Some Unusual Foods from around the World

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison”

Did you know we humans eat really strange foods? Believe me I have eaten most game animals in Africa, crocodiles, lizards, worms (as a challenge) and I thought I ate anything that didn’t bite back but some of them left me quite quite flabbergasted.It makes me look like a vegetarian… Yes food can be stranger than fiction. Get your mind around some of these. If you thought the Kopi Luvak coffee (coffee beans extracted from the excreta of the wild civet) is gross ooh are you in trouble if you go ahead and read on.   Take a deep breath and proceed first reading the warning…..

Warning – It’s really not for the faint hearted. Some of them can be really strange and offensive. I am not responsible for any heart or panic attacks after reading this. You my dear reader have been warned. Proceed at your own risk and damned those who cross this line 🙂

Another disclaimer – Except haggis (also not my picture) I have not tried any of this at all !! These are curated from the public domain and collected based on the weirdness factor…..

1. Surstömming (Rotten Fish) – Translated to sour herring in swedish, this is a baltic fish caught during the periods of May and Jun, fermented 2-3 months before being tinned and again continues to ferment for another 6 months.. Once opened it emits some really putrid gasses that can knock you out. Considered a delicacy among the swedes!!

Source –  www.kic.org.uk

2. Casu Marzu (Rotten Cheese or maggot infested chese) – Pecorino cheese made out of sheep milk but goes through a fermentation process unlike any cheese in the world. It contains live insect maggots made by leaving the cheese outside until hordes of cheese-flies lay their eggs inside.  The hard top crust of the cured pecorino is removed which attracts flies that lay their eggs in them. When the maggots stat digesting the proteins of the cheese, the distinct taste and consistency is obtained. Usually eaten complete with the maggots and all.  Found in Sardinia, Italy and considered manna from heaven by them.  The casu marzu  has been considered illegal to sell in the EU due to restrictions of selling food infested with parasites. However the Sardinians continue to revel in their traditions and eat this in their family gatherings.  It is also illegal to be taken outside Sardinia

 

Source –  Wikipedia

3. Tarantula (Spiders) – Typically found in Cambodia, it is grilled, barbequed, fried and all other cooking process you are familiar with and finally also served on a stick. Imagine that

4. Paniki – Dish made by boiling fruit bat in coconut milk. After it is boiled, it is chopped and seasoned with herbs and spices. It gives a sense of adventure since you never know if the bat is rabid 😀

5. Puffer fish -Species of puffer fish (the family Tetraodontidae) are the most poisonous in the world, and the second most poisonous vertebrate after the golden dart frog. The active substance, tetrodotoxin, found in the internal organs and sometimes also the skin, paralyzes the diaphragm muscles of human victims, who can die from suffocation. Fugu can be lethally poisonous due to its tetrodotoxin, meaning it must be carefully prepared to remove toxic parts and to avoid contaminating the meat. The restaurant preparation of fugu is strictly controlled by law in Japan and several other countries, and only chefs who have qualified after three or more years of rigorous training are allowed to prepare the fish. Domestic preparation occasionally leads to accidental death.

Fugu is served as sashimi and chirinabe. Some consider the liver to be the tastiest part, but it is also the most poisonous, and serving this organ in restaurants was banned in Japan in 1984. Fugu has become one of the most celebrated dishes in Japanese cuisine.   (source wikipedia)

A  Korean friend also told me as an aside many of them like it with of the less poisonous parts that give them a high and a light paralysis of the tongue that lasts for a short time.  Sigh.

6. Drunken Shrimp – A specialty of China live fresh water shrimps dunked in baiju, a strong local liquor.. Eaten raw

7. Ant’s Egg Soup – Made in Laos, eggs from soldier ants separated in a bucket of water and later cooked with fish or beef and vegetables.

8. Alaskan  Icecream – Alaskan ice cream is a dessert made of dried fish, dried moose or caribou meat and fat and berries or mild sweeteners such as roots of Indian potato or wild carrot, mixed and whipped with a whisk or formerly hand made by Alaskan Athabaskans

9. Haggis – A staple of Scotland, is sheep’s stomach stuffed with sheep’s liver, lungs and heart, onions, oatmeal and other spices. Simmered for 3-4 hours. I tried it once and I have never tasted it since..

10. Baby Mice Wine -In China and Korea, you can find rice wine with creatures at the bottom (mice corpses). Newborn mice simply enter the wine where they then drown. There are those not much older than three days. They have no coat and have their eyes closed. In one bottle, 10-15 baby mice are allowed to drown. The wine is then left to ferment together with the corpses for at least 14 months. The taste can be likened to gasoline and can be attributed to the rotting dead baby mice.

 

There you have it.. Food can indeed be stranger than fiction don’t you agree? I had a photo of the haggis which I took a long long time back before digital cameras became common place.

This will be a work in progress as it has got me so interested I am gonna keep updating it as and when I come across really strange and obscene stuff 🙂

Day 1 of Bar-a-thon with Stranger than Fiction (if this ain’t strange you are an alien)