The document describes several unusual and sometimes disturbing foods from around the world, including dishes made from bird's nests, fertilized eggs with developing chicken fetuses, cheese containing live insect larvae, live octopus, coffee made from cat feces, snake wine with venomous snakes steeped in alcohol, ant eggs, mice stuffed alive in bottles of wine, boiled sheep heads, haggis made from sheep organs packed in stomachs, boiled bats, roasted crickets coated in chocolate, roasted rats on sticks, cow urine, poisonous puffer fish, and steamed snails in butter and garlic.

1. ARE YOU?
I guess you have an iron
stomach…

3. This soup is prepared in
China, using the swiftlets
which make their nests
predominantly out of
saliva
It’s something in the
saliva of the bird that
makes it have this unique
gelatinous, rubbery
texture and it’s one of the
most expensive animal
products consumed by
humans.

4. They’re fried whole –
legs, fangs and all.
They cost only a few
cents and supposedly
taste delicious, as
they are best plucked
straight from the
burrow and pan fried
with a bit of garlic and
salt.

5. Fertilized eggs are boiled
just before they’re due to
hatch, so your yolk oozes
out followed by… a
chicken (or duck) foetus.
They are cooked when
the foetus is anywhere
from 17 days to 21 days
depending on your
preference, although
when the egg is older the
foetus begins to have a
beak, claws, bones and
feathers.

6. This Sardinian cheese is a
cheese with a difference; it’s
riddled with insect larvae.
“Casu Marzu” means ‘rotten
cheese’ and is most
commonly referred to as
‘maggot cheese.’ It’s now
banned for health reasons
but can still be available on
the black market in Sardinia
and Italy.
The cheese has to be eaten
when the maggots are still
alive because when they are
dead it is considered to be
toxic.

7. In Korea Sannakji is a
raw dish consisting of
live octopus. The
octopus is cut into
pieces whilst still alive,
lightly seasoned with
sesame oil and served
immediately whilst the
tentacles can still be
seen squirming on the
plate

8. Kopi Luwak is the rarest, most
expensive gourmet coffee in
the world. It’s actually made
from the excrements of an
Indonesian cat-like creature
called the Luwak.
The Luwak eats only the ripest
coffee cherries but its stomach
can’t digest beans inside them,
so they come out whole. The
coffee that results from this
process is said to be like no
other, and the stomach acids
and enzymes that perform the
fermentation of the beans give
the coffee a special aroma.

9. Snake wine is a bottle of
rice wine with a
venomous snake inside
and has ‘medicinal
purposes’.
The snake is left to steep
in the rice wine for many
months to let the poison
dissolve in the wine. The
ethanol makes the venom
inactive so it is not
dangerous, and snake
wine supposedly has
many health benefits.

10. Escamoles are the eggs
of the giant black
Liometopum ant, which
makes its home in the
root systems of maguey
and agave plants.
The eggs have the
consistency of cottage
cheese. The most popular
way to eat them is in a
taco with guacamole,
while being insane.

11. Little mice, eyes still
closed, are plucked
from the embrace of
their loving mothers
and stuffed (while still
alive) into a bottle of
rice wine.

12. It' a sheep' head.
Boiled.
The more you eat it,
the more bone is
revealed.

13. To make haggis, first
chop up the liver, heart
and lungs of a sheep
and mix them with diced
onion, spices and
oatmeal. Then pack the
mixture in a sheep's
stomach, tightly secure
the ends and boil it for a
few hours.

14. The boiled bat is a
much appreciated dish
in Asia. It sells for a
considerable amount
and it’s considered by
many a delicacy. It can
be found in Fiji, but also
other Asian countries
and those that had it
said it tastes like
chicken. You will never
know until you have a
try!

15. It is said that insects
are full of protein and
low in cholesterol
Perfectly bred and fed
the cleanest grass,
the crickets are
roasted and dipped in
the finest chocolate.

16. Crickets are another
popular and tasty snack
and are commonly eaten
in Asian and African
countries. A few
companies have
attempted to introduce the
concept of eating insects
to those of us in the West,
but for some reason the
trend just won’t catch on,
despite the high protein
content contained within
these little guys.

17. Rats destroy crops in
rural Vietnam so
farmers catch them,
wrap them in banana
leaves and sell them
as a dinnertime treat.
A roasted version can
often be seen on the
end of a stick in
Thailand.

18. Believed by many
Hindus to possess
therapeutic value, cow
urine is sold in India
alongside milk and
yogurt.

19. Certainly not as
repugnant as some of the
other dishes on our menu,
fugu – or puffer fish – has
nevertheless become a
notorious delicacy thanks
to the fact that eating it
can be fatal unless it is
properly prepared. The
fish's liver, ovaries and
skin contains large
amounts of the poison
tetrodotoxin and there is
no known antidote.

20. Eating cooked buttery
snails, a French cuisine
delight or a creepy
slimy nightmare?
Steamed snails
prepared with butter
and garlic are a simple
appetizer you can find
served in a number of
fine restaurants
throughout the US and
Europe