Unusual Foods that Only Exist in China

If you’re planning a trip to China anytime soon, you should probably know that the cuisine is far more exotic than just pizza and chicken nuggets. Have you ever seen crocodile meat, centipedes, fried lizard, or bear paw soup served up in your local restaurant? Don’t reach for the snacks just yet as we feast our eyes on some of the most unusual foods that only exist in China!

Century Eggs

How do you like your eggs in the morning? If the answer is "stinky", then China is the place for you! These are Century Eggs in the image below, a kind of preserved duck, quail, or chicken egg that are considered a delicacy across China.

They’re also called Thousand Year Eggs or Millennium Eggs, but don’t panic just yet, they haven’t actually been preserved for that long. The eggs are covered in a paste made of tea, lime salt and ash and are left to sit for as long as several months.

During this time, the sodium hydroxide in the coating changes the inside of the egg. While the egg white turns to a gelatinous brown, the yolks becomes a creamy source of intense flavor. As you can guess, it’s pretty polarizing dish. Many fans claim it’s a fragrant delight, while others think it’s a dish that’s well past its "egg-spiration" date!

Shark Fin Soup

You can find plenty of unconventional soups across China, and Shark Fin soup is no exception. Made from the fin of a real shark, it’s one of the most luxurious dishes on the market with just one bowl costing around $100!

The cartilage, which is similar in structure to human fingernails, is shredded to add texture to the soup, though it doesn’t actually provide much flavor! But it’s a dish associated with good fortune, so it’s still served at important events like weddings and banquets.

But gathering the main ingredient is a gruesome affair, with an estimated 73 million sharks killed every year for their fins alone. For an ingredient that doesn’t even add any flavor, that’s an outrageously high cost!

Seahorse Snack

If you ever find yourself wading through the sea of Chinese street vendors, there’s one little seafood snack that might stand out among the rest. Believe it or not, China is the world’s largest consumer of seahorses, with an annual demand of approximately 500 tons. When dried, they become a crunchy sidewalk snack that tastes like potato chips! Don't believe me? Hear this guy out in this video clip below:

eating a seahorse in beijing by ryoneo

But they’re more than just a bite to eat! For over 600 years, seahorses have been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a particular male dysfunction. So, next time you’re too embarrassed to head to the docs, why not try and hook yourself a seahorse instead! Just kidding, these little fellas are far too adorable to be used as some whacky alternative to Viagra.

Bird Nest Soup

Just how mouth-watering does "bird spit soup" sound? Made from edible birds’ nests, which are sometimes called the Caviar of the East, bird nest soup is actually extremely rare and insanely valuable.

The main ingredient is made by swiftlets, which use their saliva to create the sturdy nests at dizzying heights, usually high up in mountaintop caves. As you can imagine, they’re not the easiest things to harvest.

Considering how difficult they are to clean and the perils of getting hold of them in the first place, some nests can be sold for almost $5,000 per pound! They’ve been used in Chinese cooking for around 1,200 years, and are favored for their gelatinous texture! Suddenly it seems like having a waiter spit in your food could actually be considered a compliment, if he has feathers, that is!

Chip Varieties

When it comes to chips, we all love a variety of flavors. But China has managed to take it to the next level with their bizarre abundance of crazy flavors. How does a bag of Hot and Sour Fish Soup chips sound? Not for you? Then what about Lemon Tea Flavor chips? How about Blueberry flavor? As strange as they may seem, these bizarre food fusions combined with the saltiness of the chips are a popular hit in many regions of China.

Gutter Oil

What do you think this woman in the video clip below is doing? Cleaning the sewers?

The Making Of 'Gutter Oil' by Radio Free Asia

She may be getting all that nasty looking slop out of the drains, but she’s not disposing of it. She’s actually harvesting it! All that grey slop is old, solidified oil. She’s taking it away to be processed and recycled back into cooking oil, where it’ll be sold on to restaurants and street vendors!

Obviously, this entire process is super illegal, but with regular cooking oils getting costlier in the country, this re-cycled garbage is a much cheaper alternative. So much so that back in 2013, it was estimated that a staggering tenth of all the cooking oil in China was a form of this gutter oil. It’s going to take more than a little seasoning to get the taste of trash out of your mouth!

Eating Bats

Just the idea of eating a bat soup is stomach churning to a lot of people and many people in China actually feel the same way! Eating bats in China has almost always been culturally unacceptable, but not illegal.

Back in 2009, one researcher reported that areas in southern China, like Guangdong and Guangxi provinces sold bat meat at markets and had it advertised in restaurants! But there’s a huge danger involved in consuming bats, as they’re hosts to a large number of viruses, most notably, Coronaviruses like SARS which can be passed onto humans.

While it’s still unknown exactly where the devastating COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in 2020 originated from, scientific research proposes that it is likely to have come from bats. No matter how good the soup tastes, is it ever really worth risking a worldwide virus outbreak for?

Deep Fried Silkworm Pupae

Some people will eat anything if it’s deep-fried. Americans love deep fried pizza, deep fried birthday cake, even deep-fried watermelon! But would you be brave enough to try deep fried Silkworm Pupae?

These would-be silkworms are a traditional delicacy in northeast China and are sold on skewers to be deep fried, shells and all! But they’re not just found on the sidewalks, they’re a common ingredient at many of the regions restaurants as well! They’re drenched in delicious spices to make them a little easier to swallow, or at the very least to make you forget you’re literally eating worms!

Snake Soup

What better way could there be to warm yourself up than with a nice, hearty bowl of snake soup? Known in Cantonese as Se Gang, this southern Chinese delicacy can contain up to five different types of snake meat.

The meat itself apparently tastes similar to chicken, but with a few more scales than the average chicken nugget. Snake restaurants in Hong Kong are called Se Wong, which translates to "Snake Kings". But today these restaurants are becoming increasingly rare as cooking with snakes takes certain expertise, and sadly isn’t paid very well. So, if you’ve ever wanted to take a bite out of a snake, you better go get it while it’s hot, literally!

Balut

If you couldn’t handle the century eggs, you may want to stay away from Balut, a fertilized duck egg that’s been boiled in the shell and is eaten with the embryo still inside. As unappetizing as it looks from the outside, these pre-packed snacks originated in China and have become a common street food across the Philippines.

To get stuck into this haunting grub, you crack open the egg and suck out the broth which has gathered at the top during its boiling. Then, if you’re feeling hardcore, you peel the shell off and proceed to chow down on the entire thing, bones, beak, and all! Who knew a little added crunch could be so horrifying?

Blood Tofu

Many cultures consume blood products, like black pudding in England or Morcilla in Spain. But China’s blood tofu looks a little different. That’s because blood tofu’s main, and sometimes only, ingredient is blood!

The jelly-like blocks of congealed duck or pigs blood are used in many stews and soups. It’s incredibly rich in minerals like iron, but that just adds to the bloody taste it leaves in your mouth. Reviews online compare the taste to having bitten your lip! It doesn’t exactly sound appetizing, and it becomes even less so when you learn it’s sometimes mixed with toxic formaldehyde to improve the color and texture!

Stinking Black Tofu

If you’re walking down the market streets in China and suddenly gag on the wafting smell of garbage, there’s a good chance it’s actually coming from a cultural delicacy, which is stinky black tofu.

Regular tofu is made from coagulated soy milk, and any vegan will tell you the resulting bean curds are relatively bland. But stinking black tofu takes much longer, and the black brine it’s made from can sit for almost a whole year to give it a stronger flavor! Fermented with a mix of Chinese herbs and vegetables, the solid black blocks of bean curd are then ready for market!

Some of the more strong-stomached among you might be thinking “it doesn’t sound all that bad” but some vendors can take a liberty here, shortcutting the process by adding feces to the tofu to make it smell more pungent.

Jellyfish Salad

At a special occasion like a birthday party or anniversary, what kind of food would you serve? Tasty meats? Perfect looking cakes? What about a jellyfish salad? Even though they’re made from about 95% water, some Chinese foodies have found a way to make jellyfish into a gourmet dish. The jellyfish itself is tasteless, but the crunchy texture it has makes it perfect as a salad ingredient! Just check out this bizarre ASMR:

ASMR EATING JELLYFISH AND CUCUMBER SALAD | EXTREME CRUNCHY EATING SOUNDS | LINH-ASMR by LINH-ASMR

But making jellyfish salad is not as simple as just fishing one out of the sea and taking a carving knife to it, because not all jellyfish are edible. However, the Chinese have been incorporating jellyfish into their meals for over 1700 years! You never know what you’ll get when you ask for a bowl of Jell-o!

Yak Sausage

The Guolizhuang restaurant in Beijing prides itself on serving just about every kind of animal wiener under the sun, but not of the sausage kind!

But it’s not the only place in China that serves them. Throughout the country, various animals crown and jewels are a highly favored food, not for their taste or sheer variety, but for their apparent aphrodisiac quality! While there’s no supporting science behind it, many believe that certain meats from the underside of an animal can increase the libido in men and women.

Yin Yang Fish

While yin yang may make you think of harmony and serenity, "yin yang fish" couldn’t be anything further from that pleasant mental image. Yin Yang fish is a fried, whole fish that’s prepared below the gills to keep the fish head alive while its being cooked, served and eaten.

It sounds totally brutal, and that’s because it really is! Why would any chef in their right mind want to such a thing? In China, some chefs do it to prove the fishes freshness to the customer. This morally dubious menu item was invented in Taiwan but has since found popularity across many parts of China.

Drunken Shrimp

If the yin yang fish had you covering your eyes, it might not be time to peep through your fingers just yet because fish aren’t the only creatures that can find themselves being cooked alive in China. Drunken Shrimp is a dish where the shrimp are served alive and flipping.

They’re drenched and marinated in a liquor-based sauce which irritates them, making them jump about wildly in the bowl. Eventually the shrimp consume the liquor which makes them sluggish, allowing diners to eat them alive! It’s an incredibly messy pre-dinner show. Because the little blighters are drunk rather than dead, they sometimes manage to get their sweet, sweet revenge as they flip off greedy diners.

Shrimps getting Drunk & Dancing [Vlog 70] by Foodicles

Cats

Sadly, just like their canine counterparts, China’s feline friends can also be served up as a side dish. About 4 million cats are eaten every year across the country, and even though it’s seen as taboo it doesn’t stop street vendors and rural sellers partaking in this animal scandal.

Areas such as the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in south China have an older population that consider cat meat a good source of nutrition during winter months. And Guangdong province alone is thought to consume around 10,000 cats a day! In fact, one investigation from 2017 revealed that stray and pet cats were being rounded up and sold to restaurants under the guise of rabbit meat!

Hairy Tofu

Just when you thought vegan food couldn’t get any worse, enter the nightmare inducing Hairy Tofu!

As you now know, Tofu is made from fermented soy milk. Much like in the process of making cheese, the time it takes tofu to ferment can change its texture and flavor. In the case of this wig-wearing tofu, also known as Mao Tofu, humid conditions during the fermentation process are needed to help cultivate a mold with hair like texture.

The process gives it a very strong, pungent flavor, if you’re a fan of blue cheese or stilton, you’ll know what to expect! But unlike cheese, this hair-raising foodstuff smells like ammonia! Fun for some but nauseating for others.

Soft Shell Crabs

There aren’t many foods you can eat with the shell on, but thanks to Chinese ingenuity you can now eat an entire deep fried, battered crab right off the skewer.

These soft-shell crabs have been battered for street-side convenience in markets all over China. While they seem like a no-fuss solution to picking out and serving hard-to-get crab meat, that inconvenience is passed onto the customer. You have to bite through the shell to get to your meal, and by that I mean through eyes, guts, and all! And it’s not easy either. According to some, a lot of it can get stuck in your teeth too.

Deep-Fried Bee Larvae

According to scientists, the bees are disappearing fast and turning these flower-loving creatures into a tasty snack certainly isn’t helping! In the northern city of Qingdao, one restaurant offers up plates of deep-fried bee larvae! But the practice isn’t actually all that uncommon. Since the late 1800’s, bee larva and pupae have been eaten across many areas of China and are still sold in the markets today.

To some, they taste like little balls of raw dough, but to others they’re naturally sweet and go well with a simple salt and pepper seasoning. They don’t look too appetizing to me, but who knows, if they’re really that good, it’s no wonder they’re on their way to becoming an endangered species!

