FIPS
07-20-2009, 07:02 AM
MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE UNINTENTIONALLY RACIST THREAD, FROM 2002:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=19620&start=0&tstart=0
Strange Food?
What's the strangest thing you've EATEN in the…Asian region? I'd like to hear what kind of weird food delicacies are out there. (Maybe things I might want to avoid or try in the future…)
The reply posts include:
I had jellyfish in Shanghai on a few occasions. It looks a bit like fried onion rings, but tastes completely different. I found the taste to be a bit sour and a bit musty (is this the right word?) as well. You will love it (not).
I didn't actually eat it, but when in Beijing around New Year's time I saw lots of tiny birds plucked, cooked (probably roasted) and stacked whole about three to a stick - a lot like shish-kabob.
I ate fried scorpions in Beijing, it was scary to put the first in my mouth sting and all, but they were good, a bit like very crispy bacon. I asked my Chinese brother-in-law about the affect of eating it poison and all and he replied a bit of scorpion poison good chinese medicine!
Live octopus in Korea. The suckers (sic) stick to your lips, your teeth, your gums... and then squirm all the way down... after that, live shrimp and live eel wasn't so bad... but still…in Korea, jellyfish is eaten cold in very thin strips, mixed with cucumber, radish and some chinese mustard, sort of like a salad. ...and then, there is poshintang - dog meat soup.
I once had Frog's Eggs cooked in some sweet liquid for dessert in a Chinese restaurant in Singapore. It looked like some strange jelly with a white center. After taking a small teaspoonful, I asked the waitress what I was eating. When she told me, I nearly threw up!
I live in Hong Kong and I once had to eat toad egg jell....it was a present and it's very expensive so I couldn't offend by not eating it. The taste was repulsive but the texture just made me gag - think rancid frogspawn. The only way I could do it was by chucking a strong belt of Scotch in the stuff.
In the countryside (nagano prefecture) in Japan, it's pretty normal to find stewed grasshopper and roasted bee larvae…
my friend kevin says he ate camel tendon--doesn't remember where. and he says that one of his friends ate a pig's ass on a dare
A big fat BBQ rat - Taiwan is a wonderful place to sample food that some consider pests.
No gnats but…Cats, Bats and Rats.
After living in japan for 8 years nothing seems weird anymore. Amongst the culinary highlights I have had raw venison (absolutely divine), tempura deep fried baby salamander (no taste really, but they insisted that I eat it from the head first), the jellyfish (good), bee larvae (great), raw horse (so-so) and deep fried grasshoppers. I also tried out the deep fried giant cockroaches in Myanmar; not bad, very sweet and crunchy. Others that kind of blew me away at the time were pickled sea squirt (very nice with sake), snake meat, snake blood and raw snake hearts in sake (thank God I had already drunk enough to get me through that evening!)…And of course, the first time I had dinner at my (now) wife’s family home, her father, being a great joker, had to test the limits. Started off with the normal sea urchin eggs etc., then sakura (raw horse; be careful as horse meat can harbor parasites than are transferable to humans!), raw chicken (same cautions apply)…To cap it off he placed this plate in front of me piled up with what looked like congealed blood; it was actually dolphin! Well, what do you do? And it did taste just like blood; then I asked Dad if he was going to eat some and he said 'Me eat that shit? You've got to be joking!
I saw people fish, what seemed to be small goldfish from a pond in Beijing zoo and then eat them raw. I did not try it myself, but I am sure it's better than the 3 month old greenish eggs they eat too... The good thing about China is that must menus are in Chinese only, so if you're eating dog or rat meat, you probably won’t know it.
You can try the deep fried bamboo worms in any Bai restaurant in Yunnan (China), namely in Kuming or Xishuangbanna. They're nice with dried pork meat.
Donkey and sea slug. Steer clear of the last, but donkey ain’t too bad. I did see "fried crap" on a menu in Beijing, lets hope it was a typo.
In Taiwan, in winter, most people like eat dog meal because they feel warm after eat it. Some people like eat monkey's brain or frog. If you interest in it .You can visit Taiwan.
Nothing like scooping the brains out of a boiled sheep's head from Xi'an's muslim quarter...and the eyes are to die for!
Raw dog meat served with dog bile sauce. Soooo bitter.
Drunken Shrimp: a delicacy served in many restaurants in Sichuan province. Under a glass bowl, mired in a bed of lakeweed, impregnated with vinegar, garlic and high octane liquor, you watch live, manic shrimp slowly become inebriated until their antenna are barely moving before popping them in your mouth. Not repulsive in flavour or texture but you are reluctant to chew when the food can chew back!
Turbine Mutton/Pig - my description of a feast prepared in a remote, rural community in the Liangshan Yi Minority region, near Xi Chang, southwest of Chengdu. Take 1 large sheep or pig, extrude through turbine engine, collect effluent, boil and serve in large white enamel basins, eat with wooden, sideways spoon, not chopsticks. Choose from skin, intestine, organ meat, fat chunks, teeth and occasional muscle, i.e., a gestalt experience. Served in a large, open courtyard of town centre while squatting on small, rectangular seats with 6" legs, all the men in a circle around the basins of pig, mutton, mantou, boiled potatoes and rice, washed down with spoonfuls of yellow, mutton soup.
Sea urchin sushi. Very tasty, but feels just like eating wet sawdust. Has that kind of gooey feeling with rough bits in it.
The strangest food I had in China was duck's feet, duck stomach…stinky tofu made from blood.
Sparrow yakitori in Japan - head was real mushy and tasted like mud and the body was crunchy, like eating a handful of toothpicks. Thank god for sake!
Giant ants and wasps
In the deep rainforest of Papua New Guinea we had been offered ants and wasps to eat alive! The kids came from all over the place to eat them. I tried. The ants taste sour and the wasps were sweet! But this was only an appetizer. For dinner we had a kind of "local rat" (Marsupial), hunted with bows and arrows, roasted on the fire for hours with all their guts and fur! I just tried a leg…
Frogs, snakes 'n' Fugu
G'day, Been to Hong Kong + Japan just recently and I was determined to try as many different foods as possible. 1st day got into the old pigs intestine's not bad, next I went for the toad stir fried with ginger…but the best in Hong Kong is when (just like in Indiana Jones movies) they serve up a snake slice her open and "hey ho" there's hundreds of baby snakes for dinner.
