What Makes a Food Weird?

Sometimes it’s the ingredients. Often, it’s the kind of animal or animal part itself that are not typically seen as food in Western cultures. Sometimes it’s the process – fermenting things, aging them, or eating them while they’re still alive. To many people, these dishes sound grotesque. But that reaction is cultural, not logical.

What we call “weird” is usually just unfamiliar to us. Every culture has its comfort foods. Some grew out of scarcity. Others out of tradition. Many offer vital nutrition, use overlooked parts of animals, or take advantage of local ecosystems in sustainable ways. So while these foods might look strange, they nourish bodies.

40 Weird Foods From Every Continent

North America

1. Rocky Mountain Oysters – United States

Despite the name, these aren’t oysters. They’re bull testicles. Once removed during cattle castration, they’re peeled, sliced, battered, and deep-fried. Served with hot sauce or ranch dressing. The texture is chewy and the taste is mild, but the idea of eating testicles throws most people off. Popular in rural states like Colorado and Wyoming, especially at festivals and rodeos.

2. Chitlins – Southern United States

Chitterlings, or chitlins, are pig intestines cleaned thoroughly and then boiled for hours. After softening, they’re usually fried or stewed with vinegar, hot sauce, and onions. The smell is overwhelming, even offensive to some, but they’re a long-standing holiday tradition in Southern and African American households. Texture is soft and slippery.

3. Moose Nose Jelly – Canada

The nose of a moose is skinned, boiled, sliced, and chilled until it sets into a jelly. The outer tissue is fatty. The inner part is cartilage and gristle. It’s served cold in hunting camps and remote communities, often with bread or pickles. Rarely seen outside Indigenous or subsistence cultures. The texture turns most people away.

4. Pickled Pig’s Feet – United States

These are boiled, deboned, and brined in vinegar and spices. Often sold in jars at gas stations or corner stores in the South and Midwest. Eaten cold or heated with beans. The skin is rubbery, the meat sparse, and the flavor sour and porky. A holdover from nose-to-tail cooking during lean times.

5. Huitlacoche – Mexico

This is a fungal infection of corn, also known as corn smut. The fungus turns kernels into swollen, grey-black masses. It looks rotten, but Mexicans prize it for its earthy, smoky flavor. Cooked in quesadillas, soups, and tamales. Treated like a delicacy, even though it’s classified as a plant disease in the U.S.

6. Escamoles – Mexico

Sometimes called ‘insect caviar,’ escamoles are the larvae and pupae of ants harvested from the roots of agave plants. They look like pine nuts and are usually sautéed in butter with garlic, then folded into tacos or omelets. The flavor is nutty and slightly grassy. The texture is soft but slightly crunchy. Highly prized in central Mexico and considered a delicacy.

South America

7. Cow Hoof Stew – Paraguay

Called puchero de pata, this stew is made by simmering cow hooves until the tough connective tissue turns to gelatin. The broth thickens and becomes sticky, almost glue-like. Mixed with yuca or squash. The flavor is rich and fatty, but the texture is off-putting to many.

8. Hormiga Culona – Colombia

Giant leafcutter ants harvested during mating season. Only the queens are used. They’re roasted, salted, and eaten like peanuts. Crunchy, bitter, and slightly smoky. Considered an aphrodisiac. Sold in markets as street snacks or in decorative jars for tourists.

9. Liver Ice Cream – Peru

A blend of chicken liver, sugar, milk, cinnamon, and sometimes cloves. Churned into ice cream and served at fairs in the highlands. The texture is smooth, but the aftertaste is unmistakably iron-rich and meaty. Seen as nutritious, especially for children.

10. Cuy – Peru and Ecuador

Cuy is a guinea pig, roasted whole and served with the head, teeth, and feet still attached. It’s served splayed on a plate. The meat is dark, rich, and slightly oily, with a taste closer to rabbit than chicken. Common in Andean households and eaten during festivals, birthdays, and national holidays. The visual presentation is what usually stops visitors cold.

Europe

11. Casu Marzu – Italy

This Sardinian cheese is intentionally infested with fly larvae. The maggots eat the cheese and break down the fats, turning it soft and runny. Some people eat it with the live larvae still moving. Others kill them first. It’s illegal in the EU, but still made and sold locally under the table. Smells like ammonia and rotting milk.

