The most terrible dishes

Asia is known to be rich in its gourmet dishes, delicacies, spices and aromas, but in some countries they can offer very strange, even creepy dishes that you are unlikely to ever dare to try. We present you a list of dishes that, probably, only a person with a very strong stomach can taste.

1. Seagull wine is the name of the drink prepared by the Inuit (Canadian Eskimos). The recipe for this strange drink is as follows: a dead seagull is placed in a container of water and left for several days in direct sunlight. Europeans who have tasted this wine have this to say about its taste: “If you opened the Toyota carburetor and drank the liquid left there, then you would imagine the taste of this terrible liquor.” But it also has one advantage: it intoxicates very quickly. But he also has a terrible hangover.

2. Tongzidan, or boy's egg, is a traditional dish in China's Zhejiang province. Considered a "spring delicacy", chicken eggs are boiled in urine collected exclusively from boys who have not reached the age of puberty. After boiling the liquid, the eggs are removed from it and the shell is stuffed so that the urine penetrates into the egg. The cooking process takes a whole day, when boiling, urine is added. When the shell cracks, the tongzidan, which tastes salty, is considered ready to eat.

3. Haukarl - Icelandic national dish, which is the rotten meat of the Greenland polar or giant shark. When fresh, polar shark meat is poisonous due to its high ammonia content, so the carcass is fresh, cut into pieces and put in special containers with gravel, where it lies and rots for 5-8 weeks or more, depending on the season. Then the rather rotten meat is taken out and, hung on special hooks, left to ripen in the fresh air for another 2-4 months. During this time, the pieces of meat are covered with a crust, which must be cut off so that only one yellowish inner part remains, which is served at the table.

4. Lutefisk is a traditional Scandinavian fish dish, winter, Christmas delicacy, popular in Norway, Sweden and parts of Finland. The dish was originally made with cod, but nowadays dried sea pike or saithe is more popular in Sweden, while cod remains popular in Norway. For preparation, dried fish is soaked in an alkaline solution of caustic soda for three days, after which it is soaked in water for several days. Due to the chemical reaction of fish proteins with lye, the fish acquires a delicate jelly-like texture and a specific pungent odor. In the future, lutefisk is fried in a pan, baked in the oven, boiled or cooked in the microwave.

5. Balut (or balut) - a boiled duck egg, in which a fetus has already formed with plumage, cartilage and a beak. It is eaten in the countries of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, the southern provinces of China), and especially in the Philippines. Sometimes eggs are eaten raw, with soy sauce or fried. The taste of balut is reminiscent of boiled beef liver; all parts of the egg and fruit have this taste. It is consumed after drinking the amniotic fluid, and the balut itself is sprinkled with a mixture of black pepper and salt.

6. A century egg is a popular snack in Chinese cuisine. There are many recipes for making century-old eggs, but the main principle for obtaining this product is as follows: chicken or duck eggs are coated with mixtures of tea, salt, lime and ash, and then rolled into rice husks and clay, after which they are placed in baskets and buried for about three four months. This is done so that the air does not come into contact with the future delicacy and that the eggs are in an alkaline environment for several months. After 3-4 months, the egg white turns into a jelly-like elastic translucent substance, and the yolk acquires a gray-green hue, a strong smell of ammonia and a pasty texture.

7. Jackfruit is the national fruit of Bangladesh, the largest edible fruit that grows on trees. The peel and seeds of the ripe fruit emit a strong unpleasant odor, reminiscent of the smell of rotten onions, while the flesh smells pleasant, similar to banana and pineapple.

8. Surströmming is a Swedish national product, which is canned pickled herring. Peeled herring is salted, placed in an open dish and left for fermentation. During this process, the product's own enzymes and bacteria form propionic, butyric and acetic acids, as well as hydrogen sulfide. Then the herring is placed in cans for further fermentation, as a result of which it acquires a specific softness, as well as an unbearable pronounced rotten smell.

9. Kopi Luwak is a type of coffee with a very specific processing method. The process of producing coffee beans is that musangs (an animal of the civet family) eat the ripe fruits of the coffee tree, digest the pulp of the fruit, but the grains themselves do not. Excrement is collected by people, washed and dried in the sun. The special taste of this coffee is due to the enzyme civetine, which is contained in the gastric juice of musang. The finished drink has a long and, as gourmets say, a very pleasant aftertaste.

10. Kiviak is a traditional winter dish from the cuisine of the Kalaalites, Eskimos and Inuit living in Greenland. About 400 ungutted guillemots, auks or gulls are placed in the skin of a seal, air is released from the skin, sealed with lard and placed in the ground under a press (stone) for a period of 3 to 18 months, during which the birds are slowly marinated. Having dug up and cleaned the birds of feathers, they can be eaten raw, with skin and bones. If everything turned out well, then you can suck the bird through its anus or throat. Kiviak tastes like a sharp and smelly cheese.