The most exotic dishes in the world. The worst food in the world
Where to go for thrill-seekers
There are people who eat on foreign trips exclusively at McDonald's and competently talk about the advantages and disadvantages of burgers from different countries. But, fortunately, there are also inquisitive travelers who, in pursuit of new experiences, bravely try the strangest, and even scary local dishes.
Spiders and company
It is not surprising that Asian dishes are leading in various ratings of strange foreign dishes. The most frequently mentioned are:
Balut (balut)- boiled duck egg, in which the fetus has already formed, with plumage, cartilage and a beak. This dish is popular in Cambodia and the Philippines, where it is considered not only nutritious, but also beneficial for libido. Balut is usually prepared with salt, lemon juice, black pepper and coriander, although some prefer vinegar and chili. It is customary to eat balut like this: break the shell, suck out the liquid, and then eat the yolk and the germ.
Fried tarantulas - food is clearly not for those who suffer from arachnophobia. These large spiders, fried whole, will be offered to you in Cambodia. The inhabitants of the city of Sukon, namely, these creatures are found in the surrounding jungle, did not begin to eat them from a good life. But today, tarantulas are an additional source of income for local residents, although they cost only a few cents. Passing buses make a special stop in Sukon so that passengers can eat spiders. Tarantulas are fried with garlic and salt. They are said to taste like fried chicken—crispy on the outside and sweet on the inside.
Other. A wide variety of insects are eaten in many Asian countries. On trays street vendors you can meet scorpions, locusts, water cockroaches, flour and silkworms, swimming beetles Although insects seem like a strange food, it’s still worth a try, you see, they will soon enter our diet. For example, recently, according to the BBC, the UN raised the issue of increasing the consumption of insects in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farms. Thais, on the other hand, consider insects to be a snack like chips, only much healthier.
Living food. Many foods are consumed raw, eaten alive is less common, but still occurs. In restaurants in Japan, you can try frog sashimi. The cook opens the amphibian in front of your eyes, takes out a beating heart, which the client must eat first. The rest of the meal consists of cold raw frog flesh. It is believed that such a dish has a positive effect Guess what.
And in Korea, you can eat live octopuses, you don’t even have to go to a restaurant they are sold right on the street. Small individuals are cut into pieces, sprayed sesame oil and immediately feed the tentacles should move. Eating this dish requires skill even a dismembered octopus is not going to give up. The tentacles must first be torn off from the sticks, and already in the mouth from the teeth, tongue and palate, and chewed very carefully.
Among other unusual Asian dishes worth mentioning stinky tofu and gourmet soup from swallow nests. The first is tofu cheese soaked in vegetable and shrimp broth “aged” for up to six months, and then fried until golden brown. The first part of the name of this dish is due to the marinade, the smell of which even fans of the dish compare with rotting garbage. Served with spicy sauce of vinegar and sesame oil, with cucumber salad and sauerkraut Chinese cabbage. The taste is said to be similar to cordon bleu. We won't go into detail about swallow's nests - they seem to be available for purchase in Moscow. For those who want to cook this delicacy, the recipe is in.
Mouse tincture. Although beer is most often mentioned as a suitable drink for all this exoticism, you can find something more interesting. For example, wine made from newborn mice. Rice wine with mice in China and Korea is considered a tonic drink, albeit an unpleasant taste.
On other continents
Strange, from our point of view, dishes can be found not only in Asia. For example, in Ecuador, it will be difficult for those who kept guinea pigs as children. Here they are specially grown, and then fried whole with the head and paws. Smoked meat, they say, looks like duck.
In Mexico, you may be offered a dish called escamole. It is prepared from the eggs of the giant black ants Liometopum. The extraction of the main ingredient is very dangerous - the ants are poisonous and are not ready to give their offspring without a fight. AT ready-made the dish has the consistency of cottage cheese, has a pleasant oily taste with nutty notes. Escamole is usually served on a taco flatbread with guacamole sauce.
However, for sharp culinary impressions it is not necessary to travel so far. Strange and odorous can be found in Europe. Perhaps the leader is casu marzu (with asu marzu) is a cheese made from sheep's milk, which is prepared in Sardinia and Italy. In cheese, usually Pecorino varieties, live cheese fly larvae are planted Piophila casei. The larvae digest the fats contained in the cheese, its texture becomes soft and liquid oozes from it. Cheese is eaten when the larvae are still alive, otherwise you can get poisoned. The larvae may not be removed, but you need to be careful and protect your eyes the larvae jump out to escape. Today, casu marzu is banned as dangerous to health, but you can still get it on the black market (read about other dangerous foods).
