Russian Roulette For Gourmands – 10 Foods That Can Kill You

Love having a good meal? I do not mean those huge burgers with tons of bacon and French fries. It goes about delicate foods prepared by professional chefs for gourmands.

Of course, they are no cheap. But that pleasure we get eating Vitello Tonnato or fish in tartar souse can hardly be compared to anything else in this world.

Although, some of the foodies get surfeited with popular delicacies and start looking for exotic foods. They often get involved in a kind of Russian roulette when people try foods that can kill if prepared wrong. Think it goes only about super expensive exclusive meals? Check your fridge, maybe the poison is already there.

Fugu

Not every chef has a permission to cook this fish. Its intestines, ovaries, and liver of contain a poison called tetrodotoxin. It is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide. The lethal dose of this toxin is smaller than the head of a pin.

One single fish can murder about 30 people. This is why chefs have to undergo a 3-year course to learn splitting Fugu fish right. They are taught to leave paltry amount of the toxin to cause slight and short paralysis. People give away big money to experience that feeling.

Cashew or Indian nut

Cashews are actually very healthy. Although only a few people know, they are extremely poisonous. Raw nuts contain urushiol, a resin that can create significant skin rashes and can be toxic when ingested.
Those cashews we buy from shops are not actually raw. They are steamed. Therefore, we can hardly get any harm.

Tapioca

Tapioca plant is loved by pudding enthusiasts. However, its root can cause poisoning with cyanide if prepared incorrectly.

Peeling, slicing and then thoroughly cooking tapioca removes the cyanide risk, and tapioca flours, pearls, and puddings are considered safe.

Bullfrog

Sounds crazy, but Bullfrogs are a common meal in some countries of Africa. So, coming across one of those places where you are offered this delicacy, make sure it is cooked right.

The frog contains a lot of toxic substances that can easily kill a human. “Premature” bullfrogs, ones that have not bred yet, carry a poison that can cause temporary kidney failure.

Casu marzu

It is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese, notable for containing live insect larvae. I would faint after a slight glance at it.

This meal can cause a lot of problems, starting from plain food intoxication, infections and ending up with those awful cases when worms from cheese got into humans’ bowels and made holes in it.

Stone Fish

Yes, this is a fish and yes, you can actually cook it and eat. Served as sashimi called Okoze, the Stonefish has 13 poison-equipped spines. If removed incorrectly, they poison the whole meal and kill you instantly.

Spider “a-ping”

Tarantula spiders are tossed in a mixture of MSG, sugar, and salt; crushed garlic is fried in oil until fragrant, then the spiders are added and fried alongside the garlic until the legs are almost completely stiff, by which time the contents of the abdomen are not so runny.

Still, it is a tarantula and it is poisonous. Make a guess what happens if you get a snack, which was not fried properly.

Escamoles

Want to try some eggs of the most dangerous ants on Earth? Help yourself. These eggs are not as dangerous as the insects that produced them. This is why a few ants are added in meals live.

Octopus

Its tentacles, if prepared wrong – stick in eater’s mouth and throat slowly strangling them. No one can tell if everything is fine with the meal before tasting it.

Potatoes

Make sure your potatoes does not have any green spots or pull them off thoroughly before cooking. That is actually a dangerous toxin that killed thousands of people all over the world.