Ox penis soup
It was definitely not that kind of German soups called ox-tale-soup (the original names in German sounds both the same). The soup was hot but the "meat" itself tasted like a bit of chewable nothing in your mouth…
Saumagen
You don´t have to travel far to find disgusting food - even in Europe. Go to the Pfalz area in south-west Germany and order Saumagen, a pig´s stomach filled with blood, brain, liver etc. Bon appetit!
Cui
I had some guinea pig in Ecuador (locally known as cui). It was served in one piece, standing in a bed of potatoes and peanut sauce. Quite a beauty looking at you with the little head, ears and teeth sticking out. Crispy skin, very fatty and hardly any meat. The head is a delicacy and has to be eaten completely!
Peking duck, with everything still in it. I, being the youngest and the daughter of the guests, was offered the brain. It tasted like a peanut and was about the same size.
Lake flies in Malawi
While traveling in Africa last year we came upon some caterpillars and grilled mice on skewers but by far the most amazing thing were lake flies. There are some islands in the middle of Lake Malawi where, occasionally, swarms of lake flies reach. People come out of their homes and swing large baskets to collect thousands of these tiny flies and then they mold them into small patties….
Little did I know what was in the tom-yam at the Issarn restaurant on Saket road. My wife asked me "Honey, you know what meat you eating?" I said, "Uh, no, but it tastes okay to me." She said, "You eating cow's penis!" I chewed on that bit of information…
More peculiar international foods: A girl from Japan told me about a friend of hers, who in China ate a living monkey's brain. The head and scalp was sliced open, but the monkey strapped down. The poor fellow (obviously the monkey not the Japanese) was crying during the process. The dish is supposed to be illegal, but I guess with a bunch of money, one can do anything. In Korea, there's roasted silk worm larvae (smells like burnt hair). And also another interesting dish. Little live eels are boiled in a pot of water with a block of tofu. The heat drives the eels for refuge in the tofu, so they get cooked speared into the tofu. Then the tofu is taken out and sliced with the little chunks of eel…
Lamb Leather
In Norway I had a traditional Christmas dinner with a friend's family that consisted of a dish that was made from a lamb that had been slaughtered in the spring, introduced with some sort of mildew and left to dry in the cellar for 9 months. Once it had become a chunk of hard moldy leather, it was sliced thinly and soaked in Aquavit, to of course cover the moldy lamb flavor with fiery PAIN! It was the most difficult thing I've ever had to eat, but at least it got me drunk.
In Saigon, I ate pig's brain, which was mixed in with scrambled eggs. And in Hanoi, I was served bull's penis! (And no, they didn’t just tell me that as a joke -- it was printed on the menu!)
…chicken's head in Xishuangbanna; eating pig's brain and scrambled eggs in Saigon; and being served bull's penis in a restaurant in Hanoi.
Most countries I have traveled to eat some pretty strange foods! But the Orient was the weirdest. It is difficult to eat an animal (dog) (or cat) that you spent most of your childhood with. Asians overall are extremely barbaric. Some days we were pretty freaked out. We joked that the only thing they DON’T eat is people! Ironically after that, in one village that we were in, we were told that the soup we were eating had fluid and tissue from the testicles of a older man who had died in the village that week who had fathered many children and went on to have many grandchildren. He was believed to be "fertile and fruitful" in his life and his prosperity was to be passed on to everyone in the village. I really hope this was a joke (!!). Sure gives new meaning to "Sweet and Sour soup". We also saw several bamboo cages of cats waiting to be skinned and eaten in most cities and towns. We were told that they bonk the cat on the head so its woozy and then skin it and deep fry it. We believed them and did not stick around to watch it. All in all, the countryside throughout Asia is beautiful and the people are pretty friendly. But it was difficult most days finding and choosing what to eat. Most of the creatures that are consumed are killed brutally, inflicting terror, which is believed to bestow strength for those eating. Next year we are going to travel in a strictly Buddhist area for a change!…
How about boiled turtle in Guilin? Pretty good except for the feet which had a couple bones too many in them. Really thin slices of deer antlers were pretty good too...kind of like toasted almond slices. I was only allowed to have a couple because they are considered to be an aphrodisiac…
…deer sinew and conpoy.
You don't have to go all the way to Asia to find weird food…Come to Iceland for the putrefied shark (we bury it for a few months and then dig it up and eat it). It is a heavily acquired taste. If someone offers some to you, there will usually be a glass of the horrible Black Death schnapps with it. If you don't like the smell of the shark, drink the schnapps first, that's what we do!
Chicken Embryo Soup in Vietnam. Seemed odd to have those little chickies bobbin up and all around in the soup. Fried Swallow in Vietnam. Being an invited guest I received the heads and necks…
I was just in Mongolia and we had BOODOG or marmot (bit like large guinea pig)…Blow off the marmot’s head with a large gun, after calling it up from its burrow with a call…Pull out the viscera through the neck. Burn off all the fur with a blow torch (helps with the bubonic plague fleas), stuff with hot rocks and cook from the inside out. Leave the feet on as they make an attractive feature as carried to the table. Enjoy!! (Guests: this doesn't include you) For anyone who is bothered, marmot tastes like gone off gamey goose run over by a truck.
we were in a market in Seoul, and started playing menu- roulette (i,e,. pointing to an unknown word on the menu, gritting one's teeth, and hoping for the best), and struck out hard...they whipped out the sea cucumber, chopped it into slices with a cleaver, and left the pieces for us on a plate, moving ever so slightly. Sort of like living jello, only with a bad taste.
1) instant jelly fish (I suppose you just add hot water to the suspicious content of the bag and - voilá - you get a jelly fish);
2) dried yak penis Both items purchased in Lhasa, Tibet.
SOUTH KOREAN ADDER WHISKEY, SO CALLED AS IT CONTAINED A LARGE, DECAYING ADDER IN IT.
Esophagus Now
The menu was a dodgy english translation classic; "fish cream", "inside of cow soup" and "deep-fried come with honey"…
Yuck!
