Bird's Nest Soup

From hot chocolate in the winter to a scoop of ice cream in the summertime, certain foods just seem to go well with the changing seasons. But climate and geography have more of an effect on what we eat than simply seasonal preferences. According to research done by the International Food Policy Research Institute, climate change will create new problems for the major crops cultivated in different regions of the world. Even though these changes in the future might seem scary, our environments have always had an impact on the foods we eat and the way we eat them -- and these cultural preferences have led to some interesting biases.

"We tend to think of other people's food as bizarre and our own as normal," said anthropology professor Sonya Atalay in an interview with Weather.com. "I try to turn that around. I give the example of groups who think of honey as being a bizarre thing because essentially it's bee vomit, and when you think of it as bee vomit it's really grotesque, but we think of it as normal."

Atalay teaches a course at the University of Massachusetts Amherst that asks students to question why some foods (like insects) seem disgusting to Americans, when culturally accepted foods (like Twinkies)can have ingredients that seem just as unappetizing to others.

As far as climate change goes, Atalay says it's hard to predict what the future will look like.

"People may go back to more traditional foods or maybe we'll get this movement toward more processed, chemical uses of food because we taint our food supply. At this point it seems like a crossroads in many ways," Atlay said.

In the following slideshows, explore some of the unusual delicacies that are eaten around the world and consider your own cultural biases -- would you try these foods?

The name of the first delicacy, bird's nest soup, might bring to mind images of a soggy mass of twigs and leaves steamed and served in a bowl. But even though the Chinese use real swallows' nests for this soup, the nests aren't made from sticks -- they're made from swallow spit. The strands of bird saliva dissolve into a gelatinous, spaghetti-like mass after being cleaned with rock sugar and cooked in a broth. The soup is so renowned for its health benefits that a single kilo of nests sells for nearly $10,000, according to The Telegraph. While the dish might not sound as appetizing to Americans as a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup, the nests are remarkably healthful. They contain all the essential amino acids, six hormones, carbohydrates, and substances that can enhance tissue growth and prevent influenza, saysLiveScience. Because the nests are so valuable, they're harvested across Asia, and some people have even built condos for the swiftlets to make harvesting the nests less hazardous, reported the Buffalo News. If you want to try out this 400-year-old delicacy, be prepared to spend anywhere from $30 to $100 for the bowl.

NEXT: A cheese with an unusual filling

Casu Marzu

It's one thing to take on smelly cheeses with a stoic grin, but casu marzu might make your stomach churn a little bit more than a slice of limburger. This Sardinian cheese is made from sheep's milk and undergoes fermentation by fly larva, which soften the cheese. The larvae remain in the cheeseand are supposed to be alive when the cheese is eaten, says Smithsonian Magazine. Although eating maggot-filled cheese might sound disgusting, Culture Cheese Magazine suggests that casa marzuis just a macro version of the fermentation processnormally brought about by fungus and bacteria in products like chocolate, beer, wine and pickles. According to one intrepid cheese-eater who described the culinary experience on Serious Eats, casu marzu has a flavor similar to gorgonzola with hints of black pepper. Don't plan on trying it anywhere in the U.S. though; it's banned from being sold here.

NEXT: A writhing raw dish that looks alive

Sannakji

The writhing tentacles of this raw octopus dish are proof of its freshness, but diners beware -- the suction cups can get stuck on your teeth, tongue and throat, so you have to chew carefully. Sannakji is a traditional Korean dish of baby octopus tentacles that are chopped up and served with sesame oil immediately after the octopus is killed. But apart from looking a bit too fresh, the dish stirred up some controversy among animal rights' activists when it was served at restaurants in New York City. According to the Korean Times, protestors lined up outside of restaurants serving sannakji, claiming the octopuses were dismembered and eaten alive. The restaurant representatives responded that the animals are technically dead when they're chopped up and that the wriggling tentacles are simply a continuation of the octopus's nerve activity. For those who want to brave the fury of PETA and try the squirming dish, several New York restaurants serve the dish and reviewers have said it's a chewy, fresh meal that "tastes of the clean open sea."

NEXT: The chicken and the egg

Balut

Many different cultures eat eggs, but balut, a popular Filipino egg dish, might be unique among them. These hardboiled duck eggs have been fertilized, meaning they contain yolk and the developed embryo of a duck, complete with eyes, beak, wings, and sometimes small feathers. Many Filipinos believe balut is an aphrodisiac and that it provides strength and endurance, says National Geographic. The dish actually has three components sealed into the shell, according to the New York Times: a smoky chicken broth, a creamy hard yolk, and the little embryo. While many are too squeamish to try this Filipino street food, which is as cheap and popular as hotdogs are in New York, that reaction hasn't stopped American restaurants from serving it to their patrons. One Filipino restaurant in New York City even held a balut eating competition this August, and the winner downed 18 of the eggs in five minutes, said the Village Voice.

