Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to Weird World Adventures, the podcast. I'm your host, Mallory, and I'm here to show you just how weird this world of ours really is.
[00:00:17] For those tuning in today that haven't before, be sure to check out mallorysadventures.com and be sure to look at Weird World Adventures on Amazon Prime. Mallory's Adventures is our blog, which covers the strange and unusual. Also some fun regular travel and beautiful places and weird history, all of that fun stuff. And Weird World Adventures shows you this weird world of ours in a different way. And I'm happy to say for those who have been tuning into the saga, we have officially released Weird World. Yay to distribution. We hit the submit button. It is done.
[00:00:58] I apologize for the delay, but luckily, Instead of having 10 episodes, we have 12. And we wanted to make sure that they were perfect before they went out there. So those will be releasing here in the next week or so once it gets through quality control and approved by distribution. So we are close.
[00:01:17] Yay.
[00:01:19] Now, today I thought it might be fun to do a short, sweet podcast on the weird. The weirdest food in the world. The world's weirdest food.
[00:01:31] There are some fun adventures out there revolving just kind of around food.
[00:01:39] And I will say I might color this with some fun stories about the times that I have gotten aggressively sick while I was traveling because maybe I ate the wrong thing.
[00:01:49] I am not an adventurous eater.
[00:01:53] Weirdly enough, I'm adventurous pretty much everywhere else. And I love getting lost and having to find my way back and just all of the fun joys that comes with what you would think of as an adventure.
[00:02:06] But food does not fall into that category. I have a very hard time.
[00:02:10] When we were In Mexico in 2019, they tried to serve us those crickets, which are just completely normal. You're in the guacamole. And I was like, you know, can't even get myself to eat a crick. However, since then, I will say I have been a little more comfortable eating strange stuff thanks to the Explorers Club because they always serve very interesting, kind of horrifying, great for photos. Appetizers at ECAD every year, the Explorers Club's annual dinner.
[00:02:44] And the first time I went, I somehow got pulled into the VIP lunch and ate some cicadas that were deep fried. And that was actually pretty good. So that was like, okay, maybe I can do this. This is something I would not normally eat knowing what it is. But when I turn my brain off and, you know, it's not bad.
[00:03:06] And then I Will see, there was no tarantulas the first year, and then the year after that, there was only one that my friend ate, and I was glad to give it to her because I was not about to do that. You know, that's my Everest. I really want to do it, but that's going to take everything in me to do that. But I will say I have eaten a scorpion. I've eaten a scorpion every year. So I've had three scorpions now, so a little less scary. Every time I do it, it's very crunchy, and the exoskeleton gets a little bit stuck in your teeth, which is kind of disturbing to say. But you know what? If I can do that, I'm like, you know, I can do this. I can eat some weird food. So I've gotten better about it, but I have also gotten in trouble with the things that I have eaten sometimes. But first, let's talk about some of the world's weirdest food.
[00:03:57] Oh, my. See, already I hear this and I'm like, you know, eating weird stuff. Nope, it's just not for me.
[00:04:02] Sankaji in South Korea. I know I'm going to butcher all these. I'm very sorry.
[00:04:07] Live octopus tentacles still wriggling, seasoned and served. Still the still moving part. Oh, that sounds.
[00:04:17] I'm not a texture person. The reason I have trouble with food is because of texture. And I don't eat octopus anyway because of the texture.
[00:04:26] So the idea of that still wriggling just.
[00:04:28] Just adds to that textural experience. No, thank you, Hakari. I've heard of that in Iceland. Fermented Greenland shark with a strong ammonia smell and taste. Cured for months.
[00:04:43] Okay. I feel like that kind of thing would be less bothersome to me.
[00:04:50] Oh, this one, though, I've heard of. I don't know how to say it right. Balut or balut? Balut. From the Philippines, a boiled, fermented, fertilized duck embryo, complete with bones and feathers. Nope. See, that's the texture thing.
