China | WEIRDEST Food Which Can Only Be Found In China!

What's the weirdest food you've ever had in your life? Well, take that and multiply it by 100 and you'll get our list today! The top 10 weirdest food in China China is one of the largest countries in the world, and almost one-fifth of the world's population call it home. Not every food in China is weird, and there are plenty of delicious cuisines that you should absolutely try out in this fascinating country. Examples of delicious Chinese food include dim sum and cashew nut chicken. However, we're more interested in the bizarre this time. Follow us as we reveal the strangest foods from all over China, including some really surprising insects too! But you have to stay until the end for that. The first one on our list has to be stinky tofu. Interestingly, this horrible-smelling dish didn't become popular until quite recently. Now, you can find it quite commonly at night markets and roadside stands. The tofu is soaked in brine, which is salted water, together with a mixture of old vegetables and meat. This makes the tofu smell just like a stagnant drain. It can be fermented this way for several months. Once ripe, it is taken and deep-fried to give it a crispy outer layer. Stinky tofu is often served with pickled vegetables like radish and carrots to balance out its deep-fried texture. If you're worried something might happen to you due to the smell, don't be. The deep-frying process is more than enough to kill off anything dangerous. Another item to add to this list is silkworm pupae. You can find them in Chinese markets either fresh or dried. Even come in cans, soaked in lightly salted water. Silkworm pupae is often added to stir-fries or cooked on its own in seasonings and spices. In fact, the most common place you'll find silkworm pupae in China is from roadside vendors, who will sell you a cup of roasted pupae which you can eat with toothpicks. They're really popular and fans describe them as having a nutty, fishy flavor that's savory and slightly acidic. If you think eggs can be weird, you've never seen century eggs, also known as yidan. In the past, Chinese people came up with several ways to preserve chicken, duck, and quail eggs and this was one of them. The process involves preserving eggs in a mixture of salt, lime, and ash. This is wrapped around the egg and held into place with the rice husks. The egg reacts to its highly alkaline surrounding and turns a very interesting color and texture. The egg whites turn into a dark jelly-like consistency, while the egg yolks become an almost black mass with hints of gray. You must think that an egg that looks like this tastes horrible. However, it really is quite delicious, whereby the whites are jelly-like and the yolk becomes savory and creamy. Usually, the Chinese eat century eggs as an appetizer with ginger pickles or add it to rice congee. The next item on our list may sound bizarre but it's a delicacy among many Chinese, even outside of China in places like Vietnam. It's pig's blood curd or pudding. Sometimes it's also known as pig's blood tofu. Pig's blood is actually insanely easy to prepare as it naturally firms up within 10 minutes of being left out, without any additives. Pig's blood is then cut up into cubes and soaked into warm water with some salt added in order for them to firm up. Their use as a protein source and added to noodles, soups, grilled on a stick, and even just stir-fried as a delicacy. They are smooth, soft, and slightly chewy with a slightly metallic and savory taste. Our next item sounds harmless enough and it actually is, but you'd be shocked to find out what bird's nest soup really is. Bird's nest is actually the spit of birds called swiftlets. These birds live in caves and use their spit to bind together bits of grass and other organic materials to form a nest. These nests are then harvested and cleaned of the organic building materials, leaving the material that holds them together. Their remaining swiftlet saliva looks yellowish white and is solid. They're prized for their medicinal benefits in China and cost a lot of money because they're so rare and difficult to process. Usually the bird's nest is boiled into a sweet soup with rock sugar and dates. They have a slew of health benefits and are believed to strengthen the immunity, enhance blood circulation, improve asthma, help heal tuberculosis, and keep your skin looking young and healthy. This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but chicken's feet is a popular delicacy in China. It may look a tad bit scary and disgusting, but it does grow on you. Chicken's feet take on a gelatinous texture when cooked, and there's even the center part that's soft and chewy. The Chinese add chicken's feet to herbal soups and pepper soups and others. They also serve it braised in a soy sauce-based stew, usually with some hot peppers added. In fact, you'll see people munching on roasted or grilled chicken's feet as it's commonly found as a straight food. The Chinese have been consuming chicken feet for thousands of years as part of their habit not to waste any part of an animal. In the past, poverty and scarcity was common in China, so nothing was thrown out willy-nilly. Another weird dish you'll find in China is camel's hoof, a delicacy in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This is a part of China that's near the Gobi Desert, so camels have been the mode of transport for centuries. Camel hooves are extremely rare, however, since camels live very long and are usually prized as a mode of transport so they're not killed for food. However, if when some become available, these hooves are soaked in water to soften them, usually overnight or longer. Then they're braised in gravy made of fermented beans or other seasonings for as long as 8 hours, causing their tendons to become soft and chewy, and to detach from the bone. The tendons are then removed from the bones, cut into smaller pieces, and served. Those who have tried it say that it tastes almost like beef tendon, springy and chewy. Additionally, the Inner Mongolia region is also known for fried camel hoof, which is often found in same restaurants that served up the hooves. Chinese medicine goes back centuries and we've seen some of the medicinal items on this list already like bird's nest. However, there's another group of ingredients that we really need to bring up, which are traditional aphrodisiacs. In China, these take on the form of dried testicles from various animals including ox, pigs, and sheep. They're usually dried and crushed into powder. This powder is then added to teas, soups, stews, and more. Sometimes you even find them pressed into a pill. More commonly, you might find bottled or canned herbal teas with these powdered testicles added. There is one restaurant dedicated to serving fresh animal privates in Beijing's West Lake called Gou Lijiang and they are dedicated to serving testicles from various animals as well as the penis of donkeys, sheep, yaks, bulls, and dogs. We're almost at the end of our list and the second last item is beggar's chicken. You may be thinking what's so weird about chicken? Well, it's all about cooking technique. Ancient legend has it some poor homeless beggars once stole a chicken from a rich man. However, these beggars had nothing to cook the chicken with. No stove, nor pot, nor an oven. To hide their misdeeds, they cleaned the chicken, wrapped it in some clay, buried it underground, and built a fire over it. Lo and behold, the chicken cooked itself to perfection. There are some variations to this story, but today's beggar's chicken is usually a whole chicken, seasoned with salt, with Chinese herbs, then wrapped in foil or paper. The chicken is coated with a layer of clean clay, then buried in hot coals to cook it. The result is chicken meat that's fragrant, tender, and falling off its bones. We've come to the final item on our list and it's scorpions. The consumption of insects is pretty common in some parts of Asia, including places like Vietnam, Cambodia, and of course, China. You may be wondering how scorpions can be eaten since they've got such a hard outer shell. Well, in Wangfujing Street in Beijing, you'll see baby scorpions deep-fried on a stick. Rather than being the large scorpions you usually picture, these are the smaller ones which aren't fully grown and have softer shells. Usually, you also find other insects being sold in these stalls like crickets, silkworms, and grasshoppers. In conclusion, yes, you'll find a quiet selection of weird foods in China. However, that doesn't mean you need to be disgusted by them. Often, these delicacies come from ancient practices and a food culture that maximizes whatever that's naturally available. Even though they're bizarre to you, they're perfectly normal for the locals who have had them for centuries. China is definitely worth exploring, especially since every region has its own unique delicacies and creations which aren't quite as wild as the ones we've listed.