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People have often asked me what I wouldn't eat. Those conversations have inspired this page. Maybe someday I'll publish a book of "Disgusting things People Eat". I've listed the most disgusting items I know of towards the bottom of the page. Only items served by restaurants, street vendors, or are considered well-known delicacies by the host culture have made it to this list. The items have been rated with the symbol ":Þ" where one :Þ is relatively benign and is more palatable than it looks, and :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ is vomitously heinous.
:Þ Eaten in a provincial restaurant deep in France, this is exemplary pig offal soup. Like in Mexico and Nicaragua, where the dish is called Menudo and Mondongo respectively, pig guts are trimmed and simmered with a few complimentary vegetables and spices. The broth is thick and (if cooked correctly) should leave a gummy feeling around the lips. An initial earthy stench nearly put me off the soup, but once I had the first sip, there was no holding back.
:Þ I've eaten many renditions of fish soup and consider those made from boiled fish-heads tastiest. But when dad took his turn in the kitchen while on a fishing trip in the Maldives, he produced this cauldron containing a crudely hacked Tuna head with assorted viscera floating in it. To have something looking like this shoved in my face at the crack of dawn while seasick on a boat is not my idea of breakfast, thank you very much.
:Þ As a child, I had yearned to try Betel Nut for a long time--after all the association of chewing and spitting the stuff with Cowboy Westerns I watched then was rather powerful. There was nothing else in my local context that we chewed and spit. So I got pretty excited when I saw the item being sold on the roadside during a visit to Sri Lanka. I watched with anticipation as a fluorescent pink paste was smeared on a shiny green leaf. Mottled brown chips of Betel Nut were added with a few spices and some tobacco shreds and then wrapped into a neat parcel. I examined and sniffed the green wad, wondering what to do with it as the vendor made another parcel for himself and popped it into his mouth. When I did likewise and balked, they began grinning. There was an over-whelming "green" smell in my mouth like eating a handful of lawn grass. Then a bitter, astringent sensation puckered my mouth like canker sore medication--I did not know that the pink paste was sodium hydroxide. The Betel Nut slivers were bark-like and difficult to gnaw. Finally, the intense hits from tobacco, cloves and star anise pummelled my already overloaded senses. I've been told that people chew it to get a mild analgesic effect. Personally, I think chugging a vial of canker sore medication would be less traumatic...
:Þ Warm Buffalo milk is ladled into an unglazed clay dish and allowed to cool with a yoghurt culture. The dishes are stacked and tested before sale--the curd should be firm enough not to run or spill when raised vertical. The curd is has a distinct musk smell and an astringent aftertaste, and tastes like a coarse typical yogurt. Eaten with caramelised palm sugar, Buffalo Curds put out many fires in my stomach caused by Sri Lankan curries--arguably the most visciously hot in the world.
Field Pheasant, Bangkok Thailand :Þ I didn't think I'd have any problem with this one when we ordered it. I've eaten fowl many times before, except this one came with head and feet. Once I got over the paranoia of the bird sitting up and accusing me of eating it, I actually enjoyed the meal. By the end of the meal, I didn't find the dish repulsive. But I didn't find anything worth repeating either.
Stewed Sea-Slugs, Singapore :Þ I once lifted a sea-slug (sea cucumber) for examination while wading in a tidal pool. Within moments, the limp rubbery animal secreted a sticky white substance and spewed its bluish green guts attempting to offend its would-be predator. It succeeded. So to find this animal chopped up in a stew was rather odd. When cooked it is slippery and springy like neoprene. Tasteless and rubbery, I just don't know why people bother to eat it.
Live Lobster, Singapore :Þ If you've never seen one up close, a lobster is an intimidating animal with its heavily-spined carapace. The animal moves languidly until started. Recoiling its segmented tail suddenly, the lobster will burst backward violently. In a Japanese restaurant the master chef will split open the lobster's shell, slice up its flesh, and re-assemble the animal upon a platter so quickly that it still moves--giving the appearance of an intact, alive lobster. One is expected to savour its sweet, succulent flesh with slighty crunchy texture without being offended by the twitching tentacles as the lobster regards you. My absolute favourite way to eat a quality lobster.
Fried Scorpions, Singapore :Þ Eaten at a traditional herbal restaurant, the proprietor waxed lyrical about the medicinal properties of the little fried Scorpion before us. I picked one up and brought it closer for examination and quickly removed its thorn-like stinger. Crunchy. That's all it was--the deep-frying had charred whatever minute amount of flesh within the Scorpion. It was such an insipid experience that I wondered what the fuss was all about.
