShrugTake momentarily pauses and then resumes eating]], or through the course of the episode is obliged to eat it, then makes a habit of it. May feature the one pragmatic character (sometimes a BigEater or even an ExtremeOmnivore) who has no problem eating something they ''know'' to be unusual.

** In his ''My Teacher is an Alien'' series, the kids are served something called "Pleskits", which are purple, crusty, and extremely delicious. The aliens explain that Pleskits are a type of fungus, which isn't so bad. Then they reveal what it is they ''grow on''. The reader isn't told, but the kids no longer want to eat them.

* FrankenFran once attended the birthday party of a wealthy socialite girl that included a large buffet of various meats; it soon became clear that [[spoiler: the guests were eating the evidence of her murder]].
** Fran being Fran, [[NightmareFetishist she thought it was delicious]].

* ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': Frank 'n' Furter reveals in the middle of dinner that everyone is, in fact, eating the man that Frank 'n' Furter killed earlier in the movie.
--->'''The Crowd''': Today's special: Meat Loaf under glass! \\
or \\
'''The Crowd''': Meat Loaf ''again''?
** [[DontExplainTheJoke The joke being]], that Meat Loaf was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_Loaf the original actor playing the role]].
* The point in the movie ''Film/SoylentGreen''. In the book it was [[FutureFoodIsArtificial soy and lentils]]. Thus the name. [[ImAHumanitarian Not so much in]] [[ItWasHisSled the movie]].
** Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow are the original recipe. However, nobody likes them--the populace will happily knock over and trample entire tables full of Red loaves and Yellow buns in protest against the absence of Green crackers.
* The movie ''Film/EatingRaoul'', as if you couldn't guess from the title.

* In ''NationalLampoonsVacation!'', the Griswolds complain that the sandwiches are strangely "moist," and Clark takes his away to eat as he ogles the Blonde In The Ferrari. When Ellen realizes (and screams) "The dog peed on the picnic basket!" Clark immediately goes into spasms as he tries to spit out what little he had eaten, and tosses the rest. Aunt Edna, the dog's owner, shrugs and continues eating.

* In ''Film/DemolitionMan'' the main character John Spartan is forced, along with his companions, to take a trip into the city's sewers where the rebels live. To try to dispel some of the suspicions that the sewers' inhabitants are directing at them he orders a hamburger (and pays for it with his Rolex. Talk about insane meat prices!). Halfway through eating it, he is reminded by one of his companions that there are no cows underground. He asks the vendor where the meat comes from, and is told it's rat meat. He pauses for a moment, then cheerfully resumes eating, stating it's the best burger he's had in years.
** "That's a good ratburger!" Best line in the movie.
** He pays with someone else's Rolex. Someone else's Rolex for a burger isn't a bad deal, for him. And Rolex might be a relatively cheap watch company in the future, since it's a utopia that doesn't seem to use much money.
** Technically, it was the ''only'' burger he'd had [[HumanPopsicle in years]]. Rats are eaten in some parts of the world, though not the sort that live in sewers; they feed on grain.
* Likewise not an actual alien, although the character is enough of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} at times that she ''might as well be:'' Lane's mother Jenny in ''BetterOffDead'' is shown on-screen cooking a meal where tentacles and claws wave from the pot; in another scene she serves the family a gelatinous green goo that flees Lane's plate when he pokes it with a fork.

* The cast of TheMovie of ''Film/{{Clue}}'' gets monkey brains for dinner too, and are nauseated to discover what they really ate.
* In ''Film/TheLostBoys'', vampire David offers mortal Michael some rice, then tells him he's been eating maggots. After Michael recoils from his suddenly squirming food, David says it was just an optical illusion on his part: it's really rice after all. Then David, in a cruel double bluff, [[spoiler: offers Michael a swig of human blood from a wine bottle, and despite the warning of his semi-vampiric crush Star that it's actually blood for real, Michael drinks it and becomes a semi-vampire himself.]]

* Hannibal Lecter: the scary thing about him is that he appears to be a very good cook...
** The trope is lampshaded near the beginning of ''Film/RedDragon'', during a lovely dinner party hosted by Dr. Lecter. When complimented on the delicious food and asked what was in it, he replies only, "If I told you, you wouldn't even try it." A newspaper montage during the title credits implies [[ImAHumanitarian she has since found out]].

