More foods for the brave of stomach

Y'all have eaten some nasty stuff. 

We picked seven foods for the strong of stomach, but readers nominated a lot of other things we'd considered, and quite a few we hadn't.

Balut
One item was named by readers more than any other, and if we'd expanded our list to eight items, this would've been the eighth. Balut is the boiled fertilized egg of the duck known as an itik, complete with fetal duckling inside. A Filipino delicacy, it was even featured on NBC's "Fear Factor."  Many of you felt it deserved a place on the list:

I have tried a lot of weird food: duck tongues, chicken feet, small fried crabs, caramelized fish, beef tongue (delicious!). When I was in the Philippines, I encountered one item that I just could not try: unhatched duck or chicken egg, boiled and eaten with salt. ... The vision of the almost formed chick (feathers, feet, eye and all) in the egg just cut my appetite. -Valerie, Toronto, Ont.

A couple of Filipino "delicacies" - bagoong (both o's are pronounced) and balut rate high on my inedibility scale. Bagoong is a highly salted paste made from tiny shrimp (sometimes fish)that has been fermented to the point of extreme rankness (probably like stinky natto). Balut is the boiled-in-the-eggshell duck's embryo. I have had balut — it's definitely an acquired taste — but I can't get around the smell (stench) of bagoong. -Ray, Charlotte, N.C.

If I only had a brain ...
Perhaps monkey brains weren't unsettling enough for some people.  Other brains of all sorts got a nod:

In Cuba when a pig is roasted and taken out of the pit, a tradition is to open up the skull and each guest takes a spoon and they eat the brains. It's considered a delicacy. -Joe, Houston, Texas

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Mexican barbacoa with cow brains in a flour tortilla. This is a delicacy in the Mexican-American culture in the south. In San Antonio, people can get barbacoa almost anywhere. But the brain or "sesos" variety is very unpalatable and not for the weak stomached person. -David, San Antonio, Texas

As a guest of honor at one table in Italy, I was served a half head of lamb and was expected to eat everything that wasn't bone, although the gristle was optional. While the brain was extremely tasty (although the texture — creamy — was very odd), the worst part was the eyeball. Being roasted, it had shrunk and looked like a partially deflated beach ball but was juicy like a cherry tomato. I had a hard time with that one. -Heather, Utah

But are they served with maple syrup?
My mom is from Finland and grew up eating blood pancakes. When we moved there as a family for a few years she ate them with great joy. I could never bring myself to take a taste. -Carina, Heber City, Utah

The sea slugs are great, but ...
Mushrooms!! I don't know why, but the texture is disgusting to me. I can and do eat shiitakes, but they are of a completely different texture, similar to meat. But otherwise mushrooms sicken me to the point where I cannot even watch someone else eat one! I eat a lot of strange things, and sea cucumber is absolutely delicious. -Adela, Rathdrum, Idaho

Stink Eggs. This is a dish consisting of salmon eggs that are prepared and placed in a tightly sealed mason jar and then buried to rot for about 90 days. I tried to eat them once but couldn't get near the jar they stunk so bad. considered a delicacy among the Native Alaskan Indians. -William, Juneau, Alaska

I have tried several of your delicacies, but I drew the dining line in Palau when offered whole fruit bats, unskinned for consumption as a starter or main dish. -Bob, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Morcilla, a Puerto Rican dish that I cannot endure. I am Puerto Rican and there are many Boricua foods that I love. But for some reason I cannot bring that item to my lips. Morcilla is a sausage that is made of blood and rice — yes, blood and rice. Rice is boiled in pork's blood and stuffed in sausage casing. After that it's fried. -Jessica, Saint Petersburg, Fla.

Shubat — fermented camel milk — I tried a cup in a market in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I believe it is traditionally made by leaving camel milk in a kind of wine skin for a while until it becomes alcoholic. It tastes something like a feta cheese milkshake, chunks and all. -Rob, Montreal, Ont.