When we speak of unexpected snacks, it is in reference to the unexpected use of the main ingredient or its manner of preparation. While some of the snack foods listed below may be strange to the rest of the world, they can be treasured delicacies from their places of origin. Let us try looking into the top three on the list.
Insect Snacks
Many of us would probably be busy keeping off insects from our kitchen but not in some places. In fact, many insect varieties are considered edible and nutritious even, contrary to the common perception that insects are equivalent to diseases. The UN itself encourages consumption of edible insects and has in fact recognized its role in providing improved food security in the future.
Insects which are considered edible include beetles, wasps. locusts, planthoppers, termites, caterpillars, ants, crickets, scale insects, dragonflies, bees, grasshoppers, cicadas, true bugs, and flies. Although there are a variety of ways they can be prepared as food fare, their most common presentation is crispy-fried. Crispy fried insects are common in several Asian countries.
Rotten Cheese
In common practice, we throw away anything that is rotten in the kitchen. In Sardinia, Italy however, there is a certain delicacy known as casu marzu which literally translates to rotten cheese. Its simplest description is sheep milk cheese that contains live insect larvae.
Strictly speaking, the cheese is produced beyond the common practice of fermentation almost to the point of decomposition. The larvae which appears like white worms measuring about 8 millimeters long are purposely introduced in the cheese. The larvae may or may not be removed when eating it.
Black Garlic Chocolate
Garlic and chocolate at first glance does not seem to go together. In Japan, Thailand, and Korea however, black garlic chocolate is a popular delicacy as well as in other Asian countries. The black garlic is produced by fermenting whole bulbs of garlic in high temperature.
Fermented garlic is coated with chocolate and sprinkled with cocoa powder. The resulting taste is a mixture of sweet and sour similar to that of prunes. It can be one of the adventurous Valentine’s gift yet.
Strange But Delicious
Without trying very hard, we will be able to find the most unexpected food items from all over. It will require us to be more daring in our choices. Trying them is the only way to know is they are indeed as good as what others say.
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