Asian food is considered one of the most delicious in the world, but there’s a lot more to it than sushi, dumplings or rice. The only problem is not many non-Asians could handle these exclusive dishes. Here are 7 “delicacies” that will probably kill your appetite:
7. Bee Larvae
Not as disgusting as other Asian foods, bee larvae are very popular in China and Japan. They are either deep fried and seasoned with salt and pepper, or cooked with soy sauce and sugar. They’re crunchy and sweet and the locals eat them like popcorn, but some people just can’t get over the fact that they look like maggots.
6. Fried Spiders
Insects are considered delicacies throughout South-East Asia and Cambodia can be safely called the insect-eating capital of the world. Cambodians are so fond of bugs that they’ve nicknamed the small town of Skuon, Spiderville. Here the streets are filled with women carrying large trays full of fried Skuon Spiders. They’re said to taste like crab but the fact that they are the size of a human palm doesn’t make them very popular with foreigners. Cambodians are believed to have started eating spiders during the time of the Khmer Rouge, when almost the entire population was starving. Now spiders are a national delicacy.
5. Snake Blood
Like many other strange foods, snake blood is believed to enhance male potency and it’s actually used more as a panacea than as a food. Snake-blood masters simply cut off the snake’s head and let the blood flow in glasses. Then they add the bile and serve the drink to anyone brave enough to try it.
Snake blood is most popular in Taiwan and in the capital of Tapei there’s a place called Snake Alley where you can find all kinds of snake super-products.
4. Fried Rats
Just so you know these are not the kind of rats you see lurking around your local dumpsters; these ones live in the fields. People eat them deep fried and seasoned with all kinds of delicious spices, especially in Vietnam or Thailand. Sometimes even foreign tourists gather all their courage and have a taste, but their stomachs have a hard time digesting the meat.
Doctors say rat meat can be dangerous if not cooked properly, causing diarrhea and other serious conditions, so think twice before you try it.
3. Bird’s Nest Soup
The main ingredient for this exclusive Asian dish is the Swiftlet nest. The Swiftlet is a sparrow-like bird living in the southern islands of Thailand that makes its nest out of saliva. Swiftlet nests are one of the most expensive food ingredients in the world and companies in the business would go to any length to protect their investments, even killing those that get too close to their bird colonies.
When boiled, the nests give the soup a gelatinous texture, so you’re basically eating water and bird saliva…delicious.
2. Kopi Luwak
Kopi Luwak is the rarest, most expensive coffee in the world. That’s what most people know about it, but few know it actually comes from the excrements of an Indonesian animal called the Luwak. This cat-like creature eats only the ripest coffee berries, but because its stomach is unable to digest them, they come out whole. The stomach acids and enzymes that perform the fermentation of the beans give the coffee a special aroma.
Kopi Luvak is a luxury gourmet product that can’t be bought for less than $50 for 100 grams.
Monkey Brains
If you think simply eating monkey brains is strange, I wonder how you feel about eating them while the poor monkey is still alive. This is a popular practice in southern China, where some restaurants have specially designed tables to allow monkeys to be restrained and their skulls opened. Sometimes monkey brains eaters use the top of the skull as a bowl where they mix the brains with alcohol.
Monkey Brains are not only a weird food but they are also hazardous to your health. There’s a risk of getting spongiform encephalopathy, a disease of the brain, that could be fatal.
Photo credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
HotelClub Travel Blog is where the weird, the wacky and the wonderful world of travel comes together. You will find posts on green/environmentally friendly travel ideas, interesting and obscure destinations and hotels as well as posts about the cultural side of travel. We also feature 
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I was really hungry untill I read that. I actually feel like throwing up thinking about the fried spiders. YUCK
Well,
this is all fine and dandy but there are foods much simpler and cheaper that come from Asia and still cannot be eaten. Example is NATTO
cheers
Yummy, Asian foods at it’s best!
“Doctors say rat meat can be dangerous if not cooked properly, causing diarrhea and other serious conditions, so think twice before you try it.”
