The national dish of Iceland is Hákarl, Greenland shark fermented and hung to dry for months, with a strong ammonia rich smell. Anthony Bourdain called it the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing he had ever eaten. The Swedes also enjoy fermented fish, in their case as Surströmming - herring which is pickled with just enough salt to prevent rotting, while still allowing it to ferment. Surströmming comes canned; opening a can releases one of the most putrid food smells in the world.
Perhaps these Nordic folk could cleans their palate with salmiak liquorice, that is liquorice flavoured with ammonium chloride, giving it an astringent taste which is surprisingly popular across Northern Europe. To complement the salt, why not try a Caribbean-origin drink of water, vinegar, molasses, and often ginger - Switchel, or haymaker’s punch; also known in parts of New England.
In northern Luzon, in the Philippines, the Ilocano people enjoy a tasty, bitter soup called Papaitan made of cow or goat innards - the bitterness comes from bile, along with tripe, intestine, heart, and spices. More distasteful still, for a number of reasons, and despite being taboo in both Indian and British culture, Anglo-Indian cuisine has given us Kutti Pi, curried unborn goat foetus.
Honorable mention to the durian, native to Borneo and Sumatra, and with such a strong aroma that many hotels and public transportation services in South East Asia ban it. Strong-smelling, perhaps, but curried goat foetus it is not.
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