ARE YOU?

I guess you have an iron

stomach…

This soup is prepared in China, using the swiftletswhich make their nests predominantly out of salivaIt’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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

It' a sheep' head.

Boiled.

The more you eat it,

the more bone is

revealed.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Believed by many

Hindus to possess

therapeutic value, cow

urine is sold in India

alongside milk and

yogurt.

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.

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