NEXT: Not the best meal for arachnophobes

Fried Tarantula

It's said that Cambodians first resorted to eating tarantulas during the terrible reign of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, but since that time the arachnids have turned into a popular street food. The spiders are served fried with sugar, salt and garlic, says CNN, and are a good source of protein. American author David George Gordon, who wrote The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook, said he prepares tarantulas by singeing off the hairs, covering them in tempura batter, and deep frying them. "Their legs are full of this long white muscle, and people are always surprised by how chewy they are," Gordon told Business Insider.

NEXT: The ants go marching two by two

Escamoles

Sometimes called "insect caviar," escamoles is another popular insect dish, this one served in Mexico. Made from the larvae of ants, escamoles are found in the dried section of the agave plant and are served sautéed with butter, cilantro and onion, said LA Weekly. If you didn't know what the dish was made of, you might mistake it for a grain similar to risotto, reported Slash Food. And if people can get over their culturally-induced aversion to insects, they could benefit from the nutritious and easily harvested food source. A report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization even recommended that insects be used as a source of food and livestock feed, since they're high in protein and minerals and "need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein," according to the BBC.

NEXT: These oysters don't come from the sea

Rocky Mountain Oysters

Breaded and deep fried, this dish might look like any other staple on a bar or diner menu. But hidden beneath all that breading and grease isn't a succulent seafood flown in from the East or West Coast -- Rocky Mountain oysters are made with bull calf testicles. The dish is served mainly in the American West, where cattle ranching is a common occupation and young animals are regularly castrated. According to one CNN restaurant reviewer who tried the dish at a restaurant in the Denver airport, it tasted as delicious as any other fried meat. If you're tempted to try the fried bull testicles, they're served at a number of restaurants in the West, or you can attend the 2nd Annual Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival and BBQ over Labor Day weekend in Aspen.

NEXT: A fish so smelly it attracts flies

Surstromming

If the fishy smell of seafood is too much for your nose, you might want to stay far away from the Swedish delicacysurstromming. This Baltic herring is fermented in brine, then canned, where bacteria continue to do their work on the fish, occasionally causing the cans to bulge out, says Fox News. The odor is so strong, some people take it outside or submerge it in water just to open the can. According to the Wall Street Journal, the European Union has argued that the fish has dangerously high levels of toxins and PCBs and should be banned, but the Swedes are doing their best to get it protected as a national traditional food. Because the pressurized cans are dangerous to transport by plane, you'll probably have to go to Sweden to try this pungent fish. The Swedish Institute recommends eating surstromming on bread with potatoes and onions, and to eat indoors since the smell will attract flies.

NEXT: The most dangerous meal

Fugu

Photo taken on June 5, 2012 shows a pufferfish, known as fugu in Japan, on a chopping board to remove toxic internal organs. Every year in Japan people end up in hospital after eating pufferfish and sometimes they die. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GettyImages)

While fish in and of itself doesn't seem like a bizarre delicacy, the risk involved with eating fugu -- puffer fish -- makes it a mind-boggling dinner choice. According to Time Magazine, the liver, intestines and ovaries of blowfish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so lethal that a dose smaller than the head of a pin can kill a person. One puffer fish has enough poison in it to kill 30 people. If the poison is ingested, the lips and tongue grow numb and then the body goes into seizures and coma, with death resulting from respiratory or cardiac arrest, says Serious Eats. Despite the danger, thousands of tons of the fish are eaten in Japan every year. Archaeologists have even discovered the bones from puffer fish in shell mounds that date back 2,000 years, says New York Magazine. So why take the risk? It's only partially about the taste of the fish; the real reason to eat the fish is for the terror and the thrill.

NEXT: A blackened egg

Century Egg

Century eggs, also known as thousand year old eggs, are maybe one of the most misunderstood of Asian delicacies. These blackened eggs are not, as rumor suggests, soaked in horse urine. The preserved eggs are placed in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime and rice hulls, according to Beijing Tourism, and then left for several weeks or months. The process isn't actually all that different from pickling food, though the end result can appear unappetizing. The white of the egg turns into a blackish-brownish jelly, the yolk becomes dark green, and the entire egg smells strongly of ammonia, says Serious Eats. You might be able to find century eggs at a Chinese market, or you could attempt to make your own if you have the patience to wait for several months while the eggs undergo the necessary chemical changes.

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