Another European "attraction" - with yurströmming. This sonorous name hides canned fermented herring. Fish are caught in the spring before spawning, kept for one or two months in barrels, and then packed in cans. As the jars continue to ferment, they may explode. Because of this feature, some airlines equate With yurströmming to explosives forbidden for transportation. Surströmming is different salty taste and a strong unpleasant odor. It is served with boiled potatoes, and just on bread, and real lovers use it straight from the can.
Finally, we will mention a few culinary attractions that you can get up close and personal in the British Isles. Severe Scots respect haggis, especially on January 25, the birthday of Robert Burns. It is prepared from lamb giblets (heart, liver and lungs), mixed with oatmeal, chopped onions and spices. Lamb stomach is stuffed with this stuffing, sewn up and boiled for several hours. Haggis in Scotland is served everywhere, in solemn occasions accompanied by whiskey, of course, Scotch.
In Ireland, you can have blood or black pudding for breakfast. Despite the terrible name it is a variety blood sausage. These sausages made from processed blood and various fillers are a traditional part of the Irish breakfast, complementing the scrambled eggs and bacon.
The inhabitants of Wales are less bloodthirsty, but no less original, at least in terms of breakfast. The composition of their traditional morning meal includes laverbred cakes made from red algae growing off the coast of the peninsula Gover (South Wales). Seaweed is boiled for several hours until it turns into a jelly-like paste, which is then rolled in oatmeal and baked into cakes.
Materials used in preparation
1. Grasshoppers
Cambodia has one of the most popular dishes These are specially prepared grasshoppers. And grasshoppers are adored in the USA, in the state of Missouri. Grasshoppers are eaten fried, preferably hot, in soy or fish sauce, sprinkled with plenty of hot red pepper. The head and paws are best immediately separated along with the stomach. The paws are food for everyone, they are edible, but they are unusually long, so it is impossible to swallow them without first biting each in half. It tastes like something fried potatoes with a peculiar creamy, slightly sweet aftertaste.
2. Deep-fried cockroaches
The same as grasshoppers, only cockroaches...
3. Tuna eye
This marvel of culinary art can only be found in Japan. This is for sure the most gigantic fisheye you have ever seen. And, of course, saliva in the mouth at the sight of this delicacy does not arise at all. The only way to eat this thing is to quickly swallow it and forget it, otherwise the consequences are very predictable.
4. Blood broth
These bloody chunks are common food in the culinary workshops of Laos, but if you are still itching to try the broth, then you can always find it at the Phousy market, in Luang Prabang.
5. Bat
Boiled bat is a very valuable dish in Asia. And this dish is not very cheap and is a real delicacy. You can try it in Fiji and other Asian countries, they say it tastes like chicken.
6. Bull eggs
This is the most common food household in southern China; very often you can see how bull eggs hang in a butcher's shop along with other types of meat. As the Chinese say, we are open to any food.
7. Balut
A boiled duck egg, in which a fetus has already formed with plumage, cartilage and a beak. It is eaten mainly by the peoples of Cambodia. Those who have tried this dish note a particularly crispy taste (perhaps due to half-formed bones).
8. Mice in wine
This wine is made in the following way: a bottle of rice wine is filled with young three-day-old mice and the wine is left to “languish” for a year to combine the flavors, so to speak. It is believed that such wine is quite healthy and is a real medicine in some parts of Korea. Wine tastes, they say, like kerosene.
9. Pig brains
Although this dish may not seem super unusual to you, you are unlikely to find it in every restaurant. One company has even begun making canned food in which pig brains are soaked in milk, a product for those who want to experience the whole range of flavors. Asian cuisine. According to the label, one can contains 150 calories, 5 grams of fat. And also 3500 mg of cholesterol, which is 1170% of the recommended daily allowance.
10. Boiled sheep's head
This delicacy is common in the countries of the Middle East - Iran, Iraq. This dish is served to the table even in Kazakhstan, and the most respected member of the family cuts it!
11. Kiviak - seal stuffed with seagulls
Here is a recipe for one super-delicious Christmas dish from the cuisine of the most northern peoples living in the subarctic from Greenland to Chukotka. Take one decapitated seal carcass and shove dead, plucked gulls into its belly. Hide the dish for seven months in permafrost. During this time, the enzymes of the decomposing gulls will work properly with the seal's intestines. Then the kivak is dug up and eaten, waiting for favors from Santa. The taste of symnecrosis of birds and pinnipeds is reminiscent of very old and rather spicy cheese.