12. Hákarl – Iceland

Made from the flesh of Greenland shark, which is poisonous when fresh. It’s buried for weeks, then hung for months to rot and dry. The result is spongy, grayish meat that smells like ammonia. Eaten in small cubes with vodka. Widely considered one of the foulest foods in the world.

13. Blood Sausage – UK and Eastern Europe

Also known as black pudding. Made from animal blood, usually pig or cow, mixed with fat, oats, or barley, then packed in a sausage casing. Served fried at breakfast or sliced cold. Metallic in flavor and soft in texture. Still a staple in many parts of Europe.

14. Smalahove – Norway

A sheep’s head is cut in half, cleaned, and boiled or steamed. The eyes, tongue, and cheeks are eaten first. Served with potatoes and rutabaga before Christmas. The skin is gelatinous. The taste is rich and fatty. Looks horrifying on the plate.

17. Escargot – France

These are land snails, removed from their shells, purged, boiled, and baked in garlic butter, parsley, and white wine. The texture is chewy, like mussels or squid. The flavor comes mostly from the sauce – rich, herby, and oily. Traditionally served in their shells with special tongs and a two-pronged fork. Considered a delicacy in French cuisine, especially as a starter.

18. Squid Ink – Mediterranean

Collected from squid or cuttlefish, the dark ink is used to color and flavor pasta, rice, and sauces. It stains everything it touches and smells like the ocean. The taste is briny, slightly metallic, and rich with umami. While some diners are put off by the black color, it’s prized for its depth of flavor and dramatic appearance. It’s more palatable than it looks.

Africa

19. Chicken Feet – South Africa and others

Often called “walkie talkies” when paired with chicken heads. The feet are boiled, deep-fried, or grilled, then coated in spicy sauce. They’re mostly skin and cartilage, so you suck and gnaw rather than chew. Common in township street food culture. Inexpensive, widely eaten, and full of gelatin.

20. Mopane Worm – Southern Africa

These large caterpillars are picked off mopane trees, gutted, and dried. Sometimes rehydrated in tomato and onion stew. High in protein, widely sold in rural markets. Texture is leathery. The flavor is earthy and smoky, sometimes compared to charred meat.

21. Ponmo – Nigeria

Cow skin is singed over open flame, scraped clean, and boiled for hours. When softened, it’s stewed in pepper sauce or added to soups. It has little nutritional value and no meat, but locals love the gelatinous, chewy texture. It’s seen as a delicacy in Yoruba cuisine and is sold in markets everywhere.

22. Bushmeat – Central Africa

Wild-caught animals including monkeys, bats, antelope, and rodents. Hunted in forests and sold in village markets. Smoked over open fires. The meat is tough and gamey. Controversial due to conservation issues and zoonotic disease risk. Still a major protein source in remote areas.

23. Termite Soldiers – Uganda

These wingless termites are harvested at night using torches or traps. Their heads are twisted off, and the bodies are either fried until crispy or laid out to sun-dry. Once cooked, they have a nutty, slightly sweet flavor. Some are eaten by the handful as snacks, while others are ground into a fine flour and stirred into porridge.

Asia

24. Drunken Shrimp – China

Live freshwater shrimp are dropped into baijiu, a strong liquor. The alcohol stuns but doesn’t kill them. Diners eat them while they’re still moving. Often chewed whole. The risk of parasites is high, but the flavor is mild. Considered a delicacy in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

25. Shirako – Japan

Literally “white children,” this is the sperm sac of cod or pufferfish. Served raw, steamed, or tempura-fried. The texture is creamy, the flavor subtle and slightly sweet, similar to oysters or runny cream cheese Served at high-end sushi restaurants. Shirako is deeply rooted in Japanese culinary traditions, with a focus on using all parts of the fish.

26. Snake Wine – Vietnam

A whole snake, often venomous, is sealed inside a jar of rice wine. The alcohol neutralizes the toxins. Believed to have medicinal benefits. The wine tastes like strong liquor with a reptilian aftertaste. Sometimes drunk in small sips as a shot.

27. Wasp Crackers – Japan

Rice cookies filled with boiled wasps. Made in rural areas where the insects are hand-harvested. The wasps are crunchy, bitter, and packed with protein. Served like snacks or gifts. Looks like chocolate chip cookies, but full of bugs.

28. Sannakji – South Korea

Raw baby octopus is chopped into pieces and served immediately. While the name suggest that it is a live octopus, it is actually killed before being sliced. But the tentacles continue moving. Diners chew carefully to avoid choking, since the suction cups can stick to the throat.

