For me personally, travel is about far more than merely the journey one takes and the destinations one sees. I like to attribute some of the most intriguing and memorable experiences of my trips to my favorite of the five senses - taste. While food is essential for the survival of one's flesh, cuisine is essential for the survival of one's culture. It never ceases to amaze me how culinary arts and cooking traditions have evolved over thousands of years into such pivotal facets of a people's identity. We literally are what we eat, with our society's choice of ingredients and preparation styles serving as a distinct record for our diets, geography, customs, and religious beliefs. Food is delectably diverse and full of surprises, making for half the reason why everyone should occasionally break away from what is socioculturally palatable and savor something new!
I've been meaning to make a record of bizarre foreign foods for a while now, and I'm sure I've
already forgotten about many of the unique dining experiences I've encountered. Nevertheless, below is a list of some of the most interesting meals I've been fortunate to try, a list I know will certainly expand over time.
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| Grilled jungle rats for sale in a Lao market |
Mammal Meats:
- sun-dried raw goat meat (Ethiopia)
- grilled/sauteed dog (Vietnam, Laos)
- camel steak (Tunisia)
- jungle rat (Laos)
- alpaca steak (Peru)
- yak steak (Tibet)
- horse steak (Mongolia, Uzbekistan)
- donkey cutlet (Western China)
- water buffalo steak, skin (Myanmar, Laos)
- whole roasted guinea pig (Peru, Ecuador)
- raw lamb cig kofte (Turkey)
- raw pork nem chua (Vietnam)
- raw beef Ethiopian kitfo (US)
- grilled wild boar (Nepal, Italy)
- bactrian camel's hump (China)
- grilled venison (Canada)
- sauteed rabbit (Bulgaria, Spain)
- moose meat salami (Sweden)
- Giraffe steak (Zimbabwe)
- Zebra steak (Zimbabwe, Namibia)
- Wildebeest cutlets (Zimbabwe)
- Kudu antelope stew and steak (Zimbabwe, Namibia)
- Springbok antelope steak (Namibia)
- Oryx antelope steak and dried biltong jerky (Namibia)
- Pork, chicken, or fish cooked in banana leaves underground (French Polynesia, Fiji)
- 4-course Arabic lamb dinner cooked under sand (Jordan)
- stuffed sheep lungs / intestines (Turkestan, Armenia)
- lamb brains / pork brains / goat brains (Bulgaria, Korea, Myanmar, Morocco, Vietnam)
- pig feet / pig intestines / pig snout / pig ears / pig kidney / pig liver (US, Georgia, Armenia)
- cow heart / cow tongue / cow udders / cow liver (Mexico, US, Peru)
- chicken liver / chicken gizzards / chicken feet / chicken wattle-comb (China, US, Namibia)
- congealed pork blood and blood sausage (Vietnam, US)
- dog penis (Laos)
- foie gras (France)
- goat testicles (US)
- whole goat head (Morocco, Namibia)
- yak butter tea (Tibet)
- dried goat curds (Mongolia)
- tripe stew (Italy, Mexico, Greece, China)
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| Internal organs for sale in a Namibian market |
Reptile & Amphibian Meats:
- alligator filet (US)
- crocodile steak (Namibia)
- roasted snake (China, Cambodia)
- baby snake soup (China)
- turtle soup (China)
- braised soft-shell turtle (Cambodia)
- frog legs / frog eggs (US, Vietnam)
- cobra blood (Thailand)
- mystery lizard (Vietnam)
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| Vietnamese rice wines of various creatures |
Fowl:
- ostrich drumsticks (US)
- boiled duck fetus (Vietnam, US)
- fried duck tongues and beaks (Thailand)
- bird's nest soup (China)
- stuffed pigeons (Egypt)
- roasted quails / quail eggs (US)
- Peking duck, two traditional styles (China)
- roasted goose (US)
- swan, in three traditional styles (Vietnam)
- wild pheasant (US)
- century eggs (China, US)
- maggot-filled tortilla wrap (Venezuela)
- chocolate-covered ants (US)
- fire ant chilli sauce (Mexico)
- grasshoppers / crickets (Mexico, Cambodia, US)
- grilled wild bee larvae (Cambodia)
- land snails, sea snails (Morocco, France, Vietnam, Namibia)
- marmite / vegemite (Kenya, UK)
- fried Mopane worms/catepillars (Zimbabwe)
- silk worm grubs (Vietnam, US)
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| Mopane worms in a Zimbabwean restaurant |
Seafood:
