14 Extreme Foreign Foods That Most People Just Can’t Handle

Sometimes the foods that other cultures hold up on a pedestal are just a little too extreme for our taste buds. This is a collection of some of the most interesting, and generally revolting, dishes from around the world.

Tuna Eyeballs

If you have a hankering for squid, but want to try something even more unique, try the eyeball of a tuna. In Japan, you will find this treat boiled, and many say that it tastes just like squid.

Kopi Luwak

Talk about a crappy cup of coffee, the beans used for this drink first pass through the digestive tract of various small Asian mammals known as civets. A pound can go for as much as 150 USD!

Nakji

This octopus dish requires you to eat the thing whole, suction cups and all!

Rocky Mountain Oysters

They really try to talk this dish up with the name, making it sound like a refined dish with a rugged facade. Then you realize it’s deep fried bull testicles.

Casu Marzu

If you like to fight your food as you eat, then you may enjoy casu marzu. This cheese dish, made from the milk of sheep, is infused with living insect larvae. So don’t be surprised if one of them jumps out at you when its disturbed!

Yak Penis

The Chinese believe that eating the penis of a yak is actually quite healthy. But it just simply does not look appealing.

A-ping

The challenge with this one will be just getting past the fact that your eating deep fried tarantula. It apparently tastes great, but just seems like it would feel strange going down.

Heart of a Puffin

It seems hard to believe that people would want to kill just a cute and cuddly flightless bird so that they can eat its heart, but they do. Kind of looks like taffy actually.

Hakarl

Who doesn’t love that fishy smell? Why not intensify that smell like killing a shark and hanging it in the open air for four to five months before finally cooking it? You said you liked fishy smell right?

Bird’s Nest Soup

This Chinese dish involves taking a bird’s nest, soaking it in water, removing the feathers and droppings (no I didn’t put that in the wrong order), and the serving it as a soup. Apparently it tastes like chicken soup, but with slimy overtones.

Haggis

Just take all of those left over organs from the sheep you just slaughtered and mince them all together and voila! You’ve got haggis!

Balut

If you don’t like your food looking back up at you, balut is not for you. Take a fertilized duck embryo and boil it live to produce balut.

Surstromming

Fermented fish for food, that’s what they do in Sweden. The smell is apparently incredibly strong, and not many can handle it if they are not used to it.

Ikizikuri

If you are feeling especially cruel, filet a fish while it is still alive and serve it while the heart is still beating. Due to the cruelty factor, many nations have banned this dish.