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This Viral Thread Has Locals Pointing Out The Worst Foods In Their Country (30 Answers)
There are certain foods that we claim to hate as opposed to the food we love. Either way, knowing the specific foods that are served around the world without the intention to cook them in the near future or maybe ever is still of great interest, as it provides us with knowledge of various traditions, tastes, and food preferences that exist out there. One is able to compare their own eating habits - finding one’s limits, as well as one’s place in the context of the great variety of meals served in various countries - simply feeding one’s curiosity and maybe even getting inspired! It is here that people answering one Redditor’s question: “What is the worst food in your country” can come in handy.
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Casu marzu. Literally cheese with maggots. Made in Italy.
I've heard that the maggots add a special taste and the crunchy, gooeyness an unique experience. It's considered a delicacy. One I will avoid like the plague.
Balut.
[Writer's note: Balut is a fertilized developing egg embryo, which is incubated for a period of 14 to 21 days, depending on the local culture, and then boiled or steamed and eaten from the shell. It's a common street food in the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam]
I’m from Sweden, home of the infamous surströmming.
[Writer's note: According to Wikipedia, Surströmming is "lightly salted fermented Baltic Sea herring traditional to Swedish cuisine since at least the 16th century."]
czernina - duck's blood soup, served traditionally in Poland to a bachelor by parents who don't want him to marry their daughter
The parents could just tell me they don't like me. We really don't need to force me to eat duck bloody soup .... I will happily move on.
Pickled pigs feet, canned chicken, depression era poverty recipes, 60's jello mold recipes
Love 'em. all of these. There were a lot of taste in the depression era recipes and I think some should come back, instead of people eating fast food or junk food, when on a tight budget.
Snails 🐌. People love them, they’re supposed to be great. I can’t even try them. Also they’re bought alive and it makes me very sad.
Snails are popular in Andorra, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
I've tried them. They're rubbery and tasteless. The only taste came from the garlic butter, which I can eat with other dishes.
Nasi Aking a.k.a. recooked stale rice.
Gather stale rice from food waste, sun dry it, wash it, cook it again. Really showed me how bad life can be.
[Writer's note: It's from Indonesia]
1001100101001100 said:
It’s not a normal recipe, it’s a survival skill.
Anything that’s super greasy and just doused in fat and melted cheese. You know, those TikTok foods where someone takes hotdogs soaked in bacon grease and cooks them? You guessed it, I’m from ‘mUrIcA
Lutefisk. Codfish cured in lye. Imagine eating fish filet with the consistency of jelly.
[Writer's note: Lutefisk is made from aged stockfish (air-dried whitefish), or dried and salted cod, cured in lye. The fish adopts a gelatinous texture after being rehydrated for days prior to eating.
Lutefisk is a Scandinavian food tradition that was imported to the United States.]
In Finland some people have this every Christmas. (Lipeäkala)
I‘m from the Netherlands and some people hate on our staple candy Drop. It‘s licorice and we have about 100 varieties of it. I personally like it and what I like even more is people eating it for the first time, because of how utterly discusted they are when they try it.
Salted licorice is popular in Scandinavia . Their unsalted black licorice is already nasty, no need to make it worse.
Chitterlings
Chitterlings (or Chitlins) are cooked domestic animal intestines.
I have it on good authority these are amazing, and a popular soul food in the southern US. I have no interest in trying them but most people I’ve talked to love them.
We gave the world Hawaiian Pizza.
I like it, as this is a perfect representation of multiculturalism. But I know people have opinions.
I don't mind pineapple on pizza but surely it should be cut up into small chunks not whole rings like in the photo
Vegemite 🤮
[Writer's note: Vegemite is a dark brown savory spread invented in Australia in 1922. The paste is made from the leftover yeast extract from beer production. There are no artificial colors or flavors; only salt, vegetable extract, malt extract from barley, and B vitamins.]
Jellied eels, I would think. Not that I've tried them.
[Writer's note: That's a traditional English dish.]
Rocky Mountain Oysters
[Writer's note: Rocky Mountain Oysters is a dish made of bull testicles. The organs are often deep-fried after being skinned, coated in flour, pepper and salt, and sometimes pounded flat. The dish is most often served as an appetizer.]
Freddie Starr: I found this restaurant in Spain where they served this. Great big portions every night, until one day, they served up something the size of walnuts. I said to the waiter, "What's this?" He said "Sometimes, the matador, he loses..."
We calmly eat Kholodets and boiled buckwheat, but foreigners do not like this food.
Hladetina - meat boiled in water like a soup, and everything together eaten when it cools down and turns into jello.
American: I'm going with something I've heard about, but never had. Nutraloaf. It's what prisoners get when they can't leave their cells. I heard it described as "Imagine the worst food you've ever had. Then imagine craving it because at least it's not nutraloaf."
Kitchen scrapings in breadpans, served as punishment. Legal challenges have been filed, with varying success
Surprised I haven't seen [Haggis] on this list yet. Its literally mince and other meats wrapped in a sheep's stomach.