All meat can be dangerous if not cooked properly.
startling revelations indeed !! its amazing that we all can share sush a vast amount of knowledge , thanks to the advent of blogging !!
coming to this post , i appreciate the effort that must have gone in researching all this , and the content that has been publshed is truly “jaw opening “.
however i confess that being a non vegetarian , i cannot empathise with you to an extent u may find agreeable , neither can i fully agree with your viewpoint , becaure i am of the opinion that this post may be written keeping in mind your zealously vegetarian sensibilities..
with due respect for you and all the vegetarians like you , i feel no hesitation in reiterating that this post is a vegetarian’s desperate effort to persuade people to turn vegetarian !!
thanks.
ankur k.
missing: nakji
And when they get Bird Flu they all look surprised!!
I have now officially lost my appetite. Thanks.
Seriously, I could only stomach a few of these so-called delicacies. The bee larvae, the bird nest soup, and the Kopi Luwak coffee. Eating monkeys brains from a live restrained monkey is nothing but downright cruelty.
everybody who eats live monkey’s deserves to die!
This is an interesting article but I have many friends in Asia and I toured Asia myself for more than a year, and I can tell you that even most Asians, especially young ones, can’t stand these foods. I’ve had the pleasure of trying Snake Blood in wine form. It… tastes about the way you probably think it would.
“The only problem is not many non-Asians could handle these exclusive dishes.”
Actually, my Taiwanese girlfriend won’t dare try most of this stuff
Hmm, I think I will have to pass! LOL
so cruel. we don’t need to eat meat, human just do it because they are barbaric and enjoy inflicting pain. i hope everyone who eats this suffers from the effects listed above. oh and ankur kakkar, just shut up.
It does not look like bee larvae to me.
It looks like boiled silk worm pupae.
(They are boiled to dissolve the gum that holds the cocoon together so that the silk thread can be extracted).
It isn’t bad — it has a kind of nutty flavour.
I guess these dishes are what happens when the state fails to feed its citizens. When you’re hungry, it doesn’t matter what you’d eat…
If it happens enough over the decades, cultural traditions are formed.
Food for thought…
Some Asians will never see eyey to eye with me.
They probably think the same about Big Macs.
Just to clarify.
The birds use saliva to hold their nests together, they’re built of sticks and twigs like nests everywhere. Because the birds eat almost nothing but fish the soup tastes like FISHY, saliva soup.
There, is that better? Eeeewwww!
Asian food is considered one of the most delicious in the world, but there s a lot more to it than sushi, dumplings or rice. The only problem is not many non-Asians could handle these exclusive dishes. Here are 7 delicacies that will probably kill your appetite:
You could have added Balut, which actually doesn’t taste bad, as long as you are just about blind drunk.
oh my god monkey brain ..that’s so cruel..i actually saw a sort of secreat video before where chinese people ate monkey brain and the monkey was still alive.. it just made me sick!
To Thai Hotel Expert: No you didn’t, because it doesn’t happen. This article is sensationalistic and anyone who actually believes that those “barbaric asians” eat live monkey’s brains is just retarded.
I wouldn’t say the monkey brain thing is true. Even most Chinese are wary about exotic cuisine. It might have been an old practice but it’s probably simmered down to the old folk eating it once and a while now days. That does NOT mean its popular and they eat it everywhere and commonly.
Secret video? That was the first Faces of Death movie and it was faked.
i ate one time fried spiders, they are quite good you must try them
Food is just a cultural issue.
If you are grown up in a place where you are told that fried larvae and spiders are great food, you try them, and if you like the taste, you eat them.
If you think of it, caviar is made from the eggs of some huge fish and black pudding is made of… well, pig’s blood.
Oh my Goddd monkey brains! The thing I would eat would be the soup…Only If i would be stranded on a island starving that is
God ,The Thing That Bugs Me The Most Is The Snake Blood.
