Koreans have a dish well known for fighting hangovers "Haejangguk". It's actually one of the better soups that comes out of the Korean kitchen, super hearty fantastic fighting colds and eating <i>when</i> you're cold.<p>When I first was introduced to it, sometime in the early 2000s, I actually found it just a little gross since every bowl came with two or big pieces of congealed blood in the soup. I usually just set those aside and ate on, but I always found it a bit off putting.<p>There's been an interesting transition in Korean food though over the last decade or so, I've found it harder and harder to find Haejangguk <i>with</i> the blood anymore. I remember it being in pretty much every bowl I ordered, and now I'm shocked if I find the blood in 1 out of 20 different restaurants.<p>As Koreans as a culture start to really interface with outsiders, it seems like these old home-style ways of making foods are starting to fall out of fashion, and "nicer", more mass produced, more consistent foods are taking over.<p>I find it kind of sad personally, I spent a lot of time acquiring a taste for lots of Korean food and it was hard won. But as I learned to like it, the complexity and heartiness of the cuisine really started appealing to me.<p>The modern stuff you get in the supermarket cafeteria? Not so much.
You don't even necessarily need to kill the animal to consume its blood - <a href="http://www.thomsonsafaris.com/blog/traditional-maasai-diet-blood-milk/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thomsonsafaris.com/blog/traditional-maasai-diet-b...</a> . Yum.
Black pudding is pretty common in the UK: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding</a><p>It's also delicious.
This is a great reminder for me to follow through on making the recipe for chocolate blood ice cream from Jennifer Lagan's book Odd Bits[0]. I already checked with a local butcher and got the details about sourcing blood from their partner abattoir. If anyone has attempted this before and cares to offer extra tips, I'd be grateful!<p>[0] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Odd-Bits-Cook-Rest-Animal/dp/158008334X" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Odd-Bits-Cook-Rest-Animal/dp/158008334...</a>
> We started out on a project on traditional Arctic snacks, but it was really difficult to get them tasty, because the traditional recipes were not made to be tasty. As soon as there’s seal fat included, that gets awfully difficult.<p>I just finished "The Last Place on Earth", about the race to the south pole, and one of Amundsen's obsessions was with ensuring that he had an experienced arctic cook.
FWIW, Russian kids are probably familiar with blood products. We have a treat called hematogen bar for people with anemia. It's made out of cow's blood and quite tasty, so non-anemic kids eat it anyways.
The uni in Thailand that I first worked at had a very common canteen setup that served delicious noodles with fresh vegetables and nutritious, cheap, gray cubes of blood. Pretty standard asian fare.<p>Glad that this has now been discovered by white people.
In the Philippines, Dinuguan is one of our top 5 best known dishes. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinuguan" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinuguan</a>
There is this well known soup in Poland called "czernina". It is made from duck blood and clear poultry broth<p>Due to health issues and people switching diets to more European and American dishes the soup is diminished to disappear within next 2-3 decades. It is a great part of the Polish culture though.
In Cambodia coagulated pig and chicken blood are common, especially in soups and rice porridge/gruel.<p>I eat it daily. Pig blood has a firmer texture and a more neutral taste -- it's comparable to tofu in both regards. I strongly prefer it to chicken blood.
<i>"But blood recipes have been part of the food of every culture in Europe that was slaughtering pigs or cows."</i><p>Chicken, too. There's a Portuguese dish called "arroz de cabidela", which is rice prepared with chicken blood.