Just Breathe Sour Lung Soup is a German dish, most popular in Bavaria. In German, the dish is called saure Lüngerl, which translates to “sour (or acidic) lungs.” Oddly enough, the dish isn’t technically a soup at all. Finely sliced veal offal—such as lung, heart, and sweetbreads—is placed in a bowl and smothered in a… Read More →
Oh, Rats! I have eaten quite a few rats in my day, and I’m here to tell you they are pretty darn tasty. Bush and pack rats of several species in Arizona, jungle rats of several types in Ecuador and Suriname, Royal rats (gibnuts) in Belize, cane rats in Uganda, rice rats in Thailand, a giant… Read More →
Eight-Legged Treats Of all the foods I have eaten in my lifetime, the tarantula strikes me as one of the strangest from a psychological standpoint. We are pre-conditioned in this country to think of these fuzzy insects as scary and poisonous, belonging on Halloween decorations, not dinner plates. But they taste great, reminding me of… Read More →
Spit Soup Every once in a while I stumble upon a food and think, “What sick mind came up with this idea in the first place?” Bird’s nest soup falls into that category. I’d like to meet whoever first decided to soak a bird’s nest in water overnight, then pick feathers and feces out of the… Read More →
Meat Jelly Headcheese is a meat jelly made from the head of a calf, pig, or sheep, typically served in aspic. “Aspic” might sound like a poisonous chemical, but it’s in fact just chopped-up ingredients held together with meat stock or consommé infused with gelatin. Meat jellies became popular many centuries ago when the head… Read More →
I’m Drinking What?! For those who seek a killer caffeine buzz, kopi luwak might be the Holy Grail. This Indonesian coffee is one of the rarest and most expensive beverages in the world. A pound of primo beans garners upwards of $500, and a single, thimble-sized cup of the brew can go for 10 bucks… Read More →
For the Birds Sitting at the local Poultry A-Go-Go and fraught with worry over what to order? Order the turducken and get the best of everything. This ingenious dish is a boneless duck, stuffed inside a boneless duck, stuffed inside a boneless turkey… then roasted. In the United Kingdom, it goes by the Dickensian moniker… Read More →
Jump Around They’re high in protein, low in fat, and rich in minerals, not to mention they’re delish! After ants, grasshoppers are the most popular insect eaten around the world. Unlike ants, grasshoppers have superior flavor profiles that vary from region to region depending on their diet, and grasshoppers can be cooked any way imaginable.… Read More →
Mmm…Blood In many cultures, blood consumption plays an important role in a healthy lifestyle. Enthusiasts say the red stuff keeps you strong, and can even warm you up on a cool day. Chug a glass of blood and your body temperature will indeed rise a few degrees–seriously! Overcoming the psychological hurdles (not to mention the… Read More →
Flying Foxes! With a six-foot wing span, the Samoan giant fruit bat, a.k.a. the flying fox, is the most appropriately named animal since the toy poodle. The bats are native to the tropics of Asia, Australia, Indonesia, islands of East Africa, and the Indian and Pacific oceans, but I tried them first on the uninhabited… Read More →
There’s a hare in my soup! Oh, wait. It’s supposed to be there. Found on tables in the Americas, Europe, and parts of the Middle East, rabbit and hare are just as cute as they are delicious. Rabbit meat is most often categorized into three groups. Fryer cuts come from rabbits up to nine weeks… Read More →
What Am I? Chopped Liver? A variety of animals gloriously lend their livers to the food world. Beef, chicken, duck, and goose livers, also known colloquially and collectively as foie gras, monkfish liver, and pig liver, are just a few of these organs that end up on the global table. It can be baked, broiled,… Read More →
Good Inking Ever been so scared you’ve peed in your pants? Me neither, but I’ve been close. (Did you see the Bizarre Foods episode where I almost jumped off the nuclear reactor in South Africa…but chickened out? Yikes.) Squid, like most other cephalopods, have a similar problem. These animals have a mechanism that releases a blue-black… Read More →
I ♥ Ox Heart Ox heart is lean, since it’s almost pure muscle, with very little fat and collagen. And coming in at around two pounds apiece, ox heart is offal-y large. It tastes like beef, which makes sense because oxen are cattle that have been trained as draft animals. Oxen are usually eaten after… Read More →
You scream. I scream. Ice cream? Bizarre? Let’s take care of the ground rules. Ice cream is a quintessentially frozen dessert treat made with dairy products. You love it. I love it. It takes an average of fifty licks to finish a single scoop of ice cream, unless you are my son, Noah. He’s a… Read More →
