Weird foods? Or delicacies?

This week I’m going to introduce a TV show I find pretty interesting. I personally like to watch “food” shows, like “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and “Nigella Express” with Nigella Lawson, as well as other food shows like “Take home chef” and Jamie Oliver’s series of cooking shows on Discovery Travel and Living (channel 16 on your scv box).

This show however, not only catches my attention but also makes me cringe sometimes. Bizarre Foods – a fusion of travel and cooking show. It is hosted by Andrew Zimmern. He travels around the world in search of the traditional and weird foods of various countries and cultures. However, unlike some food shows, this programme shows its viewers the country, the people, its history, as well as natural and architectural artifacts. It not only tells you about the food, but it also tells you how a country’s culture and history “can be seen and tasted through their food”. Also, Andrew is in search of the more unusual indigenous foods unique to their culture.

I have to say, this programme has a great combination of intercultural communication, mass media, and interpersonal communication. In the following clips, you should be able to see these three communications at work.

In this following clip we can see the introduction to Philippines, showing its landscape, people, and their way of life.



Balut – makes me cringe because the embryo is already formed. Colors don’t look appetizing too. And to some people it is just disgusting.
However, it is similar to something the Taiwanese eat – egg with formed embryo. But I cant remember if it was chicken or duck.

In the next clip, we can see some finger foods that people of the Philippines eat.



Some people might think it is cruel to kill baby chickens at such a young age. But it was interesting to know that its bones were soft and could be eaten whole.
Ice cream – concept is similar to the one we have in Singapore. We use bread or waffle pieces, not hamburger buns though. We have yam ice cream in Singapore but cheese ice cream was interesting because I haven’t really seen it. The only one I’ve seen was Ben and Jerry’s Cheesecake ice cream.
However to Andrew Zimmern, this is relatively new as hamburger buns were mainly used for meat in the western countries. And that yam and cheese ice cream were unknown and unusual to him.
Therefore I might conclude that whether we find anything unusual very much depends on our culture and whether we’ve seen it before and accept it.



For people in Ecuador, guinea pigs are treated as the national food and a more expensive delicacy. For those who keep guinea pigs as pets, they might think it is cruel and not right to eat them coz they are so cute as shown by the clip. But I guess it’s the same with dogs in china. Pets? Or food? Might want to share some of YOUR thoughts on this matter.

What I find ironic is that the lady was stroking the guinea pig she was holding (they were going to eat it afterwards) while the guy was holding his by the neck. Pretty uncomfortable for the guinea pig there as it was squirming about. >.<

At the end, we could see a cultural procedure being taught to Andrew as to how to eat the brain of the guinea pig. “It is the way” as said by the lady, a kind of cultural/traditional practice of the people – by sucking it out of its skull.

So what do YOU think about this television programme? Enlightening? Or just plain weird?
Share YOUR views and opinions! =P