My girlfriend and I were staying with the Phrang-wao tribe in the hills of the Thai-Cambodia border. On a special festival day, after much food and drink, the village chieftain introduced us to a wonderful ceremony. My girlfriend has always been a bit reluctant, but I pointed out to her that this wasn't in the Lonely Planet, and was hence worth doing as a desperate means of doing something original to outdo hordes of fools we had met 'on the road'. We both received ceremonial semen from the elder's member, termed 'Phong tat gab', or 'the root of ages'. It tasted bloody terrible!
Dried tongues from pappies
Actually I do not had them, but they were available on table on the street in Hangzhou. It was some 40 small dried "things" and it was too much for me that day - on the end I had there some frogs for diner. Some snakes - in on restaurant personal was playing with snake in front of us before he cutes had by scissors. On other hand some French cheeses are something, that I do not need to eat at all. Sometimes is possible find in the night markets some fried beatles (every night in the night market in Bangkok near National Library near Sri Aythuaia road). Worse drink in my life was probably in China some that bottle, that look like vodka or gin, but taste like turpentine.
I hope it isn't considered rude to post such a long entry, but this is copied from my journal: NOTES ABOUT MANADO, November 23, 1994 "We’d like an order of rat, please." "Sudah habis. Already finished." "Oh … rats. OK, how about some RW (pronounced ‘airway’)?" "You mean anjing? Dog? Tidak ada. There isn’t any." "Well then, how about some paniki?" "Sure. How much would you like?" "Sedikit saja. Just a little bit." … of bat. We came to Manado, a city of 250,000 inhabitants on the northeastern tip of the orchid-shaped island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), to do some scuba diving…We were told "they eat dog in Denpasar sometimes", but our friend was not willing to do so himself because the local dogs might be able to hear it barking in his stomach and would be angry with him. Dog meat is considered a "hot" food which gives lots of energy and is good for people with asthma.. We all agreed that rat didn’t seem very enticing. Who knows what kind of garbage they might eat. But in Sulawesi, when we wrinkled our noses at the suggestion of rat, our Manadonese driver hastened to assure us that they ate forest rats, not house rats, and that they were considered the most delicious of all.
The bat was rather daunting. I suppose I expected shreds of meat in some sort of stew, but what arrived at the table was a plate bearing a bat entiere, black and shiny, swimming in a bright-yellow oil. The skin looked like patent leather, and appeared to be as tough. In fact it was very stretchy…Our driver pointed to something sort of like a drumstick, but it was so rubbery I couldn’t pull a piece off. I finally found a piece to nibble on and found that the resemblance to rubber didn’t apply only to the texture. In addition to having been cooked in an exceedingly spicy sauce, there was an underlying earthy flavor, with nuances of tar. Rather like road kill. Or maybe part of a blowout found by the side of the road. The driver, at least, partook with gusto, carefully removing one slender white bone at a time from the outstretched wings and happily masticating the resultant limp, glistening mass.
While generally agreeing with our opinion of bat, bat researchers we later met thought that rat was rather more tasty. Dog, they said, was generally presented in such a spicy preparation that it was difficult to distinguish it from other kinds of meat. Their own particular subject of investigation was the black macaque, a small, cuddly-looking woolly black monkey with a lot of personality that is found only in Sulawesi. We had seen several tied up in yards and under houses. They said the reason there were so many captive at this particular time of year was that these unfortunate monkeys serve as substitute Christmas turkeys in this (largely Christian) region.
Dog stew, chicken feet and silk worms (although not all at the same sitting)
Raw cat fish livers
Thank god they were small. VERY bitter. A gulp of sake and they went down easily.
We were treated to a small bowl fresh placenta soup in Lishan, Taiwan. It is a tonic for a woman's post-partum recovery...we got to share a few spoons. A bit salty. The poisonous Tiger-Head Bee Wine the next day was equally interesting, my girlfriend who is a Hakka, had a light epileptic fit. The host told her that the poison was "fighting a poison" in her system, and restoring her "chi". I thought it was similar to Ketamine.
I have seen the following (all are verbatim from menus): "Stewed Pig Tendon with Duck Webs" "Turnip with Jelly Fish" "Malasya Delight w/Shrimp and Ladies Finger".
In Canton we eat this big cock-roach like bugs called Long- shi (not cock-roach, mind you, every different stuff). We also eat a kind of worms grown in the rice fields, fried with scrambled eggs, it's delicious and very nutritious. Of course snake and cat stewed soup is a delicacy (the name is "Dragon fights the Tiger". Small sparrows are great in the fall…
Duck tongue in a restaurant in China. It comes with all the tendons and stuff still attached, and sits there on the plate, this sweet little pokey out tongue…Shrimps soaked in alcohol came live to the table, jumping about in their dish as they died of alcohol poisoning.
Ever had sea cucumber or beef tendons - very mushy and very chewy.
Grasshopper, sea cucumber, raw horse-meat, jellyfish, bee larvae, sea anemone, sea urchin, fish intestine, and that's only japan. From mongolia there is dried horse milk curds (rock hard) and my personal favourite: pure mutton fat! From tibet: yak jerky with skin and fur (adds taste and texture, not to mention smell), baked rat (very tough!) bull's balls and, of course, dog hot pot.
I ate cow spinal cord.
In my fathers village in central Sumatra, once a year after harvest the village elders masturbate the dogs and drink the semen as a part of the celebrations. The taste is not as bad as I expected but the quantity was too much.
Your story truly made me gulp. I have heard something which I believe is stranger. My brother was working for a Islamic school in the Sudan and told me of the practice of frying and eating the external sexual organs of young girls who had suffered that horrific practice of circumcision. As a circumcised male, I cannot believe in that nightmare.
1. I had Chinese style Shabu-Shabu banquet in Beijing, with raw thin sliced meat from all kind of animals, e.x. dog, racoon, deer, snake, donkey, horse....etc. eater use chopstick to dip into individual boiling soup pot for quick cook then eat it.
2. In Japan, live fish sashimi, master chef will use its very sharp knife to "prepare" live fish, into sashimi(raw fish) plate, with head and whole bone/tail attached, cut sashimi slice presented on both side of bone, and fish mouse and eyes still moving and open and close for over 20 minutes, you can imagine how one take raw fish meat from the plate, and watch fish open and close its mouse .