29. Red Ant Chutney (Chaprah) – India

This fiery chutney is made by grinding red ants and their eggs with salt, garlic, and hot chilies. The ants add a sharp, sour sting thanks to their formic acid. The flavor is bright, tangy, and laced with heat. The texture is gritty and the smell intense. Locals believe it boosts immunity and cures stomach problems.

30. Duck Tongue – China

These small, bony tongues are made almost entirely of cartilage and skin. They’re braised in soy sauce, five-spice, and rice wine, or flash-fried for snacks. Each piece has a soft pad of fat at the base and a chewy stem. Popular in Sichuan street food stalls and upscale restaurants alike. The texture is bizarre, and you often have to spit out small bones. Usually eaten cold or as part of a drinking platter.

31. Century Egg – China

Also called preserved egg or hundred-year egg, though it’s only aged for a few weeks or months. A duck or chicken egg is packed in clay, ash, and quicklime until the yolk turns grey-green and the white becomes amber jelly. The flavor is earthy, sulfurous, and creamy. The smell is strong, like ammonia or ripe cheese.

32. Beondegi – South Korea

Steamed or boiled silkworm pupae, sold in paper cups by street vendors. The smell is nutty and musty, like damp leaves. The taste is earthy and slightly bitter, with a pop when bitten. Texture is dense and mealy. Often served hot with toothpicks.

33. Fried Tarantula – Cambodia

Whole tarantulas are caught in the forest, killed, and deep-fried in oil with salt and garlic. Legs are crispy and hollow. The abdomen is creamy and filled with organs or eggs. Eaten like a chicken wing, sometimes dipped in lime and pepper. Once a survival food during famine under the Khmer Rouge, now sold in markets and roadside stalls.

34. Balut – Philippines

This is a fertilized duck egg, boiled and eaten whole. Cracked open at around 17 days of development, the broth is sipped first, then the duckling is eaten with salt or vinegar. The flavor is rich and meaty, like a cross between chicken soup and liver. Texture varies from creamy yolk to crunchy beak. It’s sold by street vendors and eaten as a late-night snack or hangover cure.

35. Bird’s Nest Soup – China

This delicacy is made from the hardened saliva of swiftlets. The birds build nests high on limestone walls, using only their spit. Harvesters climb bamboo scaffolding to collect them. The texture is slick and stringy, like softened cartilage. Once reserved for emperors, now sold in upscale restaurants and specialty shops. A single bowl can cost hundreds of dollars.

36. Stinky Tofu – Taiwan and China

This fermented tofu is soaked for days or weeks in a brine made from milk, vegetables, and sometimes meat. The smell is intense, like sewage, rotting garbage, or dirty socks. Sold at night markets, deep-fried and topped with chili sauce or pickled cabbage. The outside is crispy, the inside soft and custardy. The flavor is milder than the smell, but still pungent and sour.

Oceania

37. Witchetty Grub – Australia

These fat, white larvae live in the roots of acacia trees. Eaten raw, they have a crisp pop and a taste like almonds. When roasted over coals, the skin blisters and the inside turns into a custard-like pulp. Aboriginal Australians have eaten them for tens of thousands of years as a vital bush protein. The texture is soft and slippery.

38. Kangaroo – Australia

A wild, lean red meat that’s high in protein and low in fat. It has a strong gamey flavor, somewhere between venison and grass-fed beef. Grilled or pan-fried, it stays tender if not overcooked. Sausages and steaks are common in Australian supermarkets. Despite being legal to hunt and sell, the idea of eating a national symbol still divides Australians.

39. Kina – New Zealand

Kina is the Māori word for sea urchin. The edible part is the gonads, which are scooped out and eaten raw. The texture is slimy and the flavor is intensely briny, with strong metallic and iodine notes. It’s considered a delicacy by Māori communities but avoided by many New Zealanders due to its strong taste and appearance. In Japan, the same thing is called uni.

40. Poi – Polynesia

Taro root is pounded into a paste and left to ferment. The result is a thick, sticky, sour dish with a texture like glue. It’s eaten with the fingers or slurped from a bowl. Once a staple of Pacific Island diets, poi is still served at traditional Hawaiian and Polynesian feasts. The flavor is bland but tangy, and the consistency turns many people off.