[00:05:08] Bones and feathers. Yikes. I feel like there's people out there who would be like, yeah, I'm gonna do this. That want to go after these things. That is not me.
[00:05:18] Shirako in Japan is fish sperm sacs prized for their creamy, rich texture. Often served raw or lightly cooked.
[00:05:27] Okay, okay.
[00:05:30] Fugu in Japan is poisonous puffer fish prepared by specially trained chefs. Now, I have heard of that.
[00:05:38] I know everyone at this point has heard my puffer fish story, but one of my mentors into the Explorers Club that helped me get in was Wade Davis, and he actually found a poison they were using in Haiti to poison people and make them appear dead so they could kind of bring them back and tell them that they were zombies. And it's a whole thing. The Serpent and the Rainbow is a wonderful book. You should read it. That's Wade's book.
[00:06:08] But he found out that they were using the poison from the pufferfish to do that. So that's kind of what I think of. And I'm like, you know, anything that could kill me if not done perfect. I think putting that trust into somebody else that I don't know. Preparing this food. Yeah, I'm gonna say no on that, but I have heard of that.
[00:06:29] Cambodia actually serves fried tarantulas. Oh, yay.
[00:06:35] Like I said, I have not had one yet. They used to have them at the Explorers Club dinners. They did have one a couple years ago. My friend ate it.
[00:06:43] Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside. Just the way that it's said like that it just.
[00:06:51] She put it in her mouth and the leg stuck out. And I was like, oh, oh. I have a video of it on Instagram. Mallorysadventures. M A L O R I E S if you guys want to see someone eat a tarantula that's been fried on a stick.
[00:07:08] I do have a Cambodia story, though, that's pretty, pretty interesting.
[00:07:15] You know, I stayed in Battambang, which is a small village about an hour out from Siem Reap.
[00:07:23] And while I was there, we stayed at this. It was a pretty nice little, like, hotel that we were all staying in. But I mean, like, very small, open family run. The family was making our meals. We would bring it with us, you know, for in between our breaks when we were doing archaeological digs in the day, and then we go back, we'd have breakfast there, lunch there, and dinner. And they were very good at preparing things for us. And it was a great traditional Cambodian food with rice. There was a lot of spices, spicy mango and chicken.
[00:08:01] And the peppers, the really spicy peppers chopped up super thin, put on everything. It was great.
[00:08:08] But in the morning, they were trying to cater to an American breakfast. Like, oh, we want to give you a breakfast that would be familiar to you. American.
[00:08:21] So they, you know, they had eggs and things that you would expect and toast. And then they wanted to give us potatoes. Like, oh, Americans like potatoes for breakfast.
[00:08:30] So they did French fries. They're like, oh, well, Americans. Potatoes, French fries.
[00:08:35] So that was kind of amusing to me that we had French fries there for breakfast every day. But I really like french fries, and I like those homemade crinkly ones you can make, and that's what they had. So I was like, okay, well, I can eat french fries for breakfast. That was great.
[00:08:48] And we would go into the village sometimes and get some snacks. There was a man that would. It was kind of like an ice cream truck, except it was a bike, and it had a cooler strapped to the back of the bike, and he would put ice cream in it, and we would get ice cream during our break because he's like, oh, these archaeologists, they really want ice cream. So, you know. And there were days he would actually go into the village and Mei Mei, the lead archaeologist's daughter, would get some interesting things to eat there, and she was always fine. And, you know, I feel like there were a few times we risked it, but it was worth it. The food was great, and there was never any trouble.
[00:09:26] The day that I had to come back, I spent the day in Siem Reap before my flight, and I had decided to eat spaghetti at the nice hotel, thinking, oh, this is the really nice hotel here. I'm fine.
[00:09:43] That was a mistake.
[00:09:45] That, of course, was the thing that got me sick while I was there.
[00:09:50] And, yeah, it was not pretty.
[00:09:54] I. I got food poisoning from that.
[00:09:58] And I was on my very short flight back from Siem Reap to Shanghai, and thank the Lord, I was by myself in my row. So I got to kind of lay flat and was sleeping a little bit on the flight across the three seats.
