In my quest to try everything, I’ve eaten some weird and bizarre foods. See the 10 most bizarre foods I’ve eaten and experience what they taste like in this satirical review.
I’ll try anything twice. Well, maybe not that Greenland shark, but I love to experiment with unique foods around the world. These are the 10 strangest things I have tried with a satirical culinary review of each to bring the horrible experience alive for you.
10. Grasshopper and Worm Tacos. These are traditional Aztec foods and are now increasingly popularity at upscale restaurants and trendy mezcalerias in the highlands of Mexico. These bugs are highly nutritious and can pack a strong flavor when cooked with secret family blends of local spices. These bugs all have crunchy shells with creamy, moist fillings that ooze flavor when bitten. They go great with a smokey, small batch mezcal and some hot sauce.
9. Live Ants. Used as a renewable “spice” in the steamy Amazon jungles of Ecuador and Peru, lemon ants can be used as a flavoring on mashed potatoes where they stick and can’t run off the plate. These caramel-colored ants live only in special places in the jungle called devil’s gardens within hollow pockets of vegetation and provide an interesting symbiotic benefit to the tree they infest. The texture is crunchy with a “pop” when you bite them and a burst of tangy lemongrass fluids — a warm welcome after a week surviving in the Amazon jungle on tasteless staples. Be sure to bite into them fully to keep them from biting you later.
8. Whole Guinea Pig. This rodent is a staple of South American cuisine. I was so alarmed at the terrified look on the face of my first guinea pig on a plate that I sent the dish back and asked them to chop his head off. He looked like he was boiled alive and his face stuck like that, eternally staring at me with fear and loathing. Guinea pig tastes a bit like rabbit with a gamey taste and a sticky mouthfeel. The tiny muscles require a fair bit of scavenging to find enough sustenance. The locals eat the skin, which is very tough and chewy.
7. “African Calamari.” This is made from slices of cow’s stomach. Smooth on one side and intensely bumpy on the other, it has a salty taste with a tough chewy texture and a mouthfeel of rough sandpaper giving way to a definite fishy taste, hence its local nickname. It finishes strongly gamey and leaves you with a bunch of crunchy grit in your mouth and an aftertaste of dead grass.
6. Hákarl or Greenland Shark. Anthony Bourdain described it as, “the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing” he has ever eaten. Served soft frozen to mute the taste slightly, it has the consistency of a frozen popsicle. The fish is inedible to humans, so it is buried in the ground to decompose for 4 months and comes out the concentrated essence of putridness. The taste of horribly rotten fish is quickly overwhelmed by the intense taste and smell of ammonia that fills your nasal cavity and brings instant tears to your eyes. They have puke buckets readily available for people who cannot quell their gag reflex. The horrible taste lingers through dozens of tooth brushings.
5. Jellyfish. One of the more bizarre foods on the planet is live jellyfish. The texture of a jellyfish is gelatinous and extremely chewy, almost crunchy, making a loud squeaking sound as you chew. It has a very subtle, delicate taste of fishiness like a soft seaweed soup. The tendrils can be slurped up like spaghetti. It is normal to experience a very slight numbing of the tongue and mouth that can last a few hours. Jellyfish spoil extremely quickly and yellow, so look for a translucent white color to indicate top quality.
4. Roadkill Whiskey, Vietnam. Snake whiskey is revered in Vietnam as an aphrodisiac, treatment for muscle pain and almost any serious illness imaginable. It is common to see king cobras, black scorpions and ginseng soaking in bottles, but some restaurants add rats, lizards and even dead birds of questionable origin into the monstrous glass jars to soak for 6 months. It tastes like very strong, stinging whisky and finishes with a subtle taste of rodent and reptile tartness on the back of your tongue. It leaves you with an interesting boost of energy and focus. Despite the noxious taste, you will soon crave another shot.
