Taboo

I had an idea recently to write a children's book about the bizarre things people eat in different countries.

Indonesia has plenty of culinary delights on its own. The following foods are used in Indonesia for health, potency or gourmet properties in various parts of the country:
geckos, dried seahorses, monitor lizards, sea turtle eggs, orangutan meat, goat testicles, shark cartilage, pythons, sperm whales,cobra blood, bear paws, crocodile and tiger penises, rhinoceros horns and monkey brains.

Here is a short list of strange foods commonly associated with these countries:

South Africa: mopani worms, boerewors (intestine used as casings and stuffed with bits of leftover meat and spices, see http://www.3men.com/sausage.htm#Boerewors) biltong (a kind of beef jerky)sheep's head
Other African countries: beer made from the blood of cattle (Masai), goat's head, grasshoppers, urine
Scotland: haggis (sheep's stomach stuffed with meat and barley)
France: frog's legs, camel's feet
China: bird's nest soup, tiger testicles and (to name but a few)human breast milk (to verify check: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/30/1043804416757.html?oneclick=true)
South Korea: squid jerky, silkworm grubs, tiger penis soup, and obviously bohshintang (dog meat). Some would include kimchi (rotten spicy cabbage)but I had some for dinner again tonight.
Vietnam: baby birds (still in the egg - quite crunchy), snake blood (and if you're lucky, you get its heart thrown in), and eating still warm raw meat from a just slaughtered water buffalo or drinking its blood (think Apocalypse Now)
Indonesia: did I mention fruit bats?
Mexico: moles, jalapeno peppers (very hot!) and tequila worms
Iceland: hakarl (shark)
Japan: fugu or puffer fish (Want to know why it is so dangerous: Link to http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20031223.html)
Netherlands: salted horsemeat sandwiches, raw salted herring, peanut butter sauce on french fries
Australia: marmite, kangaroo and honey ants
Borneo: leguans (monitor lizard)
USA (some parts it has to be said): chicken feet, chewing gum, deep-fried turkey (the whole thing), and hog (pig) maws (mouth) and snouts (nose)
Canada: cod tongues and seal flipper pie
Italy: song birds
Sardinia: maggot-cheese, which Bill Bryson also wrote about if I remember correctly
Mediterranean region: sheep's head, the whole thing, including eyeballs, skinned and cooked. Cheese octopus, cicada, and octopus and squid in ink.

But the award for Most Taboo Food goes to...

Hong Kong: monkey brains. What makes it even more bizarre are that they are served fresh - which means the monkey is sedated but alive during the meal.
If you can't believe that people actually eat live monkey brains, visit this link http://www.maxent.org/ch/monkey_brains.html as the author tries to convince you that it doesn't happen. I'd like to believe him, but if you google monkey brains and you click images, it's easy to find evidence.

I think you can make quite an amusing story for kids choosing about 10 of the weirdest dishes (10 different countires, and one weird dish per country) above and writing and illustrating it in an attractive way. I for one am interested to know what the deal is with cheese octopus, song birds and tequila worms.

http://www.mongabay.com/external/monkey_brains.htm
www.weird-food.com