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Inspired by the thought of drinking cups of Palm Civet poo coffee (see the story here), we have put together this list of the world’s weirdest foods.
We’re not interested in your average bugs’n'beetles that can be found in every Thai market-stall. We’re interested in bizarre concoctions from ramshackle restaurants; local delicacies that nobody has ever heard of. Things that make you wonder ‘who on earth was the first person to try that?’
We’d like to try some of them ourselves, and others we wouldn’t even wish upon the most eager ‘I’m a celebrity’ contestant. Some of them are the most calorific and sweat inducing plates of food we’ve ever seen.
So, for the strong of stomach only, tuck in that napkin. Here they are…
Natto: Served at street stalls and eateries all over Japan, this stinky gloop consists of fermented soy beans. It’s a great source of protein, but when you are eating something that looks like snot and smells of strong cheese, nutrition is probably the last thing on your mind.
Jellyfish: Known almost exclusively for being floaty, tentacle-y and sting-y, jellyfish are a delicacy in asian restaurants worldwide. Choose from jellyfish salad, blanched jellyfish, or jellyfish in sesame dressing. Try the sliced jellyfish at the Wukong Restaurant, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Sliced and ready for savouring – fresh jellyfish
Cassava: It’s a vital staple in northern South America and central Africa that feeds millions upon millions of people, but that doesn’t stop cassava from being highly toxic. Similar to potato, the root is the part that’s eaten, and the larger roots (‘bitter’ cassava) contain lethal amounts of cyanide if the stuff is not properly washed.
Deep fried everything, Scotland: Ahh the Scots…inventors of the television, the fax machine and the kaleidoscope. Oh, and let’s not forget the Stonner – a sausage wrapped in kebab meat and then deep-fried. It’s accompanied with a salad (that’s chips to you and me) and a health warning. Walk into most chippies in Glasgow and they’ll deep fry anything from cream eggs to pizza.
Chicken fried steak with ice cream: This grammatical conundrum of an artery-clogging dish comes to you straight from Texas. It’s a battered steak fried in bacon fat served with savoury ice-cream made with fat and scraps from the pan. Our guess is that this won’t go anywhere towards your five-a-day.
Hope that’s not the healthy option: chicken fried steak and ice cream…
Chitterlings aka Chitlin’s: For tripe and sweetbread lovers everywhere, this one isn’t that strange. When you order chitlin’s you are eating pig’s intestines, and you are most probably in the southern USA, where they are common. They come either fried, grilled or served in broth and are so popular that there’s a festival dedicated to them held every year in Salley, South Carolina.
Scandinavian salty liquorice: It’s pretty much always the last sweet left in the packet and quite possibly the most bizarre flavour combination ever invented. Some bright spark in Scandinavia decided to roll the black candy in salt to make it more appealing. It didn’t work. It’s widely available in Scandinavia and Northern Germany. It’s also one of the most appalling tasting things ever created (in our opinion).
Kangaroo sushi: This can be found in some of Tokyo’s sushi bars – if you search hard enough. Kangaroo is tender and tasty, with a texture very much like certain types of tuna – making the meat ideal for sushi dishes. One of the tastier looking morsels on the list.
There must be a couple of kangaroo rolls in this delicious platter
Hogs head cheese: It’s not quite cheese, and it’s not quite pig…it’s hogs head cheese, straight from the Deep South. You know you are on to a weird food gem when the ingredients include one hog head, split and cleaned, four pig feet, scraped and cleaned, and four pounds pork butt. Try it at the New Orleans Rib Room
Raw goat: Goat? Delicious. Raw goat? We’re not so sure. The commonly eaten mezze dish Kibbeh Nayyeh is popular in Lebanon and Syria and consists of raw goat meat mixed with bulgur wheat and spices. We imagine it to be a bit like steak tartare, but a bit more goaty.
British food has been around for centuries. Although people don’t always know to appreciate it at its true value, traditional British cuisine has a lot to offer when it comes to satisfying the tastes of different people from all over the world, with different cultures, religions and hence, different culinary tastes. British cuisine has in its “portfolio” many delicious dishes and a great variety from many different corners of the United Kingdom.
The reason for which British food has such a large variety of culinary options is the fact that British culture and cooking have been influenced in a great measure by immigration and overseas culinary elements. Do you want to know what most predominates in the United Kingdom when talking about food? Well, it’s pretty much all about: candies/chocolates (Cadbury Crunchie is one of the most popular chocolates in the United Kingdom), biscuits/cookies, tea/coffee and different groceries such as custard powder, pickles, mustard and many more.
