The world is full of strange soups. This seemingly innocent and healthy dish can turn into a horrible nightmare when the wrong ingredients are chucked into it. What are the worst and strangest soups in the world?
1. Cow Stomach Soup
If you ever go to Mexico you might look at a menu and think, “Menudo; that’s a pretty good name for a soup.” Sure, the name is cool but the list of ingredients isn’t going to exactly make you keen to spoon down some of that Menudo goodness. For a start, the basic ingredient is usually a cow’s stomach. It gets boiled for an astonishingly long period of time and the locals swear by it as a delicious hangover cure.
2. Miyeok Guk
If you like eating seaweed you’ll love this Korean soup. If you don’t then you might want to give it a miss. It is made from the sea plant which is called sea mustard in English. Apparently it is popular with mothers of newborn babies, as it contains high levels of calcium. It is also something of a birthday treat. “Happy birthday kid, we got you a giant bowl of sea mustard soup instead of a cake this year. Hey, tuck in a little guy”.
3. Bat Soup
I have only just realized that ordering a soup with a hairy bat in it is an option. All these years I have wasted my starter choice on things like tomato soup or leek and potato soup. If I ever make it to the island of Palau then I can order a soup containing a bat which has been cooked in coconut milk. Some restaurants let you choose your own bat, which is a lovely touch.
4. Deer Placenta Soup
There are some times in life when you just think, “I really fancy a bowl of deer placenta today”. Aren’t there? This stunningly strange soup is available in China and sounds atrocious. If you have never before had the pleasure of eating deer placenta then you might find it to be surprisingly chewy.
5. Kiburu
So, you live in a remote tribe that bases itself near Kilimanjaro. You aren’t going to pop out to the supermarket whenever you feel like a starter, are you? No, you are going to make a delicious soup out of bananas and err dirt. If it is your lucky day you might even find a little twig floating in this strange soup.
6. Cock a Leekie Soup
This isn’t all that strange a soup but I just love the name and have been keen to fit it into a post for ages.
7. Birds Nest Soup
How often have you looked up at a bird’s nest and thought, “Ooh that looks really tasty”? Throwing a nest into a pot of boiling water is just a ridiculous thing to do but the Chinese have been doing it for centuries. As well as being hideous it is also hideously expensive, with a bowl of this weird stuff often costing up to $100.
8. Supu
We’ll head to Tanzania now for the next soup on our list of globetrotting gruesomeness. Here, they have a delightful soup known as Supu. This is a popular breakfast meal and I can understand why. I always try to start my day with some goat lungs and heart along with cow hooves and stomach. It sure beats pancakes.
