Dodgy Food around Asia

WARNING ! ACHTUNG!
DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS POST IF YOU ARE HYPER SENSITIVE ABOUT WEIRD LOOKING FOOD THAT MIGHT SPOIL YOUR APPETITE!!
Pictures taken from Google Image search.

Dodgy food or not, it depends on the context we're talking about. :)

i mean 'century eggs' in my country its like the NORM for Chinese.
We eat it as 'staple' snack food with amazing sliced ginger.
In 2005 when my friend LittleMissGan brought her bunch of British friend to visit one of the foodstall in Penang, (an island north west of the peninsular), they have one bite of it and they just went 'pphheeewiiittt' and washed/rinsed/hose down their mouth with Chinese Tea, and apparently even when they have arrived in KL days after experiencing their first taste of it, they still cringed at the thought of it as if the AFTER TASTE has forever stamped its mark on their tongue! LOL~

Here's how century eggs look like ~

Next, BALUT in Philippines.

I was in Philippines for the 23rd Sea Games, i was there as a volunteer to help out the Secretariat during the course of the games for 10 days. AND this is what i had.

BEFORE i had it, i was told that 'Ling ga Ling you must try our favorite local snack, its sooo delicious, i could eat 5 in a row!" one of the local volunteers enthusiastically promote the snack and i'm curious, super curious on why the locals are soooo excited abt someone from foreign country trying their BALUT, i guess maybe because they would be very happy if a foreigner share the same feeling with them that its VERY DELICIOUS! or 'Masarap!' in Tagalog.

BEFORE i share how it taste like with you, here's an idea of what it is and how you eat it, as they told me it is (or supposedly) not-fully-grown-chicks or baby chicks still in the egg which are 'cooked' and the way to savour it, is to cracked a small hole, SIP the broth (or liquid gel, thats how i would put it) and with a pinch of salt, CONSUMED ALL OF THE CONTENTS, including the shaped baby chick. YES.

My experience was 'visibly less clearer' cos we were parked by the side of the road, abt 11pm at night, SUDDENLY they have this notion of buying BALUT for me, i'm all up to trying it, but i thought it'd be served in proper place like foodstall (not exactly knowing how it looks like) So, Princess Peach, one of the volunteers wind down the window and wave for a guy from the dark street......The guy was holding 2 bags of white plastic, and he took out a small bag from inside the steaming plastic, Princess Peach paid 10pesos for 5 BALUT, and all 4 of us in the car, more like the 3 of them immediately dig in the food, took one out, handed it over to me like some precious stuff. (@_@)

AND anticipating me to eat it and i think for them the ultimate kick would be - my reaction - haha! AND SO....in the dark space in a car, with 3 pairs of eyes looking and myself barely able to make out the shape of the baby chick after cracking a hole, BUT i am 300% sure it is a BLACK dead bird, i was more curious than shocked, so i peeled off much of the shell to sip the liquid. The first reaction was, 'damn...this GEL thing is SOFT." im not sure whether to swallow or bite and CHEW, because it taste like none of the taste i tasted before and the closest to it is SALTY. whether i enjoyed it or not, i dunno where i stand, its just so...out of the world. AND the baby chick, i guess its 'underdeveloped' so you are able to crush its beaks,heads,bones and there's no feather so you can pretty much just swallow BALUT whole.

AND it was featured as one of the challenges in FEAR FACTOR.

Coming Up

"smelly tau fu" in Taiwan

OR if you have any experience with dodgy food, let me know! lets grow this post!