Most travellers would have been asked the same question: what's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten overseas?
It's a good one. After all, if you've clocked up a few different countries you've invariably been faced with some interesting foodstuffs that you've been expected to devour. And hopefully you've at least given them a try.
In their home country they're not considered weird in the slightest; however, to the first-time visitor, they're at best a little frightening, and at worst incredibly bizarre. These are the strangest I've sampled.
Cuy, Peru
"Cuy" is the Peruvians' onomatopoeic name for the humble guinea pig (say the word out loud – it's like the sound a guinea pig makes). It's also something of a national delicacy, particularly in the Andean region of the country, where it's served deep-fried and whole, sometimes positioned in a manner that looks like it might be about to scurry off your plate. The taste? A little tough and gamey, but not bad. Though not something that's likely to take off in Australia any time soon.
Warthog, Kenya
There's a strange dichotomy involved in eating game in Africa, one that requires you to enjoy looking at beautiful animals by day and then enjoy dining on those same beautiful animals by night. If you can get past that, however, you'll have the chance to feast on such delicacies as kudu, springbok, zebra and ostrich. Also: warthog. Ignore your misgivings than stem largely from having watched The Lion King ("When I was a young warthog…") and tuck in – this is one tasty meat, similar to pork but with some added gaminess.
Cactus, Mexico
Eating cactus isn't weird in the slightest – I just had no idea you could do it until I visited Mexico. There, on the streets of the nation's capital, I was presented with a taco filled with cactus flower, also known as prickly pear, or in Spanish, "nopal". It's a juicy, meaty fruit that goes surprisingly well with Mexican flavours, and in particular wedged into a tortilla and drizzled with salsa.
Frog porridge, Singapore
On the streets of the somewhat dodgy Geylang district in Singapore, food fans crowd around cheap plastic tables to feast on one of the local delicacies: frog porridge. Soupy rice is slurped; bits of frog are chewed; bones are strewn across tabletops and pavements; faces are wiped down with towels. This dish is a mix of Cantonese-style congee and fried frogs legs and, if you can get past the initial weirdness, it tastes amazingly good.
Snake, Vietnam
I didn't set out with the intention of eating snake when I was in Hanoi, but rather was swindled into it by a young guy who wanted to "practice his English" while introducing me to some local cuisine. Ah, you live and you learn. Still, this pricey encounter did allow me the chance to sample some snake spring rolls, which tasted a lot like any other spring roll, really. Turns out deep-frying things takes away most of the individual flavour. Which, in the case of Vietnamese snake, may have been a good thing.
Crickets, Thailand
These unlikely superfoods are fried up and served whole in marketplaces across Thailand, often displayed in baskets next to slightly larger fried friends such as locusts and cicadas. While you can keep big gooey insects like the latter ones all for yourself, thank you very much, the big surprise about crickets is that they're actually pretty tasty. A little bit nutty, and a little bit salty. The world's next great beer snack? You never know.
Scorpion, China
Down at the touristy Wangfujing Snack Street in Beijing, you can eat pretty much any strange foodstuff that your heart desires. Sheep testicles? Starfish? Seahorses? Finally, here is your chance to indulge in some of the weirder things in life. While I left those delicacies to more hardy eaters, I did try the deep-fried scorpions, which, as per the snake entry above, are so heavily deep-fried as to taste like nothing but salt and crunch. And that was kind of a relief.
Chicken sashimi, Japan
One thing you learn as a cook in Australia is that raw chicken is bad. Like, really bad. Give yourself salmonella bad. Poison your friends at a dinner party bad. So to be faced with a dish of intentionally red-raw chicken in Japan is something of a shock. Is this really OK? Turns out, of course, that the Japanese know exactly what they're doing, and as long is the chicken is extremely fresh, you can enjoy it raw. Although it's not guaranteed that you'll enjoy it. (For the record, it tastes – ahem – like chicken.)
If you like the sound of these dishes, and you're game, take a look at them in the gallery above.
What's the strangest thing you've eaten on your travels? Post your comments below.
b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au
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