I’m a huge fan of the Travel Channel’s Show “Bizarre foods” starring Andrew Zimmerman… I love watching him bounce from country to country and sampling the oddest dishes ever..

He recently had a great Thanks Giving special where he invited a few of his favorite bizarre chefs that he had met throughout his crazy food journey… Awesome episode if you can find it on youtube.

 Andrew Zimmerman samples delicacies that included mad specialties from snake spring rolls, seal penis soup to veal tongue!

 Many people are grossed out by that show, but I am hooked with each episode. I am open to all foods and envy Andrew’s job. I would love to travel the world with him and indulge in worldly eats. Yummm….

You may be thinking that I’m crazy, and that may be partly true but my philosophy on food is… if people around the world are eating it, then it must be good… and most of the time, it is!

I grew up eating a lot of foods that are considered weird and disgusting here in the US. Like I mentioned in a recent article, my dad was a restaurant owner and Instead of bulking up on meat, he would make frequent visits to the butcher shop for fresh cuts and tag me along. I would sit with my dad and watch the butcher do his work. I was never bothered by the scene because I understood the reason behind it… for us to eat it… and that was what needed to happen. 

No animal part went to waste… my dad would deliciously cook up the left over liver, heart, intestines, brains and even tongue. I must say, my dad sure knew how to make it all taste so good…

One of my favorite dishes is lamb intestines stuffed with basmati rice and chickpeas. The picture above was taken last week at my mom’s during a family gathering she hosted. My dad and I decided to revisit the old days and cook up some sheep’s head.

I have had every part of the head in the past, but I never ventured in to eating the eyeballs. This time, I swore that I would try them!

So I thought happy thoughts, scooped the eyes out and put them in my mouth. Hmmm… not bad… I really, really enjoyed it..

My mom just looked at me and shook her head… you’ll never find someone to love you with the way you eat. And I can’t imagine what you’ll feed your kids

I have grown fearless of any food so bring it on! One of my hobbies is pretending to be Andrew Zimmerman and scouting the craziest restaurants while traveling for work. The only thing that I refuse to eat is a real live insect…. No way will I chew on a crawling spider! That spider has to be sauteed or marinated with something!

I’d love to hear about your exotic food experiences and what drove you to try them!

I can’t wait to hear from you.

Love your life!

Ghada