12 of the Weirdest Foods in the World You Won’t Believe Exist

We don’t know about you, but we firmly believe that food is one of the best things about traveling. Travelers can discover new tastes, smells, and flavors at every corner of the globe. The world has it all, from French onion soup in France to Peking duck in China.

However, if you delve deeper into international cuisine, you’ll discover strange foods our species puts in its mouth. From brain sandwiches in America to haggis in Scotland, the world has many weird and wonderful food options.

To learn more, here are 12 of the weirdest foods in the world that’ll creep out the bravest eaters. At least these weird foods might put you off your dinner instead of making you hungry.

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Weirdest Foods in the World Fried Brains Sandwich United States © Shabbydecor Adobe Stock 290313073 - 12 of the Weirdest Foods in the World You Won’t Believe Exist

Fried Brains Sandwich, United States 1/5

Weirdest Foods in the World Boudin Noir France © Unclesam Adobe Stock 276694851 - 12 of the Weirdest Foods in the World You Won’t Believe Exist

Boudin Noir, France 2/5

Weirdest Foods in the World Haggis Scotland © Exclusive design Adobe Stock 142504679 - 12 of the Weirdest Foods in the World You Won’t Believe Exist

Haggis, Scotland 3/5

Weirdest Foods in the World Tripe Worldwide © Joaquin Traverso Traverso Shutterstock 2235758093 - 12 of the Weirdest Foods in the World You Won’t Believe Exist

Tripe, Worldwide 4/5

Weirdest Foods in the World Casu Martzu Italy © Gengis90 Adobe Stock 299894234 - 12 of the Weirdest Foods in the World You Won’t Believe Exist

Casu Martzu, Italy 5/5

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Fried Brains Sandwich, United States

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Boudin Noir, France

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Haggis, Scotland

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Tripe, Worldwide

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Casu Martzu, Italy

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Haggis, Scotland

Let’s start with a Scottish delicacy that sounds pretty terrible but tastes delicious. For those who don’t know what it is, haggis is a food that consists of sheep’s heart, lungs, and liver minced and mixed with oatmeal, suet, and onions seasoned with salt and spices and cooked inside the sheep’s stomach.

We know. Sounds pretty awful. However, you can’t knock it until you’ve tried it. The first time I tried haggis on the Isle of Skye, I thought I would throw it back up, but I was super surprised when I put it in my mouth. It tastes like a crumbly sausage with an oaty texture and delicious peppery flavor.

Seek Out Haggis Bonbons: For a potentially less intimidating introduction, try haggis bonbons – small, deep-fried balls of haggis often served as an appetizer with whisky sauce.
Experience a Burns Supper: Attend a Burns Supper (typically around January 25th) for a ceremonial presentation and tasting of haggis, celebrating poet Robert Burns.

Fried Brains Sandwich, United States

Across the pond from Scotland in the United States, you’ll find many weird dishes to try. However, arguably, the most bizarre dish served in America is a fried brains sandwich. Like something from a horror movie, fried brains sandwiches are trendy in Southern Indiana. They are typically made using cows’ brains, but some people use pigs’ brains too.

The brain is sliced into small slices, coated in breadcrumbs, seasoned, and fried. The brain slices are then placed between two slices of white bread with mustard. This bizarre food is usually served with salad, fries, or potato chips. It has a creamy and delicate texture and a savory and buttery flavor.

Visit Hilltop Inn, Evansville: Check Hilltop Inn in Evansville, historically known for serving fried brain sandwiches. Check in advance for their current menu and hours.

Casu Martzu, Italy

We’re only on our list’s third entry, but casu martzu might already steal the crown of the weirdest food in the world. The stuff of nightmares, casu martzu, also called maggot cheese, is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese. As you can probably tell by its name, the cheese contains maggots.

Banned by the European Union Food and Safety Commission for health concerns, the cheese contains live insect larvae. To everyone’s shock and dismay, the larvae are added to the cheese on purpose to break down fats and increase fermentation. The result is a super soft cheese with a strong, pungent flavor. Occasionally, a liquid called làgrima also leaks out of the cheese.

Seek Through Local Connections: Take note that finding casu martzu typically requires personal connections with local Sardinian producers who make it for personal consumption, and not in standard shops or restaurants.