Stewed Goose-webs, Bangkok, Thailand :Þ Have you ever seen a Goose Farm? Like a duck-farm, a tiny pond lies in the middle of an enclosure that is almost always too small for the number of animals within. The Geese slither and slide around in mud and their own filth, having eaten whatever little vegetation there was. Having seen what Geese waddle on, I peered into the claypot bubbling with a brown muck of gooey liquid and twisted legs and webs. I scorched my tongue on the first bite with the hot liquid that retains heat almost tenaciously. Bits of bone and toe-nails are avoided carefully and spat out. It was much tastier than expected, and I soon overcame whatever psychological misgivings I had initially-something I look forward to eating everytime I am in Bangkok.
Field Mouse, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia :Þ Heavily spiced and grilled, I could hardly recognise the carcass of the mouse until I got to the rib-cage. Having dissected one while in college it was difficult to deny. Nevertheless, the herb and spices made it quite palatable. A bit stringy but worth eating again.
Bamboo Maggots, Bangkok, Thailand :Þ (fried) :Þ:Þ:Þ (raw) These beasties are found at the base of bamboo groves. They are sold by street vendors in bamboo canisters lined with a silky fluff. The soft and squishy worms taste like french fries when deep fried--crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside. However, they do taste richer than fries and have a egg-yolky aftertaste. The live version is a different matter. You'll require some nerve to bite into the frantically wriggling worm which will spurt like a popped pimple. The contents taste like egg-white with a strangely acidic zing. I actually look forward to eating these things (the deep fried ones).
Flying Fox-Bat, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia :Þ:Þ The bat is hunted by shot-gun. When an animal is shot down but found barely alive it is kicked by the hunter to release screams to attract other bats thinking that a rival is delivering a challenge. Like the field mouse, the bat is cooked in a lot of spices to mask the characteristic perfume of the flesh which smells like cut fruit in a plastic bag and left in the Sun. Its wings are particularly interesting. Stretchy like warm taffee but resilient and springy like the thick, smooth skin between your fingers. I really look forward to eating this when I am in Manado.
Som Tham (pronounced soam-tum) :Þ:Þ offensive first impression, but with an educated palate (strong stomach and masochistic streak) it can grow on you. A salad of unripe, grated papaya and other shredded vegetables becomes a flaming dish when a few prik kee nu (chillis containing hellfire) are added. Tapping a sliced morsel of those chillis on my tongue caused me to yelp, break into a sweat and make my scalp itch. Add the raw crabs to this. Yes, that jar with the green top contains little raw crabs. The raw crabs add a fishy stench to the salad. They are a species of freshwater crab caught in the local rice fields and then drowned in a salt solution. (You really need a cast-iron stomach to not suffer the "runs" after eating this stuff.) Having said this, I've actually learned to like eating Som Tham.
Terobok Busuk, Singapore :Þ:Þ This dish is distinctively Peranakan--a people of intermarried Chinese-Malay in Singapore. Pronounced "turr-o boak boo-soak", loosely translated it means "smelly fish"--aptly named. Prepared by taking the salted roe and guts of a particularly oily fish and stewing it with assorted vegetables, the dish is very fishy and emits a somewhat putrid smell. Invented and popularised among the poor, I find it ironic that this dish requires an educated palate to enjoy.
Salted Fish, Malacca, Malaysia :Þ:Þ According to the die-hards, the best salted fish come from Malacca. When my father went there many years ago to buy his very first specimen, he was pleased to be buying the very best from the source. But back in his hotel room, he was appalled to find maggots crawling out of every orifice in the large, shrivelled carcass. Disgusted, he tossed the entire fish out of his window into the back alley and returned to the shop to complain. The shopkeeper laughed at him saying that every salted fish contained maggots-- he proved his point by squirting jets of chilli powder into a carcass. Irritated maggots soon wriggled out. My slunk back to the back alley to retrieve his buy. Once properly cleaned and deep fried, I find the stuff oddly yummy.
