For Andrew Zimmern, host of 'Bizarre Foods,' taste is relative

WASHINGTON -- Here's the thing about bizarre foods, says Andrew Zimmern, a former chef who has made a franchise out of dining on unimaginables such as cow vein stew, donkey skin and freeze-dried rotten potatoes.

"One man's weird is another man's wonderful," he says. "Just try explaining individually wrapped Kraft cheese singles to an African desert nomad."

Sitting at a front table in a cozy wood-paneled classic French restaurant here, the host of Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern presses a forkful of calves brains to his lips and considers. He has just returned from Samoa, where he foraged for grubs on a deserted island while filming a segment for the second season of his Travel Channel show.

As he eats, he relates some of the spicier bits in that matter-of-fact way you'd mention a trip to the mall or a day on the golf course.

He was with some Samoans roasting bats over an open fire, he says. They're hunkered over the flames, tearing at 5-pound bats with their teeth. It's visceral and gritty, and they're using leaves for plates. And the guy next to him turns and says, "I'm surprised you're doing your show here. We really don't eat that many weird foods down here."

So you see, weird is relative.

Which isn't to say some foods aren't stranger than others, even to a connoisseur of odd. For instance, hakari — rotten shark. It's an Icelandic treat that Zimmern puts in the "putrefied" food group.

Then there's the natural-but-incredibly stinky group, whose crown jewel is durian, the Asian fruit so smelly it's banned in good hotels. And the conjured-up food group, such as moose nose jelly, a sort of head cheese favored by the Northern Exposure set.

In Washington recently for an adventure travel show, Zimmern, 46, is scanning the menu at La Chaumière and spots shad roe — fish egg sacs that are a seasonal delicacy. His face lights up. "It's my favorite thing in the whole world!" he exclaims.

Perhaps. Or maybe Zimmern is merely a culinary chameleon, craving fried sparrows when in Vietnam, or cow penis soup in Bolivia, or even "tater tot hot dish" (green beans, mushroom soup and potatoes) at home in Minneapolis. Wherever and whatever he's eating, though, he insists the gross-out factor isn't the driving force.