Random Horrifying Restaurant Foods You Can Actually Order In USA (15 items)

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  (#1) Balut

  Many people eat eggs, but few people eat eggs that actually have a baby animal inside. Might sound stomach-churning, but not to those who enjoy balut. This dish usually takes fertilized duck eggs and leaves them to incubate for 18 days until it's well-developed. Then, the egg is cooked and served, and you just eat the whole thing, bones and all. The flavor is supposed to be a strong one, the texture is less than palatable, and the food is very rich. You can buy the eggs to prepare yourself in some international markets, but a few restaurants in New York and California still have it on the menu. 
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  (#2) Brain Sandwiches

  Brain sandwiches are something of a delicacy in parts of Indiana. The sandwiches were traditionally made with cow brains, but locals have switched to pig brains to avoid mad cow disease. The brains are battered, deep fried, and served on a bun.

  Food personality Alton Brown described the sandwich as "smooth and creamy on the inside... like a giant brain fritter with a bun on it." He ultimately concluded that it "wasn't very good."
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  (#3) Ikizukuri

  Ikizukuri is definitely not an example of ethical eating. This dish consists of fish or lobster; it is fileted and consumed while it is still alive. In some cases, chefs even return the animal to the tank to recover a little before it is finally consumed. Very few places in the U.S. serve this dish, and there is a movement afoot to ban it entirely because of the ethical factors associated with the dish. But if you're in New York, the Jewel Bako does serve ikizukuri occassionally. 
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  (#4) Jellied Moose Nose

  Go ahead, read that title a few more times - it says exactly what you think it does. Jellied moose nose is actually a classic and culturally traditional recipe for hunters, specifically in Alaska, though it is served in restaurants in several other states as well. The two main ingredients are vinegar and time (well, and a moose nose,) and it's definitely an acquired taste. To make this dish, you take a moose's nose and you cook it into a jelly, then wait until it's a cool, jiggly Jello-like dish. 
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  (#5) Testicles

  If you've seen Rocky Mountain oysters on a menu before, then you've been to a restaurant that serves bull testicles. These delicacies are usually deep fried or baked, but either way, you know just what you are eating. They're on the menu in many Southern and Midwestern cities, and some people actually really enjoy them. Bulls are not the only animals on the menu for this specific delicacy; goats, lambs, roosters, and even ducks have had their gonads served up in various dishes.
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  (#6) Live Octopus Parts

  When you cut up a live octopus, parts of it remain somewhat alive. In fact, they continue to squirm around, wiggle, and even try to grab things. This knowledge alone is pretty horrifying, so that makes the fact restaurants actually serve still-squirming octopus parts as a dish even more so. At some high-end sushi restaurants, as well as at Korean restaurants where it's called Sannakji, you can order a plate of tiny octopus tentacles completely raw and still moving. The parts will try to cling to your face and throat as you try to swallow, and you'll feel them wiggle all the way down. 
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  (#7) Pig's Blood Ice Cream

  When you think of ingredients for an ice cream sundae, what generally comes to mind? Cream, sugar, maybe chocolate or some other tasty flavor. What doesn't come to mind is pig's blood, but that's exactly what you can get at one small Washington DC restaurant. The Pig is a restaurant that uses all parts of the pig including the blood, and it's actually pretty well-known for this dish. Most people say the ice cream is pretty tasty. The owners say the blood is only really used as a thickener, and you don't really taste anything unorthodox about it. 
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  (#8) Bird's Nest Soup

  Surprisingly, bird's nest soup doesn't involve real birds nests. To make bird's nest soup, chefs take the saliva of a bird then dry it periodically into a solid substance. Then, it's used as a flavoring and texture additive to soup, and it supposedly is pretty delicious. It's expensive and uncommon, but you can find it in some restaurants in the United States if you know where to look. Some cultures also believe the soup is used to strengthen the immune system and help with digestion.
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  (#9) Escamoles

  While this dish is extremely rare in the United States, there have been restaurants that have made it at least once. A few high-end chefs have brought in small stashes of escamoles for tastings in restaurants because they're considered a delicacy south of the border.

  Escamoles are a dish served more commonly in Mexico and are known by a different name: ant eggs. What is escamole? It's basically ant caviar - edible larvae and pupae of ants. When eaten, tt is known to have a sensation much like that of some fish caviar, where the eggs actually pop in your mouth and have a lightly peppery flavor. 
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  (#10) Fish Eyeballs

  Fish eyes are often used in international cuisine, and they're slowly catching on the United States thanks to their paleo diet-friendly high-protein content.

  Other than the nutrients, the main draw of eyeballs seems to be the texture. Food blogger Chichi Wang describes eating fish eyes as "a rush of fatty fish flavor... accompanied by a gelatinous, spongy texture."
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  (#11) Drunken Shrimp

  You might think this menu item that involves beer-battered shrimp, but that's not what kind of shrimp dish this is. A plate of drunken shrimp is an international dish that's pretty hard to find in the United States, but if you look hard enough, it's there. The dish is made by soaking live freshwater shrimp in alcohol, then they are spiced and served. That's it. No cooking. You just grab a shrimp and down it raw, if you have the nerve. 
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  (#12) Breast Milk Cheese

  Human breast milk is nutritious and healthy for babies, but if you saw an adult drinking it, you might be a little confused. That didn't stop one restaurant in New York from making and selling breast milk cheese. Amid protests, the cheese was served to much fanfare and many people claimed they enjoyed it. The chef said he used his wife's own breastmilk for the cheese, and posted the recipe online for patrons to re-create at home. 
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  (#13) Lion Meat

  Eating meat is all well and good, but have you ever considered chowing down on an apex predator? Although eating and selling lion meat is protested by several animal rights groups, it continues to be available in unusual butcher shops and on select restaurant menus in the United States. Eateries serve it in burgers, plain, or as a tasting sample, though it is in decline in states such as California. It should be noted these are not wild lions; rather, these predators are farmed much like cattle. 
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  (#14) Toilet Cafes

  Despite the name, toilet restaurants actually offer some pretty good food. It's the presentation that leaves people scratching their heads. The idea of these themed-restaurants is to serve everything is the style of a bathroom. Ice cream is served in mini toilets, foods are shaped to look like excrement, and curry is designed to look like vomit in a bathtub or tiny urinal. While these cafes are more popular in other countries, a few have popped up here in the United States, though they have generally been short-lived. 
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  (#15) The Quadruple Bypass Burger

  Pretty much everything at the Heart Attack Grill could honestly be on this list. The Las Vegas restaurant uses butter in milkshakes, cooks their fries in lard, and has one of the most horrifying burgers in the existence of the world. The Quadruple Bypass burger is the world-record holder for the highest calorie burger at a whopping 20,000 calories. To eat this, you have to sign a waiver. The reason for this is that there have been several high-profile health crises involving the consumption of this burger. Still, this doesn't stop this mass of fat and meat from being a bucket list item for many people.

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