Here’s a look at some of the world’s odd eats that satisfy local palates but aren’t likely to catch on anywhere else. For those of you who think you are adventurous when it comes to food, here are a few new challenges to try out. From China to Peru, the world offers a spread of delights as uncommonly found as tarantula to the internationally available dirt.
And while countries around the world all have something on the menu that another culture would deem bizarre, many times tourists want to get a taste for the local fare. But these delicacies go beyond the a plate of snails, or escargots -- the French dish many used to think was the highest level of ‘extreme eating’.
Some highlights:
Dog or Ox Penis:
Chinese fans of the local delicacy cite traditional Chinese medicine that says it can give men more energy and improve the skin of women.
Skinned Frog Drink
An entire frog is skinned and put in a blender. The popular Peruvian drink is reputed to aid with several issues like fatigue and sexual impotence.
Cobra Meat
It is the year of the snake according to the Lunar Calendar, which is unlucky for the snakes that seems to have become increasingly popular among the Chinese. Some believe that cobra meat cures asthma and gives increased sexual potency.
A woman poses with a locust on her tongue at a discovery lunch in Brussels September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Francois LenoirHard-boiled eggs cooked in boys' urine lie inside a pot for sale in Dongyang, Zhejiang province March 26, 2012. It's the end of a school day in the eastern Chinese city of Dongyang, and eager parents collect their children after a hectic day of primary school. But that's just the start of busy times for dozens of egg vendors across the city, deep in coastal Zhejiang province, who ready themselves to cook up a unique springtime snack favoured by local residents.REUTERS/Aly SongSlaughtered rats are displayed for sale at the market of Canh Nau village, Vietnam on December 25, 2011. Canh Nau is known as rat meat village where people eat rats as well as other kinds of meat from animals such as pigs, cows and chickens. One kilogram of slaughtered rats costs 80,000 dong ($3.80). Rats were eaten as a result of poverty in the past but now they are eaten at the end of every month of the lunar calendar as a special dish and local media reported that an average of a hundred kilograms of rat are sold at the village per day. REUTERS/KhamA worker holds cobra meat after the snakes have been stripped of their skins, at a Chinese restaurant in the ancient city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia on April 1, 2011. Snake hunters catch about 1,000 cobras from Yogyakarta, Central Java and East Java provinces each week to harvest their meat for burgers, priced at 10,000 rupiah ($1.15) each, as well as satay and other dishes. Some customers said they believe cobra meat can cure skin diseases and asthma, and increase sexual virility.REUTERS/Dwi ObloRasima, a villager, dries "ampo", a traditional snack made from clean, gravel-free dark earth, in Tuban, Indonesia on March 29, 2010. Rasima is the village's only ampo producer, and can earn up to $2 a day to supplement her family's income from farming. Although there is no medical evidence, villagers believe the soil snacks are an effective pain-killer and pregnant women are encouraged to eat them as it is believed to refine the skin of the unborn baby.REUTERS/Sigit PamungkasA vendor selling deep-fried spiders poses with a spider as she waits for customers at bus station at Skun, Kampong Cham province, east of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on March 14 ,2009. It costs $2 for 10 deep-fried spiders, which come seasoned with garlic. The fist-sized arachnids are crunchy on the outside and taste like cold, gooey chicken on the inside.REUTERS/Chor SokuntheaA Chinese woman eats from an ox and dog penis dish at the Guolizhuang "strength in the pot" penis restaurant in China's capital Beijing March 3, 2006. The restaurant offers more than 30 types of animal penises served in a Chinese hotpot style. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the penis of certain animals is full of nutrients which brings men energy. And because it contains gelatine albumen, it is said to have excellent cosmetic effects for women, especially beneficial for the skin.REUTERS/Reinhard KrauseBertha Piranes drops a skinned frog into a blender to make a drink at a market in San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima, August 16, 2006. The drink, popular with working-class Peruvians, is believed to cure illnesses ranging from fatigue to sexual impotency. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo
