Here is some weird food I ate in Taiwan.
Chicken Feet
This is a chicken foot that I ate. I couldn't figure out how to eat it at first, but later someone showed me how to eat them. You start by biting off the toes and then spitting out the bones. You don't have to bite the toenails off first. :P
There isn't much meat on them and I was told that they are good for snacking on when watching a movie. You can pick up a bag of chicken feet at any night market.
Stinky Tofu
When I first got to Taiwan, I often smelled a bad smell that I thought was from people who had thrown up on the street somewhere the night before.
It turns out the smell was a certain kind of food called stinky tofu or chou tofu in Chinese. It's tofu that has been marinated in vegetable and shrimp broth that has been fermenting for months. Apparently, there is one type of stinky tofu that is served with goose blood, but I couldn't find that kind.
It actually doesn't taste as bad as it smells. I tried it a couple of different ways, but in the image below it's deep fried with some sauerkraut and sauce. If you can stand the smell to get close enough to the vendors' chou tofu stand, I recommend trying it because the taste is good.
Asparagus Juice
Every convenience store that I went to in Taipei has asparagus juice. It's a very sweet drink — kind of like asparagus-flavored sugar water. It's too sweet for me, but if you have a craving for asparagus-flavored juice, you might like it.
Duck Tongue
You can find duck tongues at most night markets. The person I was with said she didn't eat duck tongues because "it's like making out with a duck". I tried one anyway. It's not terrible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it.
Blood on a Stick
Many stands sell blood on a stick. You can get duck blood or pig blood. This one is pig blood on a stick, "spicy flavor". It's rolled in hot sauce, peanuts, and cilantro. It's very tasty.
Chicken Hearts on a Stick
You can order any part of the chicken you want to eat, from chicken wombs to chicken intestines. The following picture is chicken hearts on a stick. They aren't bad.
Healthy Plum Vinegar
As mentioned in another post, due to a miscommunication at a coffee shop called 85 degrees, I ended up with a drink called healthy plum vinegar. "Healthy plum vinegar" tastes like pickled, salty plums (umeboshi) soaked in vinegar and then served it over ice.
Boiled Assorted Animal Parts
One of my favorite foods from the Taiwanese night markets is a type of stand where you pick ingredients from the stand and put them in a basket. You then give the basket to the vendor and they boil the ingredients for you.
Ingredients include things like duck intestines, chicken intestines, animal tendons, and other things that I couldn't identify.
This is one of the best foods that I've ever eaten. If you can't stomach the weird animal parts, you can just choose noodles, vegetables, and mushrooms.
Rooibus Tea Latte
I generally avoid Starbucks because their coffee is bad and I don't like their business practices. But when traveling they are often the place where I can get wireless Internet access.
Starbucks in Taiwan has a lot of different drinks, like green tea lattes, black tea lattes, and rooibus tea lattes. This is a rooibus tea latte with a sweet pork bread. I like rooibus tea and green tea, but I don't like the latte versions.
McDonalds Grilled Chicken Toasted Rice Burger
In Japan and Taiwan you can get burgers that have buns made of rice. If you get them at MOS Burger, they are great. McDonalds' version of the toasted rice burger is not good, but I recommend trying MOS Burger.
This rice burger photo is from a McDonalds in Taipei:
What kinds of weird food have you eaten?
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Rooibos tea is from south
Rooibos tea is from south africa. It translates to "red bush" in Afrikaans. Nothing strange about it except starbucks' mutation.
rooibus
I like rooibos tea... It's not good when diluted with steamed milk though. Never heard of that until I went to Starbucks in Taiwan.
Lamb's brain sandwich - Abu
Lamb's brain sandwich - Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
Rocky Mountain Oysters (deep fried bull testicles) - Colorado, U.S.A.
Rattlesnake dip - Colorado, U.S.A.
Deep fried twinkie - San Francisco, U.S.A.