12. Hakarl - rotten shark meat
Hakarl is nothing more than the meat of a harmless Greenland giant shark, rotten to the last muscle cell. Ambre hakarla resembles the smell that prevails in unkempt public toilets. And hakarl looks like cheese cut into cubes. Hakarl comes in two varieties: from a rotten stomach and from rotten muscle tissue. Hakarl is packaged for shops, like our squids for beer from a stall. Inexperienced eaters are advised to plug their nose at the first tasting, because the smell is much stronger than the taste. It looks like a very spicy whitefish or Jewish mackerel. In Iceland, this delicacy is included in compulsory program festivities at Christmas and New Year. To eat rotten shark meat means to be persistent and strong, like a real Viking.
13. Haggis or mutton tripe
This is the name of the famous Scottish national dish, which is crushed and cooked in a lamb's stomach, the heart, lungs and liver of an animal.
14. Lutefisk
Popular in Norway and Sweden, the dish is prepared relatively simply: dried fish, most often cod or haddock, are soaked for three days in a solution of caustic soda, and then for several more days in water. Thanks to a chemical reaction, the fish flesh becomes almost transparent, acquires a jelly-like consistency and a rather unpleasant pungent odor. The well-known culinary critic Jeffrey Steingarten described this dish as follows: “Lutefisk is not food, but a weapon of mass destruction. This is an example of food that tastes like nothing else, but at the same time causes such strong emotions that it literally knocks a person out.”
15. Surströmming (Swedish: Surstroemming)
Swedish national product, which is a canned fermented herring.
16. Escamoles
National mexican dish- eggs of poisonous giant black lyometopum ants that live in agaves. The consistency of an egg is about the same as cottage cheese. They are usually eaten in tacos with guacamole sauce. True, the delicacy is not cheap, as they are difficult to collect. But they are very useful, so if you get to Mexico, the dish is worth a try.
17. Casu marzu("rotten cheese")
A type of cheese produced in Sardinia, best known for containing live insect larvae. Translated from Sardinian, casu marzu means "rotten cheese", colloquially the expression "wormy cheese" is also used. The larvae are small (8 mm) worms. When disturbed, they are able to jump up to 15 centimeters. For this reason, those wishing to taste kasa marzu are advised to protect their eyes while eating. The taste burns the tongue, a stinking liquid called lagrima (tears) flows out of the cheese, and the larvae are not digested and can begin to multiply, causing vomiting and bloody diarrhea.
18. Roast Guinea pig (known as guinea pig)
Guinea pigs were originally domesticated for human consumption by the inhabitants of the Andes. Until now, they are an integral part of the diet of the inhabitants of Peru and Bolivia, especially in the highlands of the Andes. Also, with pleasure, fried carcasses of guinea pigs are served at the table in some areas of Ecuador and Colombia. This breed of pigs takes up much less space than usual, requires less food and breeds faster, and therefore more profitable.
Guinea pig meat is rich in protein, low in fat and cholesterol, and tastes like rabbit meat.
19. Sannakji - live octopus
In Korea, it is considered a great delicacy. You can see and choose an octopus in large aquariums, which are usually located at the entrance to the restaurant. It is correct to eat an octopus from the head, then it will not strangle you with its tentacles. But this is for thrill-seekers, usually the octopus is cut into small pieces, about 1-2 cm each and served with kimchi (a cult Korean dish - cabbage pickled in a special way). Pieces of the tentacle are wrapped in kimchi and eaten.
20. Rat
21. Deep-fried scorpions
The most common product in Asian markets (China, Cambodia, Bangkok). However, scorpions are eaten not only in Asia. In the elite restaurants of New York and Amsterdam, the audience spoiled by exotic delicacies is treated to a scorpion appetizer on a cheese pillow surrounded by lettuce. Scorpion Cooking Recipe: Remove the stingers and claws of the scorpions. Marinate for 30 minutes in white wine, honey and lemon. Roast in the oven at a temperature of 250 degrees C for 5 minutes. Rub the carcasses with garlic, pepper and salt. String several carcasses on a skewer and serve.
22. Silkworm on skewers
Beware of fakes, the real silkworm is shown in the photo.
23. Fried tarantulas
Spiders are like spiders, only fried and poisonous. Of course, before cooking, poisonous fangs are removed. Spider legs, abdomen and poisonous jaws separately insist on rice wine - a dark brown cloudy liquid is obtained, which raises the overall tone. In Cambodia, by the way, fried tarantulas are considered a noble delicacy, almost like black caviar in the West.
24. Larvae of bees
In China, beekeepers eat bee larvae. Therefore, beekeepers are distinguished by strength and masculinity. The larvae are eaten raw directly in honeycombs. Fried with salt and pepper, they serve as an excellent snack for beer. They also make pate. Taste: When raw, they have a very refined sweet creamy taste.
