Coffee Jelly?

At Starbucks in southeast Asia, you can get your iced coffee with a blob of coffee-flavored jelly in the bottom.  Yup, you just slurp up the goop through your straw right along with your coffee.  Doesn't it look appetizing?

Like peanut butter and jelly...except gross and slurpable.

Is That Warm Dirt?

In Kenya, the food options are never predictable.  However, when this was plopped down on the table in front of me, I couldn't really conceal my surprise. What is it?!  It looks suspiciously like a steaming mound of dirt.  I was informed that is something called "brown ugali," a traditional type of millet, and yes, I was told, it's delicious!

Lies.  It tastes like warm, muddy sand.  And it's heavy. That mound there probably weighs about five pounds.  I wanted to stop eating it and start forming it into a sand castle, but I managed to choke some down for the sake of courtesy, while mixing it generously with mouthfuls of water, which gave it a cement-like texture.  But I'll give it this- it sure is filling!

KitKat Surprise

Not all KitKats are created equally.  In some places, especially Japan, you don't just go to the store and grab a regular old KitKat.  No, you're faced with the serious decision of deciding which flavor you want.  You could have pumpkin, soy sauce, grilled corn, green tea, strawberry, and more.  Recently I found ginger ale and cherry blossom.

Now if only they would make some KitKat-flavored ginger ale

Yummy, flowers and chocolate

For more funky KitKat flavors, check out Japan's Strangest KitKat Flavors.

What's that SMELL?!

It's the durian, of course.  Having never heard of durian before moving to SE Asia, I was surprised to see it everywhere when I got here.  I was even more surprised to smell it everywhere.  It reeks.  It stinks of overly sweetness, like rot.  I think it has the aroma of a dead animal covered in birthday cake icing.  I mean, it's bad.  Naturally, I concluded that I must try it!

Spiky funky fruit
photo from www.timwu.org

We obtained some from a grocery store within walking distance- in Singapore, the stuff's been banned from public transport because of its stench.

Did it taste good?  You be the judge.


The real question is, would you rather eat one or be beaned in the head with one? As for me, I'd sooner take a blow to the head than another bite!

Bird's Nest Drink

Every bit as strange it sounds, the White Fungus Bird's Nest Drink is, in fact, made from bird's nests.  We found it in a minibar in a hotel in Vietnam, and I didn't believe what I saw until I checked the ingredient list and found that the first one was indeed "bird nests."  I suspect that the drink is made of the same thing as the delicacy bird's nest soup, which is cooked up from swiftlet nests.  But it gets weirder.  Swiftlets build their nests with their own saliva, which hardens in the open air. Mmmm...bird spit.

Thirsty?

Not the Same in Singapore

When we tell people we have Pizza Hut in Singapore, they're always surprised to hear it.  What they don't realize is that the Pizza Huts in Asia aren't serving up the traditional pepperoni and cheese pies to which we Americans have grown so accustomed.  No, they have selections like this, which were advertised on their website:

A crustacean...from Pizza Hut?

Like onion rings, but grosser

It has it all!  Loads of seafood AND pineapple, all on a PIZZA!

Seriously guys, ease up on the pineapple.

So maybe now you understand how we can show up in the U.S., craving a tasty slice of Papa John's?

Salmon Sticks

I have nothing against tasty fish.  And I definitely have no qualms about delicious pasta.  But when you put the two together, jam them into a stick with some cream sauce, and then deep-fry the concoction...well, then I start to have my doubts.  Not KFC!  They think it's a great idea, and that's why they're serving up salmon sticks in some of their restaurants in Thailand. 

"We go to great lengths to please you!"  You sure do...but I'm not pleased.

Would you eat it?

Weird Pringles Flavors

This is something I shared on my other blog that people seemed to get a kick out of.  These Pringles flavors have recently shown up in Singapore- seaweed, soft-shell crab, and grilled shrimp.  I don't know about you, but in my opinion crustaceans and potato chips really don't go together...

Just how I like my chips...neon pink.

Another flavor around here is the so-called tutti-frutti flavor: blueberry and hazelnut.

A New Blog!

I started this blog because there seems to be a lot of interest in some of the strange foods that I've found in my travels.  I love seeing the unusual things that people eat in other places, and I'd especially like to have people submit their own strange finds so that I can publish them here.  I hope everyone enjoys the weird food- I know there's no shortage of it here in Southeast Asia!