unusual soups

Menudo


Mexican Traditional soup which is made up of  cow stomach which taste  to be a little odd. It is very popular and often made for special occasions. It is also widely known as a cure all for hangovers.  Menudo consists of tripe or cow stomach, onions, cilantro, oregano, chilis and hominy. It takes  seven to ten hours to make, as the meat needs to cook for an extended time to make it tender.  The tripe is so tender it almost melts in your mouth.  The origin of Menudo varies, found throughout Mexico, the soup most likely came from a need to use every part of the cow, in this case stomach lining. You can get the soup in any  Mexican restaurants in Mexico and most of the Mexican Restaurants in other parts of the world.



Kiburu Soup


Perhaps the simplest soup on the list comes to us from the Chagga tribe that lives at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. The tribe depends on agriculture for their livelihood focusing on bananas and coffee. A no frills type of life gets you a no frills soup, made of sweet bananas, beans and dirt or “earth” as they call it. Essentially the ingredients are all mixed together to form the soup including bits of twigs that can be seen in the picture. The dirt supposedly gives the soup a saltiness and earthiness flavor.



Supu Soup


This soup made with many parts of the animal . Supu  means soup, but the breakfast version of this Tanzanian soup is the most extravagant, made from goat lungs, heart, liver, head, cow stomach, intestines and tongue. If you are lucky, you might even get a cow hoof and tail thrown in. The hooves are sometimes boiled and is called supu ya makongoro. The soup eaten for breakfast is a traditional dish in Tanzania and is also widely known to cure hangovers.



Chicken Testicle Soup


Chicken testicles are used  instead of chicken meat. The soup simply made from testicles and vegetables is cooked in broth until tender. The testicles are creamy on the inside and very soft, similar to tofu but with tight skin like a sausage. Again, the testicles are said to have good side effects, in this case good skin for the women and stamina for the men.


Bird Nest Soup


Bird Nest Soup is made from the nests of Swiftlet birds. The Chinese soup is a delicacy, and sells for as much as $30 to $100 per bowl, a kilogram of the nest can cost up to $2000. Soups made from nests are almost entirely from the birds own sticky saliva.Some common health benefits that are associated with the soup are, focus, improved asthma, libido, and the immune system.



Deer Placenta Soup


In Shanghai, China, you can have Deer Placenta Soup that will help you in bed, your kidneys, skin and vitality. The soup is made from mushrooms, flowers, black chicken (must be where the black testicles come from) and deer tendon in a broth. The placenta is elastic making it chewy when eating it, The sac-shaped organ that attaches the embryo or fetus to the uterus during pregnancy in most mammals. Blood flows between mother and fetus through the placenta, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the fetus and carrying away fetal waste products. The placenta is expelled after birth.



Shirako Soup or Cods Sperm Soup


Known as Cods Milk Soup stateside and Shirako in Japan, the soup is essentially the sperm sac of male codfish. Shirako is served raw or in a soup. The sperm sac cooks until it melts down into chowder like broth becoming creamy, almost like custard. Shirako, appropriately means “white children” and is available in the winter. As with many animal parts in Asian cuisine that have special qualities, eating the Cod’s sperm gives you stamina in bed. There is a restaurant in New York that serves the dish as a specialty.



Fruit Bat Soup

In the islands of Palau, this soup is again a delicacy in town. The island has two types of bats, the insect eating and the large fruit bats. The latter are cooked in coconut milk, ginger, spices and boiled for several hours.  Many people who have tried the soup stated it is delicious, although having a furry rodent like head staring at you can be unsettling.



Tiger Penis Soup


Tiger Penis Soup has been around for centuries in Asian cultures, known for its almost mythical properties akin to Viagra. The dried tiger penis is soaked in water for a week and then simmered up to 24 hours with other spices and medicines, at times with tiger bone. A single bowl of soup can cost you up to $400.
A recent survey of New York’s Chinatown revealed that 60% of the shops claimed to carry tiger parts.



Tiet Cahn a.k.a. Vietnamese Blood Soup


Vietnamese cuisine made from simple ingredients, raw blood (usually duck), cooked gizzards, and topped with peanuts and herbs. The soup is refrigerated so the blood coagulates and can then be eaten chilled before the blood loses its jello like consistency.  Its popularity has declined since the bird flu spread through Asia.