| Weird/bad things we've eaten.
- Fried worms – We succumbed to peer pressure in Thailand and ate fried worms. They were salty and a touch crunchy but didn’t actually have much taste otherwise. We had to draw the line at bugs with legs, feelers or tentacles, but plenty of those were available in the open markets.
- Brains – In Romania we were served a platter of something breaded and fried (which we generally avoid anyway). Not wanting to be rude, we took a bite but found it mushy. Our guide informed us that it was brains. We explained very politely that most Americans do not eat organ meats. We raved about all the other food (it was great), so I hope our hosts were not offended.
- Pickled mango – Also in Thailand. It looked so delicious and we love mango (considered to be the world’s most popularly eaten fruit, surpassing even the banana), but it was vinegary and strange. Someone else in our group who’d spent a lot of time in Asia in the military liked it, so we gave the rest away.
- Crocodile – Sort of fishy, sort of chicken-y, and very bony, salty, crunchy, and bad. In Kenya when you go to a nyoma choma (safari restaurant – in this case Nairobi’s famous Carnivore Restaurant), you don’t know what might be on the menu. Sometimes it’s very good (like ostrich steaks) and sometimes it’s bad (gazelle meatballs), but it’s always all you can eat! Here’s a pretty fun review of The Carnivore.
- Sheep’s Head – Not eaten in anyplace more exotic than just nearby Connecticut, but bad. For Annabella’s first Easter with Vito’s family, Dad asked if she liked lamb. She loves lamb, but not a sheep head with the eye still in it.
- Escargot surprise – In a small town in the Italian Alps near Treviso, the waiter rattled off the daily specials. Having gotten excited by the mention of butter and garlic and the gusto with which the waiter described the dish, Annabella missed the key ingredient (lumache). It arrived on a fanciful plate made especially for serving snails (sort of like a deviled egg platter). Vito ate it anyway.
- Polish bread/cheese – Old women from the Polish mountainsides come into the city to sell things. In the main train station in Krakow a lady was selling what appeared to be a lovely bread roll with a pretty pattern stamped into it. It seemed awfully heavy for bread, yet it only cost about 50 cents. Upon taking a big bite if it, it was discovered to be a very salty fresh type of cheese. Ever prepare your mouth for a specific flavor and then be shocked by a totally other taste?! There was actually a picture of it somewhere in the Lonely Planet guide, but Annabella had overlooked it. It’s called Oszczypek and is a sheep’s milk cheese that is pressed in wooden molds. For more information, visit http://oscypki.com.pl/eng_zaklad.htm
- Truffle chocolate – Truffles are a bit of an obsession in the Umbria region of Italy. Usually, this is a good thing, but truffle chocolate is bad (we’re not talking “truffles” as in Belgian chocolate but rather as in moldy mushrooms).
- Fish with their tails in their mouths – In an otherwise good restaurant in Madrid, Spain, we were served a platter of fish, prepared whole with their tails in their mouths and their little fish teeth biting down onto the tails. They were a beige/gray sort of color and kind of crispy, and we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Honestly, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to taste them.
- Buffalo fajitas – We’ve heard that buffalo is supposed to be leaner than steak but just as tasty. So the buffalo fajita offering at a Denver, Colorado restaurant seemed like a good idea, but it was dry, tough, and tasteless.
- Spaghetti in Taxco, Mexico – On a tour of the silver region outside of Mexico City, the group stopped for an atypically un-Mexican lunch that consisted of overcooked spaghetti in a watery sauce, watery being the operative adjective. Annabella spent that night throwing up in the hotel and got a knowing glance from the fellow American in front of her in line at the drugstore near the hotel (she was buying Pepto Bismal, and he was buying Immodium).
- Preserved shark cubes – Sitting on a tour coach in Reykjavik, Iceland, the bus suddenly became overpowered with a stench strong enough to give you an instant migraine. What could this odor be? It was a container of a shark snack that would make Jabberjaw cry. We didn’t actually eat this, but the smell was so strong that you could taste it in your throat, and it would make your eyes water. Iceland is a very strong contender in the “world’s worst food” contest. Mutton sandwiches seemed to be popular, too.
- Roasted chicken – Porto, Portugal. Something was wrong with this chicken, which was greasy and gritty. We’ll never know what was in the chicken, but Annabella bit down on something very hard and cracked a tooth, resulting in a root canal and a crown upon returning to the USA. We also had weird chicken in Guatemala (there wasn’t anything wrong with it other than it being sparrow-sized).
- Belgian chocolate covered cherries – Yes, Belgian chocolate made our best foods list, so it is with some sadness that we had to add these to the worst list. We love chocolate. We love cherries. We love chocolate covered anything, especially fruit. But who on earth decided it was a good idea to leave the pits in the center of the cherries? Having already lost a tooth to travel dining, we warn you all to beware of Belgian chocolate-covered cherries.
- Turkey in Turkey – It was really sweet of our tour guide to rustle up some turkey for us to eat when we spent Thanksgiving in Turkey and explained to her the humor of being there on “turkey day. It’s just not really something they eat there, and it was tasteless and dry. There really is nothing more heartbreaking than sacrificing a meal in a country with good food by having something bad when you know that around the corner something delicious awaits (this is a top reason why we don’t like group tours that include a lot of meals. We lost a valuable dinner in Normandy, France when we were given a yucky chicken meal in a seaside town where fresh seafood was all around us).
- Sausage & fagioli – Since in Italy it’s generally a good idea to eat where the workers eat (train conductors, truck drivers, etc.) it seemed liked a good idea to try a place where the FIAT factory guys eat. Bad idea.
Salsiccie e Fagioli