Wish chew were here?

Some of the unusual foreign foods we've ‘enjoyed’ on our travels.

- By Nigel Thompson

oing on holiday abroad has many pleasures - new horizons to explore, new cultures to embrace and new food to try. But when you order off an unfamiliar menu more in hope than expectation, it’s possible to end up with a plate of mystery morsels.

So, in the spirit of culinary curiosity, we asked our journalists (a pretty well-travelled bunch) for their foreign food memories.

To start the undercooked meatball rolling, I'll contribute braised jellyfish with ‘century egg’ (fermented for months until a gelatinous greenish-grey) for an awful eggs-over-queasy breakfast in China, whole baby frogs in Thailand, guinea pig in Peru and rattlesnake with bison testicles in Texas. The rattlesnake wasn't too bad. A bit like chicken...

Peter Rickman (production): “Octopus cooked in its own ink in the then Yugoslavia. Now I like a bit of octopus but this was like chunks of rubber floating in a watery black broth with two sad looking school dinner boiled potatoes... no thanks.”

Karin Wright (production): “On a food tour of Florence - lampredotto (lining of a cow's fourth stomach) from a food truck, served in a sandwich with a strong salad verde (presumably to obscure the taste)... interesting flavour, awful texture. I took a bite to be polite.”

Ben Rankin (editors): “Horse intestines ~ never again. We were in a lovely restaurant in Kazakhstan, with a feast of food served to us, including special occasion dish beshbarmak.