10 'Bizarre Foods' you can try in America
The next time you take a bite of a hot dog, try to imagine that all-American staple through the perspective of someone from a completely different food culture.
That frank might seem as “bizarre” to a foreigner as intestine, brains or the notoriously stinky durian fruit to an American, according to Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods.
“While a hot dog can be made in a bespoke fashion, the conventional New York City ‘dirty water dog’ is the poster child for mystery meat in our country,” Zimmern says.
Having visited some 162 countries (and counting) over the past decade, Zimmern knows all kinds of bizarre.
The three-time James Beard Award-winning host and author will kick off the 10th season of his show at 9 p.m. tonight with a stop in Madrid, where he will sample snail soup, whole baby pig head, rabbit paella and beef fat “bon bon.” The episode brings him full circle to the Spanish capital, where he shot his first episode, serving as a reminder of how “places change.”
“We told a completely different story, because the food culture in that city has changed completely,” he says.
Subsequent episodes will find the Minneapolis-based Zimmern working his way through sheep’s brain in Senegal, foraging with a pair of up-and-coming chefs in Sweden and trying out the best “secret” restaurant in Shanghai.
But Zimmern is always looking beyond what’s (sometimes moving) on the plate.
“We’re really trying to tell the story of people,” he says. “The piece of fermented walrus anus that ends up on the plate is a punctuation mark, the period at the end of the sentence to talk about their traditions.”
To Zimmern, who has ventured into the food business with his own eatery, Canteen, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and other venues, the idea of what constitutes “bizarre” is also a bit of a moving dish.
“I think our show has played a small part in opening up the eyes, especially of the American diner, to question the food on their plate and seem more accepting to a greater variety of foods,” Zimmern says.
For anyone in search of their own bizarre food adventures, Zimmern says you have to get out of your comfort zone.
Whether that means visiting off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods in your own city or while traveling, or getting away from a big city entirely, the key is to eat like a local.
In Venice, Zimmern recommends walking “to the far ends of the city and going into a small, seafood restaurant and having cuttlefish cooked in its own ink — the city’s most popular dish for the locals.”
Or if you venture to the Philippines, leave Manila and “go all the way to the South, where you’re going to have a Tarzan-meets-Jane experience that will boggle your mind culturally and from a culinary experience.”
Remember, it’s often the most prosaic of foods that can seem the most bizarre.
On one of his trips, Zimmern found himself sharing a tent in Africa with a Chada tribesman, who “freaked out,” when he was offered a snack of cheddar cheese and crackers.
“He said, God, it’s disgusting,” Zimmern recalls.
“I said, what don’t you like about it?
“He said, the texture.
“I said, I love the texture.
“He said, what is it with you Americans? You take perfectly good milk, you let it rot and then you dry it into little squares.
“That says it all,” Zimmern adds.