25. Deer Placenta Soup
Very good tool for male potency and kidney function. If it is not possible to find in kind, they say you can buy in pills.
26. Lamb testicles
Saute with spices and lemon juice is also prepared from them.
27. Ox Penis
The main argument that makes food from the genitals of animals attractive to humans is testosterone, a sex hormone produced by the testes. Such recipes are still widely used today, especially in Asia, where, in particular, the belief that tiger penis soup can transform intimate life has contributed a lot to the catastrophic decline in the number of this predator. The ox, unlike the tiger, is not yet on the verge of extinction.
28. Monkey Brain
It's not just a travel myth or an Indiana Jones scene: there are people who eat raw monkey brains on a regular basis. Although the famous tale about restaurant dish"the brains of a living monkey" faith is not enough. In Cambodia, at the bazaar, you can easily and inexpensively buy a kilo or two monkey brains and eat right there, on the spot. No one will find it strange or ugly. Cooked monkey brains the best restaurants Hong Kong tastes like rice pudding.
29. Crocodile
30. Fugu fish
The dish is very expensive, so not every tourist can afford it. The poison of puffer fish is not only deadly, there is no antidote for it. The most poisonous organ of fugu fish is the liver. Oddly enough, this interesting fact does not in the least reduce the number of people who want to eat it raw. A couple of dozen gourmets a year die at the same time.
31. Millennium Egg
The egg is coated with a mixture of clay with pine needles and left to sour in a brine prepared in a special way, which cannot be called edible under any circumstances. Eventually, egg white turns into a black jelly-like mass, and the yolk hardens and acquires a greenish tint. This dish is usually prepared from duck eggs, and its name is translated in different ways, they are most known as "rotten eggs" and "thousand-year-old eggs".
32. Fruit Durian
It has a pungent smell, which is difficult to describe in words, but it can be called in one general word: "disgusting." What only epithets do not reward his aroma! The smell of decaying flesh, rancid onion, dirty socks, toilet, rotten eggs... An Englishman who visited Siam in the 19th century describes his impressions of the aroma of durian in this way: "it is akin to eating a herring with blue cheese over an open sewer manhole." The smell is formed due to the oxidation of the juice after cutting. Many tourists say that if you ask to cut a fruit in the market and eat it right away, then the "aroma" is not felt. The originality of the fruit does not end there, if you use it with alcohol, then the consequences can be unpredictable, from an attack of heart failure to a short-term semi-conscious state resembling a lethargic dream or a coma. But if, holding your nose and overcoming disgust, you still try the pulp durian, you will understand how "divine" taste it has. The Thais claim that durian is actually sweet in taste and is similar to a sweet cream made from eggs and milk.
33. Kopi Luwak
A type of coffee known primarily for its specific processing method. The word "kopi" in the Indonesian dialect of the Malay language means "coffee", and the word "luwak" is the local name for the musang (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), a small animal of the viverrid family. The production process of coffee beans "Kopi Luwak" is that musangs eat ripe fruit coffee tree (coffee cherries), digest the pulp surrounding coffee beans and excrete coffee beans during defecation, which are then collected by people, washed and dried in the sun. The special brightness of the taste of Kopi Luwak coffee is explained by the properties of the gastric juice of musangs, which includes civet. Coffee "Kopi Luwak" is characterized by a balanced taste with a delicate bitterness, a distinct shade butter, hints of nougat and honey, as well as a long, persistent pleasant aftertaste.
34. Eggs called Tongzidan boiled in the urine of boys
This dish is very popular in China's Zhejiang province. Every spring, producers of such eggs put special buckets in local schools. All boys under the age of 10 must go to the toilet in a small way in them. Then these buckets are taken away and eggs are boiled in them.
The main thing is not to forget to slightly break the eggs so that the "brine" is absorbed into them. There is a smell of urine in the air, which the locals call the aroma of spring ... Eggs go for 23 cents a piece, like hot cakes. Locals sweep off the shelves all the eggs that are available. Some people eat up to ten of these eggs a day...
35. Fried Bamboo Worms
For Thais, a plate of fried bamboo worms is the same traditional way start lunch like a salad or soup for Europeans. The taste and texture of the worms is a bit like popcorn. The dish is incredibly nutritious.
36. Barbecue beetle larvae
Longhorn beetle larvae found in the roots of sago palms are a very popular village food in Eastern Indonesia. They have tender flesh, but a very dense skin that needs to be chewed for a long time. The larvae taste like greasy bacon.
37. Dried mopane caterpillars with onions
Dried caterpillars of the moth Gonimbrasia belina, a South African peacock-eye species that lives in mopane trees, is an important source of protein for South Africans. Sun-dried or smoked caterpillars do not have a special taste, so they are usually fried until crispy with onions, added to stews, stewed in various sauces, or served with sadza corn porridge.