looks delicious
wats else is there
I’ve actually been to Snake Alley in Taipei (typo in the article) and it’s a hoot. Snake Alley is like an open air market place mostly four tourists and the locals aren’t really that proud of it really. They sell cock-fight videos there and all sorts of other odd things. There are signs EVERYWHERE that say “NO PHOTOS” in multiple languages even though I did manage to snap a few. What the article didn’t say was just how crazy they actually do this with the snakes. It’s done in a carnival like atmosphere. The restaurants are usually open-air and in the front there is a large counter with multiple snake cages behind it. About once an hour a man will come forward with a microphone wired to a P.A. system so everyone nearby can hear. Once a big enough crowd gathers of about 50 people, he starts the show. What I’m about to tell you next is VERY, VERY GROSS so read only at your own risk. It’s all done in Chinese (which I don’t speak fluently so I only understood a few words here and there) but you really don’t need to understand what he’s saying to understand the concept. He banters for a few minutes then goes and grabs a LIVING snake from a cage. The snakes are about 6-8 feet long and didn’t look poisonous. I couldn’t tell what kind they were but probably some sort of constrictor. He grabs the snake from behind the head holding it in the air and then rotates his hand around the other direction then begins to swing the snake around slamming it as hard as he can against the counter top like a whip. He flings it around like this about ten times or so as hard as he can, and needless to say, just about every bone in this snakes body is probably shattered into a million pieces. The snake is now writhing around having the life just beat out of it and he then strings it up on a wire with the crowd cheering loudly. He pulls the snake straight and takes a sharp, hooked knife of some sort. He slices the snake down the entire length of its body quickly and opens it. He then takes a pair of scissors and makes two, quick snips. His cuts are to sever the heart which is still beating and he then pulls it out and drops it on top of the counter and the heart is still beating. This spectacle is absolutely unreal and the crow just goes nuts. Then, they drain the blood from the snake into a glass, you pay the cashier and off you go for a drink. If you want, they can drain a different snake for you for a lesser price. It’s just surreal and like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
The “monkey brains eaten alive” thing is a hoax.
People do eat the brains, but the monkey is quite dead before it is handed to them
This food culture occured because of famine and wars in Far East.
In the past, people couldn’t find anything to eat (i mean normal food like vegetable or agricultural fruits) and they created their own meals like rats, snakes or spiders… Today we see same thing in Africa…
Sad but true..
Which of the 7 tastes like chicken?
Correct the lies about eating monkey-brains while the monkeys are alive. You are contributing to cultural misunderstanding. Others have already pointed out that it is just not true so take some responsibility for your posts and edit it. Calling it “a popular practice” in “southern China” is also not correct. Get your facts straight.
the picture from the “monkey brain” is actually spicy tuna stuffed into mushrooms deep fried with tempura batter then topped with spicy mayo sauce, then cut in half.
Having eaten all of these items except for kopi luwak (too expensive) and monkey brains (never even seen it), I’ve got to say… they are all pretty good. Food is food. Dog was good, too. As were scorpions and raw horse. Try anything once… you never know.
As there is no transmissible spongiform encephalopathy liked with monkeys then the monkey in question must have either had the unlikely experience of snacking away on the brain products of a cow with BSE
OR is one of the even rarer tribe of zombie monkies that make a point of gorging themselves upon those few humans that develop Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
goddamned evil zombie monkies, I say we burn out their forests and leave them nowhere to hide!!!!!
Cybergrunt, STFU. No one came in here preaching against veganism, yet you just had to bitch about people who eat meat. People like you are the reason most folks don’t like vegans, you ruin it for all the sane vegans and vegetarians.
bird’s nest isn’t that bad. as you can see, it’s very hard to make that food. you need to get the bird’s saliva, how hard is that! it’s very delicious, i’ve tasted one.
Last one - monkey brains is straight from Indiana Jones haha - except I think they were chilled in the movie…
how about tiger paw, which is illegal but still sold in the back of some restaurants in china? dam communists
About the monkey brains thing, it’s not a hoax as some of you would have it. But it’s not a southern delicacy, it’s a northern. I’m an Australian living in China, south china (Guangzhou specifically, but I’va also lived in Zhuhai) and one of my first girlfriends here (a northern girl) has eaten monkey prepared like this.
My current girlfriend is Cantonese, I was telling her about the first time I ate dog and she was surprised I hadn’t had it before (its quite nice), then she went on to say that the Cantonese eat about anything. Which I must say is quite true. But it’s not only what animals they will eat but what part of the animals: liver, cheeks, brains, kidneys, intestine and all the other offal. Hell, I’ve seen a guy pop a whole chiicken head in his mouth and suck it clean!
Anyway, it’s all culture and it’s all damn interesting. I’ll be trying snake soon (I hope) but I’ve been told you have to be careful where you get that from around my part of town.
-Caleb
not all asians eat that..
People eat the monkey brains while the monkeys are still alive? What the?