- barbecued starfish (Zanzibar)
- piranha stew (Venezuela)
- shark fin soup (China, US)
- sting ray cakes (Brazil)
- grilled eel / eel soup (Japan, China)
- sea urchin / urchin eggs (Japan)
- beluga caviar (US)
- pickled herring (Netherlands)
- octopus ink pasta (Italy)
- stuffed squid mantles (Sicily)
- fermented fish stew (French Polynesia)
- fermented shrimp paste (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia)
- fermented fish paste (Myanmar, Cambodia)
- salted pickled fish (Korea)
- fresh and pickled sea cucumber (US)
- raw oysters (US, Namibia)
- grilled conch (Sicily)
- grilled abalone (China, US)
- jellyfish (China, Taiwan, US)
- fish eyes (Vietnam)
- fried squid eggs (Thailand)
- products from poisonous manioc/cassava root (Venezuela, Brazil)
- bread from the false banana stem (Ethiopia)
- fresh durian (Thailand, Vietnam)
- baobab fruit and ice cream (Tanzania, Madagascar)
- raw cacao (Fiji)
- qat / chat (Ethiopia)
- fermented tea leaves (Myanmar)
- coconut rice cooked in bamboo tube (Thailand, Malaysia)
- banana flower / lotus flower (Vietnam, Thailand)
- fried cactus leaves / prickly pears (Mexico, US)
- tea and cookies made from coca leaves (Peru)
- rice whiskey (Nepal, Laos)
- millet beer (Tibet)
- pisco (Peru)
- camel milk (Kenya)
- goat milk (Mongolia)
- fermented horse milk (Mongolia)
- fermented plum brandy (Romania)
- fermented honey wine (Ethiopia)
- Amarula nut liqueur (Namibia)
- kava (Fiji)
Interesting & Notable Accommodations
In the spirit of making lists, I've also decided to compile some unique and memorable accommodations I've slept in. One doesn't always need to limit themselves to a hotel or hostel.
- Matmata cave house dug into the ground (Tunisia)
- Kasbah made from sand (Morocco)
- Piaroa tribe hut with hammock in the Amazon (Venezuela)
- Konso tribe hut in the Omo Valley (Ethiopia)
- Kuna tribe hut, with fleas and a violent storm (Panama)
- Beach-side thatch bungalows (Zanzibar/Indonesia)
- On a carpet, out in the open dunes of the Sahara (Morocco)
- A Mongol family's yurt (Mongolia)
- A Karakalpak yurt in the Karakum Desert (Uzbekistan)
- Dilapidated wooden cabin at an orphanage in the middle of nowhere, river bathing (Mongolia)
- A yak hair tent at the base of Mt Everest (Tibet)
- Hotel with no running water, no electricity, and no furniture or bedding (Ethiopia)
- 14th century kasbah (Tunisia)
- 15th century Florentine palazzo (Italy)
- 16th century blacksmith's house next to medieval cemetery, Vlad the Impaler's village (Romania)
- 17th century canal house and previous home of WWI spy Matahari (Netherlands)
- 19th century hotel built for Empress Taitu (Ethiopia)
- Open deck of a Turkish sailboat (Turkey)
- Two-room cement cube next to active volcano (Indonesia)
- Chinese-style wooden junk (ship) out in Halong Bay (Vietnam)
- Bedouin goat hair tent in Wadi Rum (Jordan)
- Berber goat hair tent in the Sahara (Morocco)
- Tukul hut hotel, in the same room as former President Bill Clinton (Ethiopia)
- Tent out in the Serengeti/Masai Mara (Kenya/Tanzania)
- Overnight trains, of varying sketchiness (India/China/Myanmar/Vietnam/Uzbekistan)
- Old brick caravan house (Turkestan)
- Medieval stone citadel house in Erice (Sicily)
- Graffitied flat overlooking Piata Unirii (Romania)
- Old Plaza de Armas house next to a cathedral with catacombs (Peru)
- Whitewashed Mediterranean villa (Greece)
- Old Cataract Hotel, former guests include Agatha Christie, Howard Carter, Winston Churchill, King Farouk, Lady Diana, and Czar Nicholas II (Egypt)
- Part of a medieval Rajput fortress (India)
- Traditional Tibetan plateau house (Tibet)
- Refurbished Qing Dynasty garden villa hotel (China)
- Dilapidated room next to train tracks (Myanmar)
- Cargo-filled river boat floating down the Irrawaddy (Myanmar)
- Trans-Mediterranean Ferries (Greece, Italy)
- Traditional Silk Road mudbrick house next to ancient fortifications (Uzbekistan)
- And open tapchan under the stars in a rural Tajik village (Uzbekistan)
- Hammock on the back patio of a private beach house, during a lightning storm (Panama)
- Wooden house of an Akha tribal chief, crawling with tarantulas, roaches, and rats (Laos)
- Bamboo house of Bahnar tribe in the Central Highlands (Vietnam)