38. Boiled wasps
The older generation of Japanese still respects wasps and bees cooked in a variety of ways. One of these dishes is hachinoko - bee larvae boiled with soy sauce and sugar. Wasps are prepared in the same way - a dish with them is called jibatinoko. Despite the high cost, it is in stable demand in Tokyo restaurants.
39. Deep-fried water bugs
The Asian variety, Lethocerus indicus, is the largest in the family - 12 cm long, so the Thais simply deep-fry them and serve them with plum sauce. The meat of water bugs tastes like shrimp. At the same time, in Thailand they are eaten whole, in the Philippines they tear off the legs and wings, and in Vietnam they make a very odorous extract from them.
40. Bed bugs with chicken pate
To get rid of the unpleasant smell of grass bugs, in South Africa they are first soaked for a long time in warm water and then just dry and gnaw. And the Mexican variety of grass bugs is valued just for their strong, medicinal smell. They are made into sauces, added to tacos, or fried and mixed with chicken pate.
41. Hasma
A frog dish that is a dessert in China. The main ingredient of this dish is dried frog fallopian tubes. It is believed that eating this dish improves skin color, and also has a healing effect on the lungs and kidneys ...
42. Swallow's nests
it real delicacy, which is loved by many peoples of Southeast Asia. Swift nests are eaten in Ceylon, Sumatra and Borneo. These thin transparent nests with a white or yellowish tint are nothing more than bird saliva, which quickly hardens in the air. Trade Center exotic product- Hong Kong, where " swallow nests» are taken to many countries of the world and served in the most expensive and prestigious restaurants.
43. Cod sperm
Served for gourmets in the vastness of Asia.
44. Dried lizards
In Japan, it is served as an appetizer for beer.
45. Snake vodka
In Japan, habu sake vodka is considered a delicacy. It is made from a habu snake, which is put entirely in a bottle and filled with alcohol. Snake-infused vodka is sold very expensively. A liter of habu-sake costs about $1,000. But there are very few exotic vodka makers left in Japan. Therefore, we advise you to be careful when buying habu sake.
What is a delicacy? What a delicious and expensive dish. But in different countries delicacies are not considered quite regular meals in understanding ordinary people. Your attention is the most disgusting food in the world. Below you can see 15 wonderful delicacies that are very loved and appreciated in different parts of the globe.
1. Balut(Balut) - Duck embryo boiled in the shell. The snack is very popular in the Philippines, where it is as easy to buy from them as it is from us to buy seeds. There is no secret to making balut. They simply boil an egg with an unformed duckling embryo inside.
3. Casu marzu cheese - Cheese with maggots. This is the main delicacy on the island of Sardinia. A bunch of maggots are specially launched into the cheese, they settle down there, eat it from the inside and secrete such a sticky mass that gives the cheese its unique taste. As they say, once you try it, you will have a fiery volcano in your mouth. You just have to be more careful, because the worms that live in this cheese are good at jumping about 15 centimeters, so they can easily get into your mouth or eyes. But by law casu marzu cheese banned for sale, so it will be more difficult to look for it than drugs.
4 Monkey Brains - Officially sold in Cambodia. There they are eaten for joy. But is it really monkey brains? ..
5. Bovine penis - In many Eastern countries bull penis is considered a good aphrodisiac and costs about $ 10 per serving (bull penis broth).
6. Tuna eye - Most common in Japan. I can't imagine how anyone can enjoy something so delicious. It's an eye... an EYE. What can be delicious in the eyes? Well, maybe not everyone understands that.
7. Boiled bat Most often this dish is prepared in Fiji. According to conversations, it resembles something like a chicken, but it costs much, much more than a delicacy, after all!
8. Hakarl- rotten shark meat. Why rotten? Yes, because fresh shark meat releases a lot of toxic substances and they all leave only during decay. Smell hakarla so stinky that it's better to cover your nose. But in Iceland, this delicacy is usually eaten at Christmas. This proves the resilience of a man)
9 Fried Tarantulas - After removing the poisonous glands and fangs, they are fried and eaten. It is considered a delicacy like our caviar and is not cheap.
10 Deep Fried Scorpions - drooling already flowed. Remove all the poisonous that he has, soak in white wine, honey and lemon. Then baked in the oven and served.
11. Deep-fried cockroaches and deep-fried grasshoppers . Another yum-yum from the insect world. Used in fried in many eastern countries and even in the USA.
Would you eat fried cricket drenched in spiced sauce? How about a fried tarantula? Most Westerners would probably refuse outright. But what if we tell you that these two dishes are popular in some countries? And, just imagine, there are many people who will say that they are actually very tasty!
