Top 10 Weird And Gross Snacks

Iceland

Oddly processed fish products are very popular in multiple regions, so there are quite a few to choose from. However, we will stick to Icelandic national food hákarl. If you’ve ever longed to eat Greenland shark meat, wait! The original meat is poisonous. You have to perform an elaborate, months-long fermentation process in order to render it edible. Only then can you enjoy the delightful high-ammonia snack in all its smelly glory. If you’re needing options, fermented shark meat comes in two forms: red-tinged, chewy glerhákarl or the softer, white variety, skyrhákarl. It seems that most if not all outsiders find hákarl repulsive, smelling and tasting like urine. You can keep it, Iceland.

US

Have you ever had a taco with salsa and thought to yourself that these flavors need to be in candy form? No? Neither have we. Well, the thing you never really wanted is available in Brach’s Late Night Taco Truck Jelly Beans! The mix contains six flavors including margarita, churro, and horchata, which are understandable in candy form as they’re sweet. However, the mix also contains salsa, guacamole and beef taco flavors, which quite honestly sound just awful. It’s safe to say that no one has ever craved beef tacos in a jellified form. It is nice that they included condiments for your jelly bean beef taco, but it doesn’t redeem this terrible snack idea. Just find a real taco truck.

South Korea

What to do if you just want to eat octopus but don’t have the time to cook some up? Well, if you’re in South Korea, you can just grab a bag of Tako octopus-flavored chips! They’re called Tako but are not taco flavored, and they’re shaped like fish but they’re not fish flavored. They contain the mysterious ingredient “octopus flavor,” which we could all use more of in our lives, right? Oh, and they’re shaped like scoops, in case you want to scoop up some octopus salsa or something. At least one food critic has said that it initially tastes like lobster which is seconds later replaced with a foul taste, which is then replaced by a “not bad” lingering flavor. Yum.

Japan

For the romantics out there, when Valentine’s Day comes around, why not regale your significant other with some Japanese garlic chocolates? Nothing says appetizing like fermented black garlic wrapped in chocolate and sprinkled with cocoa powder to give it that deceiving truffle look. Let’s face it: whoever thought up this idea should be reprimanded and thrown in food prison. Just the thought of combining garlic and chocolate is nauseating, as is the potential for any signs of affection post-consumption, as the cocoa-garlic breath will more than likely kill the mood.

US

This company went out of business in early 2022, so don’t race to your local grocery store. For around 5 years prior to that, you could have enjoyed a delightful serving of chocolate, vanilla, ginger or strawberry ice cream with the added kick of heat. Oh, the hot pepper brain freeze that could have been! If there’s one thing we shouldn’t expect after a spoonful of ice cream, it’s a mouth on fire. If spice isn’t your thing, why not indulge in a bowl of Van Leeuwen’s pizza-flavored ice cream? It’s a delicious blend of mozzarella and cream cheese ice cream with swirls of tomato sauce and pieces of basil dough. Don’t let your Italian grannies see this!

Eastern Europe

There just aren’t enough pig fatback treats to enjoy! You can thank Eastern Europe for this delicacy made from hard fat found just under the skin of a pig’s back. The fat is cured and used in many different ways. If you’re feeling a little peckish, you can have some bread with thinly sliced Salo to accompany your alcoholic beverage of choice. If that doesn’t turn your stomach, try Salo chocolates. Created as a joke in the late 1990s, it continued to be produced as it was successful. Salo Restaurant in Lviv, Ukraine offers the chocolates, all natural with no unnecessary additives, because who would want to mask the taste of fatback?

Australia

Do you come from the land down under? If so, can you explain this abomination? In West Australia one day, someone inexplicably decided that gelato and fish belonged together. Thus fish & chips gelato was born! Why, you ask? We don’t know. The ice cream contained fish oil, and a cone was topped with flakes of fried batter. Apparently it was a popular flavor with tourists, likely due to the novelty, but reviews were mixed. If you want to try this, you’re late to the party. The treat’s provider, Kailis’ Fishmarket Café in Fremantle, Australia, no longer serves it. You can always try to make your own using a Super Bass-O-Matic 2150.

US

Fans of jerky rejoice! You can now enjoy earthworm jerky, courtesy of Newport Jerky Company in Rhode Island! Remember when you were a kid and ate worms in your backyard to impress the neighborhood youngsters? You can now do this as an adult and be the life of the corporate cocktail party. Just make sure you have tenure first, just in case. Reviews for this product are predictably mixed, with most saying it tastes bad, made them sick or is too chewy. But it’s almost unanimous that it makes a great gag gift (pun intended). There are also chocolate covered superworms, if you want to pair them with chocolate garlic and choco-salo in a lovely gift box for someone you thoroughly dislike.

Indonesia/Malaysia

Honestly, who was the first person to try this? Durian is a fruit that smells so terrible that it has been banned from places such as hotels and public transit. Its smell has been compared to rotting flesh, raw sewage, old socks and a number of other equally colorful similes. If you can get past its stench, the fruit is apparently quite nice, tasting of sweet custard. Gordon Ramsay is not a fan, calling it unpalatable and claiming it looks like a human brain. Anthony Bourdain likened the smell to leaving a dead body to rot in the sun, and the residual breath to “French kissing your dead grandmother.” With so many deathly comparisons, is this really an appetizing snack option?

Various

The consumption of pigs’ feet is centuries old. Eastern Europeans have been indulging (or not) in jellied pigs’ feet, a form of aspic, for generations. Go ahead, google aspic. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. At some point, it was determined that this meat was so awesome it needed to be preserved and given an extended shelf life. Thus, pickled pigs’ feet were born. The feet are cooked to tenderness and then preserved much like dill pickles. They are available in a number of countries, and were made popular in the southern US at some point, with jars adorning bar counters and such. Oh, and if feet aren’t your bag, why not try pickled pork tongues?