Strange food around the world
Posted by Freyja Oddsdóttir - 25/06/09 at 07:06:42 am
Photo by University of Minnesota
One of the best parts of travelling is the local food! Thanks to globalization, it’s rather easy to find find cuisine from around the world in most larger cities, but when travelling you’ll also come across some rather weird food that you’d not even find in the most metropolitan city… such as jellyfish, spiders and deep fried monkey toes.
One of Malaysia’s biggest delicacies is durian. It’s a fruit as big as a football, covered with tough spiky skin. The pulp is pale yellow, with shape and consistency of raw brains. Smell has been compared to rotting flesh, old gym socks, or sewage. Many believe it aphrodisiac and hold durian-eating parties. Most hotels, and so on, forbid it on the premises. In Malaysia, a friend of mine witnessed someone on a bus grab another person’s durian and throw it out the window, after another passenger threw up. After eating durians, your “durian breath” will linger for up to 6 hours. Durian breath is so bad that it’s ranked higher than garlic in terms of unpleasantness.
Pork Brains on top of scrambled eggs are quite common (but very seldom spoke of) in the south of the USA. For some reason pork brains are canned in milk gravy and sold in many grocery stores around the south. Unlike many “specialty foods”, you are more likely to find pork brains in a small-town grocery store. It can usually be found in the same vicinity of potted meat product or other canned meat/meat parts. According to my friend, it looked like fried cat food and tasted even worse. I guess it’s an “acquired” taste. One serving has 1170% daily value of cholesterol, so it is a sure fire way to an instant heart attack.
Since Dohop is an Iceland based company, this entry cannot be written without mentioning traditional Icelandic food, fermented shark, pickled sheep testicles and a jellied sheep’s head. While the fermented shark is not considered particularly nice tasting but more of a challenge for our foreign guests, the testicles and the head are actually quite nice if you can get past the fact that you’re eating… a head and testicles!
Bugs are eaten all over the world… mostly in South-East Asia but also in Mexico, Africa and even Australasia. They are an excellent source of protein and tasty recipes can be found on the internet, such as this Banana Worm Bread:
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 eggs
1/4 cup dry-roasted army worms
Mix together all ingredients. Bake in greased loaf pan at 175°C for about 1 hour.
There were a few delicacies that were too inappropriate to be included on this blog. If you’re brave enough, I dare you to google weird food!
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I still regret not having had a “dick on a stick” while in China.. That would have been an interesting meal.
Comment by Erna — June 25, 2009 #
[...] keilani wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBugs are eaten all over the world… mostly in South-East Asia but also in Mexico, Africa and even Australasia. They are an excellent source of protein and tasty recipes can be found on the internet, such as this Banana Worm Bread: … [...]
Pingback by Good Recipes » Blog Archive » the Dohop blog » Strange food around the world — June 26, 2009 #