Dark cuisine facts for kids
Dark cuisine is a fun name for food that sounds really weird or even gross, but often tastes much better than you'd expect! In Chinese, it's called hei an liao li. It's all about trying unusual food mixes that might surprise your taste buds.
What is Dark Cuisine?
Dark cuisine often looks or sounds strange. But sometimes it tastes much better than you think! The Chinese name for it, hei an liao li, comes from a 1990s Japanese comic book series. This series was called Chuuka Ichiban! or "China's Number One!". It was about a young chef in old China. He fought against a group called the Dark Cooking Society.
In China, people started using the term around 2012. They used it to talk about a British dish called stargazy pie. This pie has fish heads sticking out of the crust! It was a good example of Western food that seemed very confusing to Chinese people.
What Does it Mean?
A food expert named Jing (Jenny) Gao says "dark cuisine" can mean many things. It can be any food that is "hard to swallow." This might be because of strange ingredient mixes. Or it could be food made in places that are not very clean.
For example, in Chengdu, China, some very popular small restaurants are called "fly" restaurants. This is because they attract many people, like flies to honey! These places might not look fancy, but their food is loved.
Often, people share pictures of these "absurd" food mixes online. They do it to show off or to surprise their friends.
Examples of Dark Cuisine
There are many fun examples of dark cuisine. One popular idea is vanilla ice cream with chili crisp on top. Chili crisp is a crunchy, spicy oil. It sounds odd, but many people love it!
Another chef once imagined a dish with Velveeta cheese foam. It also had Gatorade in tiny balls and crushed Doritos chips. This was meant to look like "soil."
"Struggle plates" are another type of dark cuisine. These are pictures of cooking mistakes at home. The cook still eats them, even if they look messy!
Some other strange combinations people have tried include:
- Sliced roast beef with blueberry yogurt.
- Sausage with peanut butter and onions.
- Chili crisp peanut brittle.
Related Food Fun
In Malmö, Sweden, there is a special place called the Disgusting Food Museum. It opened in 2018. Visitors can try many weird foods there. The museum wants people to think about why they find certain foods "disgusting."
American chef David Chang also has a Netflix TV show. It is called Ugly Delicious. In this show, he explores foods that might not look pretty but taste amazing.