3. Ox penies diced and cooked in Vietnamese rice noodle soup, a bit like tendon.
Cambodia - Deep fried giant cockroaches in Siam Reap
Live Lumbster
I saw once in Brazil a report about Japanese food. I guess all people here knows SUSHI & SASHIMI (my favorite food ever!), TEMAKI, etc. But what about live lumbster? they cut it's torso like sushi...it cries a lot!
Whilst on a tour of Lhasa we were treated to an "authentic" chinese-tibetan meal at local restaurant. As with most places in the world the chinese are very adept at utilising local ingredients in their cooking. Thus what we at first took to be chewy oyster mushrooms stir fried in oyster sauce turned out to be - slivers of yak's lung!
Balot in the Philippines it's a duck chick boiled in the egg
Roast pork uterus
In any korean city you will find vendors selling a soup made out of big chunky silkworms. It LITERALLY smells like shit. I could never bring myself to actually taste it.
I drank a small live fish from a cup, and after it was in my stomach, I could still feel it moving for a few minutes. This was in Japan. Japanese like their food to be "fresh".
Fat tissue from a special creature named "SNOW FROG" - it's supposed to help (together with the herbs which was cooked with it) in keeping one's complexion clear, skin smooth, and moisturised your body "internally". Anyway I tried that and it taste nice and cooling - especially when eaten in a warm weather.....
Monopane worms
I haven't read the whole thread so this may have been covered... While in Namibia last year we had the joy of trying monopane worms. These are large caterpillars, lightly battered and fried. Unfortunately this does not hide the fact that they are caterpillars and taste repulsive.
Python poison for stamina???
First, cut the head off and then hold the tail up & head down with one hand, put a wine-glass on the table, with the other hand, sqqqqqquuuueeeze it to a shot glass. Well, depend on the size but at least you can get 2 glasses. It was north-Jakarta 8 years ago.
Plate of grass at a Peasant food restaurant in Beijing.
In the Philippines, I used to eat balut, which is a duck egg with the embryo inside, really disgusting looking, but balut is thought of as an aphrodisiac by some in the Philippines.
HOYA (raw sea pineapple)? This is the most disgusting food I have ever tasted. I believe the LP Japan describes it as something like burnt tires soaked in ammonia. That was a little too kind of a description.
in Taiwan i had all sorts of wonderful food including various types of wine that had the potential of making one go blind. I drank bee larvae wine and snake wine. Soups included frog soup where they put the frogs into the broth while they were still alive, stinky tofu (and i know some of you have had this) has left a lasting impression because although it tastes not bad the smell is awful (just like dog shit)…
Saddened
As an asian, I am very saddened by those people who look upon us as uncivilived and babaric. True, there are lots of food that I myself cannot handle. However, what about some western cuisine? What about people eating rabbit's brain because it's good for the body?!!? I know this site is for fun and to have a good laugh and all but please exclude comments such as the ones I mentioned above. There are lots who are fighting to stop the suffering of the animals in asia! I, for one, happened to come across this site while looking up information about any movement to stop the sale of dog meat in Korea. Found many and also this site. It's been great reading! Fun and all but please, do not belittle us asians.
raw horse meat or ba-zashi in Japanese. Not bad kind of greasy like venison.
Dharamsala: that Tibetan New Year's beer broth that tastes exactly like the taste in your throat after puking cheap beer
I once ate what I was told to believe was whale sperm in a restaurant in Japan. On the other hand maybe it was the master's.
Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix Stew
Python, civet cat, and wild pigeon stew…My father cooks the stew once a while.
I once had wolf nipple-chip in a cow-sperm cream sauce.
I've eaten bondaigee (larva of a moth), arrowroot (the juice squeezed out of the root of a certain tree, tastes a lot like dirt).
i ate cow's dick that weighed over 10 fucking pounds!!!
sick monkey
How bout brain off a live monkey on dining table? I'm chinese, but born and raised in California. My dad told me it was a very expensive delicacy, as he hailed from China. The monkey would be tied as to keep immobile while the diner just ate from top of head. I think this is almost as gross as eating human sex organs (but at least they are cooked)!!!
If an alien landed in Guangzhou, the people there would eat it. Southern China is famous for their exotic dishes, and while I consider myself a somewhat adventurous diner, I've never eaten things like monkey's brains (so cruel, the monkeys are still alive) and neither has anyone I've met (or so they say??). I regularly eat pig's blood, which looks like dark brown tofu, with a similar texture.
Where beast?
I have had dog in mainland china and cambodia and it`s the best meat i`ve ever had!
Monkey brains
I work in a chinese restaurant and most of my co-workers agree that live monkey brains are a delicacy, and SOME people do eat it. I am not saying all Chinese would eat it, but as a delicacy i wouldn't doubt it has been served up before.
silkworm, pig penis & donkey
I have personally eaten all of the foods above and all but the camel tendon are commonly eaten in north eastern China.
Grilled silkworm isn't bad but one was enough. When you eat silkworm you get the feeling it's good for you. The stewed dog I ate was a little 'gamey' but other people tell me it it's pretty good fried. Pig penis is rather bland and chewy similar in taste and texture to camel tendon. The live fish I ate was really good but it was a little disconcerting watching it open and close its mouth while I was eating.
In the country in China: live monkey brains and live frog skin (they just peel it off).
Whilst in China, goose intestines (really chewy), jellyfish, pig ears, and then finished off with pigs blood.
Dog Head Soup
The strangest thing I've eaten is dog-head soup on Kojedo Island in South Korea. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. I refused to eat it after I realized it was a puppy's head. Later I saw all the little puppies caged in the back. It left an indelible impression for several years. The Korean males seldom feel any emotion anyway.
Baby wasp…it's too disgusting…
when i was in China i was once served raw snake gall bladder, it was pretty nasty!!!!!
Natto.
Sure, it does dry out your mouth as the protein strands react with your mouth tissues but it's as much fun to eat as a Mozzarella pizza!
The fried bamboo worms and bugs in the Chiang Rai night market are good.
I saw fried scorpions in Beijing. Was too afraid to eat them, since their stings had not been removed…
Frog "sperm-producing organ" (I forget the anatomical term). The dish is called "Shut Gap Goh" in Cantonese.
korea: boiled silkworm larva (strong seafood-like aftertaste) & chicken foot w/chili paste -- very bony!
lamb testicles, it had a cream sauce all over it. i payed for the meat so it was my honour to have ‘em.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=19620&start=0&tstart=0
Strange Food?
