A well-known blogger has posted the question: what is the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten? Its a great read if you are currently dieting and need incentive to just drink a glass of water instead.
In case you are a visual person and need photos, click on the links:
Here was my response to the question:
1) Shirako Soup at a Japanese sushi bar – its Cod fish sperm sac. Sushi chef say good for kinky kinky in bed. Did it work? No. All hype. Maybe a little barfy barfy in toilet but thats it.
Photo of Cod Fish Sperm Sac (you know you want to click on that link to check it out)
2) I don’t know what the Vietnamese name for it is, but the duck egg with fetal duck still inside of it, totally formed with beak, feet, fur and all. Poached I think. Cut off the top of the egg shell, slurp out the remaining yolk/white and then scoop out the fetal duck and crunch and munch. Did I like it? No. I’d say that really grossed me out.
Photo of Fetal Duck Egg Thingy
3) When we were little, Mom used to tell us to eat the Jelly soup. She called it Chinese Jelly. It took me 15 years to finally figure out what the Jelly was…..something about when the frogs spew eggs – the sac that the eggs all stay in is the “jelly.” Why on earth would my mother feed me such stuff? It really does explain my ability to touch my nose with my tongue.
Photo of Frog Fallopian Tube Egg Jelly
4) The last time I went back to Hong Kong, my dad served an amazing feast to celebrate. Nothing says “Welcome to Hong Kong!” than a bowl of regurgitated bird saliva. Mmmm mmmm good. Now, I just want to know what my ancestors were snorting when they decided to climb up a dangerous mountainous cliff, scale the cave wall, sneak in and steal a bird’s nest, shimmy on down, run home and pick out the unwanted twigs to be left with the prize…..a glob of bird vomit that holds the nest together. Hmmm…lets make SOUP! Lets charge $1000 a pound for bird spit! Lets tell people its supposed to help your skin complexion!
I think I’ll stick with my Oil of Olay. Smells better.
Photo My Peeps Enjoying a Bowl of Bird Vomit
I’m curious to know if you can top any of those!?! Leave a comment!
I'm a food writer, food photographer and cooking teacher specializing in modern Asian. Come visit me at my award-winning website at SteamyKitchen.com.
You can read my weekly Steamy Kitchen food column in the Tampa Tribune newspaper, on ABC7 in Sarasota Florida, cooking once a month live as part of the morning news program and in the East County Observer newspaper in Bradenton Florida
Click here to be redirected to my new site!
Hey great blog! My boyfriend is from Hong Kong too. I’m sure he’d love if I tried some of your recipes. Last time I was over his parent’s house for dinner, his mother offered to make me some bird nest soup with the same ‘good for the skin’ claim. Luckily I knew what was really in the soup so I declined.
What is the weirdest food you’ve i’ve ever eaten? Pretty much anything i’ve cooked myself. You’ll just have to trust me here. If i became a cannibal or one of those freaky live monkey brain eaters, the meal would still be a step up from my meatloaf.
Have a super day!
Courtney – I just don’t know how they got the claim “good for your skin-ah!”
Email me if you ever have any questions re:recipes.
Anne – you just made my morning smile!
GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t EVEN WANT TO KNOW what my mom fed me while in Thailand. I think i’m going to be sick. HEE HEE
Ah, the beauty of growing up in with Cantonese cuisine: that question never throws me, and whoever asks usually ends up with a startled look on their face!
I had goosepimples just by reading those…yeeks!
Being married to a Filipina and living in the Philippines for four years, I can say without a doubt that I have sampled some of the wierdest food in the world. I love it, but I’m not sure I could even come close to explaining most of them. Blood soup probably tops the list, though. Ugh!
Your #2 on the list sounds very similar to balut, which is fetal chicken egg (rather than duck) that has been roasted for several hours. Our daughter loves balut, too, and that’s usually the first thing she eats when we visit my wife’s family!
You know, I really ought to click on the links before commenting on the posts… D’oh! Balut! MMM!
I am gagging here.
It is evidently time to move on to your next post.
It’s certain to be far more enticing.
I thought balut was duck egg. There is a great blog all about eating weird foods (www.deependdining.com) that had a nice graphic post about balut a couple years ago. Here’s a link: http://tinyurl.com/ys99yo
Steve- thanks for the link. I just graphically relived step by step the grossest moment of my life!
[...] Oh how I so wish that the title of this post was Peking Duck, not Peking Chicken….sigh….while I’ll go to any lengths to satisfy my cravings, this one was just a little too involved. I mean, I’d have to go buy a frozen duck, defrost it, air-dry in front of a mighty fan for 4 hours, roast it and then eat. By then, my ADHD-like cravings might have gone on to the next thing, like Cod Fish Sperm Sac. [...]
How about a weird way to eat normal food?
http://www.deependdining.com/2007/04/good-food-cold-sushi-hot-bodies.html
Great blog you have! Good luck!
Eddie- I’ve been a DED groupie for awhile now!!!
[...] Who the hell came up with this idea in the first place?! Um … ok, confession time. Mom used to feed me frog egg sacs. [...]
[...] Who the hell came up with this idea in the first place?! Um … ok, confession time. Mom used to feed me frog egg sacs. [...]
[...] but they found me because I ate cod fish sperm sacs and frog fallopian tubes! I guess them sex-addicts got sophistercated and have search engine spiders scanning the blogs for [...]
[...] prepared. Freshly baked pastries still warm from the bakery, beautifully marbled imported beef, insanely expensive bird vomit soup, just-caught-still -trying-to-breathe fish from the market, shark-fin soup, highly prized hairy [...]
I found this website because my girlfriend just spent $300 on 8 oz. of bird vomit, um I mean, bird nest. The only food that could possibly top these menus would have to be Chinese. And here’s an article about it. Enjoy! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5371500.stm
The jelly soup your mom fed you probably wasn’t frog eggs. When I was little I thought it was but I soon realize it was basil seed.
http://www.importfood.com/recipes/basil_seed_drink.html
I mean it could be basil seed or frog eggs. I think it was basil seeds though.