We all have different tastes, whether if it’s how we dress, the kind of music we listen to, or what we like to eat. This can be highly influenced either by the culture in which we were born or by the different experiences we have lived. What if I told you that a lot of people agree on bizarre tastes?
There are countries where people eat different kinds of food that many people wouldn’t even think is edible.
Today we’re going to introduce you to some of the weirdest, most bizarre foods that a lot of people might think are gross. We wouldn’t know unless we try! Would you dare?
1. Khash: Middle East, Turkey
This dish is considered a delicacy. It consists in a broth made from stewed cows feet and head. Usually people eats this on winter. What a gooey soup!
2. Casu Marzu: Italy
Casu fràzigu in Sardinian, is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese that contains live insect larvae. The larvae can possibly survive in the intestine, so due to this, the cheese is outlawed in the European Union and other jurisdictions. Some people like to eat the cheese but without the maggots.
3. Tuna eyeballs: Japan
Let’s keep an eye on this! People from Japan enjoys eating this part of the fish either cooked or raw. It is prepared with soy sauce and mirin, or you can also sauté with ginger, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and lemon slices.
4. Cuy: Peru
Everything unexplainable tastes like chicken. But maybe this one hits home, as guinea pigs are usually pets. People normaly eats cuy due to its overpopulation.
There are two main breeds of guinea pig for food, plus several lines: Perú, Andina, and Inti Line.
5. Grasshopers: Mexico, Thailand
These little friends are eaten in a lot of places from all around the world. You can find it in the street as a little snack. The crusty taste of the grasshopers can be accompanied by lime. Just watch out for the legs!
6. Vegemite Marmite (or Vegemite): UK, New Zealand, Australia
Australians love Vegemite! Many people… don’t. It is made from yeast extract. Just imagine the taste from the slurry from the bottom of the barrel that most breweries throw away. Its consistency is sticky and it is very salty.
7. Bird’s Nest Soup: Southeast Asia
Also known as Bird’s Saliva Soup, this dish is as expensive and fancy as caviar. One kg of bird’s nest costs about 2500 USD and a bowl of bird’s nest soup around 30 USD!! To prepare this dish, nests are soaked in water, then adding beef and chicken broth. Birds used for this dish: Swiftlets. Oooh, fancy! Maybe I would try this one.
8. Kiviak: Greenland
Kiviak is a traditional winter dish of the Greenland Inuit. It may seem cruel: They stuff up to 500 small seagull/auk birds fermented whole into a suture-closed freshly disemboweled seal. Oils are applied to the skin to prevent infestation by maggots. It is eaten during winter. The taste is described as similar as natto, another fermented dish from Japan.
9. Century Egg: China
Eggs, usually from duck, chicken or quail are preserved in a paste made from of wood ash, salt, clay, quicklime and tea, coated in rice husk. They are left for weeks or months, making a chemical reaction that causes the egg white to darken in color, and acquire a gooey and creamy texture.
10. Fruit Bat Soup: Palau
Maybe the fact that it its made from bats that eat wild fruits, flowers and nectar as their main diet rather than blood or insects makes this dish less…scary? People from Palau prepare it by boiling the bat in water. Then, it is cooked with ginger and coconut milk. Other spices as well as vegetables can be added as well. Here’s a fun fact you may or may not want to read: the bat is eaten with the fur, wich is discarded at the end of chewing the meat.
11. Dancing Shrimp/ Goong Ten: Thailand
The Shrimp is covered in lime juice, fish sauce, and ground chili mixed with fresh mint leaves, lemongrass, and sliced shallots. What makes this dish extra particular is one detail: The shrimps are eaten alive. When the juice hits them, they begin to jump for dear life. Thus the name.
BONUS:
12. Snake Blood Liquor: Vietnam
Of course there are several other dishes that were not mentioned, but we wanted to wrap it up with a special bonus: a much-needed beverage to go with our tasty dishes.
If you are feeling thirsty, this one is for you.
Rượu Ngọc is a traditional Vietnamese made out from a live snake’s venom and blood from a venomous snake. Then, they mix it with rice wine and it is served immediately after the blood is harvested before it has a chance to coagulate
In some it is considered a status symbol and is served at special events. They also believe it has aphrodisiac properties.
So, there you have it! Have you tried one of the dishes that we showed you? Or, would you?…