What's the strangest thing you've EATEN in the…Asian region? I'd like to hear what kind of weird food delicacies are out there. (Maybe things I might want to avoid or try in the future…)
The reply posts include:
I had jellyfish in Shanghai on a few occasions. It looks a bit like fried onion rings, but tastes completely different. I found the taste to be a bit sour and a bit musty (is this the right word?) as well. You will love it (not).
I didn't actually eat it, but when in Beijing around New Year's time I saw lots of tiny birds plucked, cooked (probably roasted) and stacked whole about three to a stick - a lot like shish-kabob.
I ate fried scorpions in Beijing, it was scary to put the first in my mouth sting and all, but they were good, a bit like very crispy bacon. I asked my Chinese brother-in-law about the affect of eating it poison and all and he replied a bit of scorpion poison good chinese medicine!
Live octopus in Korea. The suckers (sic) stick to your lips, your teeth, your gums... and then squirm all the way down... after that, live shrimp and live eel wasn't so bad... but still…in Korea, jellyfish is eaten cold in very thin strips, mixed with cucumber, radish and some chinese mustard, sort of like a salad. ...and then, there is poshintang - dog meat soup.
I once had Frog's Eggs cooked in some sweet liquid for dessert in a Chinese restaurant in Singapore. It looked like some strange jelly with a white center. After taking a small teaspoonful, I asked the waitress what I was eating. When she told me, I nearly threw up!
I live in Hong Kong and I once had to eat toad egg jell....it was a present and it's very expensive so I couldn't offend by not eating it. The taste was repulsive but the texture just made me gag - think rancid frogspawn. The only way I could do it was by chucking a strong belt of Scotch in the stuff.
In the countryside (nagano prefecture) in Japan, it's pretty normal to find stewed grasshopper and roasted bee larvae…
my friend kevin says he ate camel tendon--doesn't remember where. and he says that one of his friends ate a pig's ass on a dare
A big fat BBQ rat - Taiwan is a wonderful place to sample food that some consider pests.
No gnats but…Cats, Bats and Rats.
After living in japan for 8 years nothing seems weird anymore. Amongst the culinary highlights I have had raw venison (absolutely divine), tempura deep fried baby salamander (no taste really, but they insisted that I eat it from the head first), the jellyfish (good), bee larvae (great), raw horse (so-so) and deep fried grasshoppers. I also tried out the deep fried giant cockroaches in Myanmar; not bad, very sweet and crunchy. Others that kind of blew me away at the time were pickled sea squirt (very nice with sake), snake meat, snake blood and raw snake hearts in sake (thank God I had already drunk enough to get me through that evening!)…And of course, the first time I had dinner at my (now) wife’s family home, her father, being a great joker, had to test the limits. Started off with the normal sea urchin eggs etc., then sakura (raw horse; be careful as horse meat can harbor parasites than are transferable to humans!), raw chicken (same cautions apply)…To cap it off he placed this plate in front of me piled up with what looked like congealed blood; it was actually dolphin! Well, what do you do? And it did taste just like blood; then I asked Dad if he was going to eat some and he said 'Me eat that shit? You've got to be joking!
I saw people fish, what seemed to be small goldfish from a pond in Beijing zoo and then eat them raw. I did not try it myself, but I am sure it's better than the 3 month old greenish eggs they eat too... The good thing about China is that must menus are in Chinese only, so if you're eating dog or rat meat, you probably won’t know it.
You can try the deep fried bamboo worms in any Bai restaurant in Yunnan (China), namely in Kuming or Xishuangbanna. They're nice with dried pork meat.
Donkey and sea slug. Steer clear of the last, but donkey ain’t too bad. I did see "fried crap" on a menu in Beijing, lets hope it was a typo.
In Taiwan, in winter, most people like eat dog meal because they feel warm after eat it. Some people like eat monkey's brain or frog. If you interest in it .You can visit Taiwan.
Nothing like scooping the brains out of a boiled sheep's head from Xi'an's muslim quarter...and the eyes are to die for!
Raw dog meat served with dog bile sauce. Soooo bitter.
Drunken Shrimp: a delicacy served in many restaurants in Sichuan province. Under a glass bowl, mired in a bed of lakeweed, impregnated with vinegar, garlic and high octane liquor, you watch live, manic shrimp slowly become inebriated until their antenna are barely moving before popping them in your mouth. Not repulsive in flavour or texture but you are reluctant to chew when the food can chew back!
Turbine Mutton/Pig - my description of a feast prepared in a remote, rural community in the Liangshan Yi Minority region, near Xi Chang, southwest of Chengdu. Take 1 large sheep or pig, extrude through turbine engine, collect effluent, boil and serve in large white enamel basins, eat with wooden, sideways spoon, not chopsticks. Choose from skin, intestine, organ meat, fat chunks, teeth and occasional muscle, i.e., a gestalt experience. Served in a large, open courtyard of town centre while squatting on small, rectangular seats with 6" legs, all the men in a circle around the basins of pig, mutton, mantou, boiled potatoes and rice, washed down with spoonfuls of yellow, mutton soup.
Sea urchin sushi. Very tasty, but feels just like eating wet sawdust. Has that kind of gooey feeling with rough bits in it.
The strangest food I had in China was duck's feet, duck stomach…stinky tofu made from blood.
Sparrow yakitori in Japan - head was real mushy and tasted like mud and the body was crunchy, like eating a handful of toothpicks. Thank god for sake!
Giant ants and wasps
In the deep rainforest of Papua New Guinea we had been offered ants and wasps to eat alive! The kids came from all over the place to eat them. I tried. The ants taste sour and the wasps were sweet! But this was only an appetizer. For dinner we had a kind of "local rat" (Marsupial), hunted with bows and arrows, roasted on the fire for hours with all their guts and fur! I just tried a leg…
Frogs, snakes 'n' Fugu
G'day, Been to Hong Kong + Japan just recently and I was determined to try as many different foods as possible. 1st day got into the old pigs intestine's not bad, next I went for the toad stir fried with ginger…but the best in Hong Kong is when (just like in Indiana Jones movies) they serve up a snake slice her open and "hey ho" there's hundreds of baby snakes for dinner.