Boudin Noir, France

If you’ve been to the United Kingdom and enjoyed eating black pudding with your English breakfast, you’ll also enjoy boudin noir or blood sausage. Popular in France, blood sausage is a unique type of sausage filled with a combination of cooked and dried blood. It usually contains sheep, chicken, pig, cow, or goose blood.

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Admittedly, the thought of eating blood isn’t appealing. However, you’ll be surprised how tasty blood sausage is. Like black pudding, it has a rich, savory, and earthy flavor with a unique metallic twang. In France, blood sausage is commonly served with onions and potatoes. Some people also serve the sausage with apples because their sweetness contrasts with the sausage meat.

Try it Served Traditionally: Experience boudin noir commonly served pan-fried with accompaniments like sautéed onions, potatoes (often mashed), or caramelized apples (boudin aux pommes).

Tripe, Worldwide

Despite being one of the world’s weirdest foods, tripe is common globally. It’s prevalent in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Also known as offal, tripe is a cut of meat from the stomach lining of various animals, including cows, sheep, goats, and pigs. It has a sponge-like and chewy texture.

It’s also renowned for being an excellent source of protein. On its own, tripe is unsurprisingly tasteless. Therefore, it is typically heavily seasoned and combined with other more flavorful foods, such as stews, soups, sausages, and sauced foods. Enough to turn even the biggest meat eaters into a vegetarian; this is a food many people tend to avoid. Are you brave enough to try it?

Explore Asian Tripe Dishes: Discover tripe prepared in various ways in Asian cuisines, such as in Vietnamese pho (often listed as ‘tripe’), Chinese dim sum (steamed tripe), or spicy Korean stews (gopchang jeongol).
Look for Tripe in Regional European Cuisines: Seek out traditional dishes featuring tripe in countries like France (Tripes à la mode de Caen), Italy (Trippa alla Fiorentina/Romana), Spain (Callos a la Madrileña), or Portugal (Tripas à Moda do Porto).

Shirako, Japan

We didn’t think casu martzu would be challenged so soon, but shirako, a Japanese delicacy, is making an attempt to steal the crown. Also known as milt, shirako is the sperm sacs or seminal fluid of various fish species, including cod, pufferfish, and anglerfish. In English, shirako translates to “white offspring” or “white children.”

Shirako may sound pretty scary, but many Japanese people love it because of its rich, sweet, and briny flavor and creamy, delicate texture. The sperm sacs are carefully removed from the fish and cleaned. They are then served raw or slightly cooked. Most Japanese people serve shirako with finely chopped scallions and grated daikon.

Look for Shirako Seasonally: Find shirako (fish milt) typically available during the winter months (around December to February) when cod and other fish are in season in Japan.
Find it at Sushi Restaurants and Izakayas: Seek out shirako served raw (often as shirako ponzu – with citrus soy sauce) or lightly cooked (grilled, tempura) at higher-end sushi restaurants or traditional Japanese pubs (izakayas).

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Balut, Philippines

Balut is a popular street food in many Asian countries, especially in the Philippines and China. Asian street food is often one of the best parts of a backpacking adventure, but this dish will leave you with nightmares. That’s because this Asian delicacy is a fertilized duck egg that contains the embryo of a duck.

The incubated egg is allowed to develop for 14 to 21 days before it is boiled and eaten directly from the shell. Most locals make a hole in the top of the egg, sip out the savory liquids, and then crunch down on the duck embryo, which sometimes contains weak bones and feathers. Described as chicken soup with an odd texture, balut is often consumed as an appetizer or snack.

Find Balut from Street Vendors: Look for balut sold by street vendors, especially in the evenings, in cities and towns across the Philippines. Listen for vendors calling out “Balut!”
Consider Penoy as an Alternative: If hesitant about the embryo, look for ‘penoy’, which is an unfertilized or underdeveloped incubated duck egg, offering a similar yolk and broth experience without the fetus.

Deep-Fried Tarantula, Cambodia

If you don’t like spiders, look away now because this next food item will make you shiver. Seeing a tarantula is terrifying enough to most people, so eating one is even worse. However, the tarantula is a popular street food snack and appetizer in Cambodia, where the creepy crawly is usually deep-fried until golden and even crispier than it already is.