Even though there are many disputes when it comes to the structure of the British Isles, one thing is for sure: the United Kingdom is a “square” formed of four parts – England, Northern Island, Scotland and Wales – each having their own different cultural and culinary traditions. Combined with the already mentioned elements – immigration and intercultural changes – all these factors have influenced in big proportions British food and have led to the appearance of new culinary styles such as Anglo-Indian (a popular food in the United Kingdom is Kedgeree – Flaked fish (usually smoked haddock), with boiled rice, butter and eggs and it is a food that has its origins in the time of the British Indian Empire).
British food has always been based on meat. Be it beef, chicken, fish, lamb or pork, this food is generally served with potatoes and one other vegetable. The most encountered typical foods eaten in the United Kingdom include fish and chips – one of everybody’s favorites, pies like the Cornish pasty, roasts dinners and of course, the “immortal” sandwich, the savior of us all, people in a hurry.
There are some main dishes that have really strange names, like, for example, “Bubble and Squeak” or “Toad in the Hole” (sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter). The main alimentary products of Great Britain are represented by butter, eggs, fish, flour, meat and potatoes. And the majority of the British dishes are all based on these products.
But let’s not forget about sweets, everybody’s favorite! Like we have already mentioned, Cadbury Crunchie is one of the most popular chocolates in the United Kingdom. Cadbury Crunchie is golden honeycomb covered in ‘Dairy Milk’ chocolate. This chocolate bar offers an uplifting taste experience every time that you eat it. If you need an energizing treat throughout the day, Cadbury Crunchie offers you the sweet boost that you want.
The chocolate bar is popular not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Australia, India, New Zealand and around the world. Introduced in 1905, so having more than a century of existence, Cadbury Crunchie has an impressive number of varieties including ‘Fruit and Nut’ and ‘Whole Nut’. For a short period of time a ‘Fruit’ variety (without the nuts) was available, but was discontinued.
British food, especially English cuisine, has not always had a good reputation abroad. Just to have an idea, in 2005, for example, the French President, Jacques Chirac described English food as the second worst in Europe. But things have changed meanwhile and today there are many excellent British restaurants.
Genetically Modified Foods
Recent studies have reproven the health risks and side effects of eating genetically modified foods. The studies done back in 1999 by Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the world’s top GMO safety researcher at the prestigious Rowett Institute in Scotland was working on a UK government grant to design long-term testing protocols intended to become part of the official European GM food safety assessment process. When Pusztai fed supposedly harmless GMOs to rats, they developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, smaller brains, livers and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and showed signs of a damaged immune system. Moreover, the results clearly indicated that the cause of the problem was due to the unpredictable side effects arising from the process of genetic engineering itself.
Unfortunately these studies caused quite an uproar upon release. But whats worse, is that U.S media gave the GMO stories and research results practically no coverage. For some reason we as a nation were left in the dark, on more world wide information.
The fact that many of the genetically modified crops are modified by using the BT pesticide. The BT pesticide is injected into the genes of certain crops , such as corn, cotton, and other common food sources. The pesticide are created when the crops reach a certain size as a way to keep the crops from being eaten by insects and bugs that decrease the overall yield of crops.
Unfortunately further test’s have When the test was performed, it was proven that GM food crops can transfer into the DNA of our gut bacteria. This means that long after we stop eating GM corn chips, our intestinal flora might continue to manufacture the “Bt” pesticide that the GM corn plants are engineered to produce. That could be the most substantial research done so far. As if we needed that to know how dangerous pesticides could be to our health.
As if this wasnt enough, our media still refuses to lend any attention to this evergrowing problem that we face on a daily basis. It is estimated that over 60% to 70% of our overall food crops are grown using genetically modified technologies.
The worst part? The worst part is that the actual companies that use these GMO technologies, refuse to have genetically modified food sources served in there cafeterias. Believe me, this is documented. As a matter of fact one of the main companies that use the genteically modified grow techniques is Monsanto. And anyone can find out that they will not serve GM food to employee’s.
That should say quite alot to anyone that thinks that there is not a genetically modified food problem.
As a matter of fact, all testing aside, there is a documented case of over 10,000 Sheep died within 5 days of grazing on a gentocally modified food source. That is just one of many cases in which GMO’s have cause real harm.
We have limited options as people that wish to avoid eating these dangerous GMO’s. But we must stop buying food that is grown using genetically modified technologies.
Eating Organic food is 1 of 2 options we have if we want to stick to a safe diet and avoid gmo’s. The other is growing our own Organic food supply.
By using 100% organic seed’s, we will not only be able to eat healthy, but these organic seed’s arent like normal seed’s. You see, even the seed’s sold in most stores are modified. They are created so that you will only get 1 season out of each seed. When you use the organic seeds, you will never have to buy seed’s again.
Its cheaper, healthier, and you will not be forced into buying organic food at outrageous prices.
