8 Most Horrifying Foods Around the World

Nothing beats hot, creamy mashers with some nice, thick pork chops on the side. That’s the most common, nigh universal comfort food for billions of people. But you can’t have comfort food without discomfort food. Something so vile and seemingly disgusting that just by looking at it, your tummy goes into purge mode.

When people say, “Don’t yuck my yumm,” they usually don’t mean any of these nine dishes, as some of them are so dangerous they can’t actually kill you. So here are some of the most horrifying foods that people around the world do genuinely eat.

1. Smalahove

If you’re a meat person, you should realize that that steak came from a dead animal. But even then, it can be a bit shocking to see a severed sheep’s head as a centerpiece. That’s Smalahove, a traditional Christmas dish in Norway. It features a smoked and boiled sheep’s head without its fleece, usually served with mashed potatoes or rutabaga. The dish is not as popular as it once was, and many people now choose pork belly, lutefisk, or lamb ribs for their Christmas meals. Honestly, those all sound much better than a chopped-off head. However, if you’re curious, you can still find it at local grocery stores around Christmas.

2. Blood Soup

People have been using blood in cooking for a long time, similar to the British Isles’ notorious black pudding. Still, many people find blood soups from around the world a bit unappealing. These types of soups are pretty popular in Europe and Asia. In some Asian countries, the blood is cooked separately and cut into pieces, which makes it look a bit more “normal,” if you can call it that. Then, some soups incorporate the blood into the cooking process, resulting in a darkened and thickened texture.

3. Casu Martzu

In Sardinia, there is a local culinary masterpiece called Casu marzu, which is a very peculiar sheep’s cheese. The most prevalent feature of this dish is the presence of cheese fly larvae, which wriggle inside even when served on the table. Oh, what fun it is to watch these little guys worm their way out of your plate. What’s even worse is that when you ingest this delicacy, the larvae keep having a party in your tummy for a long time and may cause ulcers. Of course, they cannot munch their way out of your gut, but they can certainly try, causing nausea, heartburn, stomach pain, and bloody diarrhea.

4. Kidney Beans

You may be curious why kidney beans, which you can buy in any store, are among all these horrible foods. Well, people keep forgetting that raw kidney beans are quite toxic. These beans possess a certain compound that’s difficult to spell and can upset your stomach, leading to severe indigestion, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Consuming more than three raw or undercooked kidney beans can trigger these effects. So, to be on the safe side, just buy the canned beans, don’t cook them at home.

5. Sannakji

Sannakji is a Korean delicacy whose name means “squirming octopus.” And you can already see where this is going. The dish consists of either a small octopus or tentacles from a larger one, which may still move as if alive. Now, the octopus on the plate is actually dead. But it’s very fresh, so it moves, reacting to the salt in the soy sauce, making its freshly severed neurons still fire. If you can’t tell, that’s a real choking hazard. The tentacles behave exactly as if they were still alive, and their suction cups could latch onto your throat from the inside. So, if you’re eating sannakji, chew it thoroughly.

6. Shanghai Blood Clams

These mollusks have a high hemoglobin content, hence their name—Blood Clams. They are quite safe if prepared by professional chefs. However, if you fail to adhere strictly to the cooking recipe, you risk contracting dangerous infections such as typhoid or dysentery. In 1998, these bloody things caused an outbreak of Hepatitis A in China. The disease then infected 300,000 people. Despite the prohibition on their sale, both gourmets and traders continue to indulge in these mollusks.

7. Fugu

In Japan, cooks who want to serve fugu have to obtain a state certificate and pass an exam by eating the fish they have prepared themselves. This puffer fish is served as sashimi, and the poisonous chunks are cut out. Fugu contains the nerve-paralytic poison tetrodotoxin—a component of the potion used by Voodoo sorcerers to create zombies. It is 25 times more dangerous than curare. A lethal dose can be contracted even by touching the insides of the fish with your bare skin. And to add to all that, there is no known antidote for the toxin.

8. Hakarl

Hakarl is nothing more than chunks of a Greenland shark’s meat. Only it’s all rotten to the last fiber. Those who have seen or tasted this dish note that the smell resembles an odor wafting from dirty public toilets. There are two types of hakarl: from rotten stomach and from rotten muscle tissue. When tasting it for the first time, inexperienced gourmands should hold their noses as the smell surpasses the taste. In Iceland, this delicacy is a must-have for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, and eating hakarl means being strong and manly, like a real Viking.