There are different ways to travel. One way is to take a trip around the world with your taste buds and your nose.
Here are six of the weirdest, smelliest foods on Earth. Would you dare to try them?
1. Hákarl – Iceland
This Icelandic delicacy is made of cured, rotten, smelly shark. A shark carcass is buried underground in a shallow pit, covered with sand, pressed with stones and left for a couple of months to ferment. Through this process, poisonous internal fluids are drained out, making the meat safe to eat. Then it’s hung out to dry, cut into strips and served.
2. Century Egg – China
For this dish–also known as 100-year eggs or 1000-year eggs–duck, chicken or quail eggs are preserved in a mixture of clay, ash and salt for months. When the yolk has turned dark green, gray or black, it’s slimy, and has a potent sulfur smell, the eggs are ready to be enjoyed.
3. Casu Marzu – Italy
If you’re a fan of rare cheeses, you’ll love this one. Casu marzu is made with sheep’s cheese that is exposed to flies so that they can lay their eggs in it. Maggots hatch inside, burrow into the cheese, digest the fats and enhance the flavor. The result is a soft creamy cheese with a pungent, eye-watering aroma that you can enjoy with or without the maggots still wriggling in it. (Maybe you can get the maggots on the side.)
4. Durian – Southeast Asia
The durian is more famous for its odor than for its taste. The locals love this fruit, but most everyone else can’t stand the raw sewage-like smell. Its odor is so overpowering that the durian has been banned in many types of public transportation and some hotels in Singapore, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong.
5. Surströmming – Sweden
It is said that a newly opened can of surströmming has one of the most putrid food odors in the world. Surströmming, which means “sour herring,” consists of Baltic Sea herring that is salted just enough to prevent it from rotting while it ferments for about six months.
6. Stinky Tofu – Hong Kong, Taiwan and China
To describe the aroma of stinky tofu people often rely on metaphors involving sweaty feet and garbage dumps. Stinky tofu is made of bean curd from soybeans that is fermented for months in a brine of soured milk, vegetables and meat (sometimes fish or shrimp are added). The final product is prepared in a variety of ways: deep-fried, steamed, in stews or served cold.
Bon appétit!
