Food is meant to unite us, but sometimes, it does the exact opposite. Certain dishes around the world are so strange, divisive, or just plain off-putting that they spark intense reactions. Some people consider them traditional favorites, while others can’t believe anyone would actually eat them. Would you give them a try or run the other way?
Note: The content of this article does not reflect the Writer’s personal beliefs.
Boy Eggs
Also known as virgin boy eggs, this dish is controversial for multiple reasons.
Firstly, it hovers over frowned-upon practices; urine from hundreds of school boys is collected and sold to the market. Secondly, it involves the very disgusting process of boiling normal hen or duck eggs into the urine right until the exterior hardens.
To us, this dish is disgusting. However, to the residents of Dongyang City, China, the dish is considered a delicacy and sold twice the price of normal eggs.
Snake wine
Some people sure know how to make even the most delicious things controversial. They managed to turn wine, a favorite of many, into something that would make your skin crawl.
Snake wine is an exotic alcoholic drink made by fermenting a snake in rice or grain wine. It’s commonly served in Vietnam, China, Laos, Taiwan, and even India.
Ikizukuri
Ikizukuri is just Japanese sashimi that’s prepared from live fish.
Yep, this might just be one of the most controversial dishes in the world because guests can see the fish flopping on its belly before being plucked out to be served.
The sashimi prepared from ikizukuri is said to be extremely delicious because it’s served right out of the ocean, but that’s something only a few people are willing to explore.
Hakarl
Hakarl is the national dish of Iceland, which means it’s commonly served and cooked there and nowhere else in the world.
But hakarl is seen as a controversial dish because it is literally a fermented shark. Sharks are not only a seafood most haven’t tried but are also one most aren’t willing to try.
Hakarl is also one of the strongest-smelling foods, making it nearly impossible for a first-timer to like it.
Kiviak
Kiviak is a traditional dish eaten by people in Southwestern Greenland. The dish is made by disemboweling and emptying a freshly hunted seal and then stuffing it with about 500 small native birds called auk.
If you thought this ended here, wait a minute. Then, the seal isn’t cooked but left to ferment for as long as 18 months before being eaten.
Casu marzu
Get your puke buckets out because this is about to get gross. Casu marzu is a type of cheese that is purposely infected with live insect larvae. Hold on, there’s more.
This Sardinian cheese attracts all sorts of insects, including maggots, which are left behind in the cheese to give it a distinct tangy taste.
Yuck, right?
Balut
Balut is a street food served in the Philippines, Vietnam, and parts of Cambodia.
It is basically a boiled/steamed egg, but what makes it truly horrendous is the inside. Instead of boiling an egg, balut picks eggs that are half-fertilized and then steamed.
This means there’s a high chance opening the balut will give you a half-chick, half-egg combo.
Mykyrokka
Mykyrokka is a Finnish soup that features dumplings made from barley flour and blood.
Whose blood, you ask? Typically, pork or any cattle are available, and it’s insanely weird how relieving this information feels.
The blood dumplings are then cooked with potatoes, onions, offal, and fatty meat and served on their own. Yep, this is purely gross.
San-nakji
San-nakii is a Korean octopus dish, which is a type of hoe. Hoe is the Korean practice of eating seafood raw. So we can pretty much gather why san-nakji stands out from other seafood or even octopus dishes.
The dish is basically like sashimi, but the way it’s served is considered controversial. Plus, the rubbery and slimy texture doesn’t really sound too great.
Tarantula on a stick
Most of us wouldn’t even think of touching a tarantula, let alone eating it. But Cambodia serves fried tarantula on a stick as if you’re feasting on waffles or any other fried food.
Tarantula on a stick is basically a tarantula tossed in garlic, salt, sugar, and MSG and then fried until the legs become stiff.
Eww.
Mongolian boodog
Boodog is basically a barbecued goat that is cooked whole with hot stones shoved into it. Think Thanksgiving turkey, but instead of delicious stuffing, the goat contains hot coals, which help it cook in a deep pit.
The goat can be replaced with a Tarbagan marmot, so somehow, this dish becomes much worse than it was. The marmot is skinned, emptied out, and then stuffed with stones before being thrown in a deep ditch where the heat and intensity cook it.
Yep, there's nothing like eating a squirrel.
Haggis
We all know how delicious is sheep's meat when cooked properly with spices. But have you ever imagined eating its liver, heart, and lungs all mixed together? We know how tacky that may sound, right?
Haggis is a famous dish of Scotland that consists of all of the above, but wait, that's not gross. It's how it is cooked! Yes, all the meat is minced, then packed into a sheep's stomach, and boiled. It's eaten with mashed potatoes.
Foie Gras
Fois gras is the liver of a duck or goose. To make the liver extra fatty and plump, the animals are force-fed for about two weeks, giving them almost double the amount of food they normally receive. This causes the birds to go into distress and often die before they are brought to slaughter. This inhumane process of raising foie gras birds has been a hot topic for decades.
Many farms have stopped overfeeding the ducks but others still follow this practice which makes you question whether or not you should eat that foie gras on your plate.
Birds Nest Soup
Birds nest soup is made from the nest of the swiftlet bird. This specific bird creates an edible nest using its saliva. The nest is taken from the bird and boiled with sugar to create a very expensive soup.
While the soup is said to have many medicinal benefits, the controversy revolves around harvesting the nests before the bird is able to lay eggs.
Even worse, the baby birds are often removed from the nest and left to die. We are not sure we want to take part in that!
Caviar
Caviar has been a hot topic food for decades. No one can agree if this food should be banned or prized. Caviar is the eggs, or roe, of a fish from the sturgeon family. Because caviar has been unsustainably farmed for years, the sturgeon population is suffering greatly. They may even become extinct if the laws do not change.
So, should we keep eating caviar and fishing for sturgeon until they are gone completely? Or should we stop eating those little salty fish eggs right now? You decide.
Black Pudding
Black pudding is a type of blood sausage made in the United Kingdom. It is made with pork and beef blood, which gives it a distinct, dark color.
However, many people are freaked out by the fact that the sausage contains blood. It is a little creepy to eat an animal's blood, but based on the popularity of blood pudding, many people enjoy it.
Shark Fin Soup
Shark fin soup is a luxury dish that is especially popular in China. However, many find harvesting shark fins to be a very unethical practice. Sharks are caught, the fins are removed, and then the animal is thrown back into the water. Most sharks do not survive without their fins. Is the delicious soup worth a slow, sad death for the shark? You decide.
This article was first published at Spatula Desserts.
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