3. Open-Tub Banana Beer. In Burundi’s second city, the Catholic Church controls the majority of the economy in that area. The Church’s main revenue source comes from making the best banana beer around. Huge vats of the liquefied rotten banana pulp covered in flies are still fermenting at market stands. The lady with the huge spoon waives aside the black free-floating slime covering this dark yellow liquid concoction and your empty water bottle is filled with the freshest rotten homemade liquor around. Be careful, it is much stronger than it seems.
2. Fried Tarantula. There is a town called Skuon on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia where there are so many tarantulas that at night the ground looks like an endless boiling ocean of hairy legs. The locals stir fry these in chili oil and spices. They actually taste wonderful, like a fried Thai soft-shelled crab… But hairy. I prefer not to eat the main body, as a noxious green liquid squirts out that tastes and smells pretty foul but it won’t hurt you.
1. Beating Cobra Heart Shot. A must-do in Vietnam. Cobra is a delicacy that is becoming highly regulated and harder to find. The slithering live cobra is brought to your table by the waitstaff. Its chest is sliced open and the beating heart is carefully pulled out of the body. It is chopped off at the arteries and drops into a shot of clear rice wine that is quickly stained red. It has the slippery, muscular consistency of a live oyster. You crush it slightly between your teeth and the hollow chambers release the last of the cobra blood. It kicks as it slides down your throat.
Want to see more bizarre foods? Try this article: SHOCKING: Brad tries the Chef’s special at Indonesia’s Most Macabre Meat Market
I want to hear from you! Have you tried any of these Exotic Foods? What is the weirdest food you have eaten or heard about? Here is my running list, help me add to it…
The top 10 weirdest foods I have not tried
- Puffed queen ants
- Dog
- Bull testicles
- Roaches
- Maggot Cheese
- Fertilized duck eggs Philipeans
- Ox penis
- Hundred year rotten egg
- Live Monkey brains
- Human Remains??
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at 4:05 pm
Ok, those are definitely strange, I don’t know if I could eat any of them. I’m already afraid of plenty of other things. I was just writing about some of my fears while traveling, they’re a little more odd ball, and out there, but I think making it funny helps 🙂 Check it out and let me know what you think
Shannon // Camera recently posted…Honest to Goodness Fears & Crazy Person Thoughts I’ve Had While Traveling
at 8:55 am
U should try “balut” fertilized egg from the phillippines..it’s delicious! Or hmm…what about “haring” from holland…a fresh fish but no sushi hahaha
at 2:55 am
Balut is wonderful. Would anyone consider it a bizarre food?
at 2:43 pm
Fantastic! I love these kinds of lists! I’m looking forward to trying the lemon ants! I’ve got a few items from your “not yet” list like dog, fertilized egg, (smoked) monkey and 100 year egg. Only the monkey was good. Besides that, mine would be: camel burger, turtle cooked in 3 ways, smoked rat, rodent-foetus infused alcohol … Somehow it always ends up being weird meats or animal parts…
Sarah recently posted…3 Awesome Budget Accomodations in Albania
at 2:48 pm
Thanks for reading, Sarah. Dog is one of the worst things I’ve had, but field rat is great! What was 100 year egg like? That sounds worse than Hákarl! Just make sure you bite the lemon ants or they just may bite you. :-/
at 4:47 pm
Great list – I can add bear guts, dragon fly soup, clotted ducks blood and goats ass. Oh, and I’ve had a few dogs in my time. Most of this was whilst living rurally in Vietnam. I now live in Senegal where thankfully they eat fairly conservatively!
at 5:13 pm
Sounds delicious! Was the goat ass au jus?
at 5:18 pm
Yes, but I wiped it dry.
Simon Fenton recently posted…It’s the end of the year as we know it, and I feel fine
at 11:22 am
This sounds and seems fascinating! But whenever my mind turns to bizarre foods, I wonder if I have the heart to try something like that. I guess I’ll never know until I go for it. (I do have a list of some things that I want to try.)
I have heard about edible bird’s nest that seemed pretty bizarre to me at the time. But after having read your article, I guess it is not that jaw-dropping. Or is?