* ''TheCookTheThiefHisWifeAndHerLover'': The meal is [[spoiler: the lover]].

** Discworld also had an inversion in ''Discworld/FeetOfClay''. A group of dwarves find out that their 'rat pies' are made of chicken, and complain to the watch about unsafe food.
** Subverted in ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' when Vimes is offered an ''eyeball'' to eat by desert tribesmen. He correctly guesses this is a trick that they play on all their guests and refuses to eat it.
*** Then they give him "lamb and rice, just like mother," which Vimes ''still'' thinks looks a shade questionable, although he eats it anyway.
*** When visiting {{Uberwald}} Vimes is given some very strange sausages, and asks why they're all pink and where the grey and white and green bits are. He's informed that Uberwald would ''hang'' anyone who tried to sell an Ankh-Morpork sausage, and that there all sausages must be made of named meat. And that this doesn't include being named "Spot" or "Ginger".
*** He then asks what an AM sausage would be called, "A loaf, your grace, or possibly a log". He also references "little bits of green you can only hope are herb", or something to that nature.
** Rincewind consistently finds himself dealng with this trope. In the first Literature/{{Discworld}} book, he gets to drink wine made from "sea grapes" - which are tiny jellyfish. His resultant throwing up bemuses his host. He also comments that the pressed-seaweed biscuits "certainly taste like seaweed would taste if anyone was masochistic enough to eat seaweed."
*** In his trip to XXXX he eats various (poisonous) grubs, beer-soup (vegemite), a meat pie in pea soup, the same again but ''gourmet'', and jam sandwiches found in the desert after finding a talking kangaroo.
**** Eats? He '''invents''' beer soup.
*** He also drinks funnelweb beer. That's not the name of the beer, it's the [[strike:]] only thing on a list of ingredients. The funnelweb spider is one of the most dangerous spiders in the world.
*** Also, he's eaten exploded whale meat chunks. Meat chunks of a whale that was left on the shore to '''explode by itself.'''
** Consumes anything sold by any variation/incarnation of CMOT Dibbler qualifies for this trope.
---> "Meat pies: 5p. Made with named meat: 10p."
*** Dibbler is such a horrible cook that he even managed to combine this trope with ForeignQueasine, grossing out his trollish customers by serving shale infested with ammonite fossils. He hadn't even known that stone ''could'' go stale!
*** As Detritus explained to Cuddy, trolls leave their rubbish in the street. Dibbler probably just picked up some random rocks, unaware he was doing the troll equivalent of dumpster diving.
** [[AncientGreece Ephebian]] meals in general. More than one character has inquired, on hearing that plates are traditionally smashed after the meal, "why not ''before''"?

* The finale of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'' plays this straight. It's not pretty. Or funny.
** In the ''TheatreOfBlood'' version it's pretty hilarious.
** The Reduced Shakespeare Company version presents ''Titus Andronicus'' as a cooking show. 'Bone' appetit! (and yes, they use that line)

* ''[[SanfordAndSon Sanford & Son]]'', where Fred misunderstands that Sangria is only ''named'' after blood.

* In the ''BlackBooks'' episode "The Grapes of Wrath", Bernard and Manny have accidentally drunk a friend's £7000 bottle of wine that he was planning on giving to the Pope. Bernard suggests mixing some cheap wine which Manny believes won't work:
-->'''Bernard''': It's all water! Nobody is prepared to admit wine actually doesn't have a taste!
-->'''Manny''': But you can't taste anything! You smoke eight bajillion cigarettes a day!...What's that?
-->'''Bernard''': What?
-->'''Manny''': What are you eating?
-->'''Bernard''': Some sort of delicious biscuit.
-->'''Manny''': It's a coaster!
-->'''Bernard''': Is it? Are there any more?

