Our Top 10 List of Weird Food from around the world
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This list is our own personal top ten based on what we have seen and experienced in our travels. We were not game enough to try all of these foods, but we did eat some.
1. Deep-fried spiders, Cambodia
This is probably the most unusual food we have seen in all our travels. We didn’t believe it until we saw it with our own eyes. Ladies walk around with a tray full of big black hairy spiders that have been marinated and barbecued. People buy bags full of them, locals mostly but some brave tourists too. Clare was game enough to try one, but could only manage a leg! A little crunchy and hairy, but not inedible!
2. Thorny honeycomb, India
One day we saw a young girl selling what looked like a branch of a thorn tree, and in fact, it was but with a piece of natural honeycomb around it. You just have to be careful of the thorns.
3. Eating a tree, India
We stumbled across this guy selling food in the streets. It was thin slices off the top of a tree trunk approximately 25 cm in diameter. It is pale in colour, a little sweet with a very woody texture. We also saw a similar thing in Mexico, people were sawing sections off a tree trunk at a bus station to eat.
4. Chicken and the egg, Vietnam
A delicacy of Vietnam is to eat a fertilised chicken egg, with a little baby chicken inside. It was seeing a cooking show about Vietnam that featured this delicacy that inspired us to travel to Vietnam. We were too chicken to try it!
5. Barbequed frogs on a stick, Laos
We saw these frogs on a stick at a market in Luang-Prabang, but were not game to try. I could not even imagine what it would be like to eat this.
6. Scottish Haggis
Haggis is a meaty meal made from animal lungs, heart and liver, mixed with oatmeal, onions and barley, salt and spices. This is the basic recipe, and I am sure there are other variations. It is eaten all mushed up like mincemeat, and has rather a strong meaty flavour.
7. Fried insects, Thailand
Another one we did not try – fried insects of every kind – scorpions, grubs, crickets, grasshoppers, wasps (and also even baby chickens!)
8. Cow parts, Amalfi, Italy
We did not quite work this one out. It looks like it may be the tongue of the cow, which they cut up and served in pages of a newspaper with a squeeze of lemon.
9. Black vegetable, India
We came across a vegetable that we had not seen before, so Clare tried some and regretted it later as she was quite sick afterwards. We never found out what they were.
10. Kai pen in Laos
Kai pen is crispy sheets of Mekong river weed, dried flat with sprinkles of sesame seeds, sliced tomato and garlic. Tastes like sushi rolls without the rice! While we were exploring during the day we saw this young girl collecting it, then later were able to try it at a restaurant.