Strange tribal cuisines from around the world

Cultures around the world have very different views on what they consider to be “safe” to eat. A delicacy in one country wouldn’t be fed to prisoners in another, with some of the dishes out there being so strange it is hard to think of how they came about eating them in the first place. Here are some strange tribal cuisines from around the world that include some seemingly unhygienic dishes that have been created by the tribes of our planet.

Amazon tribes – Yam cakes

There’s nothing wrong with eating yam cakes in general, but the thing that puts this one on the list is how they are made. The tribe sits around a large pot with a load of raw yams which they then chew up into a slurry. When the half-chewed yam mush is juicy enough they all spit it out into the pot where spices and corn flour are added.

The mush then gets made into small flat cakes which are baked on a stone to form something that looks a little like a round piece of hardtack. Even though this may seem very unhygienic (and it is), tribes that live in isolation and all eat the same things generally don’t get sick as they aren’t exposed to illnesses or artificial ingredients from the outside world, so passing sickness to each other through the process is extremely rare.

Inuit tribes of northern Canada – Buried and fermented Ox steaks

Starting around the middle of the Arctic Circle is an animal called a Musk Ox, named so due to the very powerful smell it gives off during the breeding season. The animal is just another type of cow and gives off a huge amount of meat, making it one of the more favorable targets for an Inuit hunter.

When an animal is caught and butchered during the Autumn, the tribe takes a number of steaks and buries them in the ground. Over the winter the steaks partially ferment and freeze, and when they are dug up again at the start of spring the tribe considers them a delicacy, with it being compared to something like extremely aged beef.

People of Ancient China – Century eggs

This foul-smelling creation is a favorite food of the Philippines and numerous other surrounding countries. This one is believed to have originated in China as a way to preserve eggs, which didn’t really work, or at least not in the sense you’d expect.

A normal chicken egg is soaked in salt water and wrapped in a mixture of clay and ash before either being buried in the ground or put in a box filled with sand or some other kind of packing material. They are left there for any were between a few weeks and several months, depending on a number of factors. What used to be the white of the egg is said to be almost tasteless with a slight salty hint, but the yolk smells like a mixture of ammonia and sulfur, or stagnant urine to be more direct.

Brazil – Ant larvae biscuits

Insects are eaten as a staple in many countries around the world, and ants are often close to the top of the list when it comes to taste. All you need to make an ant biscuit is some flour, a blanket, and a cooking surface. The blanket is spread out on the ground next to an ant mound with the edges folded over towards the middle to create a shaded area all the way around, the top of the ant mound is then shoveled into the center of the blanket.

The ants realize their larvae are exposed to the sun and take them to the nearest safe dark space, knowing the mound has been compromised, which ends up being the folded-over edges of the blanket. The ant larva can then be easily collected where it’s then mixed with flour and formed into a biscuit.