Some people love strange food. Andrew Zimmern has carved an empire for himself by seeking out strange foods, eating them, and putting it on the Travel Channel.

How many of these will you try before you die?

Thousand Year Egg

Also known as a Century Egg, it is an egg from chicken, duck, or quail, that has undergone a preservation treatment by spending several months in a mixture of clay, ash, lime, and rice straw. Yes they are edible but definitely an acquired taste. A Chinese specialty but I see these all over from V.F.W. posts to truck stops.

Natto

Mmmmmmm. Fermented soybeans. These smell strongly of ammonia and the taste is described as just nasty. It is commonly eaten for breakfast in some areas of Japan. But it can be found all over if one looks.

Nutria

Get it in the Southern US, Nutria is a rodent. Actually, it’s being promoted as a food source in the hopes that that will help control it’s population which is devastating wetlands in Louisiana and other states. Tastes like rabbit. Ugly dirty rabbit.

P’tcha

A Jewish dish, gelatin derived from calves hoofs or bones. High in protein and cholesterol. Tastes like garlic jello. Kind of.

Scrapple

A mushy semi-solid congealed loaf of rendered pig offal, the heart, the head, and other meat you wouldn’t normally eat. Mixed with flour, shaped, sliced, and pan fried. Popular in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. Kind of like a slice of fried slushy meat pudding. Eat it for breakfast with ketchup, syrup, jelly, whatever.

Boudin

Also known as Black Pudding. It’s a sausage made of pig blood and offal. If you ask for Boudin in the US you will probably receive what is known as Boudin Blanc. This is the sausage except they leave the blood out. It’s usually highly seasoned so it takes the flavor of the seasonings.

And last but not least…

Lutefisk

This Scandanavian treat is whitefish, that has been allowed to soak in water until the protein starts to leech out. It is then soaked for a couple days in lye. Yes…lye. Then it goes back to soaking in water again. By the end of all of it you have something that is vaguely filet shaped, has the consistency of stiff vaseline, smells of ammonia, and tastes…well I wouldn’t want to spoil the treat for you. Old folks complain that they just don’t make Lutefisk the way they used to because it tastes different. In the old days, after it had soaked in the barrels of water the fish would be hung on the outside of the barrels for a while, and dogs would come by and urinate on them. Gave it that down home flavor I guess. Old folks, gotta love em.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of strange food. Let me know if you’ve tried, and liked, any of these. Or feel free to add your own strange food experiences to the list.