So, what are they?  Well, eels! hah!  Okay, they are eels boiled in a spiced stock and then left to set and ‘jellify’.

Wait, you did get the fact that these are eaten in the UK, not some far flung corner of the world, right?  Jellied eels are an east London thing and can be easily bought at any number of places – most commonly pie and mash shops (that’s a meat pie with mashed potato), but there are speciality shops still operating too.

Oh, and when you are at the seaside, munched out of a polystyrene cup.

Or in a handy plastic pot.

So why do we (I say we, I wouldn’t touch the things) eat such crud?  Well as is often the case, tradition.  Eels were a cheap and readily available source of food, found in plentiful numbers along the River Thames (which flows through London).  Alas, jellied eels aren’t as popular as they once were, but I am sure they will be around for some time to come.

If you fancy buying some, this place is supposed to be one of the best.

Or if you really want to make your own, here’s a recipe!

I think this might be the yuckiest looking food I have come across so far in researching for this site. Although we have no hestitation in eating eggs, or even young animals (not usually birds, but still) – this just pushes all of the ‘eww’ buttons in my brain.

Balut is a fertilised duck (sometimes chicken) egg that is at the stage of development that there is a nearly developed embryo inside. The egg is then boiled and usually eaten with salt, just like a normal boiled egg.

So where is this deliciousness eaten? Well in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam it is actually quite common. You can easily pick one up from a street vendor, no need for a fancy restaurant in this case. Though in the Philippines in particular, popularity is increasing and you can now pick up your pre-baby duck in an omlette or even baked in pastries.

Interestingly, the age of the egg before it is cooked varies between cultures. In the Philippines, the perfect Balut is 17 days old, the point where the chick does not have beak, bones or feathers. In Vietnam however, they prefer their Balut to be 19-21 days old, the point at which the bones of the chick will be firm, but they soften considerably when cooked. In case it’s hard to imagine what a 17-21 day duck foetus looks like, here is a 15 day old egg floating in hot sauce.

(also spelled Baloot, Baalut, Baluge, or Balute.)

I think this might be the yuckiest looking food I have come across so far in researching for this site. Although we have no hestitation in eating eggs, or even young animals (not usually birds, but still) – this just pushes all of the ‘eww’ buttons in my brain.

And here’s one I believe is more towards the 21 day mark:

I’ll never look at my fried egg quite the same way again.

Yes indeedy, baby mice wine.  It’s wine with, well, baby mice in it.

Found in China and Korea, this deliciousness is believed to be a cure-all health tonic.  Koreans in particular believe it can cure anything from asthma to liver disease.

This wine isn’t just baby mouse flavoured, or have one baby mouse inside.  Oh no, it has a whole pile of them, only a few days old, floating around at the bottom of the bottle.  Nasty huh?  Well it gets worse – the mice are plucked from their mother’s teet, placed in the bottle alive and drowned.  Perhaps that improves the flavour?  

Baby Mice Wine

One thing I haven’t clarified is whether the mice are eaten/drunk along with the wine, or just filtered out.  Surely if they are the source of the ‘goodness’, they should be crunched upon and ingested along with the wine.  

Baby Mouse Wine

One commonplace food is spider, usually fried and crispy.  Mmmh.  Now spiders in Cambodia aren’t your little coin sized beasts we see so often, they are more akin to tarantulas in size, black and hairy.

I read that spiders were first eaten by desperate refugees, but have recently become known as a national delicacy, particularly in the Skuon region.  And when I say recently, I mean as recent as the 1990s!

Now people don’t just go trapsing around trying to spot and catch these spiders, they are actually bred in holes in the ground to eat, just like battery chickens!

The species are actually a type of tarantula and known as ‘a-ping’, and tend to be about palm-sized.  You can check them out in the pic below:

So how are they cooked?  Well as mentioned above, usually fried in oil, sometimes with garlic and salt, sometimes with sugar and MSG added.  The spiders are cooked until their legs are stiff, which means the insides are cooked through and no longer runny.

Taste?  Apparently something similar to chicken (doesn’t everything taste like chicken?) and cod, with some comparing them to crickets (which I have tried!).  Mostly crunchy but with a soft abdomen.  Inside the abdomen is a brown paste including organs and who knows what else (eggs, excrement …) – which many dislike or remove, while others call it a delicacy and chow down.

And it doesn’t just taste good – the locals swear by the spiders’ medicinal properties, such as helping relive back ache and asthma.

Price?  Well you can pick yourself up a crunchy deep fried spider for as little as 8 cents!  Sounds ridiculously cheap, but when you compare to the average daily wage of less than a dollar … it’s not a bad living if you can sell enough.  That said, the price of a spider is on the rise as supply starts to struggle to keep up with demand.

If you squint a bit, you can see on the label:

Cholest. 3500mg 1170%

Yes, that does say 3,500mg of Cholesterol, which is 1,170% of your recommended daily intake. This product also contains Sodium Nitrite, a colour fixative and preservative for meat products – but interestingly, four grams are lethal to you or me, yet it can also be used as an antidote for cyanide poisoning.

And there’s not just one brand of Pork Brains in Milk Gravy, oh no.  You get a choice between Armour and Rose brand!

Oddly, the only recipe for Pork Brains in Gravy I could find (it seems that Pork Brains are also popular in their uncanned form in Asia, but we’ll cover that in a separate post) was submitted by The Honorable Howard Coble, United States Congressman, North Carolina to the Congress Cooks site.  Here is his recipe!  It even contains bacon grease in case the brains didn’t have enough cholesterol in them!!

When I was a youngster, my mom used to prepare Brains N’ Eggs for breakfast. It was a fairly regular breakfast, not at all unusual. So that’s when I started eating them. I’ve enjoyed them ever since, but I can’t find any on Capitol Hill. I’ll admit the name of the dish is not the most appetizing, but try ‘em, you might like ‘em!

Ingredients

2-1/2 Tablespoons bacon grease

4 eggs

1/3 cup whole milk

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 can (5 ounce) pork brains in gravy (Rose Brand preferred)

Melt bacon grease in an iron skillet on low heat. Add pork brains to heated grease. Stir with a fork. Add salt and pepper and stir. Whisk eggs and milk together. Increase heat and add egg mixture to brains. Scramble to desired consistency. Serve immediately over toast. For a truly southern dish, serve with grits and apple butter.

Serves: 2