Uncommon Delicacies Cont...

          Surstromming is probably the smelliest meal out there but, if you don’t mind the fishy, pungent odor you might be a fan. This Swedish dish is canned Baltic herring fermented in brine. The smell is so horrible that some people have to go outside and submerge it in water just to open it! If you ever consider trying this fishy meal, the Swedish Institute recommends eating it with potatoes and onions on bread.  

            Another crazy delicacy is the puffer fish. This delicacy is very common in Japan, and may be one of the riskiest meals to eat. A single little puffer fish has enough poison to kill 30 people! The intestines, liver, and ovaries of these blowfish contain a poison called tetrodotoxin. According to Time Magazine, this poison is so lethal that a dose smaller than a pinhead can kill a person. Serious Eats says, the lips and tongue go numb and then the person goes into seizures and coma. So why in the world are thousands of these fish eaten in Japan every year?! Probably for the thrill of it; if you’re a thrill seeker you might want to put this on your bucker list!

            Century eggs are an Asian delicacy. They aren’t actually a century old but, they do take time and care to make. These black eggs start off as normal white eggs, and are preserved in mixture of ash, salt, lime, clay, and rice hulls (the hard protecting coverings of grains of rice). They are left in this mixture for weeks or months. The egg white turns into a jelly-like black substance and the yoke turns green. Once the egg is taken out the mixture it smells like ammonia but, it’s still edible. After eating a green century egg Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham doesn’t seem so far from reality.

            This last uncommon delicacy is a shocker. It is called Balut. Balut is made from a boiled, developing duck egg and is eaten right out of the shell. Inside the shell is a full duck; the beak, the eyes, the wings, and even sometimes feathers. This Filipino street food is as common and cheap as hotdogs are to us. If you’re into eating baby ducks there is a Filipino restaurant in New York that serves Balut. Who knows, maybe someday it will become as common as hotdogs are in New York.

 

 

Sources: wikipedia (for definition), http://www.weather.com/travel/10-bizarre-delicacies-world-photos-20130821?pageno=4