It's hard to believe and hard to understand, but these are just two of the 25 weirdest foods on our list today. Do you consider yourself a foodie? Find out if you could dare to try some of these incredible dishes?! And now we are talking about cuisines and dishes that absolutely do not coincide with our taste preferences and are completely alien to us.
Some of them will make you laugh, others will make you cry, and there are others that will leave you in amazement. So, today you will learn about 25 incredible dishes that people actually like!
25. Yin Yang fish
This seafood dish is deep-fried fish that is still alive after cooking. The dish is especially popular in Taiwan and China, but has received condemnation and harsh criticism for its cruelty.
24. Witchety Grub
One of the most famous foods and also one of the most elusive. Witchetty Grub is a whitish, wood-eating, edible moth larva found only in central Australia.
23. Tuna Eyeball
They say that tuna eyeballs taste like squid and are considered pretty. delicious dish in Japan. In addition, tuna eyeballs contain dehydroepiandrosterone, as well as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are required by our brain for normal functioning. So if you can accept the fact that your food will be looking at you, you can put it in your mouth and swallow it, then tuna eyeballs are for you!
22. Deep-fried Rattlesnake (Southern Fried Rattlesnake)
A favorite dish in the Southwestern United States, fried rattlesnake is said to taste like frog legs. Experts advise to pour boiling water over meat before cooking. Then dip the meat in the egg, sprinkle with a mixture of salt, flour and breadcrumbs and send to fry in oil.
21. Milk (Shirako)
Moloka is a Japanese delicacy that is sure to never catch on in the West. "Why?", you ask. Because milk is the seminal fluid of cod fish, salmon, fugu and squid. It is reportedly a highly nutritious, high-protein, oily and creamy dish.
20. Sannakji
Sannakji is the perfect dish for extreme food lovers traveling in Korea. This delicacy is a live baby octopus sprinkled with sesame oil, cut into pieces. So, as you understand, when serving a dish, it still moves. It is served immediately upon preparation and yes, in case you were wondering, there have been several cases of people being suffocated when eating sannakji (the animal's muscles are still contracting when eaten).
19. Pig's Blood
In Hungary, when a pig is slaughtered, its blood is fried with onions and served for breakfast with warm, fresh bread.
18. Mongolian Boodog
This quirky Mongolian dish is made from a marmot or goat cooked in its own skin with hot stones in the stomach.
17. Millennium egg / Pidan
The name of this dish can be misleading as the eggs are not that old. However, the dish is still prepared by storing the eggs in a mixture of ash, salt, quicklime, rice husks and clay for weeks to months. As you can imagine, the "aroma" of this dish is quite palpable.
16. Kiviak
Kiwiak is a traditional Eskimo dish from Greenland, which is made from auks (a family of seabirds) that fit into the skin of a seal (about 400 birds), then air is released from the skin, it is sealed with lard and placed under the ground under a press for 3-18 months . During this time, the bird is fermented and then its meat is eaten during festive feasts on birthdays or weddings.
15. Jing Leed
Jing lid is one of the most common snacking insects in Thailand. These are 4 cm fried crickets seasoned with Golden Mountain Thai soy sauce and pepper. Those who have tried this appetizer say that it is very tasty!
14. Fugu
This dish isn't as nasty or repulsive as many of the ones listed here, but it's one of the deadliest foods (and people keep eating it!). The gallbladder, liver, skin and eggs of fish contain a lethal dose of tetrodotoxin, which is 1200 times more toxic than cyanide. The poison is so strong that its lethal dose is less than a pinhead, and one fish is enough to kill 30 people.
13. Frog legs
Those who have tried them claim that they resemble chicken in texture and fish in taste.
12 Fried tarantulas
In many parts of the world, the vast majority of people are either afraid of tarantulas or disgusted by them. However, in Cambodia it is a widely known specialty. They are literally "burned on fire" and soaked in oil.
11. Escamoles
"Escamoles" (in translation, the name means "ant eggs") are edible ant larvae that live in the roots of the blue agave. This dish has been popular in Mexico since the Aztecs. Despite its popularity among the local population, it is not in demand among tourists.
10. Durian
Found naturally in Malaysia and Indonesia, the durian is perhaps the most divisive fruit in the world. Either someone really likes it, or they really don't like it. Those who don't like it describe the taste of durian as "completely rotten to a mushy state."
It also emits a scent described as "pork shit, turpentine and onion garnished with a workout sock". The smell is so pungent that many hotels and public establishments in Southeast Asia ban durians from their premises.
9. "Dragon in the Flame of Desire" (Dragon in the Flame of Desire)
It probably sounds a bit impressive and maybe even exotic, but the fantasy name of the dish actually masks its quirky feature. Most famous dish on the menu of the Guolizhuang Restaurant in Beijing, "Dragon in the Flames of Passion" is a fried yak penis intricately served on a large plate.
8. Crocodile
We all know that shoes and bags are sewn from crocodile skin, but in some parts of the world, such as Australia and Africa, these reptiles are also great dish... so they say. According to rumors, it tastes like a cross between chicken and crab.
7 Cobra Heart
This dish is definitely not for the faint of heart, because "Cobra Heart" is a dish from the northern part of Vietnam, consisting of the blood and still beating heart of a cobra (you read that correctly, a living cobra heart). The full meal includes a cobra's heart dipped in a glass of blood and poison liquor, followed by several courses made from the remains of a heartless cobra.
6. Casu Marzu
You have heard about Casu Marzu (rotten cheese) more than once. It's traditional sheep cheese prepared by locals in Sardinia, Italy. In the production of cheese, it is left outside, allowing the flies to lay their eggs in it. The larvae break down fats, due to which it is fermented. Needless to say, it's almost useless to get rid of swarming grubs before eating cheese, because it's literally teeming with them.
5. Bushmeat
The term "bushmeat" refers to the meat of wild animals caught in such developing regions of the planet as West Africa. This really strange dish is prepared from wild animals, including bats, rats, monkeys and others, whose meat is smoked, dried or salted.
4. Blyudplattar (Blodplättar)
Mealplattar - pretty interesting option Swedish pancakes made from pig blood, milk, rye flour, molasses, onion and butter. What's not to love, right?
3. Soup out bird's nest(Bird's Nest Soup)
This Asiatic is made from the nest of the salangana bird, which builds its nests using its own sticky saliva. In other words, the one who ordered this dish, in fact, will eat bird saliva.
2. Bondeki (Beondegi)
Bondeki (Korean for "chrysalis") are steamed or boiled silkworm pupae, which are then seasoned with spices and eaten as a snack. Oddly enough, the dish is one of the most popular in Korean cuisine.
1. Balut
This popular Filipino dish consists of a fully formed duck embryo boiled alive and then eaten in the egg. An 18-day-old fertilized duck egg has outraged even the most intrepid foodies, earning it top spot on the "most disgusting or bizarre food" list.
If you are currently eating, then we strongly advise you not to read the following article.
We have compiled a sensational list of the most creepy, disgusting and at the same time interesting and incredible food from around the world (photos are attached, so hang on!):
Grilled Tarantula - Cambodia
Fried and crispy tarantulas are cooked in Cambodia. In markets and small shops, locals offer this delicacy to tourists.
You can buy this crispy snack from walking vendors, who abound in Cambodia. You can even play with a live spider. According to eyewitnesses, his tummy tastes like “licked wet cobwebs.”
Guinea pigs - Peru
At home, guinea pigs are cute and adorable animals that are nice to look at, but on a plate of rice they will look less charming. The Peruvian guinea pig family is a food source for villagers living in the Andes. Their meat is very nutritious and contains a lot of protein. As a rule, they are served on the table fried with the head and limbs not cut off. There is not much meat on them, and the skin is quite tough. Guinea pig meat tastes like rabbit meat.
Casu marzu - Sardinia
This is a specific delicacy from Sardinia, which is served on the table with a warning from the Ministry of Health. Most foods that contain larvae are automatically thrown into the trash, but this decomposed "rotten cheese" is considered a real delicacy. Chef Pecorino Sardo found that cheese flies can lay their eggs under the rind of the cheese, where the larvae later appear. The larvae in turn feed on the cheese, causing the cheese to ferment and causing a pungent odor.
What is interesting and quite prudent: this type of cheese is officially banned in the EU, since the larvae are eaten alive with cheese, and the larvae jump perfectly - up to 15 centimeters, but still the craftsmen continue to cook it, and lovers of unusual delicacies taste it with pleasure.
Hakarl (fermented shark) - Iceland
The Icelandic delicacy Hakarl certainly has pleasant taste, but the preparation itself and the appearance are not so pleasant. This delicacy is traditionally made from gutted whale sharks, which are dipped in sourdough for three months, then cut into pieces and hung up for a few more months to dry. The smell of this delicacy - disgusting smell, but the taste is considered quite pleasant.
Civet Coffee Excrement - Asia
This coffee is considered a delicacy in some parts of Asia, coffee beans fry after they go through gastrointestinal tract martens. Farmers on coffee plantations allow civets, or civet, as they are also called, marten-like animals, to eat their crops so that they can collect their excrement with coffee beans.
Fugu - Japan
Of course it's not like that disgusting dish, like the others we have, but puffer fish, or puffer fish, has become an infamous delicacy due to the fact that it is deadly. If the cook does not cook it correctly, then you risk fatal poisoning. Fish liver, roe and skin contain large amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin, for which there is no known antidote. In order to properly butcher this fish, chefs study for seven years.
Baluta - Philippines
Sometimes referred to as “eggs with legs,” baluta is an absolutely terrible delicacy from the Philippines. The recipe for this dish is simple. A duck egg with a developed embryo inside - with feathers and legs, is boiled and eaten directly from the shell. If you're not too squeamish, you can find the video on YouTube.
Chicken feet - Jamaica, Peru
Soup or sauce chicken legs with beans is one of the favorite dishes in Asia, Jamaica and Peru. The leg contains mainly cartilage and small bones, so these dishes are exclusively for everyone.
Bird's Nest Soup - China
These nests are built by swifts of the Borneo breed, they use their saliva as a building material, from which the thread is made. This is a very expensive treat in China, the cost of this delicacy is $105 for one bowl. This delicacy is supplied mainly from Indonesia, which makes very good money on it, about 0.5% of the country's total GDP.
Live octopus - Japan and Korea
Many Europeans will find it quite difficult to digest the tentacles of a live octopus. And the very sight of how a live octopus begins to cling to chopsticks with its tentacles, trying to avoid the fate of being eaten, will terrify anyone. At the same time, live pieces of octopus give an unpleasant sensation of movement in the mouth, and the suckers themselves are a great danger, as they can stick to the walls of the internal organs of the digestive tract.
Scorpions - China, Vietnam
Like tarantula spiders, scorpions are usually eaten fried. But they also like to cover them with chocolate and eat them sweet or throw them into soup for richness. Believed to have medicinal properties, scorpions are popular with tourists at Beijing's famous night market, along with crickets, seahorses, and many other offbeat snacks.
Tree borer larva - Australia
The Australian great white tree borer is a staple food for the indigenous peoples of Australia. They are eaten alive and roasted. The larvae are an excellent source of protein. To taste, they resemble the almonds so familiar to us.
Durian fruit - Southeast Asia
durian has a very bad smell, but very tasty and tastes like our raspberries. Writer Anthony Burges described the process of consuming this exotic fruit like "eating sweet raspberries in a public restroom."
Gull Wine - Arctic Circle
A wine like you won't find in any cafe or bar, gull wine is an invention of the Inuit, who desperately needed something warm to drink during the cold arctic nights.
How did they prepare this unusual wine? Quite simply: they put the dead gull in parts or in whole in a bottle of water, which was left in the open sun.
It turns out that this is not the only despotic and disgusting alcoholic drink: earlier in Vietnam they made wine and vodka from snake wine and vodka, where they also added, so to speak, for taste, insects such as bumblebee and locust.
Rat - Vietnam, China, Thailand, Laos
Rats are destroying crops in agricultural Vietnam, so farmers catch them, wrap them in banana leaves and sell them as dinner dish. Fried variant often seen in Thailand, they are made like kebabs and sold on the end of sticks. The kebabs of their bats are also quite popular.
Koumiss / Airag – Central Asia
Made from fermented mare's milk, koumiss is a popular drink for many cultures of Central Asia. This acidic, slightly alcoholic and rich source of vitamins and minerals is ideal for long and exhausting hikes across the steppes.
Cow urine - India
Many Hindus believe that cow urine has therapeutic value, which is why it is sold in India along with milk and yogurt. Recently, a research center in the holy city of Jaipur announced plans to launch a new local Coca-Cola that will be made entirely from cow urine.
Bull penis - China
A traditional aphrodisiac - for obvious reasons - a bull's penis is eaten in different parts Far East. Incidentally, last year in China, Olympic athletes even asked to have bull penis soup prepared for them. Whether this exotic soup contributed to the Chinese Olympic team winning 51 gold medals, we cannot say for sure, and most likely no one knows about it.
Seal Fin Pie - Canada
The seal fin pie is traditional dish in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, where this is often cooked unusual delicacy for Easter. Moreover, the Internet is full of recipes on how to cook this rather cruel dish: in addition to fins, you will need root vegetables, pork fat and some Worcestershire sauce.
Smalahove (sheep's head) - Norway
Smalahov, traditional christmas dish, is prepared as follows: the salted head of the lamb (without wool and brains) is boiled in boiling water for about three hours. The etiquette is to first eat the ears and eyes while they are still warm, and then the rest of the head is consumed, starting with the muzzle. The tongue and eye muscles are cut off and served as a separate dish.
