Exotic Food Dishes: Corn Smut and Other Curiosities

If you have found yourself interested in exotic food dishes, one of the factors that you may have found yourself facing early on is the unusual monikers that oftentimes get attached to one dish or another. What oftentimes happens is that the name assigned to particular exotic food dishes bears no immediately helpful relationship to understanding the dish itself. For example, on the list of exotic food dishes is something known as "corn smut." In the end, the term "corn smut" might conjure up all manner of ideas but still not give a person a clear picture of what dining on corn smut might be all about.

Through this article, you are presented an examination of some exotic food dishes - including corn smut and other curiosities. Once finished with this brief informational article, it is hoped that you will come to an understanding that not only can't you judge a book by its cover, but you cannot necessarily understand particular exotic food dishes by their given names.

Corn smut actually is the American term for what technically is known as cuitlacoche. Corn smut or cuitlacoche is a purple fungus that grows on corn. Midwestern farmers historically consider corn smut a terrible blight. Corn smut works on ordinary corn kernels. When corn smut hits a crop, it causes the kernels to swell up and turn a purple to black color. Despite the fact that corn smut has had farmers pounding their fists for generations, corn smut has now turned up on menus that feature exotic food dishes.

Corn smut is utilized in soup and many people who have tasted this unusual delicacy have described its taste as "astounding."

Corn smut is not the only unusual item to appear on menus that feature exotic food dishes in this day and age. Other interested menu selections that can be found in an ever growing of bistros the world over. For example, some venues are now doing a great deal with grasshoppers, including serving hearty legs like drumsticks and incorporating the whole bug into tacos.

In addition, some bistros have developed exotic food dishes that include heretofore unused parts of animal's bodies including: pig's ears, duck's neck and lamb's brain. In addition, there is a dish known as Bath Chaps which is comprised of hog's face and tongue.

Another example of a dish that can be considered to have been found off the proverbial beaten path is roasted veal bone marrow served with a more traditional parsley salad. Finally, a record number of chicken's feet are being served in a variety of dishes. On some level, the sky - and the ground and what runs on it and grows in it - has become the limit when it comes to 21st century exotic food dishes.