10 utterly weird snack foods to satiate your kookiest cravings
Don't settle for chips and salsa when you could have a truly memorable snacking experience involving bacon-flavored seaweed or Doritos-flavored Mountain Dew.
3D-printed mushroom bites
Take a bite out of something strange. A whole oddball universe of snacks goes way beyond candy bars, Funyuns and cheesy poofs.
Food designer Chloé Rutzerveld created a 3D-printed pastry shell made from insect flour. The holes accommodate seeds and spores that grow into sprouts or mushrooms, filling the snack food with savory flavor.
"I want to show that high-tech food or lab-produced food does not have to be unhealthy, unnatural, and not tasteful," she wrote on her website.
Bacon-flavored seaweed
Would you like some dulse? Maybe. What is "dulse"? It's an edible algae. That doesn't sound so good. It tastes like bacon. Yes, please!
Researchers at Oregon State University discovered that pan-frying a particular strain of red dulse algae gave it a very baconlike flavor. This could be the start of an SLT (seaweed, lettuce, tomato) sandwich fad.
Doritos-flavored Mountain Dew
Unfortunately, we're living in a sad and lonely world in which you can't just walk into a grocery store and buy a six-pack of Doritos-flavored Mountain Dew. But we did get a glimpse at a brighter life when Mountain Dew tested a cheese-chip-flavored version of its flagship soda at a college in 2014.
Kent State student Steve Barnes described the taste as being "like if you shoved a handful of Doritos in your mouth and chugged some Dew at the same time."
Peanut butter cup Oreo transplant
The Food Surgeon is one the odder channels on YouTube. It involves an anonymous blue-glove-wearing person conducting strange scalpel-filled experiments on various food items.
This particular procedure involved carefully dissecting a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and refilling it with the white stuff from the center of an Oreo cookie. It's a lot of effort to go to to create a new snack food, but it's fascinating to watch.
Potato-chip soda
Potato chips, meet soda. The twain have met in a limited-edition curious creation for Namco gaming centers in Japan. The potato-chips-flavored sparkling beverage may be the ultimate drink for gamers. It gives you the salty, tuber-y kick of chips in an easy-to-sip form factor. It's a great way to have your snacks and still keep your fingers clean for the gaming controls.
Chicken sandwich from hell
Do not adjust your monitor. This is a red-bunned chicken sandwich with bright red cheese. It was part of a limited-time promotion from Burger King Japan in 2015. Tomato powder gives the bread and cheese slice that distinctive red color. The fast-food company also released a red burger called the Aka Samurai Burger along with the poultry sandwich.
Lightsaber pocky
OK, there's a very vague resemblance between Star Wars lightsabers and the coated cookie sticks known as Pocky. A few years back, sci-fi fans were able to buy "giant" Pocky sticks made in lightsaber colors with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader on the packaging. It may be one the stranger Star Wars food tie-ins ever created.
DIY Lego gummy bricks
Those little fruit-flavored gummy bears are a fun staple of snack time for many kids, but they don't stack very well. Enterprising Lego fans can instead make their own brick-shaped, interlocking gummies using Jell-O, corn syrup, cold water, gelatin and Lego ice-cube trays. Then you can play with your food before devouring it.
'Alien' facehugger cookie
The scariest cookie in the galaxy may well be this creepily accurate "Alien" facehugger treat from intrepid baker Christine McConnell. It's crafted from "a very stiff biscotti-like sugar cookie" dough. Caramel connects all the freaky parts together. It's all edible, but only if you're brave enough to eat it.
Insect snacks for dogs
It's well known that most dogs will eat just about anything. Some humans may balk at the idea of chowing on snacks made from insects, but chances are good your pup will be delighted with a treat crafted from crickets.
EntoBento is a successful Kickstarter project that had the bright idea of making pooch snacks from cricket protein. The treats are human-grade, so you could sneak a bite if you're curious.