Dried pigs ear - Utila, honduras
Surströmming (fermented herring) - Dalarna, Sweden
Smalahove (whole sheeps head, eyes included) - Oslo, Norway
Lute Fisk (dryed cod fish saturated with water and lye 'till it gains a jelly-
-like consistency) Oslo, Norway
Lamb's brain?
How was the lamb's brain sandwich?
Ah, lutefisk. XD
Ah, lutefisk. XD
People eat bull testicles in western Canada too (apparently)... except we call them prairie oysters here.
?????
WTF???? I'm from British Columbia, Canada(West coast) and I have NEVER heard of eating bull testicles......
rocky's little oysers- fried
rocky's little oysers-
fried flying squirrel testicles
squirrel testicles
Where do they serve that??
"Odd" food
I've had snake soup in Hong Kong and pork liver in a Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant in SoCal. In Korea, I've had fried blood sausage and roast silkworm larva. But the "wierdest" thing I've eaten is *live* squid.
Re: the blood on a stick
That's basically all black pudding (found in England) is: dried pig blood and a few other bits and pieces. I don't particularly like it, but some of the stuff above is really only one step away.
Black pudding is awesome!!
Black pudding is awesome!! being a Yorkshire lad an all...there are some crazy but lovely foods in england:
obviously black pudding - fried pig's blood
tripe - Made from cow's intestine (best with chips!)
white pudding - like black pudding but with sheep brain not blood
battered mars bars - found in only a few chippies
battered mince pies - again only found in few places in England especially round Xmas
I think chocolate covered pretzels are an American idea - can't get hold of them any more over here, very upset!
Haggis - Scottish i know but delicious all the same oats and meat in a lamb's stomach
I'm sure you have some odd food in the US - roadkill burger, kentucky fried Chicken heads, etc...
RE: Black pudding is awesome
battered mars bars - found in only a few chippies
Ah us convicts have that too! not available at our local fish and chip shops yet (well not in Townsville) but my step mum did do it after seeing a co-worker at the fish and chip shop she was working at did it.
it was completely awesome.
weird foods ive eaten include crickets, grasshoppers, snake, snail, Witchetty grub (larva of the cossid moth..aussie delicacy)and cows testicles. I've also had the pleasure of drinking cows blood which was pretty gross and this other drink from this African tribe not sure what was in it but it had something from a goat (possibly urine? or blood?)it was sort of like a welcoming thing...it wasn't very nice even though i nodded and smiled and told them it was very nice.
Weird Blood Recipes
For those readers who might be interested in this sort of thing, I've compiled a section on recipes that use blood on my website darkbanquet.com. Cheers!
weird food - Turkey
İşkembe - I was taken to an İşkembe restaurant in Istanbul after a party and ate the most awful food imaginable. Sheep's brain (why?), sheep's intestine (which actually tasted like you imagine eating an arsehole would taste like, really shitty flavour) and tripe soup (loads of garlic made this barely edible, but the lumps I left were pretty much all tripe). I was honest to my hosts and they admitted that they thought it tasted pretty shitty as well but that the smell of the food masked the alcohol you had drunk and help to relieve any potential hangover...
I love Turkey and its people though, and most of the food is brilliant!
Chicken Feet
Chicken feet are really good! I've had them at dim sum lunches in Philly's Chinatown. I was pretty much like you. WTF?...but once you get past how they look, they're really good.
eating chicken feet
I agree... they don't taste bad. I ate them twice and would try them again -- though don't know if I would specifically order them.
The weirdest thing Ive eaten
The weirdest thing Ive eaten was seal meat in Newfoundland, I'm Native American and was open minded, but it was black meat and had the texture of stringy tar yet tasty, but even more tarry coming out..if you know what I mean..... maybe 2 thumbs up?
My Strangest Foods
The weirdest things I ever ate:
Raw goat testicle in Okinawa (kuga)
Goat sashimi in Okinawa (yagi sashimi)
Rancid skate fish in Korea (hongeo)
Dog (Korea)
Snake soup (China)
Pig ears (Okinawa)
I no longer find things like hearts and gizzards to be strange.