Ox penis soup
It was definitely not that kind of German soups called ox-tale-soup (the original names in German sounds both the same). The soup was hot but the "meat" itself tasted like a bit of chewable nothing in your mouth…
Saumagen
You don´t have to travel far to find disgusting food - even in Europe. Go to the Pfalz area in south-west Germany and order Saumagen, a pig´s stomach filled with blood, brain, liver etc. Bon appetit!
Cui
I had some guinea pig in Ecuador (locally known as cui). It was served in one piece, standing in a bed of potatoes and peanut sauce. Quite a beauty looking at you with the little head, ears and teeth sticking out. Crispy skin, very fatty and hardly any meat. The head is a delicacy and has to be eaten completely!
Peking duck, with everything still in it. I, being the youngest and the daughter of the guests, was offered the brain. It tasted like a peanut and was about the same size.
Lake flies in Malawi
While traveling in Africa last year we came upon some caterpillars and grilled mice on skewers but by far the most amazing thing were lake flies. There are some islands in the middle of Lake Malawi where, occasionally, swarms of lake flies reach. People come out of their homes and swing large baskets to collect thousands of these tiny flies and then they mold them into small patties….
Little did I know what was in the tom-yam at the Issarn restaurant on Saket road. My wife asked me "Honey, you know what meat you eating?" I said, "Uh, no, but it tastes okay to me." She said, "You eating cow's penis!" I chewed on that bit of information…
More peculiar international foods: A girl from Japan told me about a friend of hers, who in China ate a living monkey's brain. The head and scalp was sliced open, but the monkey strapped down. The poor fellow (obviously the monkey not the Japanese) was crying during the process. The dish is supposed to be illegal, but I guess with a bunch of money, one can do anything. In Korea, there's roasted silk worm larvae (smells like burnt hair). And also another interesting dish. Little live eels are boiled in a pot of water with a block of tofu. The heat drives the eels for refuge in the tofu, so they get cooked speared into the tofu. Then the tofu is taken out and sliced with the little chunks of eel…
Lamb Leather
In Norway I had a traditional Christmas dinner with a friend's family that consisted of a dish that was made from a lamb that had been slaughtered in the spring, introduced with some sort of mildew and left to dry in the cellar for 9 months. Once it had become a chunk of hard moldy leather, it was sliced thinly and soaked in Aquavit, to of course cover the moldy lamb flavor with fiery PAIN! It was the most difficult thing I've ever had to eat, but at least it got me drunk.
In Saigon, I ate pig's brain, which was mixed in with scrambled eggs. And in Hanoi, I was served bull's penis! (And no, they didn’t just tell me that as a joke -- it was printed on the menu!)
…chicken's head in Xishuangbanna; eating pig's brain and scrambled eggs in Saigon; and being served bull's penis in a restaurant in Hanoi.
Most countries I have traveled to eat some pretty strange foods! But the Orient was the weirdest. It is difficult to eat an animal (dog) (or cat) that you spent most of your childhood with. Asians overall are extremely barbaric. Some days we were pretty freaked out. We joked that the only thing they DON’T eat is people! Ironically after that, in one village that we were in, we were told that the soup we were eating had fluid and tissue from the testicles of a older man who had died in the village that week who had fathered many children and went on to have many grandchildren. He was believed to be "fertile and fruitful" in his life and his prosperity was to be passed on to everyone in the village. I really hope this was a joke (!!). Sure gives new meaning to "Sweet and Sour soup". We also saw several bamboo cages of cats waiting to be skinned and eaten in most cities and towns. We were told that they bonk the cat on the head so its woozy and then skin it and deep fry it. We believed them and did not stick around to watch it. All in all, the countryside throughout Asia is beautiful and the people are pretty friendly. But it was difficult most days finding and choosing what to eat. Most of the creatures that are consumed are killed brutally, inflicting terror, which is believed to bestow strength for those eating. Next year we are going to travel in a strictly Buddhist area for a change!…
How about boiled turtle in Guilin? Pretty good except for the feet which had a couple bones too many in them. Really thin slices of deer antlers were pretty good too...kind of like toasted almond slices. I was only allowed to have a couple because they are considered to be an aphrodisiac…
…deer sinew and conpoy.
You don't have to go all the way to Asia to find weird food…Come to Iceland for the putrefied shark (we bury it for a few months and then dig it up and eat it). It is a heavily acquired taste. If someone offers some to you, there will usually be a glass of the horrible Black Death schnapps with it. If you don't like the smell of the shark, drink the schnapps first, that's what we do!
Chicken Embryo Soup in Vietnam. Seemed odd to have those little chickies bobbin up and all around in the soup. Fried Swallow in Vietnam. Being an invited guest I received the heads and necks…
I was just in Mongolia and we had BOODOG or marmot (bit like large guinea pig)…Blow off the marmot’s head with a large gun, after calling it up from its burrow with a call…Pull out the viscera through the neck. Burn off all the fur with a blow torch (helps with the bubonic plague fleas), stuff with hot rocks and cook from the inside out. Leave the feet on as they make an attractive feature as carried to the table. Enjoy!! (Guests: this doesn't include you) For anyone who is bothered, marmot tastes like gone off gamey goose run over by a truck.
we were in a market in Seoul, and started playing menu- roulette (i,e,. pointing to an unknown word on the menu, gritting one's teeth, and hoping for the best), and struck out hard...they whipped out the sea cucumber, chopped it into slices with a cleaver, and left the pieces for us on a plate, moving ever so slightly. Sort of like living jello, only with a bad taste.
1) instant jelly fish (I suppose you just add hot water to the suspicious content of the bag and - voilá - you get a jelly fish);
2) dried yak penis Both items purchased in Lhasa, Tibet.
SOUTH KOREAN ADDER WHISKEY, SO CALLED AS IT CONTAINED A LARGE, DECAYING ADDER IN IT.
Esophagus Now
The menu was a dodgy english translation classic; "fish cream", "inside of cow soup" and "deep-fried come with honey"…
Yuck!
