Exotic Food and Strange Food

Key to any discussion of exotic and strange food is the understanding that what is exotic or strange to one, may be familiar, celebrated, or comforting to another. The ideas of exotic or strange are social constructions that are typically shared by a culture or subculture. For example, casu marzu, often translated as “maggot cheese,” is a Sardinian delicacy, which many others find exotic and strange. Other foods, or edibles, such as human flesh and urine, are more universally taboo. Still other foods seem commonplace and unremarkable but may seem strange when one considers them closely. For example, honey, beloved in nearly every culture, is made through insect regurgitation, a turnoff to some when the process is explained. Manufactured foods, full of preservatives that can ...