Souse meat
I am from Tennessee, we have a thing called souse meat. To put it bluntly, a pig's head blended in a blender and served on a cracker with ketchup. It is amazing, kinda like a tuna spam mix.
weird foods
maybe this isn't too weird for THIS list, but anyone ever eaten head-cheese? usually a pig's head, skinned, boiled until the meat on it is tender. meat is scraped off and mixed together...it's somewhat spam-like and tastes pretty good--we eat it on bread or crackers. A lot of the foods on this list just SOUND weird, if you come from a place where they don't eat certain animal parts or aged parts or parts prepared in a certain way--but you learned as babies to eat what you eat now, so--go for it!!
wierd stuff
there was this place in kuwait where i went one day to have some goat head n legs. every other place where i have eaten this, it is prepared using spices and stuff. this place they just served it on a plate - BOILED AND UNCUT, basically u have to open the head n eat it
Yum, chicken hearts! I
Yum, chicken hearts! I looove the hearts. Every year at Thanksgiving my mom would cook the turkey heart with the bird and I got to eat it. Yum yum yum! Once I decided bird hearts were too small so I bought a cow heart at the store, cooked it, and tried to eat it. It was too much.. I only made it through 5-6 bites. I then decided that this is why chicken hearts are so good.. they're just the right size. Deliciousness in a bite size, and not too much.
Wierd foods
The strangest thing I've ever eaten is "Eskimo Ice Cream". I believe it is an Inupiat Eskimo food, from Northern Alaska (and possibly Canada). If my understanding is correct a traditional variety consists of whale blubber, melted into liquid, mixed with blueberries, and re-frozen. A more modern version has some sugar mixed in as well. Either way, I found it disgusting in taste, texture and smell. I've also eaten deep-fried rattlesnake, which was actually quite tasty.
Deep-fried rattlesnake
The "Eskimo ice cream" sounds interesting.
I ate a copperhead snake once (venomous snake from the USA). Someone killed it in their driveway and cooked it with a baby rabbit that the cat brought home. "Predator and prey stew." Not too bad.
:D
Heard it was yummy...
I heard Eskimo ice cream was incredible. Then, I saw Anthony Bourdain trying it... and it looked yummy! I'd try it.
Are You Kidding Me?
You eat all this junk (I was going to say tripe) and you say Starbucks coffee is bad? Me thinks thoust taste buds are retarded.
Starbucks vs. Duck Tongue
Starbucks coffee tastes better than duck tongues... :D
...though Starbucks is not very good compared to the better and cheaper coffee that is generally available in the USA.
We have rooibos tea lattes
We have rooibos tea lattes at Starbucks in Canada; I used to work in a Starbucks. Not sure about in the States though. :)
BTW I agree with you on the business practices... after working for Starbucks for a while I've come to realize that they're not the responsible corporate citizen they pretend to be.
I, being a Southern girl
I, being a Southern girl raised in Louisiana, love (LOVE) hot boiled crawfish! So spicy that your lips burn for hours, with corn and potatoes! And cold beer, because you need something to calm that delicious hotness.
A close second place for me is fried alligator tail, it sounds intimidating if you haven't tried it, but it's incredible.
M'Yeah!
Yeah keep trying all that shit, better hope you dont come hope with ecoli or some shit.
E. Coli
Some time ago, E. Coli outbreaks were linked to organic salads.
Chicken feet, Pork blood
Mexicans eat chicken feet too. They are good except they can get sticky and make your fingers sticky. They definitely are a fun snack. I used to eat them as a kid all the time when my mom would put them in caldo, they were my favorite :D
also pork blood is delicious! I havent had it in over ten years but I still remember the taste. yumm
never tried it, but in
never tried it, but in Ecuador and Peru people eat "cuy", which is basically spit-roasted guinea pig.
Pigs feet and fish eyes
I ate pigs feet in a small restraunt in alaska. They were really really good pretty fatty. The meat was so tender it was really great!!!
