While many gourmands and food connoisseurs in the United States and Western Europe will heartily eat a snail broiled in garlic, many still turn up their noses at earthworms, chocolate covered ants and scorpion lollipops. Still, while we can stomach most of those concoctions, there are some that we never wish to try – or even be in the same room with! – again.
Though many of these dishes are considered delicacies in their countries of origin (and a big round of applause to those that consider them tasty treats), here's a sampling of the strangest (and, in our opinion, foulest tasting!) dishes members of our team have ever tasted in our travels around the globe.
Hákarl (Iceland)
A traditional Icelandic food with a distinctive ammonia-like smell and taste, Hákarl is made from rotten Greenland shark meat because the fresh meat is poisonous with an abundance of metabolic waste products. After this auspicious start, the meat is allowed to naturally decay in a shallow pit over the course of 6-12 weeks. Pressure is applied with heavy stones to drive any fluids out of the fish. Afterward, the fish is dried in the open air for several months. The taste is indescribable – somewhere between ammonia and rotten tuna casserole. We'll leave this dish off of our menu on the next trip to Iceland.
Balut (Philippines)
Once opened, the mere sight of this Filipino street food is enough to make most Western visitors to the archipelago gag. Balut, you see, is a partially developed duck embryo – dead, thank goodness – that remains safely ensconced inside its shell until some unsuspecting foodie decides to try it. The really impressive part about my experience in eating this “delicacy” was watching the relish with which the locals tore into it. To be honest, we could only pick at the truly eggy part and left the remainder of the embryo to our guide -- we weren't brave enough!
Durian (Malaysia)
How bad can a fruit taste, you might ask? After all, it is natural but the answer is, unfortunately, horrible. How bad can it be? There are hotels in southeast Asia that ban the fruit from the premises because of its intensely revolting aroma even though durian is often titled the “King of Fruits” in these nations. For us, the taste was not as bad as the smell with overtones of onion, garlic and, oh yeah, raw sewage.
Casu Marzu (Sardinia)
Directly translated from the Sardinian language as “rotten cheese,” casu marzu is remarkable not only for its intensely horrific flavor but also for the plethora of live insect larvae – read that as maggots – that inhabit the inside of the cheese rolls. While some of the more squeamish of the natives will remove the maggots before eating, purists insist that the they and their bodily secretions are actually the soul of the cheese. We tried it both ways and could discern no difference except for the nagging feeling that something was crawling around inside our stomach for several hours. Those Sardinians are a brave people.
Habushu (Okinawa)
Lest you think all gross things only come in solid form, consider the crazy concoction known as Habushu or Okinawan snake whiskey. Long a favorite of U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan, this alcoholic beverage is certainly an acquired taste – and the significant alcohol content probably makes it go down a bit easier. This brew starts with the capture – but not the killing – of the venomous and highly dangerous Habu snake. Placed on ice to partially anesthetize it, the snake is then drowned in a potent form of sake known as awamori. Normally, the snake is not happy about this process and usually takes on a rather menacing look before it expires.
We've got to hand it to the natives of these countries; they've definitely got strong stomachs! These delicacies ar not for the faint of heart, but you'll definitely feel accomplished once you've tried them! What crazy and interesting foods have you tried on your travels?
Image Credits
Hakarl by Islandia Brasil Blog
A Scorpion in My Lollipop by Via Tsuji
Durian Kunyit by Mohd Hafizuddin Husin
Inside of a Balut by Marshall Astor
Habushu by David Pursehouse
