- Percebes or 'Goose barnacles', Spain
<p>
They may look like something from a Peter Jackson film, but these gnarly little crustaceans are actually a delicacy in Galicia, prized for their fresh, marine flavour, rather like lobster. They command high prices, as they only grow clinging to rocks battered by heavy surf, making harvesting and collecting them an extremely risky business.</p>
- 'Virgin eggs', China
<p>
If you happen to be visiting China's Zhejiang Province in the springtime, it's the delicate stench of young boys' urine, rather than daffodils, you'll be sniffing. It's not down to a regional problem with toilet training, rather the pee is used to soak and boil eggs to create a tasty street food snack. Aficionados claim they have 'the taste of spring', but we'll stick with chocolate Mini Eggs, thanks.</p>
- Balut, Philippines
<p>
Look away if you're squeamish. Balut are boiled, fertilised duck eggs, the (usually) 17 day embryo almost fully developed, with fuzzy hair, bones, beak and all. Commonly sold as street food in the Philippines and other South East Asian countries, they're served with a little salt and /or a chili and vinegar mixture and are thought to be an aphrodisiac. Er, yum.</p>
- Casu Marzu, Sardinia
<p>
If you like your cheese so 'ripe' that it's actually moving, then this Sardinian speciality is for you. Pecorino sheep's milk cheese is left in the open air until cheese fly larvae are laid, these then hatch and the acid from the digestive systems of the thousands of resulting maggots breaks down the cheese to a soft, seeping texture. To add to the fun and games, when disturbed, the larvae can launch themselves up to 15cm in the air.</p>
- Deep fried pizza, Scotland
<p>
Ah, the deep fried pizza – stuff of legends. Anyone in any doubt about the existence of this Scottish speciality need only visit a Glasgow chippy on a Saturday night to discover they are alive and well and causing the multiple heart attacks across the land. Any food snobs tempted to scoff should know that 'pizza fritta' is also a Neopolitan speciality (although admittedly they draw the line at stuffing the pizza with a poke of chips...)</p>
- Squirrel brains, South USA
<p>
Yes, the brain of the small tree climbing rodent is a delicacy in some parts of the US. You cook the head with the rest of the body (after cleaning of course), then, using your fingers and a fork, you crack the skull open and dig the brain out. Apparently, it tastes kind of like mushrooms.</p>
- Surstrӧmming, Sweden
<p>
As you probably know, the Scandies are very keen on herring. Fried, pickled, whatever. But in the north of Sweden, they go one further in the pursuit of herring heaven by leaving Baltic herring to ferment in their tin until they reach a level of putrefecation that demands the tin only ever be opened and eaten outside.</p>
- Fried tarantulas, Cambodia
<p>
A dead tarantula's a good tarantula, so if you're passing through the Cambodian town of Skuon, give these deep fried delicacies a try. The legs are crispy and taste of the salt, sugar, oil and garlic in which they're fried, while the gooier abdomen, home to the spider's organs, eggs and excrement, is more of an, ahem, acquired taste.</p>
- Raw puffin heart, Iceland
<p>
Pity the poor puffin who happens to be born in Iceland, where he gets no legal protection and where his heart, still warm and eaten raw, is a national delicacy. In a country where other food favourites include fermented shark meat and cured ram scrota, looking cute, colourful and clumsy is no defence against being fished out of the sky with a large net.</p>
- Guinea pig, Peru
<p>
Considered a Peruvian delicacy, guinea pig meat apparently tastes a bit like hare. Breeders recently bred a new 'super guinea pig' in the hope that they could export it to America and around the world. Hmmm. We're still waiting to see if it'll catch on...</p>
- Centipede and scorpions, China
<p>
Served up in street markets in Nanjing, guess who the the biggest purchasers of these crunchy little critters are? Tourists. Apparently, these taste slightly bitter. And they're very chewy. Which begs the question: why eat them atall?</p>