** Similarly done in the older X-Men books with the borderline {{Cloudcuckoolander}} pseudo alien, Longshot.
--->'''Longshot''': Ooo, charred pig flesh and cooked chicken embryos! My favorite!
** ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'': Jeremy does the same thing, with the same meal, purely to {{Squick}} out his parents. It doesn't really work:
--->'''Jeremy''': Nothing starts the day off right like a couple of unborn chickens and a pile of molecularly-altered pig fat!
--->'''Connie''': ... I think first-period biology is ruining Jeremy's appetite.
--->'''Walt''': Can I have my unborn chickens scrambled?
** ''Series/RedDwarf'' also does this one in "DNA" when Kryten is briefly turned into a human.
---> '''Kryten''': "Mmm, boiled chicken ovulations. Dee-licious!"

[[folder: Pinball]]
* ''Pinball/ElviraAndThePartyMonsters'' has head cheese, eye of newt, and lizard tongue as pizza toppings.
[[/folder]]

** [[OurElvesAreBetter Elves]] and [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty sufficiently desperate adventurers]] can [[ImAHumanitarian butcher and eat sapients]]. By modding the ethics files, so can anybody.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', everyone loves the cookies Grim's aunt makes, which sold enough to win them the award for their scout troop. When accepting the award, Grim's aunt tells them the recipe has nightcrawlers, mashed crickets, and dung beetles in it. Everyone pauses for a couple seconds to look at the still squirming bugs in the treats...before they all just continue eating. One of them passes out, only to spring up a second later and say:
-->'''Troop Leader:''' Man, those are good cookies!

* In an episode of ''TheWildThornberrys'', the Thornberry family, who are in South America, are eating capybara burgers. Debbie enjoys the burger, until her father Nigel informs her that capybaras are giant rodents. On top of that, a capybara walks by the table where they are eating.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Peter becomes a horse breeder and fills the fridge with horse semen. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF84k1be-Uk Brian & Stewie mistake it for milk]].

* In the ''{{Simpsons}}'' episode "Helter Shelter," the family meets a group of reality show contestants in the wilderness. The group was abandoned there when one of the contestants "[[EatThat just couldn't eat anymore kangaroo testicles]]." Now, he can't get enough of them.

* In one "Edge Of Space" puppet segment on ''[[Series/{{Starstuff}} Starstuff]],'' the aliens are curious about human food. [[RobotBuddy Giz]] prepares oysters--still in their shells--covered with dessert toppings. Zornad can't bring himself to sample it.

* In ''FunnyFarm'', Chevy Chase's character stops at a local diner and finds an entree called "lamb fries" which he enjoys greatly, to the point of ordering 30 servings of it (breaking a previous customer's record). It's only after he's through that the waitress informs him that "lamb fries" are actually sheep testicles, prompting a comical SpitTake.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', anyone? Chilled Monkey brains and eyeball tomato soup. Yum yum.

* Also employed in ''FriedGreenTomatoes''.

* ''KenanAndKel: Two Heads Are Better Than None'', played for comedy.
* Reality TV shows build big ratings out of feeding their contestants various substances which are expected to {{Squick}} them out. And yet nothing that's served is ever actually harmful; most times, it's something that is actually considered normal food, if not a delicacy, in another part of the world.
** One "couples" episode of ''FearFactor'' had the contestants eat as much as they could from a plate of various (unorthodox) sea critters, including octopus. Intriguingly, one of the couples reported that they had eaten octopus before (it is frequently used in Japanese cuisine, including sushi) and thought it was okay, but Fear Factor's version of it was much worse -- probably prepared in the wrong way, or at least without any flavor-adding techniques normally used in restaurants.

* An episode of ''PerfectStrangers'' had Larry give praise to a meal Balki prepared for them. Just as Balki opens his mouth, Larry interrupts him with "Please don't ruin it by telling me what it was."

* The ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episode "Swan Song" (TheOneWith JohnnyCash) has Columbo become rather taken aback when informed that the chili he just enjoyed has squirrel meat in it.

* In one "Edge Of Space" puppet segment on ''[[Series/{{Starstuff}}]],'' the aliens are curious about human food. [[RobotBuddy Giz]] prepares oysters--still in their shells--covered with dessert toppings. Zornad can't bring himself to sample it.

