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Some ingredients become deadly in the hands of an inept cook. But there are also dishes that are specially created in order to tickle your nerves. One awkward move and your life is in jeopardy. Nevertheless, there are many who want to risk their health and even their lives. And some of these products are illegal, but still in demand among consumers.
Sannakji
This South Korean dish is a live octopus cut into pieces and topped with soy sauce or cumin oil. The whole danger is that even in a dismembered state, the octopus continues to move. There are cases when the tentacles of the octopus, when eaten, tried to strangle the gourmet by sucking their suckers into the throat or skillfully crawling from the nasopharynx into the nose. Despite the deaths, the sannakchi continue to be served as the adrenaline improves the taste!
Durman (Datura)
In many cultures, bizarre and dangerous rituals are still accompanied by initiation into adulthood. One of these is eating a Brugmansia flower to determine the boy’s readiness to become a man. This fruit contains dope, which causes severe mental and consciousness disorders: delirium, fever, heart palpitations, aggressive behavior, memory loss, and so on. Despite the high mortality from such a ritual, it has not yet been eradicated.
Lutefisk
This is a Scandinavian fish dish, and there is no one like it anywhere in the world. The fish is soaked in a concentrated alkaline solution of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide for several days. The solution breaks down the proteins in the fish and makes them swell into a huge jelly. Then the fish is placed in fresh water for a week so that when consumed it does not cause a chemical burn to the human mucosa. Lutefisk cannot be eaten with silver cutlery, otherwise the fish will simply eat away at the metal. The same goes for the dishes in which the fish is cooked. What to say about gourmet stomachs.
Human flesh
Cannibalism has been justified more than once in history by circumstances when people were forced to eat dead comrades in order to survive on their own. But there were places on the planet where cannibalism did not flourish from hunger and hardship. The people of Fore in Papua New Guinea, according to the tradition of burial, ate the bodies of the deceased, which sent a terrible epidemic upon themselves. Prion bacteria were easily transmitted from person to person through cannibalism. The disease arising from eating human flesh is similar to mad cow disease, and even heat treatment could not kill the bacteria. The infected person soon died and his body was eaten again, spreading the disease further.
Antimony
Antimony is a toxic metalloid that causes heart failure, seizures, organ damage and death. And in small doses, this substance causes headaches, vomiting, dizziness and depression. And in medieval Europe, antimony was often used as a contraceptive or as a way to empty the stomach in order to eat even more. At the same time, antimony tablets were reusable – after removing them from the intestine, the tablets were cleaned and used again.
Casu Marzu
Italian cheese from the island of Sardinia was banned by law due to the lack of hygiene. But the unsurpassed taste makes farmers produce cheese, because there are many who want to enjoy it. When making cheese from sheep’s milk, the larvae of a special fly are injected into it, which eat the cheese mass and secrete juices, which provoke strong fermentation of the product. When the cheese begins to decompose and becomes runny, it is eaten. At the same time, the larvae of flies jump on the face of the tasters, so they eat cheese in special glasses.
Urushi Tea
Another ritual is to achieve enlightenment by mummifying your own body for several years. This tradition belongs to the extreme form of Buddhism – Sokushinbutsu. For the ritual, one should drink tea made from the urushi tree (lacquer tree), which contains a large amount of poison. When consumed, the body almost immediately lost all fluid through the pores, and the remaining flesh was highly toxic. At the moment, urushi tea is banned all over the world.
Physostigma poisonous (Calabar Beans)
In the tropics of Africa there is a vegetable-vegetable “poisonous physostigma”, a highly toxic vegetable. If eaten, it will cause damage to the nervous system, muscle spasms, convulsions, then respiratory arrest and death. Nobody dares to eat this plant. But in southern Nigeria, these beans are used to confirm or deny a person’s innocence. The perpetrator is forced to swallow the beans, and if the poisonous beans kill the person, he is considered guilty. If stomach cramps push the beans back, then he is exempt from punishment for any crime.
Naga Jolokia
Naga Jolokia is a chili-pepper hybrid that contains 200 times capsaicin than other representatives of this plant. This amount of capsaicin in the smell alone is enough to permanently deprive a person or animal of their sense of smell. It is used in India to scare away elephants from agricultural land. This pepper is deadly in food. The Indian military is currently developing weapons using the Naga Jokoli.
Shrimp Cocktail of St. Elmo Steak House “
Some plants contain substances that can kill whoever tastes them – this is their natural defense. Allyl isocyanate or mustard oil is five times more deadly than arsenic in the same amount. A small dose of people develop immunity to certain types of poison, and this is used in some countries, creating dishes with an insignificant amount of poison in the composition. In Indiana and the United States, St. Elmo Steak House ”is a shrimp cocktail for which the spice is obtained from 9 kilograms of grated horseradish containing mustard oil. Those who have tried the cocktail say that the body is as if pierced by a powerful discharge of current.