The World's Weirdest Food

[wa3zrm]

I'M sitting at a sushi bar in Sapporo, the main city on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and staring at a strange, small, raw and salmon-coloured object on my plate.
"Er, is it the brain of a fish?", I asked my dining companion, who happens to be Tetsuya Wakuda, the celebrated Sydney-based Japanese-Australian chef with whom I’m travelling for a magazine article.
“No,” he replies. “It’s fish’s semen sac.”
Sometimes it’s best not to ask. But there were ever weirder dishes to come (see below) at this lunch. There are the adventurous types who actively seek out weird food on their travels. Me? I’m entirely a victim of circumstance.
I’m hardly a fussy eater and rarely seek out the odd and challenging dish when I’m overseas - they come to me. As a guest in another country no one wants to offend their hosts by rejecting their food, something which plays an integral part, and a subject of immense pride, in many cultures. Somehow I’ve managed to escape weird food in China (for which it’s notorious), having visited there on a number occasions. But I do draw a line at rats on a skewer (India), dog meat (Vietnam), fried tarantulas (Cambodia), guinea pigs (Peru) and Starbuck’s coffee (US).
Here’s my menu of the weird world dishes that I have succumbed to on my travels (and, yes, I’m sure on some of your wandering you’ve eaten a lot worse, so let me know).

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...

[precious007]

I eat fish semen and enjoy it tons - Every time I buy a large quantity of fish (a few kg's) I pull out all the semen and caviar from the femeles and fry in the pan - goes well with lemon juice. Absolutely tasty stuff ツ

[Mayhart]

ew.. that sounds gross :P .. You should browse for something called Surströmming though. It's called a Swedish delicacy... I've lived in sweden and never dared to taste it, i challenge you to buy 1 can and eat some. Its basically fish in a can, nothing wrong with that, right? *smile*

[jagmanss]

I eat fish semen and enjoy it tons - Every time I buy a large quantity of fish (a few kg's) I pull out all the semen and caviar from the femeles and fry in the pan - goes well with lemon juice. Absolutely tasty stuff ツ

Precious, Strangely I'm not surprised you like semen and enjoy it tons and even buy it in large quantities

[lxskllr]

ew.. that sounds gross :P .. You should browse for something called Surströmming though. It's called a Swedish delicacy... I've lived in sweden and never dared to taste it, i challenge you to buy 1 can and eat some. Its basically fish in a can, nothing wrong with that, right? *smile*

Surströmming (pronounced [sʉ̌ːʂtrœmːɪŋ], Swedish "soured (Baltic) herring") is a northern Swedish dish consisting of fermented Baltic herring. Surströmming is sold in cans, which may bulge after prolonged storage, due to the continued fermentation. When opened, the contents release a strong and sometimes overwhelming odor, which explains why the dish is often eaten outdoors. A Japanese study has shown that the smell of a newly opened can of surströmming is the most putrid smell of food in the world, beating similar fermented fish dishes such as the Korean Hongeohoe or Japanese Kusaya.[1]

In August 2011, German food critic and author Wolfgang Fassbender wrote in a major Swiss newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, that "the biggest challenge when eating surströmming is to vomit only after the first bite, as opposed to before." [9]
[edit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming

[Mayhart]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surströmming

YEP, that describes it alright! Good job!

[precious007]

Precious, Strangely I'm not surprised you like semen and enjoy it tons and even buy it in large quantities

you should try it ;-)

[chainsnuser]

These "congealed pig’s blood dipping blocks" that Mr. Dennis finds so shocking (but tasty) in his article, sound like a delicacy from the region where I live. It gets mixed with flour and speck. You can buy it in every butcher shop. The stuff is incredibly tasty - no need to get used to - it really tastes yummy. But yeah, people who are born 100 Km away won't touch it.

I could go on with sausage made from pig's heads - tastes great!

My grandmother used to eat the raw roe, the whole pieces with the skin around, everytime she filleted herrings. She always offered me a piece of it, but as I child I didn't find it appetizing. I'm sure it tastes great though, probably like caviar, but I haven't tried it till today. Haven't had a fresh herring in more than 30 years (only canned stuff). That's weird, when I start to think about it. Big city modern convenience life!

Cheers!

[Chigger]

The guys at my hunting camp are rather fond of deer testicles as well as the liver, kidney, and heart. Me, I'd much rather have a nice steak or tenderloin.

[CoderGuy]

Not sure if that is weirder than this... I think I would risk the heat stroke personally.

Urine-soaked 'virgin boy eggs' are a springtime taste treat in China By Reuters March 29, 2012, 4:37 pm

MSN.com

51-year-old vendor Ge Yaohua eats a hard-boiled egg cooked in boys' urine at his stall in Dongyang, Zhejiang province.

DONGYANG, China - Officials in China have listed a local food delicacy of eggs soaked in boys' urine as part of the region's intangible cultural heritage.
Every spring, street vendors in the city of Dongyang sell 'virgin boy eggs' as a unique snack.
Basins and buckets of boys' urine are collected from primary school toilets. Eggs are then soaked and cooked in the urine.
There is no good explanation for why it has to be boys' urine, just that it has been so for centuries.
The scent of these eggs being cooked in pots of urine is unmistakable as people pass the many street vendors in Dongyang who sell it, claiming it has remarkable health properties.
Aly Song / Reuters
A vendor pours a bucket of boys' urine into a pot of hard-boiled eggs.