** Subverted in the second episode of "The Daleks," with the TARDIS' food machine. Basically, Ian asks for "bacon and eggs," and the Doctor punches in some letters and numbers. The food machine produces a small, white, Mars Bar-shaped thing. Ian looks at it in disgust, but takes a bite anyway. It ''is'' bacon and eggs.

* An ongoing RunningGag in ''NyarkoSan''. Nyarko keeps using alien ingredients on everything she cooks, be it shantak bird eggs, black goat of the woods (a.k.a. Shub-Niggurath) meat or her famous "BLT" sandwich [[spoiler:(Byakhee-Lloigor-Tsathoggua)]]. And then there's the hot dog from episode 4 - "dog" here meaning "Hound of Tindalos".

* In ''MeetDave'', Gina hands Dave a bottle of ketchup while preparing a meal, and Dave proceeds to drink about half of it.
* The alien in ''MyStepmotherIsAnAlien'' relied on sucking the insides of batteries for energy.

* ''BadTaste'': The yummy alien stew.
* ''PlanetOfTheDinosaurs'': "I was just wondering how many other things we're going to have to get used to. Things like eating dinosaurs."

* Once in the Manga/MahouSenseiNegima anime Asuna makes a cake for Takamichi. It features amongst other things a sickeningly green coating of cream and squid tentacles.
* Minki's food in HellTeacherNube. In her defense, Minki is a demon girl ''and'' the food is supposed to be eaten by demons too, not by humans.

** In at least one story of the manga, Lum's attempts at cooking on earth open a portal to another dimension, disgorging alien fleets which proceeded to have a battle in the middle of the Moroboshis' kitchen. (Until their owners came to collect them, they were toys).

** According to Javik, [[{{Precursor}} Prothean]] cuisine contained, among other ingredients, [[ToServeMan salarian, asari, quarian, krogan, and turian]] (a pretty neat trick, considering the biochemistries involved...). He ''was'' pretty drunk, though, and one of the few pleasures in his post-[[HumanPopsicle Alien Popsicle]] life is making up outlandish stories about "his cycle" and [[{{Troll}} seeing what the "ignorant primitives" will believe]].

** The trope is lampshaded near the beginning of ''RedDragon'', during a lovely dinner party hosted by Dr. Lecter. When complimented on the delicious food and asked what was in it, he replies only, "If I told you, you wouldn't even try it." A newspaper montage during the title credits implies [[ImAHumanitarian she has since found out]].

** According to Javik, [[{{Precursor}} Prothean]] cuisine contained, among other ingredients, [[TpoServeMan salarian, asari, quarian, krogan, and turian]] (a pretty neat trick, considering the biochemistries involved...). He ''was'' pretty drunk, though, and one of the few pleasures in his post-[[HumanPopsicle Alien Popsicle]] life is making up outlandish stories about "his cycle" and [[{{Troll}} seeing what the "ignorant primitives" will believe]].

[[caption-width-right:320:Alien pigs might have eight legs and a [[PaletteSwappedAlienFood limey skin]] but for some reason it still TastesLikeChicken.]]

** According to Javik, [[{{Precursor}} Prothean]] cuisine contained, among other ingredients, [[ImAHumanitarian salarian, asari, quarian, krogan, and turian]] (a pretty neat trick, considering the biochemistries involved...). He ''was'' pretty drunk, though, and one of the few pleasures in his post-[[HumanPopsicle Alien Popsicle]] life is making up outlandish stories about "his cycle" and [[{{Troll}} seeing what the "ignorant primitives" will believe]].

* Likewise not an actual alien, although the character is enough of a CloudCuckoolander at times that she ''might as well be:'' Lane's mother Jenny in ''BetterOffDead'' is shown on-screen cooking a meal where tentacles and claws wave from the pot; in another scene she serves the family a gelatinous green goo that flees Lane's plate when he pokes it with a fork.

* Spoofed with the Coneheads sketches on ''SaturdayNightLive'', where they refer to common Earth foods in terms of their composition, making them ''sound'' unearthly. (Hamburger, for example, is "fried ground bovine flesh".)
** Similarly done in the older X-Men books with the borderline CloudCuckooLander pseudo alien, Longshot.

** ''{{Zits}}'': Jeremy does the same thing, with the same meal, purely to {{Squick}} out his parents. It doesn't really work: