Everyone has their favorite dish – whether it be a personal or local favorite. Depending on where you visit, a dish you might consider off kilter may be a favorite and well-respected delicacy. Such was the case when we visited Mexico, where we found some truly disgusting dishes we just can’t quite bring ourselves to prepare at home.

When a Taco isn’t a Taco

Everyone loves a good taco, filled with delicious ground beef or shredded chicken, cheeses, salsa, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and whatever else your heart desires. Is your mouth watering at the thought? Imagine visiting a local taco joint in Oaxaca City, ordering a taco, and being told that your options were limited to beef snout, chopped tongue, pig skin, and eyeballs.

If the odd ends of beef don’t sound appetizing, you might prefer a simple tortilla. They’re made with mouth watering guacamole, beans cooked to perfection, grasshoppers, and worms. Yum!

Other local favorites include tacos filled with white fish, enchiladas complete with duck meat, or a heaping serving of venison with mole. Anyone have directions to the nearest Taco Bell?

Bugs, Bugs, and more Bugs

Remember stopping to visit your favorite street vendor for a good hoagie, hot dog, or cheese steak? Image stopping for street food in Mexico City only to be presented with a large cup of creepy crawlies – still creepy and crawly! If live bugs aren’t your thing, you might enjoy a heaping serving of corn smut (aka huitlachoche), but we doubt it.

Use Your Brain When Choosing Foods

Beef brains are a common specialty dish in parts of Mexico as well. As you can probably imagine, brains tend to have a texture that likens to mush, but they really don’t taste bad at all. They’re actually almost flavorless, so most of the taste comes from the sauce in which the brains are prepared. Fortunately, beef and calf brains aren’t as popular as they once were due to fears concerning “mad cow disease”, so you won’t find them on the menu nearly as often.

Tangled Up in Octopus

Octopus seems to be a very common dish throughout Mexico. Served alone, you may find the tangled mess stewed in a sauce made from its own ink. You can, however, find plenty of Octopus recipes, ranging from Octopus salads to cocktails. You may need a strong shot of good Mexican tequila after choking this one down.

The Incredible, Edible Egg

Perhaps if none of the above delicacies sound appetizing you may prefer a simple plate of eggs. Unfortunately, we’re talking about the ones that come from chickens this time. Instead you might consider a nice big serving of escamoles.

What are escamoles, you ask? They’re ant eggs that have been harvested from the roots of Mexican agave plants. They’re collected right before the larvae turn into ants. Oddly enough, the larvae can sting the collectors, who must wear gloves during the process. Tastes like corn? We beg to differ.

Mosquito eggs and fish eggs top the menu here, too. Have them alone or mix them with fried worms or wild boar.

With or Without the Skull?

Another odd Mexican dish is known as cabeza de cabrito (aka goat’s head). The head is sliced open so that you can eat the brains right out of the skull. Feel free to take the tongue and put it on your plate as well. Try not to look at the gaping eye sockets and you may enjoy your meal, if the giant saw the cook has to use to slice it open doesn’t turn your stomach first.

On to the Obscure

There are quite a number of other strange Mexican delicacies you might pray to not find on your plates at home. Amongst them are:

• Bull penis. Yes – Mexicans eat bull penis. They feel as though every part of the animal is edible, and this happens to be part of the animal. There’s nothing profane about it – it’s just food. In some cases you’ll hear this treat compared to a nice shrimp cocktail.

• Pork hands. Also known as manitas de puerco, the soft hand and foot portions of the pig are considered a lovely treat as well.

• Pumpkin flowers and Jamaica flowers: Pumpkin flowers are eaten in salads and in many other dishes. Jamaica flowers are served in water, making it sweet.

Make sure you know where you’re going and what you may have to eat before you embark on your next trip to Mexico. You may be surprised at the limitations on some local restaurant menus.

Just remember one thing. American food is just as disgusting to visitors to other countries, so maybe you should give a chopped tongue taco at least a little try!

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