Southeast Asian cuisine is very diverse, abundant, and always contain the “unique”. There are weird dishes, which looked strange that you have not touched it. But just a little courage to try these local foods, you will see them not only delicious but also nutritious, too! Let’s now explore 8 unique dishes below.
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8 local foods looking weird but delicious:
1. Fried Tarantulas Spiders (Campuchia)
Fried spiders are a popular local foods in Cambodia, especially in Skuon Skuon town, located about 1 hour ride from the capital Phnom Penh. The extremely large black spiders, size about toe adults, body black and hairy, looks pretty “scary”. But after processing, they become a sweet fatty and attractive local foods. Most tourists come here like eating spot black spider fried dishes. Holding a newly fried stick of spider which is still steaming, put into the mouth and chew, the fatty, the sweetness of spider head and body mixed with greasy taste of the inside spread gradually and increasingly stimulate the taste, creating great irresistible attraction.
2. Grasshopper and pupa (Thái Lan)
There are lots of fried insects but on the top of the most famous mentioned is the grasshoppers, crickets and pupa. These are quite popular dish in Thailand, often sold on the carts through the streets. They are very simple processing, first step is frying, second is marinating some spices such as soy sauce, salt, pepper, lemon grass … to stimulate the taste as well as bring eye-catching look. Fried insects is not only delicious food but also a source of protein and abundant nutrients
3. Fried Cricket (Myanmar)
Cricket is strange specialties but delicious and hard to resist in Myanmar. This insect is rich in protein, vitamins and high nutritional value. From October to January is a time where you can taste the most delicious fried crickets. So tourists all over the world often choose Myanmar at this time to enjoy the unique insect foods in Chinatown in Yangon.
4. White ant egg soup Gaeng Kai Mot Daeng (Laos)
Gaeng Kai Mot Daeng soup of Laos is cooked with ant’s eggs and baby ants. This is one of the most delicious soup and the strange dish in world. Even many people still do not dare to try this soup by the lumpy of ant eggs in the bowl. But its flavor is described as quite delicious: crisp, delicate, and taste a bit like shrimp. These are also many visitors come to Laos voted the best dish in the world that is worth to try.
5. Hashima/hasma (Singapore)
Hashima is the popular dessert in Singapore and its main ingredients if the dried fallopian tubes of frogs. This dish can be cooked with lotus seed and red apples like cooked sweetened porridge, used as a dessert or nosh. However there is considerable “horror” but this is a great dish for kidney and lungs. Many people compare this with bird’s nest to express great nutritional value of the dish.
6. Ambuyat (Brunei)
Dish made from sago palm. In Brunei Sago palms grow quite a lot, people used Sago palm trees with many different purposes. Brunei people smooth with a plane the stem cells in into puree and boiled for several hours until it matches, in clear and opaque. Ambuyat is very light, it is often eaten with a variety of sauce depending on your preference, but most delicious is peanut butter sauce. Besides, there are many people use ambuyat to lose weight because Ambuyat mostly water.
7. Cow Eyes (Malaysia)
In addition to organ Malaysian also uses the cow eye to as ingredient in cooking. Cow eyes dishes taste like fish eye fish in the head fish curry but much larger in size. If you eat at a restaurant and call this soup guests will find both bull eyes in the bowl. Many people when traveling Malaysia usually choose cow head soup to eat because it has a very unusual taste.
8. Sizzling sisig (Philippines)
Sizzling sisig is dish that pig head is processed and served on a plate heated iron. After being cleaned, pig head is roáted on fire to increase the flavor, then fried with onions fresh, so sizzling sisig attract the taste with a distinct seent. Many visitors at the Philippines have called this dish to try, and they’ve never disappointed when enjoying these specialties.
