Bizarre food fests around the globe

Scouring the globe to discover some of the world’s more bizarre food festivals, cheapflights.com.au, has investigated food festivals devoted to unconventional uses of normal foods such as tomatoes,

Scouring the globe to discover some of the world’s more bizarre food festivals, cheapflights.com.au, has investigated food festivals devoted to unconventional uses of normal foods such as tomatoes, oranges and melons – as well as celebrations cooking roadkill, bugs and surprising body parts.

Part of the adventure of traveling is trying new things, so let’s explore:

Roadkill Cook-Off, Marlinton, West Virginia, United States
It’s not quite as disgusting as it sounds, honestly. This festival, on Saturday September 28, serves up meals made from creatures who often find themselves flattened on the side of the road. Actual roadkill isn’t used in the dishes, but visitors will be sure to get an authentic roadkill experience with sample dishes such as tacos filled with armadillo, porcupine stew and marinated bear. Yum!

BugFest, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Only for those with an ironclad stomach (or fans of “Fear Factor”), the annual BugFest, sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, incorporates insects and creepy crawlers in all of its featured dishes. This festival, on September 21, encourages participants to try bug-inspired foods prepared by local chefs, and fine-tune their entomophagy skills – the practice of eating bugs. Some of last year’s popular dishes included superworm enchiladas and cinnamon-sugar crickets.

Testicle Festival, Clinton, Montana, United States
Here’s an event you’ll need balls for. This August festival is named one of the main dishes served – bull testicles. Reports from last year’s festival found that participants consumed an average of 50 kg of bull and bison testicles served deep-fried, beer-battered or marinated. After attending this one-of-a-kind event, you’re sure to be chanting its motto: “I had a ball at the Testicle Festival!”

La Tomatina, Brunol, Spain
Feel like taking some aggression out on strangers by throwing crushed tomatoes at them for an hour? Then head to Spain on August 28 for one of the largest tomato food fights in the world. Join around 45,000 people to toss more than 120,000 kg of tomatoes at one another.

Chinchilla Melon Festival, Queensland, Australia
Watermelon is a staple food of an Australian summer – and Chinchilla is known as the melon capital of Australia. The 2014 event will be held from February 12 to 15 and includes melon-skiing, melon bungee and pip-spitting games.

Other crazy food festivals on the Cheapflights.com.au list of Top 10 outlandish food festivals include Gilroy Garlic Festival – California, USA; Battle of the Oranges – Ivrea, Italy; Waikiki Spam Jam – Waikiki, Hawaii; and Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival – Fellsmere, Florida, USA.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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