Recently, a pop culture website made a video of their employees sampling a Swedish delicacy called surströmming. A staple on every “smelliest foods” list, this is basically fish fermented in brine. When the can is opened, a strong smell emanates — so strong that it is usually eaten only outdoors. While the participants reacted unfavourably — everyone who tried a spoonful spat it out, and one person simply refused to eat it — one researcher from the Surströmming Academy took offence at the whole exercise. Clearly, what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gander.
When it comes to food, ‘weird’ is a subjective term. Edible insects, bugs and worms are common street food in parts of Asia and sheep eyeballs are served as a mark of respect to guests in some Middle Eastern countries. American state fairs are known for deep-frying everything: butter, pig’s ears, beer, bubblegum, jelly beans, sugar cubes and even whole burgers. India has its share of the peculiar as well. We have chaprah (a chutney made of red ants and their eggs), fried silkworm pupa and chicken blood curry. The French don’t have monopoly on frog’s legs and snails; they are a delicacy in Sikkim and Manipur as well.
TV shows and hosts have also brought the focus on unconventional food. British adventurer Bear Grylls achieved meme status with the many disgusting things he ate to “survive” on Man vs. Wild : rhino beetle, raw crab, ticks, a live spider and a raw snake. While most of these are not common in any culture as such, one could chalk it down to wilderness cuisine, perhaps.
Andrew Zimmern, host of many editions of Bizarre Foods , once said in a Reddit AMA, “I end up eating a McDonald’s hamburger once a year simply out of horrific circumstances, and I always regret it.” This coming from a man who eats things like hákarl (rotten shark meat), giant rodents and moose pies on his show.
When it comes to restaurants, New York has quite a few experimental dishes in restaurants like Takashi, which is known for the shock value of its menu, with dishes like calf’s brain cream served in a toothpaste tube with black caviar on the side. Oddfellows, also in NYC, serves ice cream in pork sausage-caramel and extra virgin olive oil flavours. Pidgin in Vancouver (Canada) serves raw scallops with pomegranate curry oil.
In India, however, not many mainstream restaurants have gone down this path. Currently, The Park, Chennai, has a bizarre fare promotion on (till November 30), and even that is tame in comparison to what’s available around the world. Chef Saravanan has put together a menu with pickled beef tongue, bone marrow, crispy chicken head, chicken feet soup, pork head confit and smoky liver brûlée. “I was inspired by Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods ,” says the chef, admitting that he would have been more adventurous if ingredients like frog’s legs and durian (a fruit) were available.
“There are various reasons why these odd foods are consumed in different countries. For example, the chicken feet soup that originated in Indonesia was made using the scraps discarded by butchers, by those who could not afford to buy meat. In some cultures, oxtail soup is considered to be good for male virility. Even in Tamil Nadu, we have aatu ratha poriyal (lamb blood scramble) and brain fry, which is popular and available in restaurants,” explains Saravanan. However, he feels that in our cuisine, we tend to add more masala and drown out the real flavour of the meat.
While it’s pretty obvious that there are brains on the plate at the Park’s food promotion, the dish is not meant to look gory, despite a berry and red wine reduction splattered across it. In fact, the same lamb blood as Paravai Muniyamma made on her cooking show on television is given a facelift in the form of a savoury mille-feuille, layered with nuts and puff pastry, served with saffron sauce and asparagus gelato frozen with liquid nitrogen.
Experimental cuisines are definitely not for the faint-hearted, but for what it’s worth, have a taste. You just might end up liking it.
