Civet Coffee
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Also known as Kopi Luwak (Indonesia) and Kape Alamid (Philippines), this world's most expensive coffee is made from coffee beans that had traveled through the digestive tract of a civet, a small cat-liked mammal. The civets consumed only the finest of ripe berries, which would end up in a pile of poo only partially digested with the bean still intact. These beans/seeds are then collected, washed, roasted, and brewed into a coffee that tastes a bit like dark chocolate.
Testicles
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In Western cuisines, testicles are often either discarded or further processed and sold as pet foods. However, they are normally eaten by humans in many oriental societies and are considered aphrodisiacs, particularly, the testicles of roosters, bulls, sheep and stallions. They are generally steamed; deep fried and can also be eaten raw. Serbian chef Ljubomir Erovic, the celebrated author of "The Testicle Cookbook: Cooking with Balls" has made it clear that all balls can be eaten, except humans, of course. The cookbook, which has somehow popularized such a delicacy around the world, included interesting recipes like testicle pizzas, battered testicles, calf testicles omelet and bull testicles with Béchamel sauce.
Maggot Cheese
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Also called casu Farzigu or casu marzu, maggot cheese is what its name implies. This rare Italian delicacy, which is usually served during family gatherings and special occasions, is made from pecorino (sheep milk) cheese on which cheese flies (Piophila casei) had been deliberately placed to lay their eggs. When new born maggots are hatched, they would start the fermentation process by excreting digestive enzymes that break down the cheese fats, resulting in a delicately creamy quality but rather rotten and pungent taste. The cheese can only be eaten while the maggots are still alive, otherwise, it will become toxic. For this reason, its consumption was banned by the Italian government, although it can still be purchased on the black market.
Fried Spiders
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Skuon is a market town in Cambodia famous for its edible spiders, which are quite similar to tarantulas. Along the streets, you can see many vendors standing behind large woks filled with cooking oil for frying these arachnids that are especially bred for this particular purpose. Though the poison is destroyed upon frying, its medicinal properties still remain intact as it is good for coughs. Fried spider tastes like crab; it has a crispy exterior and a chewy interior, with black juices oozing out when the body is eaten. The practice of eating spiders probably started when spiders became a survival food for the local population during the oppressive Khmer Rouge regime, when food was in short supply.
Baby Mice Wine
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Baby mice wine is used as a health tonic in many rural parts of Korea, and its taste is said to resemble pure gasoline. Two to three-day-old mice, with eyes still closed, are plucked from the very bosom of their mothers and stuffed (while still very much alive) into a bottle of rice wine, where they are left to ferment for around a year or so. Pretty cruel, don't you think?
Monkey Brains
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Eating live Monkey brains were once a part of the Manchu Han Imperial Feast during China's Qing Dynasty. However, the practice has brought about over-hunting due to the mistaken belief that consuming monkey brains can cure erectile dysfunction. The monkeys are caged and fed with rice wine to make them drunk. The chefs would bind them to prevent them from awakening, crack open their skull with a sharp knife and then scoop out the brains with blood vessels visibly still pulsing (Another cruel act). In addition to the inherent risk of high fat contents of brain and nerve tissues, brain consumption may result in contracting fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other brain diseases similar to mad cow disease in cattle. Lamb and pig brains are also consumed in some parts of Asia, particularly India and China. (I once tasted pig brain when I was a teenager, and got to learn what it is from my mom shortly afterwards. They were soft and slimy almost similar to soft tofu; and though I still vividly remember its taste, which wasn't bad at all, I never tried the dish again.)
Balut
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Considered very much to be an aphrodisiac, balut are high protein snacks that can usually be bought from street vendors in some Southeast Asian nations like the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam. They are boiled fertilized duck (sometimes chicken) eggs that have been incubated until the embryos are nearly developed. They are usually served hot and eaten with a pinch of salt or vinegar. First, you carefully crack the top of the egg creating a small hole from which you can sip the flavorful broth before removing the rest of the shell. Then you can proceed to eat everything including the fetus with feathers, beaks and bones. (I used to eat balut regularly when I was young and very much fearless. But now, after more than a decade of not having eaten it, and no longer as young and as fearless as I used to be, I cannot seem to go beyond sipping the broth. I would stop eating altogether upon seeing the half-formed fetus, though I know it tastes really good.)
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Another great article! Can't wait for the next one.