World's weirdest food

Unpalatable delicacies from around the globe

When it comes to fine dining we're content with pasta and a good bottle of red wine - but others revel in less conventional tastes and flavours. With news that the world's first test tube burger is to be developed this year, we look at other weird and wonderful dishes from across the globe. From cockroach sushi to urine-soaked eggs, come see which regional "delicacies" make our list of top 10 weirdest food; one man's poison certainly IS another man's meat...

Picture credit: Rex Features and Getty Images

1. Test tube hamburgers

Ever fancied a Big Mac made from cow stem cells? Now there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon, with scientists in Vancouver recently announcing the launch of the world's first test tube hamburger.

Ingredients for the scientific morsel are "still in a laboratory phase," but will aim to produce skeletal muscle tissue that exactly mimics meat using just vegetable sources. If successful, the move will cut down on health and environmental costs of conventional meat production - although how tasty the end product will be remains to be seen.

2. Breast milk ice-cream

A London ice-cream parlour created a stir last year by touting a "nutritious" flavour of the sweet stuff made from human breast milk. Not content with its unique blend of Madagascan vanilla pods, lemon zest and bodily fluid, it went one step further by branding the invention "Baby Gaga," served with a rusk.

The move irked the real Lady Gaga, who threatened to sue, and authorities raised concerns over health and safety; but plenty of people flocked to taste it all the same.

3. Cockroach sushi

The idea of cockroach-infused anything might turn your gut, but it's considered the cutting edge of gastronomy among certain foodies in Japan, who have been experimenting with different kinds of bugs at special eating parties in Tokyo.

This particular photo shows a white madagascar cockroach on rice. Yum.

4. Urine-soaked eggs

Dongyang County in eastern China's Zhejiang Province has achieved world-wide fame thanks to its delicacy of "Tong Zi Dan;" eggs soaked in the urine of young boys. Vendors collect urine from local elementary schools before soaking them overnight in the stuff to absorb its unmistakable smell.

It is thought the unusual snack radiates energy and fends off ill-health.

5. Korean 'penis fish'

Officially known Urechis unicinctus, these phallic-shaped spoon worms are a popular form of refreshment in Korea, served up raw with salt or sesame seed oil.

6. Stir fried Tarantula

Tarantulas are considered good enough to eat in Cambodia, where they can be found sold in street stalls.

Ways of eating them differ, but stir frying the arthropod with mashed garlic, salt and oil is said to be particularly delicious.

7. Sardinian maggot cheese

Casu Marzu is a very soft and pungent type of cheese made from sheep's milk and infested with maggots.

This tasty tidbit, a favourite on the Italian island of Sardinia, is produced by leaving the cheese out in the open to attract flies. They then lay eggs, which hatch into maggots - which eat the cheese and cause it to rot. Boun Appetito!

8. Pig brain omelette

Pig's brain omlette - or tortang utak - is in high demand in the Phillipines. To re-create the delicacy yourself, simply dice the raw pig's brain, add in carrots, onions, aubergines, beat in the eggs and pan-fry to taste.

Alternatively, you can pick up a can of pork brain saturated in milk gravy from a supermarket.

9. Scorpion on a stick

Roll up, roll up for a scorpion on a stick - the nutritious equivalent of a hot dog. Found on street stalls in Beijing and other cities in South East Asia, this chewy snack most often consumed by thrill-seeking tourists.

10. Hen's Coxcomb

They may not seem like the most appetizing part of a chicken, but coxcombs have been used in dishes in France and Italy for centuries - both as a garnish and as a luxury filling for vol au vents, profiteroles and more.

In Italy they are used to make a popular sauce called Cibreo, which also features un-laid eggs.

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