Totally disgusting. Anyone who eats this should be slaughtered and eaten themselves!
Just to clarify, I am Asian, Cantonese to be exact, and despite what people post on this. I can tell you off the bat, that I have never ever tried any of those dishes. In fact, the description of the dishes just makes my stomach not feel so good. So stop stereotyping, and assume that just because we are Asian, we would eat anything and everything. So no, the Cantonese don’t eat “just about everything”.
Is It True?
The main purpose of this article is to discuss the canonical Live Monkey Brain feast. As a legend, it is a classic in every way and is particularly interesting because of its age and the extent of the documentation surrounding it, whether it is true or false.
* Eating live monkey brains as a delicacy is highly unlikely and the canonical tale is almost certainly not true. Key elements are unbelievable and undocumented. This includes that the monkey is live (and conscious), strapped below the table and that the diners excitedly bop the screaming, kicking monkey on the head, while blood squirts all around. Then they presumably wipe off the blood, have a good laugh and enjoy the delicious brains. Yum!
* Eating live monkey brains as medicine is much more believable, but I’d only put even money on it. This is not the standard version of the tale, but it is a horrific and commonly reported variation. Paying money to have the chef prepare fresh monkey brain sushi is only one step removed from selecting a lobster from a tank and boiling it alive.
* Eating fresh (but not live) monkey brains as medicine is more likely still , given the large number of reports. Powdered monkey brain in a medicine shop seems quite plausible. Still, there is always room of skepticism.
* Eating cooked monkey brains is also believable. Monkey brain stew might even taste good.
Your probably asian-american and they are delacacies, not common cuisine. Just like caviar or ants here…most people dont eat them.
totally GA-ROSS. asians will eat anything and everything nowadays due to their devastatingly horrendous economy!
Small clarification here:
“This cat-like creature eats only the ripest coffee berries, but because its stomach is unable to digest them, they come out whole.”
The Luwak DO digest the coffee berries; it’s the bean inside which is undigested and pooped out (else they wouldn’t eat them to begin with!).
I enjoyed the article, for I like reading about things of other cultures. I agree with what C. said, but I would like to point out a few other things.
1) ankur kakkar
This article is -not- to make people go veggi! After all, really, if they wanted to do that they’d quote Sinclaire’s “The Jungle”. It was just an interesting bit of knowledge.
2) Cybergrunt
Humans evolved to eat meat. We have teeth that allow us to eat meat. We are omnivores, which mean that we can eat meat. I eat meat a -lot-, that does not mean I enjoy inflicting pain, but that I like the taste and need protein and, to be frank, I prefer beef to beans. Also, eating animals is not cruel. We are animals, technically, just highly advanced ones. Do you think it is cruel that lions eat zebra? That sharks eat fish? Well, you might say, that is all they are supposed to eat. What about bears? Do you think it is wrong for them to eat fish, when they can eat berries? No, you wouldn’t, because such a notion is outlandish. We are no different, really, so get off your moral high chair and learn that humans are, by nature, supposed to eat meat. If you don’t want to, fine, but stop acting like a human consuming a bird is heinous but a bird consuming another bird is A-OK.
3) laconic
Stop being a stereotyping imbecile.
4) Arynne ; I’m asian ; etc.
You rock.
5) Everyone
Stop acting like this stuff is sold day-to-day at the local diner and READ. They are DELICACIES. You know what? -We- eat cow tongue as a delicacy, as well as fish eggs. If you don’t think that isn’t as gross as some of the stuff up there, you’re warped.
6) Everyone ;; Kudos to Ku
You have to take this article, like many things, from a cultural standpoint. If one grows up eating something, and told it is okay, then it is. If one is not accustomed to something, then it isn’t. Get OVER these differences. For example, someone, somewhere thinks that eating a motley of leftovers from the pig, stuffed into the lining of the small intestine is disgusting. You know what we do? Call it sausage or hot dog and serve it up on the 4th of July.
Everything depends on your viewpoint from where you grew up. Try thinking about these things from the perspective of someone who grew up with it. You’ll learn a lot more.
Wow. I’m shocked that people would take another country’s culture as excuse to insult an entire race. I’m asian and I have never eaten any of those things, and you people who assume things like “asians will eat anything and everything nowadays due to their devastatingly horrendous economy” or how we’re communist should really take a long, hard look at yourselves. The US economy isn’t the greatest ever, either, and censorship and oppressive government is a problem EVERYWHERE.
