All sorts of strange foods can be found in restaurants worldwide, including fried tarantulas to duck eggs that have been artificially impregnated. Pudding made with chickpeas, tofu, and wasabi may sound strange to a Western palate. But when it comes to fusion cuisine, no ingredient is off-limits. These 6 unique desserts, from chicken-breast pudding to wasabi flavoured frozen desserts, are as bizarre as they are delicious.
Wasabi ice cream
The roots of the wasabi plant, also known as Japanese horseradish, may be found in abundance in the river valleys of Japan, where it is collected and used to give sushi its signature spicy kick. Wasabi ice cream may not sound appetising, but the unusual flavour is quite tasty. If that doesn't tickle your fancy, Japan also has many wacky ice cream tastes, such as shrimp, cactus, and chicken wings.
Bread and butter pudding
British homemakers, never ones to let anything go to waste, have long perfected the skill of turning everyday ingredients like stale bread into hearty, tasty treats. Step in the unique dessert of bread and butter pudding. Don't forget the stale bread part! It is a dish with roots in the 18th century that can be found on the menus of many bars and taverns. The pudding is layered with bread and butter and then filled with raisin, nutmeg, egg, milk, vanilla, and spice before being baked in the oven and eaten either on its own or with a generous helping of custard. In today'stoday's gastro-pub renditions, you might find fruit, marmalade, chocolate, or even a splash of beer added to the mix. Never before have toast and butter been so wonderful.
Tavukgöğsü
Turkish dessert Tavukgöğsü, Image Source: milliyet.com
Although chicken pudding isn't the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of dessert, this Turkish delicacy was a favourite of the Ottoman sultans at Topkapi palace and is still enjoyed by many today. Tavuk gösü is a sweet, thick dessert comparable to rice pudding that is made by cooking rice flour, sweetened milk, cinnamon, and chicken in a copper pot. Instead of eating raw chicken bones, this meal resembles blancmange since it is made from boiling, softened, and separated thin fibres of fresh chicken breast.
Red bean cakes
To most Westerners, beans seem better appropriate to a burrito. In Asia, Azuki beans are softened, sweetened, and mashed into a sweet paste served alongside a wide variety of delicacies, pastries, and cakes. Red bean paste comes in various textures, from smooth yet chunky (with fragments of bean husk still present) in the mashed variety to very silky (typically used as a pastry filling) in the slurry variety.
Aletria Doce
Aletria is a dessert with a similar flavour profile to rice pudding, except that noodles are used instead of rice. The vermicelli noodles, rather than the hot pot noodles, have a smooth texture once cooked. It is a Portuguese custom to adorn the dish with intricate stencil patterns made from powdered cinnamon and serve it either warm or cooled, with berries for garnish.
Deep-fried mars bar
This calorie-laden delicacy, which consists of a chilled Mars bar (caramel and nougat covered in chocolate) coated in batter and plunged into a deep-fat fryer, is still a staple on the menus of many chip shops. It is reported to have been found in 1995 during a fun trial at Stonehaven's Haven Chip Bar. Because of media attention, this quirky piece immediately gained popularity. It also sparked a fad of deep-frying strange things like the renowned Crème Egg and Snickers. It got to the point when a deep-fried bounty bar appeared in one of Nigella Lawson's cookbooks. Delicious but excessively unhealthy.