In Cambodian towns, such as Skuon, Kampong Cham, and Cheung Prey, the tarantula is served crouched on all eight legs, as if it’s about to pounce, with a chili and lime sauce. Regarding taste, deep-fried tarantula is surprisingly bland, with a flavor compared to a combination of chicken and cod.

Find Fried Tarantulas in Specific Areas: Look for deep-fried tarantulas primarily sold by street vendors or at markets in towns known for this specialty, such as Skuon (nicknamed ‘Spiderville’) in Cambodia.

Sannakji, Korea

We can appreciate that people enjoy fresh sushi, but sannakji takes raw fish to a whole new level. A traditional Korean food, sannakji, also known as the “wriggling octopus,” is a dish that contains a young live octopus cut into small pieces. While this might not sound too strange, the octopus is served immediately after being cut, so its legs still move.

Therefore, you’ll feel the tentacles moving when you put the sannakji in your mouth. We don’t recommend trying this dish because people have been known to choke to death when the still-live tentacles stick to the inside of their throat. As far as flavors go, this chewy delicacy has a mild taste.

Find Sannakji in Korean Seafood Markets/Restaurants: Look for sannakji (live octopus) served fresh at seafood markets like Noryangjin in Seoul or specialized restaurants in South Korea.
Try Sannakji with Sesame Oil and Salt: Sannakji is typically served simply seasoned with sesame oil and salt to complement its mild flavor and chewy texture.

Blood Soup, Poland

The earliest record of blood soup dates back to ancient Greece, where it was a traditional Spartan meal that consisted of boiled pig blood and pork. Today, blood soup is widespread across Europe, including countries like Poland. It’s also a big hit across Asia in Korea, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Blood soup is commonly made using chicken, duck, or pig blood and a clear broth. It has a gelatinous texture and a solid metallic flavor. Why do people eat blood soup, we hear you ask? Blood is an excellent thickener for sauces and soups and a protein-rich ingredient. I’ll skip this hearty soup recipe for now and stick to a humble chicken soup instead.

Try Czernina in Poland: Look for the traditional Polish blood soup, Czernina, often made with duck blood and featuring a sweet and sour flavor profile due to added fruit vinegar or dried fruits.
Sample Seonjiguk in South Korea: Seek out Korean blood soup, Seonjiguk, typically made with coagulated ox blood (seonji) in a beef broth, often considered a hangover cure.

Hákarl, Iceland

Weirdest Foods in the World_Hákarl, Iceland — © Uliana / Adobe Stock

The penultimate food on our list of the world’s weirdest foods is Hákarl, the national dish of Iceland. Hákarl is a fermented shark dish that takes five to six months to make. Typically made from the rotting carcasses of the Greenland shark, the shark is fermented because its meat is poisonous until it has been cured.

During fermentation, the shark’s poisonous internal fluids are drained, making the meat safe to eat. The Hákarl is usually hung up to dry in an open-air shed to be fermented. Unsurprisingly, this food has a strong fishy flavor and a chewy texture. Hákarl is typically served on its own or with a shot of a local spirit called brennivín.

Find Hákarl in Iceland: Look for Hákarl at Icelandic supermarkets, specialty food stores, some restaurants serving traditional Icelandic food, or the Kolaportið flea market in Reykjavík.

Surströmming, Sweden

Weirdest Foods in the World_Surströmming, Sweden — © Marina Khlybova / Adobe Stock

At first glance, Surströmming doesn’t seem like a weird dish. It appears to be a friendly tin of lightly salted, fermented Baltic Sea herring. However, once opened, this traditional 16th-century Swedish dish reveals its darkest secret. That secret is its horrific smell. As such, Surströmming is widely regarded as the smelliest fish in the world.

Before most people try the fish, the pungent aroma makes them feel sick. Most people can’t stomach the fish solely because of its smell. In fact, its smell is often considered the world’s most putrid smell. Surströmming has a salty, tangy, and pungent flavor if you can get past the initial aromas.

Eat it Traditionally in a “Klämma”: Try Surströmming the traditional way, served in a wrap (klämma) using tunnbröd (thin bread) along with boiled potatoes (often almond potatoes), diced onions, and sometimes sour cream or butter.