Why Are "Delicacies" Disgusting?

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Why are foods that are considered delicacies so sick, bizarre, even dangerous?

Here is Wikipedia's list of delicacies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicacy#Delicacies

It includes ram, sheep, and bull testicles, eggs that have been "preserved" (yet still look and smell like rotting food) for weeks or even MONTHS, deadly poisonous puffer fish, and coffee beans removed from elephant feces. WHY?

What a dreadful list.

There's no accounting for it. By far the most of those things I would not wish to come near.

.....okay I looked at that and had a mental crash. Needed rebooting, CTRL+ALT+DELETE...


I couldnt get past "fried brain sandwich". It just... so... ridiculous... and just... what.

I know meat products and similar things can seem just a BIT strange when you REALLY look at them, but that's... stranger than usual.

Not really sure.. some sound disgusting but taste fantastic. My best guess is that they're delicacies simply because they're rare, and thus desired by those with the financial resources with which to pay for and experience them while commoners cannot afford them. Some of them might actually be quite f*****g gross to eat, yet since they're expensive, wealthy people want to eat them simply because others can't access them and then they don't want to admit they're gross so carry on pretending they loved them.. like the emperor's new clothes.

I work at a place that serves up some interesting dishes sometimes. One of our upcoming menu items in a few weeks is Octopus Carpaccio w/ one of the garnishes on the plate being sour cream mixed with squid ink. I've eaten octopus before, but have yet to try it like this. I did taste the sour cream and squid ink - which was jet black, and didn't really have much of a flavour at all.. besides a slightly inky tasting sour cream. I think this is likely going to be the most "delicacy" qualifying item on the new menu. I didn't try the beef carpaccio & fois gras that we had on our last menu, but I've eaten beef sashimi before & that's pretty much the same thing w/ a Japanese name. This thread makes me wonder if we'll ever serve anything that actually tastes gross just because it's considered a delicacy. Chances are highly unlikely, since we actually want people to order and like what we serve.. but still, there are some pretty funky delicacies out there!

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I think in Canada poutine might be a delicacy, although it's just fries, gravy and cheese curd (not curds like cottage cheese, but more like unpressed solid white cheese, like mozzarella). But in Newfoundland things like cod tongues and cheeks are delicacies, I think. Lots of people here in Nova Scotia like them too, but I think they're pretty revolting.

Some foods just sound so unpleasant or even dangerous to eat that I think the only reason anyone would eat it is so they can just brag about it later. If they survive! Like for example I read about lutefisk, which is fish fermented in very very toxic lye, and if it's fermented too long it turns all the fat in the fish into soap! That's because lye and fat are the two key ingredients in soap. Fish-scented soap, lovely.

Durians! Strange and mysterious things, these durians. I remember first seeing them in Super Mario Sunshine, and now it seems they appear in every other video game with fruit. I later read in a player's guide for SMS that they are a spiky Malaysian fruit that a relative of the author claimed smelled and tasted like rotten feet! In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I planted some durian trees in my town but they're in a remote spot so the stink won't offend anybody. Actually none of the characters ever mentions that they're smelly, I just did that for amusement.

I wouldn't call poutine a delicacy. It's more of a traditional/regional dish than a delicacy, as it's not rare at all.

Durian.. I think it only smells once you cut the fruit open. I've never tried the fresh fruit, but I have had a taste of durian gelato... ew - never again! It was at an ice cream shop where they have several flavours open in one display freezer. They have to keep a cover on the durian so it doesn't stink the place up and ruin the flavours of other ice creams. I had just a taster spoon full and my first thought was "why would anyone eat this?" It took a long time to get the flavour off my tongue, too. I don't regret trying it as I had to satisfy my curiosity, but I'd never opt for the stuff.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I don't know.

I like Froot Loops as a delicacy. I'm probably only being fooled again by bright colors and sugar but I accept it

Mostly it's pure snobbery. Foods classed as 'delicacies' tend to be rare and thus, according to the law of the markets, expensive. Some people enjoy showing others that they are both wealthy and have a 'refined palette', regardless of the suffering caused to the usually animal source of this culinary delight.

The worst one I have heard of - but thankfully never witnessed - is the Japanese custom of eating the brain of a still-living monkey that has had the top of its skull removed in order to form of kind of bowl for the gourmet (!) to eat from.

Disgusting is not the word.

I think some foods are declared delicacies by a cultural case of the inverse of the "sour grapes" phenomenon (from Aesop's fables). Basically, at many points in human history we've had to eat some downright revolting things in order to survive. Furthermore, it's important for future survival to preserve knowledge of what nasty-looking things are nonetheless nutritious and safe to eat. And presumably, much of that knowledge was compiled before widespread literacy. So instead the knowledge was preserved in the respective cultures' culinary traditions. The concept of "delicacy" evolves from there simply because it's a lot more ego-syntonic to a culture that doesn't have "struggle against nature for mere survival" as a significant component of its identity anymore.

There's also an opportunity to exhibit machismo in the act of consuming some delicacies, and where this is true the delicacy in question is often considered to be an aphrodisiac as well (see e.g. various preparations of animal testicles, also casu marzu which is pecorino cheese that is served rotten and crawling with live maggots). The bravado inherent in consuming a food seems to be inversely proportional to how many people would willingly ingest it.

In the United States, public broadcasters have turned the idea of disgusting non-Kosher creatures into a Green political agenda. As a way to save Earth, eat houseflies and cockroaches. But, make sure you fry them in organic olive oil, of course! What a waste of television money, time and resources.

When I learn of yet another resurgence of such a diet (usually from friends), I ask "are we completely out of vegetables, wheat, rice, beans, chicken, fish, beef and pork?!?" No, of course not. Such diets are just a way for guilt-ridden PBS viewers and NPR listeners to feel self-assuaged. When that doesn't work, they resort to calling it "fine dining." Seriously, some people "need to sort out their priorities."

When I learned that corn smut was a delicacy, I was repulsed. I'll pass on that one.

I find it funny that lobster was something only poor and lowly people usually ate until the 19th century. In Nova Scotia a lot of people don't think it's summer until they have a "big feed" of lobster. I, however, have never learned how to enjoy the taste and smell of lobsters and crabs, and find them about as appealing as eating a big dead cockroach. I also find it interesting how some countries they'll actually fine you for boiling them while they're alive instead of killing them first because they think it's cruel. There was a link about crustacean pain and suffering, but it only made me more confused about if they really feel such things or not, or at least as severely.

I think the duck eggs with the embryo inside were the worst!