Friday, January 22, 2010

Curious Culinary Encounters



With all the pitfalls of adventure travel, sometime the most harrowing of experiences involve simply securing an identifiable meal.  Trying new things is the name of the game, but through a combination of bad menu translation and radical culture gaps, the cuisine I've encountered abroad has often left me speechless.  Thus I'll let these actual menu items speak for themselves...



At a street cafe in Hanoi:

"Roasted Bird with onion and flagrant knotweed"

"Tryonychid Turtle cook with banana and soya cord"

"Stomach fried with water, dropwort and garlic"

"Snakehead fish steamed with beer"

"Innards Steamboat"


On a restaurant billboard in Mui Ne, Vietnam:

"Baked Goat Udders"

Just like mom used to make.

At a small restaurant in Sihanoukville, Cambodia:


"Cause shrimp to puff with butter 8,000 Riel"

"Fish burned 5,000 Riel"

On the menu at a street side cafe in Vang Vieng, Laos:
(and my personal favorite)

"Traditional American Freakfest 30,000 Kip"

Ironically the dish of hotdogs, greenbeans, fried eggs and a baguette that arrived actually seemed appropriately named.


A mysterious shellfish found near Puerto Lopez, Ecuador.

4 comments:

Daniel S. McIsaac said...

By the way, if anyone knows what these strange shellfish are called, please enlighten us. I can't remember, and don't know where to begin to go about looking it up...

Anonymous said...

I can't help you there, but I felt rude only eating one or two before having my stomach churn. Best of luck and safe travels regarding Nicaragua.
-JV

Unknown said...

Dan - creo que se llaman "percebes"

Daniel S. McIsaac said...

Ahh, gracias Ben, pienso que eres correcto. More about this bizarre delicacy here: http://www.billcasselman.com/words_of_the_world/percebe.htm

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