For more information on growing healthy , Organic Gardens -
Click Here For Completely Organic Seeds
You would think that the UK and USA does not produce any food, if this is the case then where has the billions of pounds gone that our two governments pay in farmers subsidies?
By buying food from abroad, developing countries get to market their produce world-wide and we get out of season food all year round. Everyones happy except the environment. Food transportation across the globe is making a significant contribution to climate change. Just look at the following examples:
Food in the UK travels 65% further than it did two decades ago
Heinz ketchup eaten in California is made with California-grown tomatoes shipped to Canada for processing and returned in bottles
In one year, the port of New York City exported $431,000 of Californian almonds to Italy, and imported $397,000 of Italian almonds to the US
Examples are from www.newint.org
What is local food and how can it help?
For many, local food is interpreted as unprocessed food, to be transformed by the consumer or a local shop rather than by the food industry. The food originates from as close to home as possible such as on a regional or national level. As such, local food reduces or eliminates the costs of transport, processing, packaging, and advertising. The go local food movement is currently flourishing with over 15% of people buying food locally and this number continues to rise as the number of farmers markets and local vegetable box schemes increases.
The benefit of locally grown fresh food is that it can be consumed almost immediately after production leading to an increase in food quality and taste as it may be sold fresher and usually riper. Also, the need for chemical preservatives to artificially extend the shelf-life can be reduced or eliminated.
Buying local food does not necessarily mean giving up all food coming from distant countries, but rather favoring local foods when available. Why buy apples from South Africa when you can buy British apples? But often buying food produced abroad can be cheaper (yes, cheaper) than locally produced food due to the subsidies the farmers receive and economies of scale from these large plantations.
It is also argued that national borders should preferably not be used to define what is local and instead measurements made in miles. The growth of Sat Nav systems maybe able to help in calculating the exact number of food miles that food has undertaken. For people living in, say, the south of England, food produced in northern France is more local than food produced in Scotland as it is closer. The local food movement in the European Union has been furhter complicated and hindered by EU rules requiring items produced in the EU, including food, to be marked as products of the EU, rather than as products of any particular country. The instinct of customers to buy nationally produced food in the name of patriotism was deemed to be a barrier to free trade and anti EU.
Studies need to be undertaken so that people can have faith and knowledge that the food that they are buying is actually reducing their carbon footprint on the earth. For example, we need to assess whether it is likely to be more environmentally friendly for tomatoes to be grown in the hot climate of Spain and transported to the UK than for the same tomatoes to be grown in greenhouses in the UK requiring huge amounts of electricity to light and heat them.
Do you regularly feel discomfort or bloating after eating certain foods? Is your life disrupted with constant cycles of constipation and diarrhoea, with your insides feeling raw? Does your skin regularly feel irritated or your joints sore? Do you suffer from chronic headaches or migraines? All these health issues can be symptoms of a food intolerance, or at least a contributing factor.
While less than 2% of the population suffer from food allergies, it is estimated that more than 20% of the population suffer from food intolerance. Food intolerances can affect anyone at any age, (we commonly work with children who have an intolerance to food) but since symptoms often occur some time after the food has been eaten it can be difficult to find the problem food. Years of research has found the basis of what causes allergy and food intolerance. Poor digestion causes your immune system to begin to attack partially digested components within the food that “leak” through the intestine and can migrate around the body. Sometimes that partially digested components lodge in the intestinal wall, sometimes in a membrane around a joint or even the brain. Antibodies quickly find these components and indicate to the rest of the bodies and this triggers the immune system and causes inflammation. Inflammation causes irritation: soreness, pain and swelling
There are many techniques that have been developed through the years to determine food intolerances. Some techniques were developed before scientists discovered the immune response, for example muscle reflex testing, and acupuncture. These techniques increasingly use electronic signal processors to improve their accuracy. However, these techniques can be still be compared to using a piece of seaweed for weather prediction. It takes someone with extremely good powers of judgement to understand a muscle reflex or voltage change due to a food sample being contacted with the skin. We often meet with patients who have been tested and told they are intolerance to a wide range of staple foods, fruit and vegetables. Their symptoms can improve sometimes but they often end up with a very unbalanced diet.
A more modern and clinically proven technique looks at the root cause of the food intolerance symptoms, the immune system. Indeed, a clinical trial of immune system tests found that most people with IBS that avoided the foods suggested by an immune test had their symptoms significantly improved. These tests do need a blood sample. With the right training, blood sampling is virtually painless and takes a few seconds. A sterile finger pricker lances the skin and a blood drop appears. The drop is collected and that is that, you don’t really need a dressing and its hard to see where the blood came from a minute later. That small blood sample is taken and the levels of the antibody determined by a laboratory. Some tests need to be sent away (york test). Our specialist practice in Inverness has a small lab where the tests can be done whilst you wait (
food intolerance testing inverness), taking less than one hour. The food intolerance test results are very unambiguous and can be used to guide an elimination diet with some certainty.
