Filipinos are healthy and hearty eaters. We love to cook our food and enjoy eating it. As Camperspoint puts it, the Filipino cuisine is composed of cooking techniques that are combinations of European subtleness and Asian spices derived basically from how locals improvised their native dishes to blend with foreign concoctions.

Every food lover has his/er favorite dish but each has a few pet peeves when it comes to food as well. From bitter ampalayas to foods with gata, there are different Filipino dishes that some of us cannot stomach.

It’s safe to say that each and every one of us can name a few dishes – may it be a local delicacy or a foreign dish – that we’d never eat unless we’re part of Fear Factor and a considerable amount of money is at stake.

Here are some of Filipino foods and snacks that make some stomachs hurl.

Let’s start with the Filipino dish Dinuguan, which is also called blood stew in English. Cooked with a savory stew of pig blood, the ingredients of dinuguan is enough to make anyone have second thoughts about eating it.

But for those who would want to try it, Filipinos enjoy eating dinuguan with plain white rice or puto (rice pudding).

Collectively named as exotic foods – snake, dog, frog and bayawak (monitor lizard) dishes are not everyone’s favorite. Usually eaten as pulutan, the meat from these animals are cooked as substitute for some local dishes like adobo.

While some eat these animals as part of their culture, others are bothered of eating an animal that is not widely considered edible. Some people also believe that eating these exotic dishes poses some health risks.

Lastly and probably the most popular scary food that foreigners are warned not to eat while in the Philippines is the Balut. It is a three-week, fertilized chicken or duck embryo that is boiled. Though not entirely unique in the Philippines, as China have their own maodan, Balut is a high-protein snack that is peddled in almost every town in the country.

From the outside, it looks just like every other egg. But beneath the shell is an embryo with the normal appendages and sometimes when you’re unlucky, you’ll find a partially formed chick or duckling inside complete with feathers and a formed beak.

Most people eat it with their eyes closed and admit to liking its taste. When you get over the sight of pre-formed beaks and feathers, you’ll probably enjoy eating Balut, also believed to be an aphrodisiac, with salt and vinegar.