26Ortolan
A songbird named Ortolan is a French delicacy. It involves blinding this small bird and force-feeding it before you drown in Cognac. It is then eaten whole (save for feet) in one bite with a napkin over the face to preserve its aroma.
27. Nearly 200 years before turducken became popular, a Parisian gastronomist invented the Rôti Sans Pareil, a warbler stuffed inside a bunting, inside a lark, inside a thrush, inside a quail...lapwing, plover, partridge, woodcock, teal, guinea fowl, duck, chicken, pheasant, goose, turkey, bustard. It is a 17-bird stuffed meal.
28. Dandelions are not only completely edible raw and cooked but also packed with nutrients and may have many other benefits to their consumption.
29. Alcatraz had some of the best food in the federal prison system including chili dogs, butter-drenched potatoes, pork chops, biscuits, and gravy & banana pudding because the warden believed “most trouble in prison is caused by bad food.” The prison staff ate the same food as the prisoners.
30. Francesinha, Portugal's national sandwich has steak, ham, dry sausage, fresh sausage, cheese and then it's covered in melted cheese and beer sauce.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Cassowary Meat
Cassowary meat is so tough that people were told to cook it with a stone in the pot. “When the stone is ready to eat, so is the Cassowary.”
32. The origin of French Fries is a hotly contested issue between Belgium and France. Belgium claims a 1781 family manuscript proves they were invented there, while France claims Paris street vendors invented the dish just before the French revolution.
33. Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole is so popular that Campbell’s estimates 40% of their Cream of Mushroom Soup is used to make the dish.
34. Baked beans started with a bean native to the Americas exported to France/Italy in the 1500s. They were brought back to America with European colonization, then exported to the UK as an "American delicacy" in the late 1800s, and are now reimported to the US as “UK Baked Beans.”
35. Pozole, a traditional Mexican soup, was originally made with human flesh by the Aztecs. When cannibalism was banned, pork was used as it “tasted very similar.”
36Budae-jjigae
Budae-jjigae, a Korean soup dish which is a fusion of common soup ingredients in Korea and scavenged foods from US bases had a period of "illegality"; as spam smuggling was punishable by death under President Park in the 1960-70s.
37. Dinner was once the main meal of the day, served around one or two in the afternoon, while 'supper' was a much lighter meal, or even just a snack, eaten around sundown.
38. The most prized delicacy in Ethiopia is raw meat. Ox is the most common meat consumed raw but the more expensive goat is gaining momentum. Despite official health warnings, Ethiopians still prefer to buy their animals live and slaughter them at home.
39. The flesh of the Sleeper Shark, which feeds on colossal squid, contains such a high concentration of anti-freeze that it must rot for months before consumption as the popular Icelandic dish Hákarl.
40. Salt-cured capybara (the largest living rodent) is consumed during Lent in Venezuela, where the popularity of the dish prompted the Vatican to declare that capybara isn’t meat but fish.
41Dry-Aged Beef
Upscale steakhouses use dry-aged beef where the beef is hung on a rack to dry for several weeks. This process evaporates moisture in the muscles and promotes the enzymatic breakdown of connective tissue which together yields very flavorful meat.
42. Dry red kidney beans can be toxic if they are cooked in a slow cooker, which doesn't get hot enough to get rid of phytohaemagglutinin, causing severe symptoms.
43. Although dark turkey meat has a slightly higher calorie count, it contains more iron and Zinc (Plus other nutrients) than white meat.
44. During the 2013 horsemeat scandal, meat pie from Iceland was tested and was found to contain no meat. There was literally no animal protein detected, so the beef pie was full vegan.
45. 'Burrito' means 'little donkey' in Spanish, named this way because burritos can carry many things, much like a donkey can.
46The Widower
“The Widower” is a British curry from Grantham, Lincolnshire which is made with 20 infinity chilies and claimed to be the world’s hottest curry. Only one person has ever finished it. He took an hour to finish it and spent 10 minutes of that time hallucinating due to the endorphin rush.
47. In 2011, several remarkably expensive bowls of pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) were auctioned off for charity. “AnQi Phở” was prepared with type A5-Wagyu beef, white truffles, precious foie gras broth, and perfectly manicured noodles made of rare blue lobster meat.
48. Tempura isn't originally a Japanese dish. It was introduced by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century and its name comes from the Latin for “time period” because the seafood was associated with Lent in the West.
49. In 1533, Catherine de' Medici became the queen of France. She fancied spinach so much that she insisted it be served at every meal. To this day, dishes made with spinach are known as "Florentine", reflecting Catherine's birth in Florence.
50. The Buddha recommended eating rice porridge, saying “There are these five benefits in rice porridge. What five? It stills hunger, dispels thirst, settles wind, cleans out the bladder, and promotes the digestion of the remnants of undigested food. These are the five benefits of rice porridge.”
