1. Whale skin and blubber (Greenland)
Whale sashimi, anyone? A speciality of Greenlandic cuisine, mattak – made with whale skin and blubber – is usually eaten raw with soy sauce (though the mattak can sometimes also be fried, pickled, breaded, etc). Though it may seem beastly to eat one of nature’s gentle marine giants, there’s a reason behind this ancient practice; mattak is an important source of vitamin C for the Greenlanders as citrus fruits do not grow in the freezing cold deep north.
Raw whale skin and blubber is eaten like sashimi in Greenland. Photo Credit: Lisa Risager / Flickr
2. Maggot-infested cheese (Sardinia, Italy)
Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like. Sardinia’s ‘casu marzu’, a local delicacy, is made with fermented cheese and a special ingredient: insect larvae. The larvae subsequently develop into maggots that wriggle around, eat the cheese, pass out other organic matter, and in this process help decompose the cheese to another level so it becomes very soft, moist, and incredibly flavourful. But, be careful when eating casu marzu, though – the resident maggots don’t take kindly to intruders who disturb their comfy home and may jump out at you!
_Yes, you’re supposed to eat the wriggling worms within the cheese. Photo Credit: Shardan / Wikimedia Commons_
3. Squid teeth (Vietnam)
These aren’t actually the dental appendages of squid, but their mouth parts. Called ‘răng mực nướng’, squid mouth parts look like little white balls with a black protruding beak and are grilled, fried, steamed, marinated, and sometimes even skewered on a stick as a street food snack in coastal villages.
Piece of tasty squid teeth for you? Photo Credit: Alpha / Flickr
4. Rotten fish (Tahiti, the French Polynesia)
Though most of the world prefers their fish as sea-fresh as possible, the Tahitians like theirs rotten. The making of Fafaru is rather long and complicated – first, fresh fish or shrimp is left to decompose in a jar of seawater for 3 days. That stinky water is then filtered out into another container, where fresh slices of fish are dunked into to be ‘cooked’ for an indefinite amount of time (varying from minutes to hours, depending on the strength of flavour preferred) and then served. The end result? A dinner that smells like rotting corpse, but apparently tastes… better.
If you thought regular dead fishes like this smelt bad, just wait until you get a whiff of fafaru! Photo Credit: Julie Kertesz / Flickr
5. Rotten shark’s meat (Iceland)
One-upping Tahitian fafaru is hákarl, Iceland’s entry to the foul food contest. Typically made with the flesh of a Greenland shark, the hákarl HAS to be eaten rotten because it is considered poisonous to humans when fresh. The decomposition process, which involves burying the shark’s flesh in sand and letting toxins bleed out as it ferments for weeks, before being hung and dried, makes it edible, but doesn’t remove that tell-tale odour of death.
Though it looks rather innocent, rotten shark meat has an incredibly strong smell and taste. Photo Credit: Audrey / Flickr
6. Haggis: sheep’s stomach stuffed with heart, liver and lungs (Scotland, United Kingdom)
Props to the Scottish for incorporating all the animal parts that are usually discarded into one dish, so nothing goes to waste! If you’ve ever wondered what sheep’s innards tasted like, then give Scotland’s national dish a go. Haggis consists of the pluck of a sheep (its heart, liver and lungs) encased in its stomach, and is usually eaten with potatoes and vegetables. Even if it doesn’t look too appetising, haggis supposedly has a nice, nutty flavour to it.
Scottish haggis consists of sheep’s pluck stuffed in the sheep’s stomach. Photo Credit: Thinkstock
7. Baby mice wine (China and Korea)
If you’re feeling a little under the weather, this ancient Asian tonic may just be the thing for you, if you can ignore the fact that there are dead decomposed babies hovering inside it.
Baby mice wine is made by dropping baby mice into rice wine to drown and decompose. The mixture is then left to ferment for many months before being drunk – if you follow tradition to the T, you’re supposed to eat the baby mice when you’re done with the wine too.
Baby mice wine is an ancient Asian tonic said to cure many ailments. Photo Credit: Yun Huang Yong / Flickr
8. Fried guinea pig (Peru)
Fluffy? Is that you? Honestly, don’t let the children see this one; in Peru, adorable fuzzy guinea pigs are fried as food. The resulting dish (called Cuy) is a local delicacy, but disturbingly the shape of the guinea pig is left intact so you can see it was once a cute little thing before it ended up on your plate.
_Unfortunately for the fluffy little rodents, fried guinea pig is a Peruvian delicacy. Photo Credit: Andrew / Flickr _
9. Barbecued sheep’s head (South Africa)
Because no part of a sheep should ever be wasted, not even the head. Boiled and barbecued sheep’s heads are called ‘smileys’ – because the lips of the sheep are shrunken during the cooking process, resulting in a gruesome grin – so you could say that this is South Africa’s take on a Happy Meal. To eat a smiley, scrape the meat off the skull (you can also eat the tongue) and enjoy the smoky flavour.
Burnt sheep’s skulls, scary smile and all. Photo Credit: andavis86 / Flickr
10. Blood pancakes (Sweden and Finland)
Not sure what to have for breakfast this morning? How many a nice steaming stack of blood pancakes, Dracula’s preferred option? Made with whipped pig’s blood (yum!), butter and sugar, blood pancakes are called Blodplättar in Sweden and Veriohukainen in Finland. Feeling like a vampire yet?
Sweden’s pig’s blood pancake topped with lingonberry jam. Photo Credit: Thinkstock
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