The high-risk, high-reward world of adventurous foods

Smelly canned herring in Sweden, animal blood in a range of Indian dishes: one man's disgust is another's delicacy

- Raul Dias

Winnow goee stinky dofu at foo co in nai makeh", our food tour guide Ivy barks at my group of friends, in what can only be described as an alien tongue. The only two words in that sentence, besides the verb and prepositions, that I can decipher are "stinky" and "dofu", the latter being the Asian way of referring to tofu or soy bean curd. And both words send a shiver down my spine...

We are at Taipei, Taiwan's famed Shilin Night Market ready to test our reluctant palates at the adjacent food court. Now, Ivy's seemingly gibberish talk slowly makes sense. Genetically predisposed to detest both strong, pungent-smelling things and flabby textured food, I'm less than enthusiastic to have a go at the tofu sitting atop a wok of hot oil that it has been recently deep fried in.

In case one is wondering, this Chinese form of fermented tofu is one that has a strong odour. It is traditionally fermented in brine with vegetables and meat, sometimes for months. Although it is said to be more potent in its boiled and stewed form, I beg to differ. The piece of fried tofu I plop into my hesitant mouth and chew down upon explodes with a highly rancid, putrefying mouth feel. One that stays with me for hours, despite me trying to wash it down with a tall glass of chrysanthemum iced tea.

A few months later I found myself in Sweden partaking in another dreaded summer ritual that involves an infinitely more smellier specimen. Interestingly, this one even has its own song. Loosely translated into English as "chug it down", Helan Går couldn't be more appropriate when eating surströmming.