9 bizarre dishes you won’t believe peop​le actually love eating

Balut, which is commonly sold as a streetfood, seems to be one of the most popular dishes in the Philippines. A balut is mostly half fertilized duck or chicken embryo that is boiled and eaten in the shell. Food researchers say that balut is high in protein and also, an aphrodisiac. One often relishes balut with a mug of chilled beer.(Image: www.alwaysfoodie.com)

Bats, also known as chicken of the cave, are a food source for humans in the Pacific Rim and Asia. In Palau, fruit bats are used to prepare soup. This soup is prepared by rinsing off the bat, boiling it, choping some vegetables (sometimes), and then, everything is doused in coconut milk and served. The eating process is not limited to the soup as even fur is eaten along with eyes and wings.(Image: www.katiearnoldi.com)

This popular beverage can either be made by steeping a snake in rice wine, or by mixing snake bodily fluids, such as blood, with the alcohol. This wine is believed to have important restorative properties in countries including China and Vietnam.(Image: iscreamsundae.com)

Grasshoppers, which are loaded with protein, are a regarded as a popular delicacy in many parts of the world. If you are willing to taste fried grasshoppers, then street markets in Asia will be the best for you to visit. While in Mexico, a type called chapulines, are often served with lime and garlic.(Image: c1.staticflickr.com)

It’s a traditional Scottish sausage made from a sheep’s stomach stuffed with diced sheep’s liver, lungs and heart, oatmeal, onion, suet and seasoning. Most haggis is part-cooked before being sold and needs to be simmered in boiling water for one to two hours. You can also buy vegetarian haggis based on beans. Haggis is traditionally served with ‘neeps ‘n’ tatties’ – mashed swede and potatoes – and a glass of scotch whisky.(Image: www.flavor574.com)

Baby mice wine is considered to be a “traditional heath tonic” in China and Korea. New born mice, which are still alive, are thrown into bottles full of rice wine and left there to ferment for 12-13 months. Apparently, the results taste not dissimilar to raw gasoline. And those who've tasted this wine claim that just a couple of cups is enough to get you as high as a kite.(Image: thebwyd.com)

Fried spider is a specialty snack in Cambodian town of Skuon, where spiders are fried from a species of tarantula that is about the size of a human palm. Tourists ensure that they enjoy this regional delicacy by typically eating only the legs and abdomen of these not-so itsy-bitsy spiders.(Image: themysteriousworld.com)

This is a sandwich with heavily battered calves’ brains spread on sliced bread or hamburgers bun. The sandwich is still available in the Ohio River Valley. In El Salvador and Mexico, beef brains are used in tacos and burritos. Now, brains from cows over 30 months old at slaughter are no longer permitted in human food in the US owing to Mad-Cow disease, but some restaurants have taken to serving pigs’ brains instead of cows’ brains.(Image: www.hospitalitymarketplace.co.za)

Sannakji or sannakji hoe is a variety of hoe, or raw dish, in Korean cuisine. It consists of live nakji (a small octopus) that has been cut into small pieces and lightly seasoned with sesame and sesame oil. When this dish is served, the nakji pieces are usually still squirming on the plate. And if not chewed carefully, the tiny suction cups can stick to the mouth and throat. If you don’t have a strong heart, it is better that you resist tasting this dish.(Image: wenitasya.files.wordpress.com)