While most people travel to distant destinations only after a thorough review of cheap travel options, such as cheap airplane tickets, cheap deals, discount hotel rooms, discount travel deals, and cheap vacation packages, some travelers only feel most alive when eating the most bizarre, even dangerous food.
The following are some of the deadliest foods on the planet:
Raw cashews such as those so described in supermarkets are not really raw. They have been steamed to remove urushiol, a chemical found in poison ivy. High levels of urushiol can be fatal. People allergic to poison ivy are likely to experience a fatal allergic reaction to eating actual raw cashews.
Elderberries are popular in jams, jellies, and wine. Their leaves, twigs, and seeds contain cyanide producing glycoside that can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and coma. Elderberries should never be eaten unripe.
The giant African bullfrog is viewed as a delicacy in Namibia but contains a poison that can result in kidney failure and death. The poison can supposedly be neutralized by cooking it in a pot lined with dry wood.
Ackee fruit can be found in the Caribbean and is delicious as well as rich in vitamins and protein. However, if the fruit is eaten before it is fully ripe, it prevents glucose from being released from the liver, which in turn quickly lowers a persons blood sugar followed by violent illness or death.
Star fruit is poisonous to people with bad kidneys. Just 100 ml of this fruits juice is very dangerous to such people. The fruit contains neurotoxins that impact the brain and nerves. Healthy people are not affected since their bodies are able to filter out the neurotoxins.
Pangium edule is fruit from a tree in Southeast Asia, and poisonous to humans because of the hydrogen cyanide it contains. Its fruit seeds can be safely eaten after they have been boiled without their shells and soaked in water.
Casu marzu has been outlawed throughout much of Italy and is prepared by leaving cheese from sheeps milk outside to ferment during which a certain species of fly is allowed to lay its eggs on the cheese. The eggs then hatch and become maggots which soften the cheese enough for consumption. The maggots must be eaten alive along with the cheese to prevent extra toxicity.
Silver Strip Blaasop is a delicacy in some ports of the Indian Ocean. The liver, skin, and reproductive organs of the Silver Stripe Blaasop are said to contain a poisonous substance that can cause breathing and circulation problems as well as fatal muscle paralysis.
Echizen kurage is a poisonous jellyfish which lives on tuna. Japanese consider this jellyfish a delicacy which is only safe to eat after its toxic parts have been removed and the jellyfish cooked.
Fugu, also called pufferfish, is a fish whose liver and internal organs contain lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin which has no known antidote. Top fugu chefs are expected to leave just the right amount of poison in this dish so that a diner feels a tingling sensation on his/her tongue while eating this fish.
Hakarl is an Icelandic delicacy consisting of fermented shark. The sharks meat is full of toxic substances including trimethylamine oxide. The toxins are removed by burying the shark in a sand and gravel pit, which removes moisture, then fermented, and cut into strips before being hung to dry. The entire process takes about six months to complete.
San nak ji is raw baby octopus. The octopus is dismembered, seasoned with sesame oil, and immediately presented on a plate. Many of its tentacles continue to move and will use their suckers on you if you try to swallow them. Diners must carefully chew eat bite thoroughly before risking letting something alive and potentially dangers down their throats.
www.cheapfares.com