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I like to think of myself of quite the traveller, but when I started to put this blog together I started to realise there are a lot of places for me to go and a lot of foods for me to try. The only thing I HAVEN’T tried on my many trips to the Philippines is Balut, but we’ll come to that. I’d love to know if you have tried any of these foods, drop me a line in the comments if you have.

Century Egg

I’ve given the Century Egg pride of place t because I have never heard of anything that sounds more grim to eat in my entire life. A Century Egg is pickled, just like you get pickled onions and pickled eggs in the chip shop, however you might be in for  shock more than a surprise if you get one of these in the chip shop. A Century Egg is an egg that is soaked in saline solution which sometimes includes ash and rice hulls. The eggs are then left (only for a few weeks mind, not an actual century), and then served a number of different ways, like in the leaves of a ginger root.

Balut

Balut is a little banger from my favourite country, the Philippines. Continuing the egg theme, Balut is a fertilised egg with an embryo inside it. Balut is boiled and then eaten as it is, usually on its own. The incubation period is between 14 and 21 days.

Casu marzu

Casu marzu is one of those ones you just have to look at and go “what the actual …?”. Casu marzu is a cheese which all sounds normal enough until you throw in the live insect larvae that are purposefully in the cheese. Even better, any Sardinian will tell you that if the insects are dead it it “not safe” to eat, so the cheese is only eaten while the insect larvae are alive. Christ on a bike.

Tuna eyeballs

One of the things I love about this is that it the name really drills down to what it is. No kids, this isn’t a euphemism, in some parts of Asia, very commonly in Japan, Tuna eyeballs are actually a dish. They are actually considered a delicacy as well. And you thought things like frogs legs were bad? Oh and also, they are MASSIVE just to make matters worse.

Jellied moose nose

Oddly, my stomach has held out doing all of my research until this one. No, a tuna eyeball won’t catch me off guard but jellied moose nose is up there with the most horrid thing I have ever read about. Like many of the others, it really does what it says on the tin. An Alaskan delicacy, jellied moose nose is made by boiling a moose snout with some garlic and spices. YUM!

Fermented shark

This is one I had the opportunity to try while I was in Iceland, and politely declined. Although I wish I had never now in hindsight, because it would have made a great video for my vlog. Basically the meat from a shark is fermented with a specific process and then hung to dry for four or five months. Safe to say the smell put me off for life, but Icelanders love it! Luckily, most of the other Nordic foods are delicious.

Image source:https://www.nordicfoods.org/products/fermented-shark-or-rotten-shark

Deep fried spider

No explanation needed here. EWWWWWWWWWW!

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