What’s the weirdest food you’ve eaten?

Let’s talk about weird food.

On a recent visit to London, we visited Covent Gardens (markets have changed to cater more for tourists - a pity if you ask me) and as we had time to kill, we visited one of the older pubs.

The White Lion is all you want from a traditional pub – a lot of mahogany wood, brass, low tables and stools.

A restaurant is located upstairs but we weren’t in the mood for a full-blown meal, we settled nicely in the bar.

Now, when we were given the bar menu, I expected the usual suspects but I wasn’t prepared to find frickles – beer-battered gherkins with garlic mayonnaise. Obviously, I had to order them but I was wondering who had a look at a gherkin and thought, it might be a great idea to dip this little fella in batter and give him a hot bath in oil.

The result was lovely crispy hot batter followed by a cold gherkin – a weird sensation indeed.

We ate the whole bowl as I wanted to see how adjusted we would get to the taste and texture and you know what: you do get used to it. Will I order it again? I doubt it unless I have been after a few drinks and my sense of adventure is more loose.

But talking about weird foods – the Scots have a habit of deep-frying everything. I have yet to taste a deep-fried Mars bar but I have tried haggis and it got a big thumbs down from me. The texture and taste was just not something my stomach could cope with.

I brought Mr T one after a trip to Edinburgh and although he ate it, he never asked for a repeat.

For people in Cambodia, deep-fried gherkins are nothing compared to fried tarantulas (this is where I draw a line I think) or jellied moose nose in Canada (I have been to Toronto but have never seen this on any menu).

Have you ever heard of a century egg – a Chinese delicacy? Eggs (duck, hen or quail can be used) are preserved in a saline mix for weeks or even months (not centuries) until the egg yolk becomes cheese-like and the egg white turns into a dark jelly.

Now, I have eaten pickled eggs (you really need to like eggs and pickles) but not yet the century egg.

Looking at images of these little buddies, I might need a bit of persuading before I tuck into one of them (can you imagine the smell?).

While looking for other weird foods, I came across tuna eyeballs in Japan. As much as I like the idea of nose to tail eating, I am not sure I’ll be rushing into trying one of the these. Saying that, I had cod cheeks and they were delicious.

We have foods that other nations might find weird.

Blood pudding, Toad in the Hole (my dad used to make it with apples as a dessert with custard – so tasty) or the famous crisp sandwich – some people might think we are weird.

I grew up in Germany and my grandmother made potato pancakes and served it with apple sauce (I have a recipe for it on my website biasasta.ie) and I almost lived on it as a child.

Another weird thing was steamed potatoes in their skin served with quark (thicker than yogurt) mixed with onion and flaxseed oil (it is actually rather nice).

So, we all have weird tastes and I can’t wait to see what people are coming up with next!