Bear Paw Soup

At first glance, this soup in the image below seems more like a prank than a meal. It looks like a dolls hand has been left in the bowl! Sadly, this is the crowning glory of horrendous Chinese soups, the Bear Paw Soup. According to folklore, this soup is supposed to give the consumer the power and virility of a bear. And for that kind of trade-off, a single portion can cost upwards of $1000.

But the way they harvest the main ingredient is undeniably horrendous, with approximately 10,000 bears kept in tiny cages on 70 farms across China. Some have even been kept there for more than 30 years! Seems like this dish is grizzly in more than one way.

Crocodile Meat

China’s first Walmart opened in 1996, and while it may look familiar on the outside, their range of fresh fish has a whole lot more bite! Crocodile meat is a commodity that’s available across China, but the giant reptile has been used in elements of Chinese medicine dating back to the 16th century.

Cutting Crocodile and Enhydris at seafood market in China. by Asia HOT

Back then, the meat was considered highly nutritional, and was even believed to cure respiratory illnesses like asthma. While we’re still waiting on the science to back up the latter claim, we do know that crocodile meat is high in protein and low in cholesterol. And China isn’t the only country that enjoys it! In the Philippines, a Crocodile Lechon is a celebratory meal with enough exotic meat to feed 50 people!

Guilinggao

Guilinggao is an ancient medicinal dessert that originally came from Guangxi province in China. It’s a type of bitter jelly, with enough herbal roots to almost cure 19th century Emperor Tongzhi of smallpox, if folklore is to be believed.

【小川子熟食】這才是夏季最火小吃“龜苓膏”，做法很簡單，先收藏了！ by 小川子熟食

But there’s one secret ingredient in this dark dessert that might make you recoil in shock. It’s made with powdered turtle shell! Traditionally it was made from the plastron of the valuable Golden Coin Turtle, which is this bit here. It was thought to help cure cancer and kidney failure, even though there was no scientific evidence to back up that claim.

Venomous Centipedes

There are 100 reasons why you shouldn’t chow down on venomous centipedes. But in China, this insidious looking insect can be dried or fried to become a crunchy kebab style snack. Check out this clip below:

Chinese Girl Eating Bugs by CosmicTopic

These many legged monstrosities have been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years to help treat tuberculosis, herpes, paralysis and even cancer. But they often do more harm than good, as two Chinese patients found out after parasitic lungworms ended up in their brains as a result of eating raw centipedes!

Deep-Fried Lizards

If you consider yourself a reptile lover, exotic Chinese cuisine probably isn’t your thing. We’ve already seen snakes turned into soup, but what about flying lizards on sticks?

The flattened, fried or salt dried carcasses of these reptiles can be found across street markets, neatly stuck on sticks like scaley versions of Jesus. They’re also piled high in crates and boxes, ready to be turned into a soup or tea.

When they’re served up as snacks rather than cared for as exotic pets, lizards are said to have medicinal values that help them cure asthma. It may sound made up, but at least one scientific study from 2017 has backed that claim up.

Sea Star

Lizards on sticks are pretty bizarre, but they’re not the only unconventional creature to be skewered and sold on market stalls. With China becoming one of the largest and fastest growing seafood markets in the world, ocean dwelling starfish are quickly making their way across the country.

But how do you go about eating this five-legged food? First, you prise away the spiney outer armor, then eat the olive-green mush lining the insides. You then peel or suck out the mush, leaving you with a mouthful of fish flavored goop.

(Non ASMR) Eating Squid, Octopus, Sea Star - Mukbang eating show by Ha Ha Relaxing

Pacific Geoduck

Weighing up to 16 lbs, and costing up to $300 each, allow me to introduce you to the largest type of burrowing clam in the entire world: the Pacific Geoduck. The clam prized for its gigantic siphon, meaty texture, and salty flavor.

When they’re fresh out the sea they’re still full of water. That means that if they’re not prepared properly, as so excellently demonstrated by this lady in the clip below, they can turn into an unexpected squirty surprise.

Chinese Girl Eat Geoducks Delicious Seafood #002 | Seafood Mukbang Eating Show by The Wilderness Food

If you were amazed at these unusual Chinese foods, you might want to read about Chinese food scandals you won't believe! Thanks for reading.