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Weird Foods Eaten Around The World

Weird foods are more often than not simply different from what you know, but sometimes we can very easily classify them as gross food.

Published

2 years ago

July 5, 2023

Fatimat Azeez

Weird Food Eaten Around The World

Have you ever wondered what the weirdest foods are? And what are their names?

Weird foods are more often than not simply different from what you know, but sometimes we can very easily classify them as gross food.

Are you an adventurous eater, or would you rather stick to the usual fan favorites at mealtimes? So maybe, you’d have to be a sandwich short of a picnic to try some of these weird dishes but at least you get to say you’re brave enough to try the world’s weirdest foods.

In this article, RNN will talk about the weird foods eaten around the world and their unique names.

Tuna fish eyeballs

Weird Foods Eaten Around The World

Tuna eyeballs are a popular snack in Japan and are boiled and served with a light soy sauce. So popular that even the eyeballs are put to use and sold cheaply in the fish markets.

They are usually served as an appetizer or a snack and can often be found in izakayas (Japanese “after-work pubs”) and seafood restaurants. Izakayas, which means “stay-drink-place,” are casual places to get a drink and relax that often serve these eyeballs as appetizers. You can try tuna eyes already prepared in a variety of ways, such as fried, stewed, or lightly steamed.

These can be cooked, and seasoned with a little garlic or soy sauce and lemon; then you have yourself a little tasty snack! The taste is supposed to be similar to an octopus

Century Egg, China

weird food

A century egg is a black preserved egg of a duck, chicken, or quail. Century egg got its name from the art of preserving the egg for hundreds of years before eating, but more commonly they are just a few months old.

The egg turns black with a dark green yolk after being processed in clay, ash, and quicklime. The taste is of a century egg course, interesting, and has a very strong taste.

Soup made from ant eggs, Laos

Weird Foods Eaten

Ants egg soup is a traditional North-Eastern Thai and Laotian delicacy prepared using ant eggs combined with snakehead fish, garlic, galangal, lemon grass, tamarind bean, lime juice, basil leaves, tomatoes, and fish stock. The ant eggs used consist of both the eggs and pupae of weaver ants (commonly called red ants in Thailand).

Ant eggs are relished for their sourness and pop flavor when consumed with soups, omelets, and salads. The ants provide the dish with a sour taste, and the eggs give it a nutty flavor.

Ant eggs are known to be packed with protein and also contain other minerals, including calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and niacin. It also contains less fat and calories compared to chicken eggs.

Some people describe the taste of ant eggs soup as being a bit like a shrimp or prawn dish.

Beondegi (South Korea)

weird food in the world

Beondegi is a South Korean delicacy consisting of cooked silkworm pupae, typically either boiled or steamed. They are a very common street food snack where they are served in a paper cup with a toothpick.

Beondegi has a strong, notable taste but not an unpleasant one, and is said to smell like burned wood. The texture is the most unusual because the larvae are like little bags that, despite being almost empty, sometimes explode in the mouth when modeled.

LIVE “Dancing Shrimp” Goong Ten (Thailand)

weird food eaten in the world

Goong ten or “dancing shrimp” is a delicacy in Northern Thailand where a bowl of live shrimp is doused in sauce and served to the customer to eat raw.

The shrimp are often calm until they are covered in the sauce which causes them to jump around trying to escape, giving the illusion that they are dancing.

The sauce is in fact delicious so the flavour and taste are not actually that gross. But the fact that you’re eating a live animal that is one of the most bizarre sensory experiences you can have with food.

Coconut Worms (Vietnam)

weird food eaten around the world

Coconut worm is a type of snout beetle at its larvae stage. Also known as Duong Dua in Vietnamese, a coconut worm is light yellow in color, generally sweet in taste, and about 3-5 cm long in size. Usually eaten live, a single coconut worm is sold at around 25,000 Vietnamese dong (US$1) in Vietnam.

Stargazey Pie

weird food eaten around the world

Stargazey pie is a typical Cornish dish, in the UK, that is prepared using baked pilchards (sardines) that poke their heads out of the top of the pie. What differentiates stargaze pie is the use of fish heads (and occasionally tails) that tend to stick out through the crust. They give the impression of gazing at the stars, hence the name.

Baby Eels

food that are weird around the world

Baby eels, popularly known as angulas, are pale, worm-shaped seafood eaten in the Basque region of Spain. Baby eels were traditionally cooked and consumed individually in a small earthenware dish along with a unique wooden fork prepared using Boj wood.

Kiviak (Greenland)

weird foods eaten around the World

Kiviak is a dish from Greenland consisting of hundreds of dead auk birds stuffed into the body of a dead seal. The seal is then sealed up to be completely airtight, covered in oil to repel flies and maggots, and then fermented for three months.

The pungent, toxic-smelling bird meat is said to taste a bit like very mature cheeses or licorice. The dish is often eaten over the winter months when it is harder to catch food, especially on special occasions such as Christmas or birthdays.

Penis Fish (South Korea)

Penis fish is typically eaten raw, sliced, and served with a savory sesame oil sauce. It is purportedly a little bit bland with a slightly sweet taste, which makes the sauce crucial.

Casu Marzu (Italy)

weird foods are eaten around

Casu Marzu is quite simply Pecorino cheese that has been completely decomposed and occupied by maggots. It is dangerous to eat and could be fatal, which is why it is banned in most countries.

It originates from Italy where it was eaten by those in desperate poverty who had little else to eat. It is now a sought-after delicacy on the black market for those who wish to try the infamous illegal cheese.

Snake soup (China)

Snake soup is a 2,000-year-old delicacy eaten mostly throughout China but also in some other parts of Asia. Different snakes can be used and often a customer will pick out the snakes that they want to use.

However, the most popular snakes eaten are pythons and water snakes. It is cooked over a period of 6 hours and is considered to be healthy and full of medicinal benefits.

Hormiga Culona: Edible Fat-Bottomed Ants (Colombia)

weird food eaten

Fat-bottomed ants (known as Hormiga Culona) are a popular delicacy in Colombia where they are either roasted or fried and eaten like peanuts!

There are lots of health benefits to Hormiga Culona, which is a great source of protein and is even considered to be an aphrodisiac. Most report that they have a smokey flavor and are quite crunchy!

Birds Nest Soup (China)

weird food is eaten around the world

Bird’s nest soup is a popular delicacy in various parts of China, the nest of a swiftlet is used to cook a brothy soup with endless purported health benefits.

It is said that bird’s nest soup helps to tackle Alzheimer’s, repair skin, increase immunity, reduce fatigue, restore damaged cells, and many more!

However, bird’s nest soup is known for being a pretty expensive delicacy due to the cost of purchasing the nest itself.

This is likely due to the demand and lack of supply since obtaining the nest is quite dangerous and there are many ethical considerations with oversupplying them.

Tamilok Woodworm (Philippines)

weird food eaten around the world

The Tamilok Woodworm is a popular Filipino delicacy found in decaying, rotten logs in swamps-like mangroves.

The wood is then cracked open in order to extract the slimy creatures from inside. Once you’ve cracked open the log, you can find the tamilok clams wiggling through the wood, making holes as they go along.

Similar to oysters it has a fishy, slimy texture complimented by a very off-putting stench.