When it comes to classifying unusual foods as disgusting, I’m firmly on the fence. As a person who rarely eats meat, there is no huge difference in contemplating the flesh of a chicken or a cat as something potentially edible, as far as I’m concerned. The same could be said for snails or locusts – why should these evoke horror from people who will happily tuck into a plate of shrimp or lobster? Isn’t it just a matter of what you’re used to?

It reminds me of an English friend who visited China, where neither dairy products nor bread feature in the diet. She said that people would recoil in disgust at her ‘foreign’ smell, which is more pungent to Chinese noses because of the milk products westerners consume. Try not eating garlic for three days and you’ll see what I mean. Once it is out of your system, you’ll start to smell it on everyone else. This visitor to China also told me that children used to call out to her in the street: “Hello foreigner, where’s your bread?”

So now we’ve reminded ourselves that what is normal and commonplace for us can be alien and revolting to others, comical even, let’s try and open our minds to some new experiences:

I set about searching for unusual recipes on the net, and found that locusts are also known as ‘sky prawns’ – as if to make the prospect of crunching on an insect more palatable. Conversely, I’ve heard people describing prawns as ‘the cockroaches of the sea’. Given the choice between a locust and a cockroach… I know which one I’d opt for, although it would probably also have to involve a gun to my temple. The locust recipes come from several countries, and involve frying or roasting. They all specify that you should remove the legs beforehand.

In the Dominican corner, the obvious nomination for a dish guaranteed to repulse some people is mondongo, but as has been mentioned before on these pages, many culinary traditions include the consumption of entrails. The English have stewed tripe and the Spanish have their callos. The Scots take the art of cooking innards a step further, with their national dish, haggis - a sheep's stomach bag cooked with sheep's liver, heart and lung, oatmeal, suet, stock, onions and spices. Tempted?

On the vegetarian side of the fence, we present the smelliest fruit in the world, the durian. It is said to smell like a combination of faeces and vomit, but once you get past that and taste it - and it’s a marvel that anyone does - it is said to be divine. It comes from Asia, so unfortunately I’ll have to wait and see whether I am made of strong enough stuff to sample it, if and when I ever go there.

Not so extreme, but universally loathed, are those mini cabbages known as Brussels sprouts. Not content with generating the stinkiest wind expulsions this side of habichuelas con dulce, they tend to smell like sewage while sitting on the plate, well before they go into your mouth.

Snake is a delicacy in the East, the French eat horses and frog legs. The Arabs are said to eat sheep eyes. Closer to home, iguana meat is consumed in Central America and here in the Dominican Republic as well, apparently. Maybe we’ll have to add a recipe to the collection, Aunt Clara.

I first came across the notion of worms as food when reading about a project in Indonesia, where a yummy and nutritious ‘worm omelette’ was on the menu at a day centre for street children. Since then, I’ve read about attempts to promote worms as an excellent source of protein in North and South America, but I don’t know how much this has caught on.

Our South American cousins eat ants, fried with fiery spices. They also eat roast cuy, which is guinea pig. For some people, this may sound like the moral equivalent of putting your pet kitten on the barbecue, but then again, isn’t it simply a question of cultural conditioning?

Article by Aunt Ilana



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Not long ago there was this show on TV about the world's strangest dishes. I find two particularly disquieting.

In India they have a dish prepared with the fetus of pregnant cow. It is said to be the tenderest meat (I don't doubt it). The other dish is the Phillipine Balut, the egg with the embryo inside.

If I am starving I could eat those. But however open-minded I am, and willing to sample the flavors of the world, I just can't stretch it that far.

Does anyone know how to prepare beef liver Dominican style. If so, please share your recipe. My childhood girlfriend's mother cooked beef liver for me many years ago while I was visiting them. It was cooked in a red sauce and was so good. I should have asked her how she prepared it but did not. Thanks

I thought that cows are sacred in India? Are you certain of this?

I am certain I saw it on TV.

Cows are not sacred for everybody in India though.

Well if you saw it on T.V....
It's a strange practice especially for a country in which over 80% of the population hold cows sacred; seems like ultimate disrespect IMO.