Balut

A hard-boiled egg is a common, nutritious snack many parts of the world, including the United States. However there is nothing common or typical about balut. While balut appears to be a simple hard-boiled egg, it's center contains more than just yolk. Balut contains a fertilized egg embryo. Balut is prepared by boiling the live embryo, and is eaten from the shell. Depending on the region, balut is seasoned with salt, chili, and/or garlic and vinegar. Balut is widely considered a aphrodisiac, as well as a high-protein and hearty snack. Balut is a popular street food in the Phillipines, and also enjoyed in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Balut is commonly served with beer.

Balut can be considered bizarre due to the surprise embryo inside the shell. While it is easy to disassociate regular eggs from chickens, balut really brings to attention the fact that you are essentially eating a baby animal. Eating any kind of baby is bizarre to many people, myself included. I would say balut is for people who want to take their standard hard-boiled egg to the next level, and don't mind eating a fertilized duck embryo. :)

Vegemite

Whereas Vegemite is concerned, it is often said that you either love it or hate it. An Australian pantry-staple, Vegemite is a dark-brown food paste made from yeast extract. It is used as a spread for toast, crumpets, sandwiches, crackers, biscuits, and pastries. The ingredients include brewer's yeast extract(a by-product of beer manufacturing), an assortment of vegetables, and wheat and spice additives. The taste can be described salty and bitter. Vegemite is most commonly eaten with toast and butter. It is also commonly pared with cheese and other fresh vegetables in sandwiches. Vegemite is a commercial product, as easy to find in Australia as peanut butter is easy to find in the U.S. Vegemite is considered a health food due to the rich supply of B vitamins that it provides. It also does not contain any fat or added sugar, and is gluten-free. However, it also contains a very high salt content. 

Vegemite can be considered bizarre due to the ingredients and appearance. The idea of spreading a brown paste made of yeast and vegetables on toast instead of jam or peanut butter might be perplexing to many people who did not grow up eating Vegemite. Not to mention that  salty and bitter is not a commonly sought after taste additive. The biggest reason Vegemite is considered bizarre to many is perhaps due to the mystery of the pasty substance. It is a brown paste that you would never know contains vegetables if the label did not tell you. Whereas peanut butter and jam do not sway very far from peanuts and fruit, Vegemite appears to be more like the dirt the vegetables came from than the actual vegetables it contains. Not to mention the taste differs greatly from fresh vegetables.

Apparently Vegemite is all the rage in Australia, as well some European countries. Being gluten-free, I wonder how long it will be before the Vegemite craze hits the U.S. :)

Deep-Fried Kool-Aid

The trend these days seems to be deep-frying. Everything you can think of is being deep-fried, from Oreos to pizza to ice-cream. To take it up a notch, foods that are already rich and flavorful are being deep-fred. This deep-frying craze is never more present than among the American carnival circuit. All across the country, "carnies" are trying to one-up the next with the most outrageous fried creation. It's a stiff competition, but I believe that deep-fried Kool-aid take the prize for most bizarre carnival food.

You need to see these to believe it. These sugary diet disasters are prepared by first combining water flour and Kool-aid powder to form a batter. The batter is then formed into balls and tossed into a deep fryer. Once fried, they are rolled in powder sugar and Kool-aid mix.

This fried-sugar concoction can be considered bizarre because it blurs the line between liquid and solid food. While deep-frying cookies and candy bars may seem over-the-top, deep-fried Kool-Aid does not even seem possible. After all, how do you deep-fry a drink? Obviously, is has been proven possible by the procedure stated above, however, we are still left with the question: Why? This carnival treat holds absolutely no nutritional value. The only thing it provides is an overload in sugar and fat. Since this is obviously not consumed for the health benefits, one would think it is for the taste. But who ever really drinks Kool-aid and thinks "this sugary drink would be perfect if only it were fried in oil." Well, clearly someone did. 

Overall, I think deep-fried Kool-aid could be considered bizarre to many because it an unexpected mixture, as well as completely unnecessary. I wonder what the next bizarre carnival treat will be that can top this one. :)

Fish Head Soup

I have always loved fish. I was the only kid in my family who would order fish at restaurants, and would gladly eat the fish sticks from the cafeteria at school (although there might be some question to the nature of the "fish" in those sticks.) Furthermore, every summer I would go fishing in the Sierra Mountains. So I thought I was fairly familiar with the concept of catching fish with the intention of eating it.

When I came across this fish head soup, however, I was introduced to an entirely different meaning of eating fish for dinner. Fish head soup is a Chinese dish, made with oil, rice wine or sake, ginger, green onions, pickled Sichuan mustard greens, bean thread noodles, and of course, fish heads. Croaker or salmon are the typical choice of fish. Fish heads are known for the texture of the cartilage, which is described as being both crisp and soft. Whereas poultry cartilage is often bland, fish cartilage is considered very flavorful and tender. The eyeball is the greatest treat of the fish head, described as having a fatty flavor and spongy texture. Fish head soup is meant to be consumed slowly, providing time to savor the flavor and texture.

While fish head soup is savored by some, it can be seen as "bizarre" to many. I was a bit taken aback when it tried to imagine an entire fish head in my soup bowl, eyeball included. I believe many Americans would consider this soup bizarre because of the inclusion of the eyeball, fish scales, and cartilage. We tend to eat only the meat or the body of not only fish, but of poultry and beef, as well. While the eyeball and cartilage are very flavorful, I think the mixture of textures is not something we are initially drawn to. Not to mention just the idea of eating eyeballs, or heads for that matter, has a certain stigma attached to it. For many, eating eyeballs is probably just as scary as it might be unappetizing.

On one of my fishing trips as a kid, I met a lady who ate fish eyeballs. She tried to convince me to try them, saying they were the most flavorful part of the fish, but I always refused. However, it sounds like she might have been on to something. :)