Savory Eats: Long Island Exotic Foods

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Cristiana is a young writer who actively
contributes to a Canadian travel blog, www.fareconnectblog.com, and writes creatively in hopes of authoring a novel one day. As a curious student living in France, Cristiana has developed a passion for discovering new people and places. You can contact Cristiana at cdcricri8@gmail.com
    As a child, I remember trying a variety of dishes from all over the world, yet not always knowing what I was eating. “What’s that?” I’d ask, when a speckled, green sauce was placed in front of me for the first time in my little life.  
    “Just try it, and then maybe I’ll tell you,” my parents would reply.
So, reluctantly, I’d taste
almost anything I was given, because that’s the only way you can find out what you like and dislike. (In this case, I learned that I loved pesto sauce).   
    If you’re ready to take a risk like my young, curious self once did. These are some fresh ideas of exotic restaurants all over the island that can spark your curiosity and broaden your palate!
    Keeping it somewhat familiar for starters, Big Daddy’s in Massapequa. With its Louisiana style barbecue cuisine, you can enjoy their Jefferson Parish Blackened Gator, made with alligator tail meat, or try crawfish and its other Cajun specialties. 
    Another example of our country’s southern cuisine is Tweed’s Restaurant & Buffalo Bar out in Riverhead. This restaurant serves bison in numerous ways, from its hanger steak accompanied by a wild mushroom cognac cream sauce, to its cowboy steak, grilled filet, T-bone steak, and even bison tongue.
    At Verde Wine Bar & Ristorante in Deer Park, prepare to try so many out-of-this-world meats. Verde serves rabbit leg with shitake mushrooms and chickpeas, breaded pork skin, foie gras with mascarpone cheese, veal sweetbreads (veal pancreas), tripe with potatoes and carrots, and chicken liver mousse. You can also find foie gras and veal sweetbreads at Le Soir in Bayport, which even has snails on the menu as well.
    Other than some of the crazy menu options available all across Long Island, you can also find some phenomenal international cuisine. For instance, delve into Afghani cuisine in Huntington at Kabul Restaurant. Basil in Saint James offers some more Middle Eastern dishes, as does Zagat-rated, Ephesus in Massapequa Park, with its Mediterranean and Turkish cuisine.  You can experiment with different types of African foods at Taste of Africa in Deer Park, too. 
    In the Hampton Bays area, you can go south of the border for some Caribbean food. Rumba specializes in Jamaican delicacies like Cajun grilled fish, jerk chicken, and duck empanadas.
    Although travel is such a great source of leisure, you don’t need to travel to far away lands to tantalize your taste buds with exotic food. Instead, you can travel to restaurants all over Long Island. The search for unfamiliar food could be a risky adventure, but you could find your own far-flung version of pesto sauce along the way.