Travel they say opens the mind. It follows that it must also broaden one’s palate and it does too for the most part. As the cliché goes, you must be willing to try anything in this world at least once in your life. But to eat the treats (and I use the term loosely here) listed below, one must have an extraordinarily extensive palate indeed as also be the owner of a stomach as strong as cast iron. Here are just some of the gut churning food and drink people consume around the world-
Chicha de jora or fermented corn beer- In the Andes the traditional form of chicha used to be made exclusively by women partially chewing and spitting out saliva soggy corn kernels that aided in their fermentation. In modern times, many have replaced saliva with modern barley to ferment the corn beer but you can still get traditional chicha in remote areas. For instance, the Huorani tribe, one of the last contacted tribes in the country deep in the jungles of Ecuador have kept up the tradition. “It doesn’t taste so bad. Tastes a bit like cider,” says one traveler who visited the tribe and witnessed chicha in the making.
Balut in the Philippines- Cooked duck fetus while still in the egg is considered an aphrodisiac in the Philippines. It fortunately doesn’t taste as horrible as it sounds. It tastes like a combination chicken and egg in a light salty broth. Depending on the stage when it’s cooked, the fetus could have developed wings and beak. To try other unusual eggs the go to would probably be China- the country boasts of eggs cooked in young boys’ urine and century eggs.
Leaf cutter ants-a type of leaf cutter ant called hormigas culonas literally is said to translate to fat assed ants. The ants are only mostly available in the Santander region of Colombia. The little creatures only venture out of their nest for one to two days in the months of April and May which are the only months this rare and relatively expensive delicacy is available. One kilogram of the ants cost in and around 25 USD. Salty with a popcorn crunch is how many describe the toasted treats. The male ants are said to possess a nasty sting. Only female ants are eaten.
Fried arachnids in Cambodia –In between the grand temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Riep and Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh lies a non-descript town called Skuon. It is a pit stop for the frequent buses that ply the route. Alongside bananas and other snacks, vendors hawk fat fried tarantulas. “Crunchy but the middle was filled with some kinda goo,” was the verdict passed by one brave traveler.
Scorpion/snake wine– In many parts of South East Asia wine is sold as a medicinal supplement. Not just any wine but snake wine and scorpion wine. It is particularly popular in and around the floating markets in the Mekong river delta of Vietnam. The wines are hailed as being a cure for a host of ailments for men. On our visit, women were advised to refrain from drinking the snake wine in particular as it was meant for men only to increase their libido. No prizes for guessing what happened next. More women than men were scrunching up their faces after downing multiple shots of acidic serpent alcohol.
Kopi luwak used to be all the rage with it being touted as the most expensive coffee in the world till about a few years ago. The rich creamy coffee produced in Indonesia by way of coffee beans ingested, digested and pooped out by civet cats is now sharing its pole position with …hold on to your horses err I mean elephants. Black ivory coffee produced by Thailand’s Black Ivory Coffee Company is coffee treated the same way as the civet cat coffee, except these are roasted beans that have originally been eaten and expelled by herbivore elephants in Thailand. Black ivory coffee sells for around 1,100 USD for a kilogram.
Dog meat– eaten in various parts of South Asia- a whole street in Hanoi is dedicated to the sale of dog meat. Harvest festivals in the Philippines and elsewhere require the sacrifice of a dog which is later cooked over a spit and distributed amongst villagers. Talking about domesticated animals people eat, horse flesh is losing popularity in France.
For those teetering on gastronomically whacky, there is always unusual food to try and the list is long and endless. Some other weird foods to try are- maggot infested cheese Casu Marzu in Sardinia, fugu or poison puffer fish in Japan, cockroaches, grasshoppers and other slugs and bugs in China and South East Asia, live octopus in South Korea, tuna eyeballs in Japan, the pungent fruit durian in South East Asia (considered a delicacy in the region but so strong it is banned inside many hotels, buildings and elevators), rice cooked in carnivorous pitcher plants in Malaysian Borneo, venison soup with an extra something-“Deer Meat Soup added: Liquid Feces in the intestine (Bitter taste)”- is one of the items listed on the menu of a hole in the wall joint in Laos etc…
Feature image- Balut.
Leave a Reply