Gastronomic tour of Asia: the most unusual dishes that not everyone dares to try

Fried insects and spicy sweets are not all the wonders of traditional Asian cuisine. This region can surprise the most avid gourmets with dishes that are not available anywhere else. And even speciality restaurants do not always dare to add them to their menus.

• Snake wine (Vietnam)

This alcoholic drink scares not so much with its unusual taste as with its terrifying appearance. It is made by immersing a snake (usually a cobra) in vodka or rice wine. It is believed that alcohol neutralises the venom. This tincture also strengthens the immune system and can cure many diseases, but this is not certain.

• Shiokara (Japan)

This dish is available in many Japanese restaurants and cafes. What's more, it's even served as fast food and is quite inexpensive. It is finely chopped seafood seasoned with a sauce made from its own insides. The delicacy looks like a brown mixture and tastes like anchovies.

• Shirako (Japan)

A very unusual dish even for the Japanese themselves. It is very expensive, so it is not available to all residents of the country and tourists. These are marinated seed glands of different types of fish that are deep-fried. Usually, cod and sea devil are chosen for this delicacy.

• Sannakchi (Korea)

Dishes made from sliced raw fish or meat are typical of many cuisines around the world. But not all of them can kill. Sannakchi is an octopus that is cut while still alive, sprinkled with sesame seeds and eaten as a snack. Its tentacles can catch on the oesophagus and cause death by suffocation.

• <b>Rat thighs (Thailand)</b>

A popular dish made from rat meat is sold in different parts of the tourist country as fast food. Traders claim that rats are caught from rice fields for this amazing delicacy. The "city dwellers" are allegedly not touched because they can carry many different diseases. There are even entire settlements that catch rodents for sale almost around the clock, drown them and sell them for many times more than pork or poultry.

• Bat soup (China)

In the Chinese city of Wuhan, the very place where the coronavirus epidemic began, bat dishes are the norm. There's even a whole market specialising in bat meat and bat dishes. So the locals don't consider soup made from these mammals a delicacy, which is not the case with tourists.

It is worth noting that bats carry various diseases that can be fatal to humans. Nevertheless, they are eaten in many countries.

• <b>Bloody tofu (China)</b>

This dish has nothing to do with delicious cheese. It is the blood of a pig or duck cooked over low heat with spices. It looks like a very rich jelly. The delicacy is cut into pieces and added to soups and baked vegetables.

• Bloody clams (Southeast Asia)

This is a very dangerous dish, banned in almost all Asian countries. It is noteworthy that after eating this delicacy, you can get diphtheria and hepatitis. But this doesn't stop local restaurants from cashing in on tourists. In such establishments, the mollusks are served alive, having been treated with boiling water.

At the same time, this delicacy is common in Italy. However, in this country, shellfish go through several stages of cleaning and disinfection before cooking to ensure that they do not pose any threat to people.

• Shiro Uo (Japan)

Another dish of the so-called "dance" cuisine. To prepare it, very small translucent fish (usually gobies) are selected, sprinkled with various spices and served alive for a lot of money.

There is even a restaurant on the island of Fukuoka whose main dish is Shiro Uo. Thousands of tourists come here to watch the chef prepare this delicacy and then taste it. In fact, not all foreigners dare to try live fish because it is a rather specific dish.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL wrote about the restaurants to avoid abroad.

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