My girlfriend and I were staying with the Phrang-wao tribe in the hills of the Thai-Cambodia border. On a special festival day, after much food and drink, the village chieftain introduced us to a wonderful ceremony. My girlfriend has always been a bit reluctant, but I pointed out to her that this wasn't in the Lonely Planet, and was hence worth doing as a desperate means of doing something original to outdo hordes of fools we had met 'on the road'. We both received ceremonial semen from the elder's member, termed 'Phong tat gab', or 'the root of ages'. It tasted bloody terrible!
Dried tongues from pappies
Actually I do not had them, but they were available on table on the street in Hangzhou. It was some 40 small dried "things" and it was too much for me that day - on the end I had there some frogs for diner. Some snakes - in on restaurant personal was playing with snake in front of us before he cutes had by scissors. On other hand some French cheeses are something, that I do not need to eat at all. Sometimes is possible find in the night markets some fried beatles (every night in the night market in Bangkok near National Library near Sri Aythuaia road). Worse drink in my life was probably in China some that bottle, that look like vodka or gin, but taste like turpentine.
I hope it isn't considered rude to post such a long entry, but this is copied from my journal: NOTES ABOUT MANADO, November 23, 1994 "We’d like an order of rat, please." "Sudah habis. Already finished." "Oh … rats. OK, how about some RW (pronounced ‘airway’)?" "You mean anjing? Dog? Tidak ada. There isn’t any." "Well then, how about some paniki?" "Sure. How much would you like?" "Sedikit saja. Just a little bit." … of bat. We came to Manado, a city of 250,000 inhabitants on the northeastern tip of the orchid-shaped island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), to do some scuba diving…We were told "they eat dog in Denpasar sometimes", but our friend was not willing to do so himself because the local dogs might be able to hear it barking in his stomach and would be angry with him. Dog meat is considered a "hot" food which gives lots of energy and is good for people with asthma.. We all agreed that rat didn’t seem very enticing. Who knows what kind of garbage they might eat. But in Sulawesi, when we wrinkled our noses at the suggestion of rat, our Manadonese driver hastened to assure us that they ate forest rats, not house rats, and that they were considered the most delicious of all.
The bat was rather daunting. I suppose I expected shreds of meat in some sort of stew, but what arrived at the table was a plate bearing a bat entiere, black and shiny, swimming in a bright-yellow oil. The skin looked like patent leather, and appeared to be as tough. In fact it was very stretchy…Our driver pointed to something sort of like a drumstick, but it was so rubbery I couldn’t pull a piece off. I finally found a piece to nibble on and found that the resemblance to rubber didn’t apply only to the texture. In addition to having been cooked in an exceedingly spicy sauce, there was an underlying earthy flavor, with nuances of tar. Rather like road kill. Or maybe part of a blowout found by the side of the road. The driver, at least, partook with gusto, carefully removing one slender white bone at a time from the outstretched wings and happily masticating the resultant limp, glistening mass.
While generally agreeing with our opinion of bat, bat researchers we later met thought that rat was rather more tasty. Dog, they said, was generally presented in such a spicy preparation that it was difficult to distinguish it from other kinds of meat. Their own particular subject of investigation was the black macaque, a small, cuddly-looking woolly black monkey with a lot of personality that is found only in Sulawesi. We had seen several tied up in yards and under houses. They said the reason there were so many captive at this particular time of year was that these unfortunate monkeys serve as substitute Christmas turkeys in this (largely Christian) region.
Dog stew, chicken feet and silk worms (although not all at the same sitting)
Raw cat fish livers
Thank god they were small. VERY bitter. A gulp of sake and they went down easily.
We were treated to a small bowl fresh placenta soup in Lishan, Taiwan. It is a tonic for a woman's post-partum recovery...we got to share a few spoons. A bit salty. The poisonous Tiger-Head Bee Wine the next day was equally interesting, my girlfriend who is a Hakka, had a light epileptic fit. The host told her that the poison was "fighting a poison" in her system, and restoring her "chi". I thought it was similar to Ketamine.
I have seen the following (all are verbatim from menus): "Stewed Pig Tendon with Duck Webs" "Turnip with Jelly Fish" "Malasya Delight w/Shrimp and Ladies Finger".
In Canton we eat this big cock-roach like bugs called Long- shi (not cock-roach, mind you, every different stuff). We also eat a kind of worms grown in the rice fields, fried with scrambled eggs, it's delicious and very nutritious. Of course snake and cat stewed soup is a delicacy (the name is "Dragon fights the Tiger". Small sparrows are great in the fall…
Duck tongue in a restaurant in China. It comes with all the tendons and stuff still attached, and sits there on the plate, this sweet little pokey out tongue…Shrimps soaked in alcohol came live to the table, jumping about in their dish as they died of alcohol poisoning.
Ever had sea cucumber or beef tendons - very mushy and very chewy.
Grasshopper, sea cucumber, raw horse-meat, jellyfish, bee larvae, sea anemone, sea urchin, fish intestine, and that's only japan. From mongolia there is dried horse milk curds (rock hard) and my personal favourite: pure mutton fat! From tibet: yak jerky with skin and fur (adds taste and texture, not to mention smell), baked rat (very tough!) bull's balls and, of course, dog hot pot.
I ate cow spinal cord.
In my fathers village in central Sumatra, once a year after harvest the village elders masturbate the dogs and drink the semen as a part of the celebrations. The taste is not as bad as I expected but the quantity was too much.
Your story truly made me gulp. I have heard something which I believe is stranger. My brother was working for a Islamic school in the Sudan and told me of the practice of frying and eating the external sexual organs of young girls who had suffered that horrific practice of circumcision. As a circumcised male, I cannot believe in that nightmare.
1. I had Chinese style Shabu-Shabu banquet in Beijing, with raw thin sliced meat from all kind of animals, e.x. dog, racoon, deer, snake, donkey, horse....etc. eater use chopstick to dip into individual boiling soup pot for quick cook then eat it.
2. In Japan, live fish sashimi, master chef will use its very sharp knife to "prepare" live fish, into sashimi(raw fish) plate, with head and whole bone/tail attached, cut sashimi slice presented on both side of bone, and fish mouse and eyes still moving and open and close for over 20 minutes, you can imagine how one take raw fish meat from the plate, and watch fish open and close its mouse .
