E is for Ewwwwwwww

The chances are you’ve considered eating something a little bit out there at some point. Whether you were brave and gave it a try or wimped out at the last minute, there’s no denying that the thought of eating something truly bizarre is both exciting and gross. This is why we’ve chosen strange foods as the next Tefalphabet topic.

With travel around the world being a lot easier nowadays, it means that a lot of different types of food are open to you. Although you’ll still need to do a bit of travelling to eat some of these, more and more of them are now available right here at home.

Here are some of the gross foods that you might want to try or run away from as fast as you can:

To some, tripe is a delicacy that is highly enjoyable, to others, it is their idea of a nightmare at a dinner party. The stomach lining of a number of animals has a strange spongy, rubbery texture, looks a bit like white, gelatinous honeycomb and not a whole lot of flavour.

 It can be served up with fried onions or in a number of different sauces to help it taste of something, but even that may not be enough to entice you to try it.

How different can chicken feet be from a skin-on chicken breast? The answer is very. Not only do you need to contend with the bones, the feet are also mostly skin, which isn’t all that appetising.

However, if they are seasoned and cooked right, they can be very tasty – although you need to put a bit of effort in to eat them.

There are so many insects that you can eat, with many of them being available in the UK. Things like grasshoppers, ants, locusts, spiders and worms can all be eaten, each of which offers a different taste and texture.

While they aren’t commonplace in British restaurants just yet, travelling to certain countries will mean you see a lot of variants on offer.

If you’ve ever been to France, you might have seen escargot on the menu in restaurants. We may not be totally up for eating some snails as a starter, but with all the butter and garlic that go into them, most people say they aren’t too bad.

 In fact, if you like mussels or clams, they’re quite similar to that in texture – although overcooking them can make them like rubber. They are nowhere near as slimy as you might expect.

Another French delicacy, frog legs are a bit of an acquired taste, if only because you need to get over the fact that they’re frog legs. These are cooked up in a number of ways, including fried, baked, stewed and grilled, meaning there are a lot of different ways you can ‘enjoy’ them.

Once you’re past the whole ‘there’s no way I can eat these tiny legs’ thing, you get to enjoy a similar flavour to chicken, only with a subtle fishy taste.

This is one dish that was developed right here in the UK, specifically the East End of London. While eating eel itself may not be such a bad thought, when you combine it with a clear jelly that seems to magnify the eel, you’ll probably be a bit put off!

If you’re ever in the US and see this on the menu, don’t be fooled – there are no oysters in this dish at all. Rocky Mountain oysters is actually a slightly nicer name for bull testicles, which are typically served up in batter after being deep fried.

You might wonder why anyone thought this was a good idea, but they are a popular fast food item – although you could stick with a burger.

via GIPHY