Stinky tofu, China and Indonesia

Try to block out the stench of putrid bean curd, close your eyes and, according to the Wall Street Journal writer Stan Sesser, "you could swear you were eating cheese." To prepare the dish, bean curd is fermented, sometimes for several months, in a brine made from milk, vegetables, meat, bamboo shoots and herbs. Cubes of the resulting curd are deep-fried or grilled and served with pickled vegetables or a spicy duck-blood sauce.

You can smell stinky tofu from a long way off at night markets throughout Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and China but it's a delicious, albeit acquired, taste.

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