3. Ox penies diced and cooked in Vietnamese rice noodle soup, a bit like tendon.
Cambodia - Deep fried giant cockroaches in Siam Reap
Live Lumbster
I saw once in Brazil a report about Japanese food. I guess all people here knows SUSHI & SASHIMI (my favorite food ever!), TEMAKI, etc. But what about live lumbster? they cut it's torso like sushi...it cries a lot!
Whilst on a tour of Lhasa we were treated to an "authentic" chinese-tibetan meal at local restaurant. As with most places in the world the chinese are very adept at utilising local ingredients in their cooking. Thus what we at first took to be chewy oyster mushrooms stir fried in oyster sauce turned out to be - slivers of yak's lung!
Balot in the Philippines it's a duck chick boiled in the egg
Roast pork uterus
In any korean city you will find vendors selling a soup made out of big chunky silkworms. It LITERALLY smells like shit. I could never bring myself to actually taste it.
I drank a small live fish from a cup, and after it was in my stomach, I could still feel it moving for a few minutes. This was in Japan. Japanese like their food to be "fresh".
Fat tissue from a special creature named "SNOW FROG" - it's supposed to help (together with the herbs which was cooked with it) in keeping one's complexion clear, skin smooth, and moisturised your body "internally". Anyway I tried that and it taste nice and cooling - especially when eaten in a warm weather.....
Monopane worms
I haven't read the whole thread so this may have been covered... While in Namibia last year we had the joy of trying monopane worms. These are large caterpillars, lightly battered and fried. Unfortunately this does not hide the fact that they are caterpillars and taste repulsive.
Python poison for stamina???
First, cut the head off and then hold the tail up & head down with one hand, put a wine-glass on the table, with the other hand, sqqqqqquuuueeeze it to a shot glass. Well, depend on the size but at least you can get 2 glasses. It was north-Jakarta 8 years ago.
Plate of grass at a Peasant food restaurant in Beijing.
In the Philippines, I used to eat balut, which is a duck egg with the embryo inside, really disgusting looking, but balut is thought of as an aphrodisiac by some in the Philippines.
HOYA (raw sea pineapple)? This is the most disgusting food I have ever tasted. I believe the LP Japan describes it as something like burnt tires soaked in ammonia. That was a little too kind of a description.
in Taiwan i had all sorts of wonderful food including various types of wine that had the potential of making one go blind. I drank bee larvae wine and snake wine. Soups included frog soup where they put the frogs into the broth while they were still alive, stinky tofu (and i know some of you have had this) has left a lasting impression because although it tastes not bad the smell is awful (just like dog shit)…
Saddened
As an asian, I am very saddened by those people who look upon us as uncivilived and babaric. True, there are lots of food that I myself cannot handle. However, what about some western cuisine? What about people eating rabbit's brain because it's good for the body?!!? I know this site is for fun and to have a good laugh and all but please exclude comments such as the ones I mentioned above. There are lots who are fighting to stop the suffering of the animals in asia! I, for one, happened to come across this site while looking up information about any movement to stop the sale of dog meat in Korea. Found many and also this site. It's been great reading! Fun and all but please, do not belittle us asians.
raw horse meat or ba-zashi in Japanese. Not bad kind of greasy like venison.
Dharamsala: that Tibetan New Year's beer broth that tastes exactly like the taste in your throat after puking cheap beer
I once ate what I was told to believe was whale sperm in a restaurant in Japan. On the other hand maybe it was the master's.
Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix Stew
Python, civet cat, and wild pigeon stew…My father cooks the stew once a while.
I once had wolf nipple-chip in a cow-sperm cream sauce.
I've eaten bondaigee (larva of a moth), arrowroot (the juice squeezed out of the root of a certain tree, tastes a lot like dirt).
i ate cow's dick that weighed over 10 fucking pounds!!!
sick monkey
How bout brain off a live monkey on dining table? I'm chinese, but born and raised in California. My dad told me it was a very expensive delicacy, as he hailed from China. The monkey would be tied as to keep immobile while the diner just ate from top of head. I think this is almost as gross as eating human sex organs (but at least they are cooked)!!!
If an alien landed in Guangzhou, the people there would eat it. Southern China is famous for their exotic dishes, and while I consider myself a somewhat adventurous diner, I've never eaten things like monkey's brains (so cruel, the monkeys are still alive) and neither has anyone I've met (or so they say??). I regularly eat pig's blood, which looks like dark brown tofu, with a similar texture.
Where beast?
I have had dog in mainland china and cambodia and it`s the best meat i`ve ever had!
Monkey brains
I work in a chinese restaurant and most of my co-workers agree that live monkey brains are a delicacy, and SOME people do eat it. I am not saying all Chinese would eat it, but as a delicacy i wouldn't doubt it has been served up before.
silkworm, pig penis & donkey
I have personally eaten all of the foods above and all but the camel tendon are commonly eaten in north eastern China.
Grilled silkworm isn't bad but one was enough. When you eat silkworm you get the feeling it's good for you. The stewed dog I ate was a little 'gamey' but other people tell me it it's pretty good fried. Pig penis is rather bland and chewy similar in taste and texture to camel tendon. The live fish I ate was really good but it was a little disconcerting watching it open and close its mouth while I was eating.
In the country in China: live monkey brains and live frog skin (they just peel it off).
Whilst in China, goose intestines (really chewy), jellyfish, pig ears, and then finished off with pigs blood.
Dog Head Soup
The strangest thing I've eaten is dog-head soup on Kojedo Island in South Korea. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. I refused to eat it after I realized it was a puppy's head. Later I saw all the little puppies caged in the back. It left an indelible impression for several years. The Korean males seldom feel any emotion anyway.
Baby wasp…it's too disgusting…
when i was in China i was once served raw snake gall bladder, it was pretty nasty!!!!!
Natto.
Sure, it does dry out your mouth as the protein strands react with your mouth tissues but it's as much fun to eat as a Mozzarella pizza!
The fried bamboo worms and bugs in the Chiang Rai night market are good.
I saw fried scorpions in Beijing. Was too afraid to eat them, since their stings had not been removed…
Frog "sperm-producing organ" (I forget the anatomical term). The dish is called "Shut Gap Goh" in Cantonese.
korea: boiled silkworm larva (strong seafood-like aftertaste) & chicken foot w/chili paste -- very bony!
lamb testicles, it had a cream sauce all over it. i payed for the meat so it was my honour to have ‘em.