Danger! Beware of Japanese restaurants boasting glowing, globular, fish-shaped lanterns…it might mean a meal there could be your last. The lantern signifies that they specialize in serving toxic fugu, also called puffer fish or blowfish. Japan has been home to the fugu dish for hundreds of years, if not more. Anthropologists discovered remnants of fugu… Read More →
Hot Dog! At lease several times a year the following passion play ensues. The Scene: I am with my son sitting in our seats at the Twins game at Target Field in Minneapolis. Fan: (walks up or down steps, eating a hot dog as he goes, notices us, and stops): Hey, you’re Andrew Zimmern. How do… Read More →
A.K.A. Guinea Pig My son was four years old and just wrapping up another year of preschool when Daddy came to visit the class. I walked in and a little girl began screaming, “Don’t eat Simon! He’s going to eat Simon!!!…AAARRGGGHHH!” Well, I didn’t that time. We keep this teeny little rodent as a pet,… Read More →
Hee-Haw From their big teeth to their stringy tails, little about a donkey looks appetizing to the American palate. In ancient Athens, only the poor would stoop to eating such a thing. At the turn of the 19th century, a Maltese food shortage caused starving residents to consume the protein out of necessity. As it… Read More →
It’s Alive! Picture it: You slice into a a beautiful wheel of cheese. The perfectly aged rind, the pungent rotted diaper scent of coagulated milk, and your ears pick up the teeniest tiniest little squeak, the pitter-patter of little…maggots? That’s right, this midsized wheel of cheese is filled with wriggling and jiggling fly larvae. Maggot… Read More →
King of Fruits Is it rotten onions? Funky garbage fumes? A dirty gym sock after a high school basketball tourney? No, that could simply be fresh fruit. Durian, known in Asia as the “king of fruits,” is crowned with a spiky exterior and filled with stinky fruit flesh. This fruit from the durian tree is… Read More →
Eight-Legged Treats Octopus is an ingredient used in dishes across the globe, but in Korea it’s prepared it a little differently. Sannakji is made by cutting a live octopus into small pieces right before serving. Though the animal is dead, electrical impulses still in the octopus’s arms cause the pieces to wriggle around on the… Read More →
Eight-Legged Treats Octopus is an ingredient used in dishes across the globe, but in Korea it’s prepared it a little differently. Sannakji is made by cutting a live octopus into small pieces right before serving. Though the animal is dead, electrical impulses still in the octopus’s arms cause the pieces to wriggle around on the… Read More →
A Tasty Treat (No Pun Intended). A popular ingredient around the world, tongue is becoming more popular in the U.S. It is boneless, has more protein than a steak and half the fat. It’s a much healthier alternative than many other proteins. Plus, it comes in almost any variety you can think of: beef, pork, lamb… Read More →
A Tasty Treat (No Pun Intended). A popular ingredient around the world, tongue is becoming more popular in the U.S. It is boneless, has more protein than a steak and half the fat. It’s a much healthier alternative than many other proteins. Plus, it comes in almost any variety you can think of: beef, pork, lamb… Read More →
The Other, Other White Meat Chicken and turkey continue to populate tables across the country, but maybe it’s time we start eating gator. Sounds weird, but it’s true: gator is one of the healthiest proteins. Alligator meat has a fine texture, similar to chicken and pork, but contains less calories, fat and cholesterol than either… Read More →
The Other, Other White Meat Chicken and turkey continue to populate tables across the country, but maybe it’s time we start eating gator. Sounds weird, but it’s true: gator is one of the healthiest proteins. Alligator meat has a fine texture, similar to chicken and pork, but contains less calories, fat and cholesterol than either… Read More →
Poo-poo Platter A dung beetle walks into a bar. “Pardon me,” he says to the bartender. “Is this stool taken?” Dung beetles don’t look in a refrigerator when they’re hungry, they simply trail a big animal until it goes number two. Then, dinner is served. Dung beetles are a popular snack in rural Laos and… Read More →
Poo-poo Platter A dung beetle walks into a bar. “Pardon me,” he says to the bartender. “Is this stool taken?” Dung beetles don’t look in a refrigerator when they’re hungry, they simply trail a big animal until it goes number two. Then, dinner is served. Dung beetles are a popular snack in rural Laos and… Read More →
It’s a No-Brainer Brains aren’t just for zombies. Brains are a delicacy eaten by people all around the world. The most popular are lamb, pig and cow brains, but you can really eat any animal’s brain, provided it’s fresh. I’ve even dined on squirrel brain. It was delicious! Brains are full of healthy nutrients like… Read More →
