It’s time to take a trip around the world and delve into all the weird foods our species like to chow down. There is an entire world of pungent, bizarre or just plain scary foods out there to sample. Here are some of the weirdest and most intriguing eats from all corners of the globe.
9 – Fancy A Fried Spider?
In many parts of Cambodia, fried spiders are considered an appetizing delicacy and handy snack food. These type of spiders are a selected species of tarantula, called “a-ping”, in the Khmer language. They are about the size of a human palm and are specially bred in holes in the ground, or collected from forests.
The taste of the spiders, after they are rolled in spices and salt and fried in hot oil, has been described as being “rather like a cross between chicken and cod”.
Whilst the head and body have “a delicate white meat inside”, the abdomen contains a brown paste consisting of organs, possibly eggs, and excrement.I would check on my life insurance before I ate these!
8 – How Batty Is That?
In the North Sulawesi province of Indonesia, fruit bats are used to make a spicy and exotic dish called “Paniki”. Before the bats are cooked, their fur is burned off and then they are cooked in coconut milk, herbs and spices. Sometimes, chili is added for an extra zing. However, it is worth considering that recent medical investigations have linked eating fruit bats, to a form of dementia called ALS/PDC, among the native Chamorro people of Guam.
7 – Boiled Duck Embryo
When I first heard about this popular street food of the Philippines and Southeast Asia, I didn’t believe it at first. Surely, I thought, people wouldn’t eat a developing duck embryo that has been boiled alive and then, eat it out of the shell? They do.
The fertilized duck eggs are stored in baskets which are kept warm in the sun. After nine days, the eggs are held up to the light so as to check the embryo inside. Then, approximately eight days later, the embryos (balut) are ready to be cooked, sold, and eaten.
6 – Penis: steamed, roasted and boiled?
In China, there are restaurants which specialize in testicle haute cuisine. The testicles, come from many different types of animals and are cooked up in various herbs and spices and served at exorbitant prices to the hungry diner.
You may like to try the penis of: yaks, goats, bulls, or even dog, if you don’t mind a bit of bone.
5 – Cannibal Restaurant!
In February 2014, eleven people were arrested, after police found 2 human heads at a restaurant in Anambra, Nigeria. But, there is a long history of human head eating around the globe. For example, in certain areas of Papua New Guinea, especially amongst the Fore people, there was a local tradition of ritual cannibalism of their dead. Unfortunately, this religious tradition led to the neurological disease “Kuru”, a kind of prion disease.
Kuru would initially cause outbursts of laughing, then lack of muscle control, deterioration of speech, inability to control the bladder and bowels, and finally a horrific death.
4 – Snake wine
Imagine that you have just finished a most wonderful meal and your host most graciously offers to refill your wine glass. You lean back, relaxed, until you notice that the wine bottle contains a snake, and a scorpion thrown in as well!
Snake wine is created by infusing whole snakes in rice wine or grain alcohol. But, if you wish to partake of this terrifying beverage, you must generally make your way to China, Vietnam, or other places around Southeast Asia. The steeped varieties of snake wine require a venomous snake, to be placed in the wine and left for many months. Snake wine is also considered an important part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, for promoting vitality and health.
3 – Scorpion Kebab
Scorpion kebabs can be bought from street sellers in China. These food items are yet another example of a food, which seems to emphasize the culture gap, which exists between the East and the West in terms of cuisine.
While I, personally, cannot imagine myself ever eating such a thing as a scorpion kebab, I am aware that, the Chinese needed to be resourceful during many periods of their history.
However, it is also the case, that, in China, it is generally believed that eating scorpions can make your blood hotter in cold weather.
2 – Roast Rat
For the Mishmi culture of India, eating rat is an integral part of the diet. However, the Musahar community, in north India, regard eating rat as a delicacy.
BBC News reports, from Britain in 2012, claimed that “Shocking quantities” of “potentially unsafe” rat meat were being sold in London’s Ridley Road Market. This rat meat was being illegally imported into Britain and was being sold undercover by various butchers.
1 – Boiled Pigs Feet
Crubeens are an Irish food, which used to be served at street food stalls and pubs during the nineteenth century. Now, these cooked pig’s trotters are becoming popular again and can be found in various restaurants and pubs.
If you want to cook some crubeens for yourself, just make sure you have plenty of time, as they require slow cooking: they are not fast food. Interested?