Your thirst for adventure is contagious. Looking forward to more!
Meghna N recently posted…NOTES FROM HIS FLUTE.
at 11:35 am
Thanks for reading, Meghna. Many of these I have tried so you don’t have to. Many of these are actually surprisingly pleasant. Bird’s best soup is pretty common in Southeast Asia. You should try it, it’s not bad, though not very filling. 🙂
at 1:07 pm
I guess I will then. Thanks! 😀
at 12:46 pm
So glad I stumbled on upon your blog! I have eaten balut (the fertilized chicken/duck eggs in the PI & Vietnam). It’s pretty delicious…just sprinkle some salt & pepper on it and cover the baby chick with a sprig of mint leaves and you’re good to go!
at 12:51 pm
Thanks, Amy!
Oh wow, I love balut! It caused a bit of heated debate on my Instagram account. The texture of beaks and feathers is a bit awkward. I had no idea about the sprig of mint leaves, what a great idea! I have to try it.
at 1:14 pm
hahah – I try not to eat the feathers….and ignore the beak?! O_O I’m trying to find your latest adventures/country you’re in! Where are you at now?!
at 1:38 pm
I’m island hopping in the Caribbean for a couple weeks. Just got back from India, what a total disaster of a trip! Almost died a few times, but it makes for great entertainment. Those stories are coming really soon– the most ridiculous stuff you’ve ever heard, I can hardly believe it myself.
at 11:15 pm
Interesting list! The Greenland Shark sounds positively repulsive!
I’ve eaten jelly fish and scorpions in China and liked both. Didn’t care for chicken feet or tripe which I tried in Calgary – in Chinatown. Ate squirrel in Louisiana – lots of bones and not much meat – but it wasn’t cooked whole and staring at me from the plate like your guinea pig experience!
Susan Moore recently posted…Vistas – Montserrat Summit – Hiking Sant Jeroni Trail
at 2:55 pm
o….m….g…. you are SO adventurous! I am a pretty brave girl but I think foods like this are my limit. I couldn’t even read the last four!
One Girl: One World recently posted…The Billboard Awards in Las Vegas!
at 5:42 pm
Ha, thanks. yeah, I’ll try just about anything out of curiosity. I mean, some people eat this stuff everyday. You should check out the last 4 when your stomach is up for it.
brad340 recently posted…The Secret Lives of Sea Gypsies by BRAD BERNARD
at 6:45 pm
I love the mexican grasshoppers (chapulines)! they are really good when you are drinking beer! 🙂
at 8:49 pm
Great list! My weirdest are scorpions, durian, and rabbit brains. I would have a really hard time with the shark I think.
Katherine Belarmino recently posted…Paris May be the City of Love, But I Didn’t Love Paris
at 10:16 pm
Thanks for reading. Yeah, it’s a little disconcerting to be given a puke bucket with your meal of ammonia-soaked shark. I’ve got to try scorpion, it looks so good from your video. Rabbit brains? Sounds odd.
at 8:57 am
eeeew! I tried guinea pig in Peru and am still horrified by the fact it is literally deep-fried whole! I wasn’t expecting the teeth/claws etc to come out as well 🙁 although I have to say Balut has to be number one food I could never try!
Twitter: Abbagoochiette
at 6:35 pm
The Swedish Surströmming, ‘sourherring’, comes in a can and has to be opened outside because of the smell. We tried to have a Surströmming Party once, but I couldn’t get close enough to the treat without the gagging getting too bad. It’s gotta be like 16 years ago and I still remember the smell.
My dad, who’s got a pretty good stomach, managed to get down a bit before he had to throw up in the nearest rose bush.
The bush died. Honestly.
at 11:57 pm
Hundred year rotten egg (or century egg) is delicious!
at 10:20 am
It’s delicious?? How can a fermented, rotten egg be delicious. I have to try it, but my expectations are set pretty low for that one!
Twitter: the_HoliDaze
at 1:09 pm
Great list! Clearly I have some catching up to do… 😉