Unusual eats, foreign treats

Cuisines around the world are unique. After all, what Louisianans perceive to be normal food could be seen as strange and even repulsive by others around the world and vice versa. Mudbugs, fried pickles, nutria, and alligator meat are typical Cajun food, but even in other parts of the United States, this cuisine may be considered 'gross.' Although there is a preconceived notion of what good food is and is not, it is great to learn about foreign foods that we may otherwise turn our noses up at. Otherwise, you could miss out on some great, yet unusual cuisine.

First of all, there is unusual seafood. In Korea, you can find sea slugs on the menu. They are typically boiled until their skin is rough. The unusual part: you shouldn't eat sea slugs in the summer. In Europe, especially in Scandinavian countries and other northern European countries, it is common to find herring which is pickled, typically with onions. It is often called rollmop, for they roll the pickled fish into a cylindrical shape and sell it in a pickle jar in the supermarket. In countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, the herring doesn't even need to be pickled- it can be eaten raw. In some south Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and China, fish head soup is a popular dish. In Canada, you can eat cod tongues, deliciously deep fried. And let's not forget sushi, which has become highly popularized in the United States. Fresh water eel, raw fish, squid, and octopus lead the fine dining experience for many.

Next, there is a demand for reptilians on the dinner plate. Iguana meat can be found in Central America, and like they say, it tastes like chicken. In both the United States and some parts of Asia, eating snake meat is not all that uncommon. And how about snake blood cocktails? Snake blood mixed with wine or alcohol is a very pricey drink.

Ever found those tequila worms gross? Mexicans are not the only ones to dine on creepy crawlies. Roasted ants can be found in Latin and South America. So much for arachnophobia, in south Asia and some parts of the south Pacific, it is not that uncommon to chomp on a cooked tarantula or small, fried spiders for a snack. Beyond that, some cultures dine on bug larvae, grasshoppers, crickets, and scorpions.

Eating the brains of animals is not all that uncommon around the world: chicken, squirrel, rabbit, monkey, and pig brains make for dinner, despite some medical reports that state brains are not healthy to consume.

Just as common is blood in cuisines around the world. Foods like blood pudding and blood sausage are extremely common in Europe. In other places around the world, jelled blood and foods similar to blood sausage exist. One meat used in the Slovenian dish of obara is dormouse. As a matter of fact, popularity of the dish was reported to be so high that local areas had a diminished population of dormice. Although controversial, sea mammal blubber can be found on the menu in Arctic areas and is even exported to other countries such as Japan.

We often associate the nationalities of people with the food they eat. How often has an Asian had to endure a tasteless dog or cat meat joke? Looking through all these cuisines, dog and cat meat no longer look so strange. After all, the United States proudly has spam in a can.