[00:10:16] And then it was just like, oh, I'm gonna throw up right now. And I ran to the bathroom again. It was overnight. It was a very, very light flight, so there was no wait for the bathroom. And I threw up for about 80% of that flight the whole time. Just uncontrollable, non stop throwing up.
[00:10:38] So that was lovely. And then I get to Shanghai and I have to go through passport control, and I'm like, oh, no, they can't know that I'm sick. I can't get detained here. I can't do it.
[00:10:51] So I kind of, while waiting in this long line, sat on my luggage like, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. And obviously, I'm sure I didn't look okay because I'm sitting on my luggage. I can't stand up like a human being while I'm going through the line.
[00:11:05] And I get there and I try my best to be like, I'm fine. And thankfully, the compulsion to throw up had stopped at that point. And then I get to, I get through and I get into the airport and I had a 16 hour layover and I'm like, what am I gonna do here?
[00:11:21] And in Shanghai, their airport has kind of like levels and there's this basement level that has a few terminals, few, you know, spots where flights might take off. And luckily nobody was there.
[00:11:38] So I kind of went down into the basement, laid across just a row of chairs and hoped for the best, that I would make it. And at that point, I think I threw up a couple more times. And then it was just, it was, it was just over and I was just ill.
[00:11:55] And I remember just laying there for hours and then there being a point like, I have to get some kind of food in me or I'm not going to make it.
[00:12:04] And having to go from the basement up to giant escalators, up the levels to get to where the Starbucks was and the food to get like a croissant and some fruit. I was like, I need something that will stay in me. This, the bread is good. And then I need kind of something else. So get some fruit.
[00:12:21] And then that journey up the escalators, which really shouldn't have been that hard, was like climbing Mount Everest.
[00:12:30] Just trying so hard to get up there and feeling so horrible and having this heavy bag on my back because I had this big backpack I carried with me everywhere that's like suitcase sized.
[00:12:41] And I made it, thankfully. And after 16 hours in the airport, dying in Cambodia in the basement, I took off and went back to the US and on that really long, I think, I think it was a 12 hour flight, it wasn't terrible from Shanghai to Los Angeles.
[00:13:05] I started to feel a tiny bit better.
[00:13:09] And for some reason I was craving a ham and cheese sandwich, which is very bizarre because I don't like ham, but that's what I wanted. And I ate aggressively. And by the time I landed, I was like, you know, I mostly feel better now. I'm just awkwardly sweating everything else out. So that was, that was my fun. Maybe I'll die here in Shanghai, in the airport, in the basement story that also, if you hear somebody throwing up in a public restroom, don't giggle about it and gossip, oh my God, did you hear that? I mean, girls are just the worst. I remember being just so low and so sick and throwing up in a public restroom, which nobody wants to do, and hearing these teenage girls giggle and be like, oh my God, can you believe it? Someone's sick. It's like, well, yeah, I don't Want to be?
[00:13:58] What are you gonna do?
[00:14:00] So, yeah, anyway, that was my fun Cambodia story. But let's go back to some weird food.
[00:14:09] Virgin boy eggs in China, boiled egg.
[00:14:12] Eggs boiled in the urine of prepubescent boys, considered a spring delicacy.
[00:14:20] Okay.
[00:14:22] All right. That is really gross.
[00:14:25] I've never heard that before, but okay.
[00:14:28] Also in China, the century egg. I have heard of that. Eggs preserved in clay, ash, salt, and rice hulls for months. It turns it dark and very, like, gelatinous. So it's like this gooey jelly. Dark, like dark black, purpley egg. I've seen that.
[00:14:45] And they kind of turn a little bit green, too. So. Hey, green eggs.
[00:14:49] Rocky Mountain oysters, Bull or pig testicles, battered and fried. No, thank you.
[00:14:56] And that's from the U.S.
[00:14:58] look at us eating pig testicles.
[00:15:01] Canada, jellied moose nose. Boiled and jellied moose nose, often served in slices.
[00:15:09] Okay, Okay.
[00:15:11] I just don't know what makes people think I'm gonna turn this into food. This has to be good for me. This is great.
[00:15:18] And then fermented and aged food. That's different. Fermented Baltic Sea herring, known for its pungent odor from Sweden. And stinky tofu in Asia. Okay.
[00:15:32] I wonder if there's some other good ones on here. Let's see.
[00:15:37] Yeah, the live octopus. That's just a classic t. I can't even say this. Tavuk Goi chicken breast. It's a dessert in Turkey.
[00:15:49] It's like strange pudding. A silky smooth dessert made from poaching chicken breast with spices, sugar and milk.
[00:16:02] That just seems different. I mean, that's something that I would try and maybe not be happy about, but, hey, it could be really good.
[00:16:10] That's fascinating.
[00:16:12] Century old egg in Hong Kong.
[00:16:16] Okay.
[00:16:17] It's a duck, chicken or quail egg, typically preserved in. Oh, this is the same thing before, just a different name. Salt, black tea, lime ash for five weeks to five months, and then it turns the yolk black.
[00:16:30] Yep. The century Egg.
[00:16:32] Oh, that's some good stuff. The stinky tofu that we talked about.
[00:16:38] Just regular tofu placed in a brine of fermented ingredients and bathed for a few days to a few months.
[00:16:46] I just wonder what makes people try this stuff. Or, like, to make them. Not to eat them, but to make them.
[00:16:55] Yeah. I'm not sure.
[00:17:02] Grasshopper. That's an easy one. That's not bad. Sea pineapple in South Korea, it's a tradition.
[00:17:13] Let's see.
[00:17:16] A sea pineapple.
[00:17:19] Interesting. Squishy, with no spine. And as a Result, when it's plopped in front of you, it has sort of a psychedelic wobble.
[00:17:30] No crunch, no chew, just quick breaking down in a surprised swallow. What a description.
[00:17:38] Oh. In Thailand, people eat the afterbirth of a cow.
[00:17:45] Okay.
[00:17:47] Aisan.
[00:17:49] They cook it in some villages after a cow gives birth. It's not very common, but the whole placenta will be cooked and cut into small pieces. And the meat, the broth and some vegetables are served with rice.
[00:18:02] Okay. I mean, we eat beef. Right.
[00:18:07] One of my other fun stories here, before I call it that I really just. I just find amusing.
[00:18:15] It was also at an Explorers Club annual dinner where they have these moapi worms and there's. They look like large.
[00:18:24] Large worms. Like large, thick worms.
[00:18:28] And it kind of even almost maybe looked a little bit like a peanut, but darker.
[00:18:32] And I was eyeing it, like, oh, that looks really gross. And then Joe Rode, who is a legendary Disney imagineer and anthropologist, wonderful guy, came up behind me and was like, oh, yeah, you gotta have the moapi worm. It's so good. It's great. And I'm like, okay, Joe. Well, if Joe says it's great, and he's like, put it in the hot sauce. And so I take it and I put it in the hot sauce and it goes in my mouth. And it tasted like a moldy peanut. It, like, deflated, like a soft. Like a. Like one of those peanut candies, the circus peanuts, except tasted kind of like a real peanut, except wrong.
[00:19:12] And that was a.
[00:19:15] I regretted eating that. And then it was too late because I'm like, well, it's in there. And the best part is I don't think Joe was messing with me. He legitimately thought it was great. And I'm like, this. I don't. I don't understand. But. Oh.
[00:19:27] Oh. Was not.
[00:19:29] Not good.
[00:19:31] Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed our fun little short episode this week about weird food. We're gonna come back with a whole bunch of more exciting little bit longer episodes here. Now that Weird World season two is done, we will be sure to cover and talk about some of the highlights of season two coming up. And make sure that you check it out on Amazon prime and also on Roku.
[00:19:57] And be sure to check out mallorysadventures.com and until next time, everybody.