The immune (blood) testing is a lot more accurate than the old fashioned ways of testing. Sometimes people go through the mill, completely unnecessarily.
A patient (Mr. M.) came to us with a huge list of things he was told to not eat by an electronic muscle reflex test. He was an active young male who was told to avoid all grains, milk, nuts and yeast. He was suffering from rhinitis (blocked nose that would not go away) and had followed his food avoidance diet based on the electronic results and his symptoms had still not got any better. A big issue for him was that he used to like going out with his friends to go for pizza and have a few beers. He had lost a lot of weight and felt hungry all the time because of his active job.
I blood tested him and found that he gave a very weak positive result to oats and yeast (so weak it took imagination to see the positive blue spot on the test plate). So he had put up with not being able to go get a pizza, not being able to pop out for a sandwich at lunchtime and spent a lot his time being starving (active outdoor job in Scotland – you need food!!) for no particular reason at all.
So he is now back onto a balanced diet again and can enjoy a beer this Christmas.
If you have been electronically tested and given a big list of foods that you are intolerant to, it might be a good idea to get a second test done somewhere else perhaps by the immune method and compare the results.
Image taken on 2009-06-07 10:56:14 by chatirygirl.
The term ” food safety” has increasingly been used as a replacement for the phrase ” food hygiene” and encompasses a whole range of issues that must be addressed if prepared food is to be safe to eat.
Food safety therefore includes such matters as the temperature control of food through storage, preparation and service, the avoidance of cross-contamination, cleanliness of food handlers, equipment and food premises, and pest control etc. etc. etc.
The old term ” food hygiene” probably put too much emphasis on cleanliness. That is not to say that cleanliness is not important in a food business, it obviously is, but food safety requires much more than a clean premises. Many outbreaks of food-borne disease were caused by clean food businesses.
The infamous E. coli O157 outbreak that occurred in Central Scotland in 1996 and resulted in the deaths of 19, was traced back to the butcher’s J Barr & Sons. At the public enquiry that followed the chairman said that Mr Barr ran a clean business, but what he didn’t run was a safe business.
A thorough review of food safety at J Barr & Sons would have revealed poor temperature control, cross-contamination risks and staff inadequately trained in food safety matters. In terms of food safety the methods of food preparation and handling are more important than the cleanliness of the shop’s floor and walls.
This move from the term ” food hygiene” to food safety has been reflected in UK food legislation and training courses for food handlers. The first regulations designed to control food businesses and prevent the rise of food poisoning cases were the Food Hygiene Regulations 1955. The use of the term ” food hygiene” continued in subsequent regulations in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It was not until 1995 before ” food safety” was used in the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995.
A similar change of term has occurred with regard to training courses which were originally called “Basic Food Hygiene” courses, and then “Foundation Courses in Food Hygiene” and more recently “Level 2 Awards in Food Safety in Catering/Retailing/Manufacturing.”
So, Food Safety is now the accepted term for the study and practical application of all the principles required to produce safe food for consumers.
I spent part of my honeymoon there, and had to conclude it must be one of the best European honeymoon destinations possible. You don’t need to be on your honeymoon, taking your wife, or partner on a romantic vacation to Scotland , you need look no further than Inverlochy castle.
You wouldn’t want to be staying here if you were looking for a cheap honeymoon destination that’s for sure, but having said that, if you get the chance to stay at Inverlochy Castle, then take it.
If you can afford it, then take the King’s Suite, not only is it very large, but beautifully appointed, very traditional, but still with modern touches such as plasma television and internet access. The bath is also huge, and the towels beautifully fluffy, and the walk in shower, which is something we both love.
We didn’t go there for the room, but all the other touches from a hotel like this. It is one of the most beautifully restored Scottish castles, and arriving in the rain, an umbrella appeared, our luggage disappeared, and our car was parked. Then walking into chocolates and champagne in our suite was another nice touch
This was pampering, and it continued throughout our stay, from breakfast in our suite, where we looked out over Ben Nevis from one window, and the loch from the other. The food was to die for, and all our meals were quite superb.
It is fair to say that you need to be fond of a bit of hill walking, photography, just enjoying the scenery, because there isn’t much entertainment around the area, but then we were on our honeymoon!!!
I think what we liked the most was how unobtrusive, and respectful the staff were, totally respecting our privacy.
Not only is Inverlochy Castle one of the very top luxury hotels in Scotland, it has to be one of the very best European honeymoon destinations
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