10 Weird Foods

I was looking up food dishes on Wikipedia and here are 10 dishes that are popular yet some might find them strange or disgusting. Some are restricted in some countries.

Haggis

Haggis is traditionally served as part of the Burns supper on or near January 25, the birthday of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns. It is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, traditionally encased in the animal's stomach. You can't buy the traditional version in the United States since it is unlawful to use sheep lungs.

Rocky Mountain oysters

Rocky Mountain oysters, a well-known novelty dish in parts of the American West and Western Canada, is made of bull, pig or sheep testicles. The organs are often deep-fried after being peeled, coated in flour, pepper and salt, and sometimes pounded flat.

Kopi luwak

Kopi luwak refers to the coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. Another animal defecation coffee is Black Ivory Coffee which is made from elephants and can cost US$1,100 per kilogram.

Bird's nest soup

Bird's nest soup, a delicacy in Chinese cuisine made from bird nests created by swiftlets using solidified saliva. They are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans, with an average nest retailing for about $2,500 (US) per kilogram in Asia.

Kæstur hákarl

Kæstur hákarl is a national dish of Iceland consisting of a Greenland shark which has been cured and hung to dry for four to five months. It contains a large amount of ammonia and has a strong smell, similar to many cleaning products. First-timers are advised to pinch their nose while taking the first bite and it is often eaten with a shot of the local spirit.

Casu marzu

Casu marzu is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese, notable for containing live insect larvae (maggots). The larvae themselves appear as translucent white worms, about 8 mm long and when disturbed, the larvae can launch themselves for distances up to 6 inches.

Akutaq

Akutaq is a food from western Alaska and northern Canada, traditionally made with whipped fat mixed with berries like cranberries, salmonberries, crowberries, cloudberries, and blueberries, fish, tundra greens, or roots with animal oil or fat. It is sometimes called Eskimo ice cream.

Balut

Balut is a developing bird embryo (usually a duck or chicken) that is boiled and eaten from the shell in Southeastern Asian countries. The embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled, and the yolk and young chick inside can be eaten.

Snake wine

Snake wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by infusing whole snakes in rice wine or grain alcohol. I saw this when I was in Vietnam. I wanted to get one for decoration (I'd be too afraid to open it in case the snake came alive and bit me), but my friend said it wouldn't be allowed through Customs.

Smalahove

Smalahove is a Western Norwegian traditional dish made from a sheep's head, originally eaten before Christmas. The ear and eye are normally eaten first, as they are the fattiest areas and are best eaten warm.

What do you think? Would you try them? Have you tried any of them?