Also I was in Costa Rica and was served a whole fish roasted so I decided to eat the fish eye. It didn't really taste like much but had a hard small white ball in the center that was to hard to chew or eat.
I have also eaten pretty standard things like cow tongue, snails, raw beef, raw shellfish and fish, caribou and reindeer, moose, and raw egg.
oh anyone who has eaten a real hot dog or sausage has eaten intestine because that is what the casing is made out of in good quality sausages. :)
Inside the Hotdog
The meat inside a hot dog has a tons of interesting stuff too!
As for the stuff in the
As for the stuff in the post, I like chicken feet with the chili sauce like they serve in HK-style dim sum, and I've had duck tongue. I don't like being even in the same room as stinky tofu.
I have eaten jellyfish, snake soup, frog, sheep brains (at an Afghan place, delicious), sea cucumber (did not like), turtle stew, natto (nat-to my taste), fish heads, okonomiyaki (as I like it), bubble tea, and probably some others that slip my memory.
But then, I hear cheese seems weird to some Asians, to turnabout is fair play.
More tasty Chinese food
In Guanxi, China, I had the following:
BBQ duck feet
Chicken head (in hot pot)
frog congee
snake congee
BBQ pigeon
sea worms
and my favourite...BBQ pig penis!!!
Went for rat hot pot as well, but it was 'out of season' according to my Chinese friends. I think they didn't want to spend money to watch me vomit.
I wimped out on the BBQ dog paws or cat hot pot.
The irony is that the only thing that made me sick the whole time was cucumber salad.
Balut
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Balut!
You can find it on this top ten list (with a few other stomach churners!).
http://listverse.com/miscellaneous/top-10-disgusting-foods/
Ahh the night market
The night markets are really one of my favorite things in Asia. We really need more animal intestines on a stick in the US. :)
Night markets
I miss the night markets too. I'm back in the USA and the food is not that interesting in this small town...
Cod tongues
Newfoundland: cod tongues, a local delicacy! They're pretty bad. Also cod cheeks -- tasty.
Sweden: Crayfish: Yummy! They have crayfish festivals in Stockholm -- around August.
Also in Sweden: Janson's Temptation (Anchovy pie) not as bad as it sounds.
Swedish Rancid Fish
I had a Swedish friend in college and he told me they have a dish there where they bury a fish in the ground for a week or two, then dig it up and eat it. Have you heard of that one?
Swedish Rancid Fish
Actually my sister and her husband were stationed in Reykevik, Iceland and she said they buried shark til it was rancid, then dug it up and ate it. She had some kind of strong liquor with it. She said after a few drinks,the shark wasn't so bad.
Odd food
Once ate a Kangaroo kebab in Holland - tastes like steak
Chunks of fat (1cm cubes) in Romania - had these before but nothing quite like this. And BBQ meatballs - yes they were certainly meat (lamb) balls (testicles) Pretty nice actually! But didn't go through the normally thorough digestive process!
Romania again: Some "jam" that was meant to be plum (we think) but actually tasted like manure smells. Washed down with "fresh" milk - i.e. it came from the cow around 2-3 weeks previous and kept in a warm cupboard (40 Degrees C in the summer)- it was lumpy and sour but thats how folks like.
Rotting lambs intestine "washed" for three weeks in a river (found the scabby sheep it came from 200 yards upstream with all sorts of nasty stuff in it) the intestine was about 10x normal size - bloated and green. Surprisingly OK but I wouldn't recommend it as it poisoned us all...Crazy Romanians!
Turtle Burger in Cayman Islands (ironically just outside the "save the turtles" farm)Was pretty nice but I felt guilty.
Crocodile & Ostrich from UK supermarket.
BBQ scorpion / snakes / termites - whatever we could find in the desert (UAE). Tried the scorpion & termites in chocolate in UK. Both very tasty.
And unwittingly "catdog curry"! mmmmmm.
nasty!
that foot gives me the shivers!.. the worst i ate was a cows tounge. it was horrible!