8 Dishes That Seem Scary But Are Actually Delicious
It’s the season of spooks and while kids across the country are shaking with excitement to consume a scary amount of sugar, we’re getting excited about scary looking food. But what if we told you that some of the most terrifying-looking dishes can be surprisingly delicious? In this special Halloween article, we will defy the conventional expectations of flavor and aesthetics with some of the scariest, most delicious plates in NYC. From dishes that resemble creepy creatures to those that mimic otherworldly phenomena, we'll explore a range of foods that might send shivers down your spine with their appearances but will undoubtedly haunt your tastebuds in a delightful way. So, brace yourself for a stroll through this culinary graveyard of eerie and enticing, yet surprisingly delectable, Halloween-themed delicacies.
This article is just a small taste of the 🔥 dishes on 8it. Hit the green button at the bottom of this article to explore all NYC’s top dish recos, new dish drops and food pop-ups on the 8it app.
Dim Sum Style Chicken Feet
Hunan Slurp
📸: @hunan slurp
Gelatinous chicken feet aren’t really meat at all, they’re mostly just skin and tendons. But let’s be honest, skin is just about the most exciting part of the chicken. At Hunan Slurp in the East Village, they’re nice and crispy like a chicken chicharron, just shaped like a foot. A sweet, sour coating laced with green chilis that’s worthy of finger licks will help you get past that, but the spice level might just haunt you instead.
This dish is recommended by: NY Times
Lechonbae
Pop-up
📸: @lechonbae
The corpse of a whole pig, roasted Filipino-style until the skin crackles with every bite, is the main event at Lechonbae’s pop-ups, which are some of the best in Manhattan. The hauntingly succulent pork is served traditionally over rice as well as in a rotating menu of specials, including lechon sisig lumpia, which cloaks the form of a corpse in a delectably sneaky way. But after one bite, you’ll probably want to go full carnivore and eat it right off the carcass.
This dish is recommended by: 8it NY
Grilled Tripe
Foul Witch
📸: @erikkantar
Delightfully bouncy, chewy tripe is disguised by a beautiful honeycomb pattern and we’d hate to spoil it, but it comes from an organ deep within the cow. Specifically, it’s the lining of the cow’s second stomach. At Foul Witch in the East Village, the grill scorches tripe with a black char that concentrates flavor and looks aesthetically pleasing up against the backdrop of a red hued tomato sauce.
This dish is recommended by: The Infatuation
Spleen Sandwich
Joe’s of Avenue U
📸: Rob Dedo (via Google Maps)
You might not even know what a spleen does and it’s probably best that you don’t. But rest assured, it has something to do with blood. Slices of the cow spleen are boiled, then crisped in lard and it tastes like liver since the liver and spleen share similar functions. Thankfully, a cloak of cheese means you won’t need to look at it at this Gravesend institution, but what’s the fun in that?
This dish is recommended by: Eater
Uni, ikura, toro
Juku
An ensemble of beautiful sea-foraged ingredients or a cauldron of carnage? No matter what you see in this photo, this is a dish you have to try. It might look like something you would find inside of a sarcophagus, but the uni, ikura and toro dish at this Chinatown Japanese Izakaya layers three of the most prized delicacies the ocean has to offer.
This dish is recommended by: Josh Reisner
Mapo Tofu
Spicy Moon
📸: @ifoodidrink
As if conjured from the depths of a culinary cauldron, this mapo tofu is adorned with a hauntingly spicy, vibrant ensemble of chilis and green peppercorns. From three locations in Lower Manhattan, Spicy Moon slings Szechuan that will make you sweat like a culinary haunted house. And although this dish looks like it might contain some remains, its filler is silky tofu and it’s completely vegan.
This dish is recommended by: Eater
Anticuchos
Kausa
📸: Kausa
No holiday makes you scream louder than halloween and no food screams halloween louder than hearts on a stick. But rest-assured, this Peruvian spot in Hell’s Kitchen lays the most vital organ to rest in the most delicious of ways. Spiced with garlic, chilis and charred over the grill, these gamey bites are the ideal exclamation mark to a carnivorous rampage.
This dish is recommended by: Eater
Beef Tongue Curry
Kru
📸: @kru.bk
Coveted like a mythical elixir, the beef tongue curry at Kru, a Thai restaurant in Williamsburg, makes the organ vital to speaking the star of the show. But ironically, this dish might make you stop speaking with sweat-inducing level of spice. That only adds to the thrill of enjoying tongue is so tender, it melts in your mouth as if it were a cauldron.
This dish is recommended by: The Infatuation
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