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Disgusting Delicacies
“Think” Fear Factor and Iron Chef combined and you have THE potentially most disgusting buffet of expertly prepared food delicacies on the planet. The world is truly a diverse place especially when you launch a gustatory exploration of what have become curious ick-factor foods for a modernized, watered-down, American palate. Truth is as “foreign” as most of these dishes can be, many have deep cultural underpinnings, some of them the side dishes of famous feasts and the tables of kings.
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This Cheese is So Gross It’s Been Outlawed…
Casu Marzu, a pecorino cheese and Sardinian specialty, surely wins among most disgusting cheeses of the world. The direct translation is “rotten cheese” and rightly so: blocks of otherwise beautiful Italian pecorino cheeses are purposely prepared to become the natural breeding grounds for nests of maggots—the natural harbingers of rot and putrefaction. As if pecorino wasn’t pungent enough…
Reports are it tastes exactly as you might imagine: strong pecorino, the crawly snot-plump bodies of insect larvae, and the slimy fat they’ve made of the digested cheese. Oh, and the worms jump off the cheese while you’re eating it.
2
Whole Sheep’s Head
Sheep’s head has been a traditional delicacy served in a number of world regions, including the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. You’ll find smoked versions and recipes for sheep’s head soup, usually presented whole and intact, sometimes with brains, often without (risky to consume). The eyeballs and tongue are particular delicacies.
3
Octopus, Straight-Up
Anything still alive and squirming is food for a “most disgusting” list. Raw seafood is legendary in most Asian cuisines. Japanese sushi is notorious in the raw realms. Raw octopus is common as is still alive octopus, served straight-up on a plate or in a bowl. Baby octopus (sannakji) may be served cut into bite-sized, still-wriggling pieces, suction cups and all, or slurped squirming, whole. Octopus is exactly as you might imagine: rubbery, chewy and fairly tasteless. Regardless, the dish has been a valued part of Korea’s cuisine for centuries and is considered a vitality enhancer and a health food.
4
Vacationing in Alaska: “Don’t Eat the Stink Heads”
Salmon is a staple of the native Alaskan diet and natives have traditionally used all parts of the fish. One of the traditional delicacies is fermented salmon heads. Colloquially the dish has earned the name “stink heads.” Essentially the heads of King salmon are buried in the ground in fermentation pits, put into plastic or wooden barrels, even plastic food storage bags, and left to let nature do its thing for a few weeks or more. The heads are then harvested and consumed as a putty-ish mash.
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Deadly Fish: License to Cook
One of Japan’s most elite delicacies is also one of the most dangerous dishes you’d ever put in your mouth. The fugu fish is a cute little puffer fish, hardly “most disgusting,” but grossly lethal, certainly. Coursing throughout its vital fish organs is deadly venom—tetrodotoxin-- a natural defense system that renders its attackers paralyzed. Ingest enough of this fish’s poison and you’ll go belly-up, too dying a slow death from conscious paralysis and asphyxia.
For true gastronomic satisfaction the best chefs are able to prepare fugu laced with a remaining trace of venom, which reportedly tingles on the tongue, providing the eater with a sensory brush with death. The potential risk makes fugu even more a thrill to consume and one forbidden to hit the Japanese Emporer’s dinner plate.
Source: http://www.culinaryschools.org/cuisine/10-disgusting-delicacies/
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