Eating with Your Nose Plugged: These Dishes Smell the Worst in the World
Some ingredients or dishes smell so bad that it’s a wonder people can eat them without holding their noses shut—or worse: throwing up. These are the worst stink bombs in the food world.
Durian
The infamous fruit from Indonesia and Malaysia smells so terrible that the tree it grows on may not be planted in public parks because of the unbearable odor it gives off. And it’s the only fruit in the world with an actual flight ban. Recently, in Singapore, I tried a piece of durian. Mixed success. To put it mildly.
Surströmming
Oh wow, no—this is something you really want to stay far away from. This Swedish delicacy smells so unbelievably bad. Would you still want to take a bite? I doubt it. Otherwise, take a look at the Surströmming challenges on YouTube featuring people throwing up as soon as they open the can.
Cazu marzu
Another adventurous delicacy: casu marzu from Sardinia. For this cheese, Pecorino ‘Sardo’—made from the milk of Sardinian sheep—is aged for so long that cheese-fly larvae settle inside it. These maggots eat the cheese from the inside, and their excrement forms a creamy layer that the islanders love. You can also find the cheese in Corsica. There it’s called ‘casgiu merzu’: ‘rotten cheese’, basically. The best description of its smell? Vomit.
Hákarl
Know before you go if you’re traveling to Iceland. Iceland’s most notorious dish is undoubtedly fermented shark (kæstur hákarl). It’s a fairly expensive delicacy and a dish you have to learn to eat—if you’d even want to, that is. Its smell is revolting. It has the aroma of a rotting carcass, cat urine and ammonia. Hákarl is often served in very small portions. For example, with an (Icelandic) flag stuck in it, which gives it at least a slightly festive touch. But even then, it’s a dish you eat while crying. Incidentally, there are several types of hákarl. Glerhákarl (glassy shark), for example, comes from the shark’s belly, while skyrhákarl comes from another part of the shark. Although glerhákarl tastes worse than skyrhákarl, beginners are better off starting with it, because the texture of skyrhákarl alone makes most people gag.
Vieux Boulogne
French cheeses are all delicious, but some can be quite a challenge for your nose. According to a 2004 study by the English university of Cranfield, this is the smelliest cheese in the world. After aging for 7 to 9 weeks, this cheese from Pas-de-Calais could easily be used as a chemical weapon.
Andouillette
My personal favorite. I was once served this turd on a wine trip through Beaujolais. At Les Rendez-Vous de Bobosse, to be precise. A true pilgrimage site for many French people. Rolled up on your plate, ‘France’s most feared specialty’ still looks like an ordinary, innocent sausage, but the moment you put your knife into it, an unbelievable smell emerges! Have you ever smelled a body in an advanced state of decomposition? Neither have I, but this immediately came to mind. Not to mention the texture…
Chòu dòufu
Nickname: stinky tofu. That tells you enough, right? In any case, it’s made by placing fresh tofu in a kind of brine bath with soured milk, vegetables, meat and/or raw fish to ferment for several weeks to several months. While normal fermentation processes rely on a particular bacterium or fungus, the process for stinky tofu is not standardized, and every (small) producer has their own secret. In fact, production usually takes place covertly, because even the uncontrolled rotting is too much for the Asian food-safety authorities. Large producers take a shortcut: they don’t actually ferment the tofu, but merely “marinate” it for a few days in a stinky soup.
Kiviak
To finish, the most gruesome stinker of them all: kiviak. This traditional dish is eaten by Eskimos (Inuits) in Greenland during the winter, especially at Christmas. Kiviak consists of hundreds of dead little auks stuffed into a dead seal and then left to rot beneath a rock for several months. Yes, you read that correctly! Around 400 to 500 dead little auks are used so that the seal is packed nice and tightly before it is sewn shut. This Greenlandic delicacy really smells like… death.
Header image: Flickr
Read also:
