If you were to take a dish of food from one part of the world and sit down to eat it 3,000 miles away, you may be able to say you found a delicacy. What one person considers a staple in his regular diet another person may think is exotic or even frightening. Peoples' palates are generally developed by a combination of factors. Geography, personal history and culinary culture all play a role. Here we can take a quick tour around the globe and find some of the foods that natives would call normal fare while non-natives might call delicacies.
Cuy has become an accepted dietary staple in South America, especially Peru and Bolivia, since the 1960s. Recently it has made its way into some of the more creative restaurants in New York City. At one time cuy was exclusively served during ceremonies in the Andean region. It is a dish of guinea pig meat, usually fired or roasted. Some have said it tastes like rabbit or dark chicken meat.
Natives in and visitors to Taipei, Taiwan, may find themselves at the Shilin Night Market. The hours are 4pm to after 12am during which time you may order snake soup. Tourists view this soup as a delicacy while the locals believe it fights the common cold. The chef first removes a living snake from a basket and chops in into many pieces. The tail and head are discarded while the rest is put into a cauldron of hot vegetable broth.
Anyone in Clinton, Montana during the right weekend in fall may want to attend the Testicle Festival. This is one event that is not for the faint of heart. Rocky Mountain oysters, as they are called, are in fact bull testicles that are deep fried and apparently taste like chicken.
One delicacy that is becoming quite popular is cock's combs (sometimes referred to as coxcombs.) Combs are the growths that sit on top of birds such as turkeys, pheasants and chickens. They figure prominently in French cuisine as a garnish and in Italian cuisine as an ingredient in the pasta sauce Cibreo.
Many folks may not be familiar with the above mentioned delicacies. There are a few more commonly known. Perhaps you have heard of pate foie gras, caviar, escargot, truffles and even champagne.
Classifying foods as delicacies is far from exact. For one thing, it relies heavily on the availability of food in certain regions. So, what you may call a delicacy, may be to somebody else as common as pizza is to you.
Cuy has become an accepted dietary staple in South America, especially Peru and Bolivia, since the 1960s. Recently it has made its way into some of the more creative restaurants in New York City. At one time cuy was exclusively served during ceremonies in the Andean region. It is a dish of guinea pig meat, usually fired or roasted. Some have said it tastes like rabbit or dark chicken meat.
Natives in and visitors to Taipei, Taiwan, may find themselves at the Shilin Night Market. The hours are 4pm to after 12am during which time you may order snake soup. Tourists view this soup as a delicacy while the locals believe it fights the common cold. The chef first removes a living snake from a basket and chops in into many pieces. The tail and head are discarded while the rest is put into a cauldron of hot vegetable broth.
Anyone in Clinton, Montana during the right weekend in fall may want to attend the Testicle Festival. This is one event that is not for the faint of heart. Rocky Mountain oysters, as they are called, are in fact bull testicles that are deep fried and apparently taste like chicken.
One delicacy that is becoming quite popular is cock's combs (sometimes referred to as coxcombs.) Combs are the growths that sit on top of birds such as turkeys, pheasants and chickens. They figure prominently in French cuisine as a garnish and in Italian cuisine as an ingredient in the pasta sauce Cibreo.
Many folks may not be familiar with the above mentioned delicacies. There are a few more commonly known. Perhaps you have heard of pate foie gras, caviar, escargot, truffles and even champagne.
Classifying foods as delicacies is far from exact. For one thing, it relies heavily on the availability of food in certain regions. So, what you may call a delicacy, may be to somebody else as common as pizza is to you.
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