Strange Dishes Of Asia

By: Logan Traut

This fried snack is usually sold out of mobile food stalls

on the streets of Bangkok. After they are deep fried they taste very similar to

french fries. Insect carts throughout Bangkok carry a wide variety of

deep-fried bugs, including locusts, beetles and moth chrysalides, and are common late-night drunken munchies.

Bamboo Worms- Bangkok, Thailand

On the streets of Shanghai’s French Concession, it’s not

uncommon to see duck heads devoid of body, staring vacantly through punched-out eye sockets at passerby's.

You start by asking the waiter to cut the head in two, then begin picking away at the skin and inner-workings of the skull, though there are no given set of rules.

Many people recommend slicing through chunks of the brain as a sinewy dessert to the meal.

Boiled Duck Head — Shanghai, China

The first thing you notice is the when you see

this soup is the two floating things inside. In Northern Asia, male organs of animals are

gladly served to mark auspicious occasions with promises of prosperity.

Chicken Testicle Soup — Taipei, Taiwan

Eaten out of the same insectival meals-on-wheels as

bamboo worms, crickets are collected still chirping from the countryside before finding their final resting place in a wok of oil.

If you eat a small one it is not as bad as eating a big juicy one.

There is really no way to describe how they taste because you cant compare them to anything.

Crickets — Bangkok, Thailand

Man’s best friend in the West, whether we like

it or not, is the other white meat in Northern Vietnam and China’s southern Yunnan Province.

The fact is that in different parts of the world, different societies elevate the status of common animals. To some Asians, it is far more disgusting to have a shedding dog in the house than a few chickens milling about.

BBQ Dog — Sapa, Vietnam; Yunnan, China to Ynanna

Province, China

Fried scorpions can be found all over Asia cooked in a

variety of methods, but on the streets of Bangkok, the stingers and pincers are usually removed before they are dunked in oil.

As with other insects, scorpions are high in protein and contain unique vitamins and fatty acids.

Some other countries, like Cambodia, prefer their scorpions baked.

Depending on how they are cooked, and as long as the poisonous bits are done away with, this snack is a safe, crunchy experience.

Scorpions — Bangkok, Thailand

Today these resilient people still choose to eat

what has become a national delicacy. Deep-fried tarantulas are covered in a batter

of garlic and salt and, as many connoisseurs confess, have a very similar taste to crickets.

Remember to look for that taste of the “brown paste,” possibly containing eggs, within the abdomen.

Tarantulas — Kampong Thom, Cambodia

Balut is a recipe with origins in the Philippines, but

Chinese traders were believed to have spread the idea throughout the region.

Once fertilized, our soon-to-be feathered friends are ideally eaten after they’ve reached about 17 days old.

They are then hard-boiled, presented warm in a bucket of sand for incubation and ready to crack open.

At this age the fetus can be eaten, along with its yolk, without any visible features of a duck.

Balut, Duck Fetus — Manila, Philippines

Generally, nakji is taken straight out of the

tank where it is frolicking, cut into squirming sections, and sent down the esophagus while its suction cups are still flicking about. Taking scissors to the octopus is an option that some choose to forgo.

There have been many cases of people choking on the still writhing arms suctioning themselves to the throat.

Nakji, Live Octopus — Incheon, South Korea