Top 10 Outrageous Food Dishes You've Never Heard Of

If you thought “Squid Game” was the most intense thing you ever experienced from South Korea, you might want to try chowing down on a spoon worm next time you're in Seoul. Known as Gaebul in Korea, the spoon worm lives on the seafloor and usually has other animals living inside it - ergo it’s nickname, ‘fat innkeeper worm’. The worm is often eaten raw - sometimes with a dipping sauce - and the texture is rather chewy. As you might assume, it tastes pretty fishy, but it’s said to have sweet notes as well. And yes, it does look like what you think it looks like. In fact, its most common nickname is ‘Penis Fish’.

While most of the world will have no idea what Scrapple is, there’s a decent chance folks in the Mid-Atlantic States are eating some right now as they watch this. While apples have nothing to do with this dish, the “scrap” part of the name is quite accurate. Start with boiled pork scraps (think head, heart, liver, etc). Combine the resulting broth with cornmeal, buckwheat, and spices. Turn the resulting mush into a loaf and cool. Now you can slice off a piece, pan-fry, and serve it beside your eggs at breakfast.

From the Mid-Atlantic we move on down to the southern states where chitlins are a popular dish and a staple of Soul Food cooking. But what are they exactly? Well, the adorable name may be somewhat deceiving, as chitlins are actually animal intestines - usually pig. And while in North America the dish is very much associated with the American south, animal intestines are eaten around the world. In New Zealand, they generally use sheep or lamb intestines. In Madrid, Gallinejas (gal-yee-NAY-hass) is fried sheep intestines. In Gironde, France, pig intestines are boiled, then grilled to make a dish called Tricandilles. Given how many countries eat a version of it, it looks like chitlins is a ‘don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it’ situation.

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#7: Sea Lamprey

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If the reason you’re against eating certain animals is because they’re cute and it makes you feel bad, then you should have no problem digging into a Sea Lamprey. Also known as ‘Vampire Fish’, this ancient, barely-evolved creature, looks like a very small-scale sandworm from “Dune.” Although, unlike the sandworms, Lamprey’s do not provide the key to interstellar travel. What they do provide, is a mouth-feel similar to meat and a taste that, surprisingly, isn’t fishy. Apparently, people have been eating these ugly creatures dating back to the middle ages, or even earlier. And that non-fishy taste is one reason folks have gravitated to them. Will you?

Shirako is a Japanese dish that directly translates to “white children.” But don’t worry, while the color description is accurate, no children were harmed in the creation of this dish. Although, in a roundabout way, possible future fish offspring are affected. You see, Shirako is, to put it bluntly, fish semen. For the curious among you, shirako is said to have a full, smooth texture and a flavor that, while not overly fishy, has been described by some as, shall we say, an acquired taste. It’s a pretty popular dish though, so maybe it being fish semen is more the acquired aspect of the whole experience. And if you can get past that, the taste is the easy part.

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#5: Hákarl

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Imagine a dish that smells strongly of cleaning products and can sometimes make those unaccustomed to it gag when they attempt to eat it. Is your mouth watering yet? If you were in Iceland it might be, as Hákarl is one of the country’s national dishes. But what exactly is it? Well, Hákarl is fermented Greenland shark - a shark whose meat is toxic unless prepared properly. And in so preparing a large amount of ammonia is created in the months-long fermenting process - ergo the cleaning product odor that emanates from it and the gag reflex it activates. Still want to give it a try? If you happen to be in Iceland you can find it cubed in bags in local stores.

"Montana tendergroins," "dusted nuts," and "swinging beef." Besides sounding like various SNL ‘NPR's Delicious Dish’ sketches, these innuendo-filled titles are other names for Rocky Mountain Oysters. Which aren’t actually oysters or even seafood. What they are are testicles - generally from the likes of bulls, pigs, sheep, etc. They can be poached, broiled, pan-fried and deep-fried. The preparations are endless and typical cooking methods vary by region and country. And unlike some other dishes on this list, Rocky Mountain oysters don’t smell funny or look odd. In fact, if you didn’t know what they were you probably wouldn’t think twice about chowing down.

We wouldn’t blame you if you assumed, as with other items on this list, that jellied moose nose was a dish whose name didn’t really describe what it actually was. But in this case, it actually does. Jellied moose nose is exactly what it sounds like. Take a moose nose, cut it up, cook it up with some spices then cover it in its own juices and let it gelitanize in the fridge. And unlike Jim putting Dwight’s stapler in Jello, jellied moose nose isn’t a prank. It’s an actual dish that has been mentioned in Canadian cookbooks dating back to the 1960s.

Although the name sounds familiar, we aren't going to ruin your childhood memories and tell you that Balut has anything to do with Baloo, the loveable bear, from “The Jungle Book.” However, we will provide you with the ‘bare necessities’ of what this outrageous dish actually is. Balut is a boiled egg. What’s so outrageous about that, you ask? Well, rather than white and yolk, these eggs are filled with a developing embryo of the bird - usually a duck. While in North America Balut has been featured as a challenge on “Fear Factor” it’s actually pretty common street food in a number of Asian countries. We guess fear isn’t a factor for them.

There are two things you should know about civet coffee - also known as Kopi luwak. Number one, but more importantly number two. Civet coffee is so-called because the process involves the Asian palm civet who eats, and then poops out coffee cherries. These partially digested cherries are collected, cleaned (thankfully), roasted, and turned into some of the most expensive coffee in the world. We’re talking upwards of ​​$1,300/kilogram for beans collected in the wild - farmed beans are less desirable but you should still expect to pay at least $100/kilogram for those.