Belacan, Singapore :Þ:Þ Pronounced "blah-chan", I've been eating the stuff for years as a foundation to a hot chilli paste. Then I visited a cottage industry that prepared the stuff. The muck of a shrimp/prawn is extracted and reduced by boiling. The mess is smeared onto a flat basket-trays to dry in the Sun. No problem to me--even the clouds of flies buzzing around the putrid paste didn't freak me out until I saw a dog trotting around adding its own contribution to the condiment...
Locust, Phuket, Thailand :Þ:Þ:Þ Commonly referred to as a "sky prawn", the large insect is often deep-fried. Dark brown and shiny with oil, the locust has a strange "marsh-like" smell that reminds me of grass clippings left in the Sun. The over-sized hind legs are plucked off with care to avoid the thorny spines leaving a crunchy head portion and a squishy abdomen that spurts green muck. I think John the Baptist had it bad.
Field-Sparrow, Bangkok Thailand :Þ:Þ:Þ These little birds are gathered from rice-fields and deep-fried whole. Because the bird is fried in very hot oil, most of it is just crispy, until to bite into its abdomen which bursts with half-digested rice goo. One must also take care not to swallow the tiny beak, or get feathers caught between your teeth.
Brine-Squid, Batam Island, Indonesia :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ Raw squid floating in brine sounds tolerable enough until you take one out of the jar. It drips slime tainted with ink and generally looks and smells like forgotten bait at the bottom of a boat. The splotchy palor of the flesh and putrid smell is confirmed by a sickening saltiness that oozes down your throat. I'm inclined to amend the title to "Rotting Squid".
Balut, Manila, Philippines :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ A duck embryo is incubated until the duckling is half-formed. It is then cooked in a soup and served on the half-shell (of its egg). The embryo is curled up around the remnants of an egg sac, on which capillaries are clearly visible. Slick feathers, its beak and eyes are already formed. When I mustered enough courage to taste it, I found the soup tasty enough but the soft bones and feathers are a bit tricky. I was doing alright until a toe-nail got caught between my teeth.
Live-Octopus, Seoul, Korea :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ My father has the dubious honour of eating this one. Dirty gray in colour, the octopus' carapace is the size of two thumbs placed side by side. Its tentacles extend to the length and thickness of a chopstick. Sliced into one-inch segments, the mass of tentacles squirm in the bowl and rear up like leeches sensing warmth when you try to pick one up. Furthermore, the suckers adhere tenaciously to the bowl requiring effort to peel one off. Tough and chewy the tentacles continue to wriggle in the mouth. "It's so revolting that you want to end the experience as fast as possible, but it's excruciatingly difficult to chew", laments my father T.K. One mild consolation is that the suckers cannot stick to the roof of your mouth because of the mucus lining.
Horseshoe Crab Roe :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ First of all, look at this thing. It reminds me of something from the set of "Aliens"... and what's more, you eat its roe--its would-be offspring. I mean, is it indigestion, or something festering in your poor belly after dinner?!! If the chef makes a mistake of slicing into its body while removing its eggs, you run the risk of hallucinating (or worse) because the body contains a mild toxin. The clump of roe separates into coarse granules and has a chewy-tacky texture. It has an odd, pungent smell reminiscent of musk accompanied by a fishy taste that just won't wash off. Ate it once, never again.
The following accounts have been verified as true. They are truly sick to me, and I shall not be held responsible for any ill-effects caused to you if you choose to read on... needless to say, I've not eaten any of these things--are you kidding me?!! ~shien~
Dog-Drink, Philippines :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ A dog is force-fed rice and other available grains and not allowed to vomit. When the animal is bloated, it is killed and left in the hot sun for a few days. After the abdomen of the carcass swells to a certain size on the third day, hollow bamboo rods are used to pierce the belly to drink the contents.
Bloody Pig, Chiang Rai, Thailand :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ A little black pot-bellied pig that was allowed to roam freely among the filth of the squalid village is slaughtered by slitting the throat. The blood is drained off into a basin and the flesh crudely hacked into chunks. The meat is minced, then slathered with its own blood and allowed to coagulate. As it sets, a few herbs are drizzled on with some chilli powder and served raw on a banana leaf.
Three Blind Mice, China :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ New-born mice are gathered. Their nubile pink bodies are wrapped in pickled vegetable leaves (similar saurkraut) and eaten alive.
Foetus Soup, China :Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ:Þ Human foetus are gathered from an abortion clinic and served in a soup of tonic herbs as an aphrodisiac for incompetent old men.
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Tripe a
la mode de Caen, Saint Pierre sur Dives, France
