Steve Blount, Special for USA TODAY

Travelers who like to try new things will find plenty of options on the menu in the Caribbean. Would you try iguana or goat? Dare to order these dishes. VPC

When it comes to food, humans will eat anything that won’t eat them — and more than a few that will. That’s certainly true in the Caribbean, where the things that may be coming to dinner range from bizarre to frightening. Remember, it’s only weird if you haven’t tried it yet. As Jonathan Swift remarked, “He was a brave man that first ate an oyster.”

Cow Heel Soup

You have your prime cuts of beef — ribeye, porterhouse, sirloin — your somewhat less prime cuts like rump roast, and then you have whatever’s left over. That would include the cow’s feet. Obviously there’s some hooves in there, but behind the hoof is the heel, an agglomeration of soft flesh and cartilage that’s slowly stewed with onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, okra, hot peppers and spices. Beefy flavor, can be a little chewy if not cooked thoroughly. C’mon, you eat ossa buco, right?

I Wanna Iguana

So what’s the difference between a gekko and an iguana? The iguana has more white meat. Iguanas are common throughout the Caribbean, and if you had to eat fish every day of your life, these green guys might start looking kind of tasty. There are as many iguana recipes as there are islands — fried, stewed, curried, mole — but the simplest method is to just put them on a spit and roast them. Lizard on a stick anyone?

Conch Pistol

Conch (konk) is that snail that comes from the really big, pretty shells. Conch once carpeted shallow sandy bays in places like the Turks & Caicos but they were too tasty for their own good, so now they’re a bit harder to find. The usual way to eat them is ceviche — cured with lime — or cracked (fried) and you’ve probably had conch fritters. But there’s one more piece of the conch you probably haven’t had. The gastropod has a long, slender tube reminiscent of a piece of human male anatomy called the “pistol” that is slurped down as an aphrodisiac. If you’re offered one, don’t worry; it’s actually part of the conch’s digestive system. As to its efficacy, it has not yet been tested by the Food & Drug Administration so, you’re on your own.

Crunchy Concon

You know when you screw up cooking the rice and some of it sticks to the bottom of the pot and gets burned? In the Caribbean (and other places) diners will fight each other to get that stuff. In Puerto Rico they call it pegao, in the D.R. it’s concon. Why is it so prized? All the good stuff that’s in the pot with the rice — spices, coconut milk, land crabs — tends to sink down in the pot and concentrate in that layer of crispy goodness at the bottom.

Curried Goat

Goats are easy to raise: They’ll forage on most anything, herd easily and they give milk. In Jamaica, goats roam freely. When asked, Jamaicans will tell you “We don’t have to pen them in; they know where they live and they always come home.” Which is curious, since some of them end up in hot water. You’d think they’d notice: “Hey, wait a minute … has anybody seen Ed?”

Rolling Stoned: Irish Moss

Okay, it’s not alcoholic but it is believed to be an aphrodisiac, especially in Jamaica. The basic recipe for this funky drink calls for liquefying red algae similar to the Irish moss variety found in the North Atlantic in a base made of coconut milk, sugar and vanilla. Irish moss is the source of that “carrageenan” you see in on food labels. It’s used to thicken things up so … who knows?

Mountain Chicken

You may already have guessed that this one doesn’t cluck. The giant ditch frog was once found on many of the mountainous islands including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Martinique and Guadeloupe but these days are endangered and confined to Dominica and a small area on Montserrat. They grow up to 8 inches long and weigh 2 pounds, so it doesn’t take many to make a meal. This frog’s predilection for sitting out in the open and bellowing loudly haven’t helped its chances much, either.

Pigtail Soup

Parts are parts, no matter which area of the pig they come from, so why would you waste the tail? The classic combination calls for chunks of salted pig tail, split peas, potato, thyme, Scotch bonnet peppers, coconut milk and long, cylindrical flour dumplings called spinners. Other recipes incorporate whatever’s at hand — eddoe (related to the taro plant), dasheen, carrots.

Land Crab

Maryland claims rights to the blue crab, Florida has stone crabs and the Caribbean has the craziest of all, the land crab. Found on many islands, these are crabs that, while hatched in the ocean, live most of their lives above the water line. The wet climate of tropical forests and swamps allows them to stay wet enough to survive. In urban areas, they can be found foraging in garbage piles or ditches. This can result in a rather unpleasant taste, so islanders typically keep them in a tub of clean water and feed them for a week or two before cooking to sweeten them up. Wherever they live, they have to go back to the ocean to breed. In Cuba, this takes the form of a massive migration with literally millions of crabs scuttling across the landscape, under fences, through yards and even across roads (squish!).

Salt Cod and Ackee

What’s weird about this combination is that there are no cod in the Caribbean. So how did a North Atlantic fish become the national dish of Jamaica? Rum. In the 18th century ships from northern climes sailed south with their holds full of salted cod. Once in the islands, they traded the fish for molasses which they hauled home and sold to distilleries to be made into rum. The ackee fruit isn’t native to Jamaica either. It arrived from West Africa, most likely on a slave ship. The ackee’s scientific name is Blighia sapodilla, named for Captain Bligh who collected samples and delivered them to the Royal Society in London after his second — successful — attempt to bring breadfruit from the South Pacific to the Caribbean.

Cock Soup

Grace Foods of Jamaica has spread the country’s culinary bounty far and wide. It’s jerk seasoning, hot sauce, coconut water and callaloo bring real home cooking to millions of Jamaicans living abroad. One of its odder offerings is Cock Soup, a powdered concoction that’s often used as a base for stews. In fact, there is no cock, no chicken of any kind, in Cock Soup. According to the ingredient list there may, or may not, be some fish in there somewhere. This one’s probably best if you’re Jamaican and need a little taste of home, or perhaps if you’re a hiker with a juvenile sense of humor.

Do try these at home

Forget inviting friends over for a jerked chicken and Red Stripe night, for real culinary cred you can make many of the Caribbean’s strangest dishes in your own kitchen. While fresh iguanas may be hard to come by, goat meat, salted cod, Irish Moss and other ingredients are readily available from local sources or online at gracefoods.com. You can find step-by-step recipes and learn more about preparation and sources at caribbeanpot.com.

For more on this story go to: http://www.usatoday.com/story/experience/caribbean/best-of-caribbean/2014/05/30/weirdest-caribbean-foods/9762923/