Top 10 local delicacies

[cooleo]

Dawn Yang - Now this is a tough topic. Because anyone worth their gastro salt would be hard pressed to think of so many foods they hate offhand.

I LOVE FOOD!!!!! I love variety and quanity!
I know of people who are extremely fussy when it comes to their meals.. and well I just think they're missing out.

But when it comes to the following, I definitely would rather sit out, thanks.....

 

[cooleo]

Chicken Feet

My grandma used to cook this Chinese soup, but I made it known early on in my life that besides normal chunks of meat, those wrinkly diabolical looking things should never ever be found in my soup bowl.

 

[cooleo]

Duck Blood

First came across this when I was living in Taipei. The duck's blood comes in some sort of tofu form, and is eaten with Taiwanese's favorite mala hotpot.

Of all the wonderful liquids we humans can enjoy, we have to go seek the blood of a duck? Why invent Coca Cola and Sprite and bubble tea then? And like how HIV is transmitted through blood, who is to say you might not contract some new strain of virus from that poor drained bird?

GROSS.

I'm not a vampire and I'm certainly not a quacking vampire.

 

[cooleo]

Beef tongue

This is a favorite of my friends to order when we go for Japanese BBQ. Often they will slyly try to trick me into eating those seemingly innocent slices of beef by telling me it's not tongue. Yea right, I know better.

Are you sure you still find it delicious if you see where it comes from?

GROSS.

I'm not going to french a dead cow.

 

[cooleo]

Pig's intestines

Kway chap is a rather popular hawker dish here.

Looks harmless and yummy doesn't it?

But remember, it's INTESTINES. All coiled up inside that pink babe.

GROSS.

I'm not going to pig out on slimy organs that processed pig shit.

 

[cooleo]

Frog Legs

Think of the poor handicapped slimy creatures with amputated limbs

I've tried this dish before at a seafood house in East Coast park years ago. I'm not sure who drugged me that day because I would never eat this sober now.

Just to drive home my point about what you are consuming...

GROSS.

I know I have to kiss a few frogs before I find my prince charming, but no one said eating frog legs was part of the equation.

 

[cooleo]

Fish eyeballs

Seriously, I think we Chinese really don't let ANY part of a creature go to waste. Waste not want not.

As if just flesh and internal organs aren't enough, which sick person laid eyes on the fish and went "I bet those eyeballs are gonna taste good"?

Sad to say, my mum and grandparents are guilty of this disgusting craving too.

They claim it is one of the most nutritious parts. Hey, give me vitamin pills instead any day.

Look at those peepers peering out at you. Eat me eat me.

GROSS.

I will feast my eyes on the fish, but never will I feast on the fish eyes.

 

[cooleo]

Fried Insects

Come across many roadside carts selling assortments of these in Thailand.

Hello, you want something crunchy, go get yourself a packet of potato chips! Why anyone would want to chomp on eyes, wings, feelers etc. of creatures that can make grown men jump on toilet bowls in fright is beyond me.

(yes I do know of men who get scared shitless of cockroaches)

GROSS.

Eating creepy crawlies creeps me out and makes my skin crawl.

 

[cooleo]

Raw Oysters

Now something a little more mainstream. Still can't stand them though.

To me they taste bad and look worse.

Quite the opposite of an aphrodisiac for me :X

GROSS.

The world is my oyster and I choose not to eat them.

 

[cooleo]

Salad

Surprise surprise!!! Never thought huh?

I used run from salads. I didn't consider them real food. Only recently did I start accepting raw greens as part of my diet. However I put the limit at romaine lettuce and the similar... I hate rocket leafs and other funny types plucked out from someone's backyard.

Salads generally make for a very light and refreshing meal, healthy in most cases, if you don't drench it with calorie-laden dressing. My favorite dressing is carrot-ginger, a japanese-style dressing I first got to like in New York.

But on the whole, I really don't like extremely raw salads because I feel like a cow in the meadows. Give me a good cooked hearty meal please.

GROSS.

You won't catch me turning green over your plain greens.

 

[cooleo]

Balut

I've heard of this from various people and I get more chills listening to them than listening to ghost stories.

Balut are duck eggs that have been incubated until the fetus is almost fully formed, and then boiled alive. The bones give the eggs a crunchy texture.

They are enjoyed in some parts of Asia and sold by street vendors at night, out of buckets of warm sand.

GROSS GROSS GROSS!

 

[Rogue Trader]

What the fuck does dawn yang know? Refrigeration was only made available 200 years ago. So only the oldest and most advanced civilisations like the Chinese and Mediterraneans will eat every part of the animal.
Stupid Americans can keep on eating their sodium enhanced hamburgers, frozen dinners and fried chicken.