That being said I did try some once. My grandad used to get it with our Friday chippy. It was surprisingly flavorful, but I probably wouldn't order it myself 😂
Cow stomach soup (Dršťková polévka)
"In Czech cuisine, tripe soup is heavily spiced with paprika, onions and garlic resulting in very distinct spicy goulash-like flavour."
Czech here. Can confirm, dršťky are awful and smell horrendous while cooking. However, the much reviled blood sausage (jelito) is actually pretty delicious.
I'm from Denmark. I think the food we have is kind of boring and mostly inoffensive or maybe I'm just not remembering some of the worst ones.
So instead of a dish I'll go with my favorite candy which is hard candy made of licorice with a spicy filling. I have offered it to people from other parts of the world and I had genuine trouble convincing them that I enjoy it. They thought it was a prank. So if people think it's so bad it's a prank then it has to be considered among the worst foods if you are not from here.
Deep-fried butter is a culinary nightmare!
[Writer's note: Deep-fried butter is a snack food made of butter coated with a batter or breading and then deep-fried.]
I'm a morbidly obese American, and I have never and will never eat deep fried butter.
Pakistan: we have a famous dish called *katta-kat.* It's named after the sound the chef makes, slamming two flat prong knives on a large dish while making it. It's made of fried goat/lamb testicals, entrails, kidneys and a few other organs. It's literally one of the most common dishes in the country.
Kruudmoes, an old Dutch dish of barley, buttermilk, bacon, smoked sausage, raisins and lots of fresh herbs. Commonly used herbs are chervil, parsley, celery, fennel green or dill, spearmint and sorrel.
This fluffy plastic candy called peeps
As a Spaniard living in Norway, I have to say the worst from Spain is most likely either caracoles en su salsa, aka snails, or tortilla de sacromonte, aka brains omelette. Norwegian food is mostly c**p, I'm sorry to say. Lutefisk, komle, rakkfisk, and many others come to mind. I actually like Gammaltost, something many Norwegians say it's disgusting.
Mondongo: Tripe stew.
Morcilla: Grilled intestines filled with white rice and blood.
Guineitos con molleja: Boiled bananas mixed with spices, peppers and chicken stomachs.
Scrapple. It’s a disgusting mash of pork trimming and cornmeal. 🤮
I grew up in the mid Atlantic in the US and scrapple is so popular and so gross! My mother still loves it. You can buy it at gas station eateries. There is a scrapple festival in Delaware every year.
Hands down, khash. It’s just an excuse to down vodka at 7 am in the morning. It tastes like garlic and wallpaper paste with cow intestines and tongue.
[Writer's note: Khash is a dish of boiled cow or sheep parts, which might include the head, feet, and stomach tripe.
Khash and its variations are traditional dishes in Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, North Macedonia, Mongolia and some Persian Gulf countries.]
Well, in Georgia you cook only shins, you boil it long. Like more than five hours, keep shins in water all previous day. It is very clean and healthy dish ( for non vegans). Georgians eat it the next morning after Christmas, to gain strength after party ( so I was told). Garlic is added but not too much. I'm not Georgian, but what I tasted wasn't bad.
Note: this post originally had 38 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I am kind of disappointed nothing Mexican made it to this list. C'mon people, we eat grasshoppers, ant's eggs, stews full of tripes and in any good taqueria tacos de cabeza, sesos, ojo, lengua, trompa, oreja, cuero, buche, nana, nenepil and machitos (head, brains, eyes, tongue, pork's mouth, ears, skin, stomach, uterus, testicles)
I feel your pain, sister. Sweden wasn’t on here either, and I mean - we have surströmming here and everything. And we eat raw, pickled herring at almost every big holiday. We should be on here.
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The worst: anything made with gutter oil in China (i.e. gather sewage liquid + cook food in it) 2nd worst: bird's nest soup (warm jellylike thin-hairlike bird vomit)
Poverty foods. When times are tough people will eat almost anything. But then if you grind it up, puree it and add a few spices you get a hotdog - yum!
Not true, some of these dishes are considered delicacies and are pretty expensive.
Load More Replies... I am kind of disappointed nothing Mexican made it to this list. C'mon people, we eat grasshoppers, ant's eggs, stews full of tripes and in any good taqueria tacos de cabeza, sesos, ojo, lengua, trompa, oreja, cuero, buche, nana, nenepil and machitos (head, brains, eyes, tongue, pork's mouth, ears, skin, stomach, uterus, testicles)
I feel your pain, sister. Sweden wasn’t on here either, and I mean - we have surströmming here and everything. And we eat raw, pickled herring at almost every big holiday. We should be on here.
Load More Replies... The worst: anything made with gutter oil in China (i.e. gather sewage liquid + cook food in it) 2nd worst: bird's nest soup (warm jellylike thin-hairlike bird vomit)
Poverty foods. When times are tough people will eat almost anything. But then if you grind it up, puree it and add a few spices you get a hotdog - yum!
Not true, some of these dishes are considered delicacies and are pretty expensive.
Load More Replies...