Food from different parts of the World
Travelling to various countries, you will of course expect to see many new sights and learn many new things. But often, people forget that there will be something else to experience – new foods and flavours. Experiencing new foods can be daunting, terrifying even, but tasting local delicacies can be the foremost way to directly experience a new culture.
Certain national cuisines are more familiar than others – for example pasta and pizza from Italy, and sushi from Japan are unlikely to surprise the tastebuds, while monkey brains and live eels might be enough to send you running to the hills.
Here is a selection of the common and uncommon local foods you can expect to come across during your career as an epic traveller.
Raw
Sushi is a Japanese cuisine based on raw fish. From maki, which is rice and seaweed wrapped around a small piece of fresh raw fish, to sashimi, larger pieces of raw fish eaten plain, to fugu, a potentially deadly puffer fish which is poisonous if not prepared in the correct way, there is a lot that might be scary about sushi.
French, Belgian, and several other European countries consider steak tartare a delicacy. This dish of ground raw steak is served with onions, capers and sometimes a raw egg.
Fried
It is well known that the French eat frogs’ legs. The top joint of the hind leg of a frog is usually coated in breadcrumbs and fried or deep fried. The end result looks and tastes something like a chicken wing.
Middle Eastern cuisine is becoming increasingly popular in the Western world. Although the majority of food from this area is grilled or baked, there is one well-known fried dish from the region. Falafel is a deep-fried ball of ground chickpeas which is eaten hot, often in a pitta bread with salads and hummus.
Travelling through Africa, you are likely to come across plenty of unfamiliar foodstuffs, but perhaps the most intriguing is fried chicken feet purchased from a roadside barbecue. Delicious? Perhaps. Scary? Definitely.
And if fried chicken feet doesn’t sound intimidating to you, perhaps you’ll be happy to try Oaxaca, Mexico’s speciality dish: chapulines, which are fried crickets served with salt and lemon. Fried insects are also popular in Thailand, where fried grasshoppers, dragonflies and beetle larvae are popular.
Slimy
Mongolians have a rather unusual cure for a hangover: a pickled sheep’s eye in tomato juice. Swedish tradition in the southern town of Skåne, means that slices of eel are drunk in a glass of vodka. The French dish Escargots – snails – are removed from their shell and cooked in a buttery garlic sauce, before being returned to their shell to complete the presentation.
Liquid
Japanese soft drink Unagi Nobori is a bright yellow fizzy concoction containing extracts and vitamins from the skin and bones of eels. Vietnam is infamous for its eating habits, which seem bizarre to non-locals. Perhaps among the most disturbing is coffee made from weasel vomit. A particular species of weasel feasts upon coffee beans and then regurgitates them, apparently having made the beans more easily digestible and infused with a more intensified flavour. Perhaps a more enticing beverage is Chicago’s Mamma Mia Pizzabeer – a beer brewed with tomato, oregano, basil and garlic. And less enticing: China and Korea’s fermented baby mice in rice wine.
Animal Parts
Another Vietnamese specialty is snake heart vodka. The still beating heart of a snake is covered in vodka and downed while it continues to beat. Other snake cocktails include snake blood vodka and the ominously green snake bile vodka mix. Another example of strange Asian cuisine is the notorious monkey brain meal. A live monkey is placed under a table with a hole in the middle. Its skull is then broken and the brains are scooped out and eaten raw. Closer to home, but perhaps no less terrifying is haggis. A sheep’s heart, liver and lungs are boiled inside the stomach of the animal together with onions and spices. Warming on a winter’s day? Probably, but so is porridge.
Although many of these dietary options may seem intimidating, if not downright revolting, it is important to remember that cuisine is relative. The idea of eating raw fish hardly seems odd because of our familiarity with Sushi. Perhaps one day, snake bile vodka will be commonplace too. In the meantime, enjoy the travels, enjoy the experimental gastronomy, but always ensure that you are satisfied with the hygiene standards of your chosen eaterie.