I’m 13, by the way, so feel free to be ashamed of yourselves.
@::| - I wasn’t stereotyping. I was merely stating fact.
@Emily: Words of a 13 year old bear no significance to me. Dismissed.
I hate articles like this. Nice job making the population of an entire continent look “weird.” Plus, “brian”’s right — those “bee larvae” look like no such thing (neither do they look like fly maggots, which is the brand of maggots to which I assume you’re referring). Here are some examples of “non-Asian” culinary delights:
The Ortalan bunting - Not so much “gross” as appalling. (Search Google for “ortolan” and “black napkin”) -France
Crab and lobster (spiders of the sea!!!) -Pretty much the entire world (also see: dumping live creatures into pots of boiling water. Yay!)
Rabbit (Basically rats with cute, long ears and little puffy tails!) - Also whole world
Squirrels (Cute! but still edible) - Our American Cousin[s]!
Possums - Uglier than rats, even! Yet your mom loves them. If she’s from the United States.
Snails -Those French crazies!!
[Beef] Tongue -Please! The British don’t bother with *just* the saliva!
“Natural-casing” hotdogs, anyone? Oh, me, me!! But if I’m Scottish, I call it “haggis”!
“Black pudding” - Ireland (other places where that rose, by another name, tastes just as…sweet: Spain, Estonia, Latin America, South of France, Austria, etc.)
“Chitlins (chitterlings)” - my great-grandparents in N. Carolina
“Mountain oysters” - hahaha!! Ditto grandparents
Foi gras - again, what will those French think of next! (Here, as with the ortolan, it’s not so much the food itself that’s as disgusting/alarming as the process by which it’s obtained.)
Oh, and guess what “track rabbit” is? You’re right! If you said it’s what homeless people in NYC call the rather gargantuan rats that live in the subway tunnels. They’re apparently yumlicious, too! cooked over an open (well, open in the underground) fire!
And finally, how, exactly, is the eating of brains from the skulls of live monkeys any different from swallowing live oysters by the dozen? Is it because monkeys are cute? Have tails? Aren’t slimy? What?
Love (if by “love,” I mean, “puh-leeze!”) — Sugarbat
OMG Joe you’re right!! Ha ha this is killing me — I looked at the “brains” again and felt like an ass for not seeing right away they were mushrooms. You are awesome. SB
laconic:
“@Emily: Words of a 13 year old bear no significance to me. Dismissed.”
Free personality test–
You are an agist pig who thinks that children should be seen and not heard. You immediately dismiss what they say, which indicates that you not only have low self esteem but are worried that a 13 year old will show you up intellectually. When a child makes a point, you ignore it. When one makes no sense, you point out their childhood as why. One day, you’re going to be a bitter old man who can’t understand a lick of the technology around him, and refuse to accept the help of those younger than you who do. Believe it or not — sometimes kids are smarter than adults. So get off your high horse and accept it or get the heck out of the way.
@Emily
I love you in a purely platonic way.
@sugarbat
Good food knowledge! Wy to put em in their place! But, uh, we Americans don’t really eat possums, squirrels, or chitlins. At least, none of the people I know. And I know a lot of people…
:B
stop being morons all of you specially the morons sayin US is no better then anywhere else US is #1 for everything were just better taught and so on… grow up
No… most of them are very disgusting to me, i don’t see the reason why they can be called Delicacies!
These things are relative - taste depends on what you are used to.
I had a Cantonese friend who thought cheese was disgusting - milk that had been allowed to go off. Could see her point, but ate it anyway.
Great conversation, guys
It is SO horrible to eat monkey brains!
I guess if we judge people by the food they eat then vegetarians are the most pure and moral people on earth. They have ‘evolved’ to exclude the exploitation of other beings for their sustenance. Not that I’m a vegetarian, but society would be moving that way instead of exploiting other things (such as insects, rats, monkey brains,) to eat. Then again, if you’re starving and about to die, what would you do?
I have eaten bird nest soup and some insects in Thai Lan as in these picture. Some of the Bee Larvae and Snake Blood is very popular in the Hanoi but Munkey brain is so terrible. Really terrible! Unhumanity!