15+ Dishes and foods that are highly sought after by tourists, but that usually disappoint travelers

Getting to know a new country is not a complete experience without trying the local cuisine. However, sometimes we order popular dishes and after tasting a few spoonfuls we are left wondering: “Is this that famous food?”.

We, from awesome.club, we read the reports of travelers who visited restaurants in different parts of the world and found out which dishes were the most disappointing for them. And we also learned which local foods can cause food poisoning. Check out!

Japan: Miso Ice Cream (Fish and Vegetable Soup) and Noodle Sandwich

In Japan, you can find a range of unusual dishes, and most are completely safe and worth trying (with the exception of puffer fish).

However, there are truly strange culinary inventions in the Land of the Rising Sun. For example, a sandwich with noodles instead of meat and an ice cream flavored with miso soup. There’s nothing extreme about these dishes, but if you weren’t born and lived your whole life in Japan, there’s a 99.9% chance you’ll regret it.

Salmiakki is a traditional delicacy in Finland. You can buy these sweets anywhere. It is also used in various confectionery and beverages. It is made from licorice root, salt, ammonia, charcoal and sugar.

This sweet is strictly prohibited for pregnant and lactating women, people with allergies, people with kidney disease, people with water and sodium balance problems or high blood pressure. In addition to all this, there are few who like the taste of salmiakki, and many associate the taste with that of cough syrup.

Another dangerous product served in Finnish restaurants is the brain mushroom. Finland is the only country in the European Union where these fungi can be sold fresh. Although they can contain varying amounts of toxins and there have even been cases of poisoning and death after eating them, you can order them at many establishments across the country.

Normally, the word pudding is associated with porridge or dessert: rice pudding, milk pudding… So, you might think that black pudding is a chocolate dessert, but it’s not like that. Black pudding is a food made from pig or ox blood, mixed with lard, oatmeal, herbs and breadcrumbs, quite traditional in the United Kingdom.

Black pudding, as well as the Scottish national dish haggis (lamb stomach stuffed with its viscera) are on the list of dishes that most disappoint tourists. By the way, according to the survey results, almost half of Scots also hate haggis.

Hackepeter or mett is a traditional dish from the Free State of Thuringia. It consists of raw minced rib meat, with onions and spices. According to the recipe, the meat temperature should not exceed 2° C, but it is not always possible to fulfill this condition. This temperature is a perfect environment for bacteria to reproduce, so following the correct preparation and storage conditions is problematic.

It is also worth mentioning that the meat used is not from just one animal, but from several, and if one of them is infected, it compromises the whole dish. It is usually served in tartare format, but in some places they make sculptures with the raw meat.

Mediterranean cuisine expert, blogger and nutritionist Elena Paravantes does not recommend ordering moussaka in Greek restaurants. The dish is very difficult to prepare: some of the ingredients have to be roasted, the bechamel has to be fresh, and everything has to be layered using certain seasonings, spices and fresh oil. All of this takes a long time, so restaurants often speed up the process by skipping a few steps or reheating the frozen dish.

Gelato is Italy’s calling card. Therefore, many tourists often buy multi-colored ice cream from street stalls, not knowing that most of the time they are buying powdered ice cream with the addition of dyes and an artificial flavor, incomparable to real Italian gelato.

To prepare this delicacy, raw chicken or duck eggs are placed in a special mixture with a strong alkaline reaction consisting of clay, ash, salt, lime and vacuum rice starch.

One netizen described the feeling when tasting the dish for the first time: “When I was 14, my mother offered me $100 if I ate an ancient egg. I closed my eyes and popped the gelatinous stuff into my mouth. The egg was cold, slimy, had a gelatinous consistency, with a charcoal taste. I had the sensation of chewing jelly from cold chicken fat. All of a sudden I choked and spat, my mom put the $100 bill back in her pocket.”

In addition to the dubious taste, the millennial egg can be dangerous. The Chinese sometimes add lead oxide or zinc oxide to the mixture to speed up the process. In the first case, lead is dangerous to health because it is toxic. In the second, excess zinc can lead to a copper deficiency in the body, which is also dangerous.

People traveling to Mexico are advised to avoid eating the famous Mexican salsa. The sauce itself is safe, but in the country’s very hot climate, if stored incorrectly, parsley becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. In addition, the pepper used can cause hyperventilation and stomach pain.

Ceviche, a dish made with raw fish, can also be dangerous. Several pathogenic microorganisms have been found several times in ceviches. The cholera outbreak in Latin America in the 1990s is believed to be related to this delicacy.

Thai food is known and loved around the world, but generally this popularity is limited to a few dishes like Tom yum (spicy and sour soup), fried rice and Pad Thai (fried noodles). Isan cuisine, from the northeast region of the country, close to the border with Laos, is much less common around the world.

It is marked by dishes that may pose a health risk: giblets, raw blood, raw meat and fish and a wide variety of insects.

Dishes made from beetles, wasps, grubs, grasshoppers and scorpions don’t have much flavor, reported one netizen: “The scorpion was bitter and salty. I was told I could eat it whole, but I was afraid to eat the stinger and claws. It was an interesting experience, but I won’t repeat it”.

If you still want to try it, remember to follow the safety rules regarding insect preparation. For example, you must make sure that the stinger is removed from the scorpion, otherwise it can still be very dangerous, even fried.

Kokoretsi is a traditional Turkish dish that can be bought both on the streets and in restaurants. It consists of sheep or goat intestines, rolled on a skewer and cooked over low heat. Turks love this dish, but eating it is not safe.

The fact is that all animal waste passes through the intestines, and if it is not washed well, various pathogenic bacteria can enter the human body, since the cooking temperature is not high enough to kill them all.

In some Egyptian restaurants, as well as street stalls, you can try fesikh during the Sham el-Nessim festival, a dish of fermented mullet that was collected by locals after the floods of the Nile, but today can be bought in markets.

Every year the government appeals to the population not to consume the dish, but the tradition is thousands of years old. This is because fish can cause botulism, which does not prevent establishments in Egypt from selling the delicacy.

Have you tried any dishes from our list today? If not, would you dare? Tell us in the comments section!