"If you eat this, you will not get heat stroke. These eggs cooked in urine are fragrant," said Ge Yaohua, 51, who owns one of the more popular "virgin boy eggs" stalls.
"They are good for your health. Our family has them for every meal. In Dongyang, every family likes eating them."
It takes nearly an entire day to make these unique eggs, starting off by soaking and then boiling raw eggs in a pot of urine. After that, the shells of the hard-boiled eggs are cracked and they continue to simmer in urine for hours.
Vendors have to keep pouring urine into the pot and controlling the fire to keep the eggs from being overheated and overcooked.
Ge said he has been making the snack, popular due to its fresh and salty taste, for more than 20 years. Each egg goes for 1.50 yuan ($0.24), a little more than twice the price of the regular eggs he also sells.
Many Dongyang residents, young and old, said they believed in the tradition passed on by their ancestors that the eggs decrease body heat, promote better blood circulation and just generally reinvigorate the body.
Aly Song / Reuters
51-year-old vendor Ge Yaohua shows the inside of a hard-boiled egg cooked in boys' urine at his stall

"By eating these eggs, we will not have any pain in our waists, legs and joints. Also, you will have more energy when you work," said Li Yangzhen, 59, who bought 20 eggs from Ge.
The eggs are not bought only at street stalls. Local residents are also known to personally collect boys' urine from nearby schools to cook the delicacy in their homes.
The popularity of the treat has led the local government to list the "virgin boy eggs" as an intangible cultural heritage.
Aly Song / Reuters
51-year-old vendor Ge Yaohua (R) passes a bag of hard-boiled eggs cooked in boys' urine to a customer holding her baby on a street in Dongyang, Zhejiang province.

But not everyone is a fan. Chinese medical experts gave mixed reviews about the health benefits of the practice, with some warning about sanitary issues surrounding the use of urine to cook the eggs.
Some Dongyang residents also said they hated the eggs.
"We have this tradition in Dongyang that these eggs are good for our health and that it would help prevent things like getting a cold," said Wang Junxing, 38. "I don't believe in all this, so I do not eat them."

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news...treat-in-china

[sgreger1]

Not sure if that is weirder than this... I think I would risk the heat stroke personally.



http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news...treat-in-china

"Our family has them for every meal."


Seriously WTF? We share the earth with people like this, who eat urine soaked eggs every meal lol.

[Premium Parrots]

I never tried it and don't intend to but I heard some people eat it.



scat





nuff said

[sgreger1]

These "congealed pig’s blood dipping blocks" that Mr. Dennis finds so shocking (but tasty) in his article, sound like a delicacy from the region where I live.

Cheers!

Bro my wife is Philipino, her mom owns a restaurant that is really popular and one of their delicacies is a sort of pork that looks like it's in some sort of chocolate sauce. The sauce is actually coagulated pigs blood. Another favorite of theirs is the grounded pig heart (and brains I believe). The first time I went to their restaurant when we were still dating, I was like "Mmm it's chocolate meat", and my wife is like "Umm.. I don't think you would enjoy that."

They also eat Balut, the chicken eggs that they allow to grow until there is a small chicken in the egg (think baby fluffy chicken), and then they boil it and eat it. Imagine a hard boiled eggs where you bite into it and there is a big baby chicken in there, who's bones are soft and chewy. Whenever I hear "delicacy" in foreign food i've learned to stay away from it.

[Roo]

Of all the weird things I've eaten, I do believe the most foul (or fowl, if you will) was congealed duck's blood, prepared the way it was described above. I was at this farm restaurant in Guangxi Province and the dude asked us what we wanted, duck or goose. We said both. He disappeared, and next thing we know he is running full speed in his field with a net on a pole, like for fishing, and he chased down a duck (then later a goose), grabbed it my the neck, which he then broke, and then sliced the duck's throat and bled it out over a bowl. Fair enough. Some time later he brings out a steaming wok full of the duck meat and head and bones of course, and as we start eating he puts the bowl with all the blood from the killing right in front of my place at the table so I can stare at it and watch flies drown in it while I eat my meal. When most of the meat was gone he poured water in the wok, which was on a burner, then started boiling it with all the bones to make a soup (and meanwhile the Chinese at the table are discussing who gets to eat the duck's head). So once the soup is ready, he dumps the bowl of blood, which is now congealed, into the soup, and once it takes on a gelatinous consistency he slices it like a pie. And that is how eating congealed duck's blood came to pass. The aftertaste was so awful, I can't begin to describe it. After finishing it, after all the beer and water at the table had been consumed before the blood, I then had an hour van ride back into Guilin with nothing to drink to get rid of the putrid taste in my mouth. That's what I remember most. That, and that I had to shit so bad but the only toilet available at the restaurant was an outhouse with a severely soiled hole in the ground, over which dangled a spider the size of my hand. Eff that.

I know lots of cultures eat blood in various preparations, but after many years of adventurous eating, it has earned a spot on my short list of foodstuffs not **** with: Blood, brains, and liver. I can't stand liver of any kind.

My most memorable meal, however, has to be and probably always will be one very simple and straightforward large serving of chopped dog meat served in a wok on a table, washed down with a $150 dollar bottle of cognac. That was it -- dog and cognac. Mmmm, China.

[chainsnuser]

There are definitely "delicacies" that taste weird or need some heavy getting used to, but others only have some weird-sounding ingredients.

Duck-blood doesn't sound good for me neither (I even don't like the taste of duck-meat), but this food I already mentioned, called Möpkenbrot, with pig-blood as a main ingredient, is pure umami:



People with a sensitive stomach will probably not want to know, how it's made, but for all the others here I have a translation of the German Wikipedia-article:
http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwik i%2FMöpkenbrot

It's mostly eaten cold, with a slice of bread, but I prefer it slightly fried, as a main dish with potatoes, onions, peas and carrots.

The original recipe certainly stems from a time, when people couldn't afford to be picky about their food, but unlike modern fast food this has been improved on a background of centuries of culinary art. It's a standard dish here, but only in a rather small region. You won't get it anywhere else and people from elsewhere will usually not eat it.

Cheers!