It’s No Yolk: 7 Amazing Edible Non-Chicken Eggs

Octopus Eggs

It’s No Yolk: 7 Amazing Edible Non-Chicken Eggs(image via: sodai gomi)

If extreme foodie Andrew Zimmern can enjoy octopus egg sushi (Mizudako-zushi) and other Japanese delicacies on Bizarre Foods Season 3, Episode 13, can you? The rarity of this exotic (even for natives) dish makes one handy excuse; another being that mother octopi guard their eggs to the point of starvation, even eating one or more of their arms in desperation. Maybe you should stick to Ikura (salmon eggs) or Tobiko (flying fish eggs), which are much more common and won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

Turtle Eggs

It’s No Yolk: 7 Amazing Edible Non-Chicken Eggs(image via: Neil DeMaster)

Soft-shelled turtle eggs (from all kinds of turtles, not just soft-shelled ones) are usually eaten raw or very lightly heated, and their taste is said to be more flavorful than chicken eggs though some note a “musky” aftertaste. Due to the endangered status of many turtle species, especially sea turtles, some countries have banned the legal sale and consumption of turtle eggs. Tourists should take care not to encourage the poaching of turtle eggs and limit their consumption of them to those sustainably sourced from registered turtle farms. It’s unfortunate and tragic that persistent superstitions about turtle eggs imparting sexual stamina help support an illegal trade that’s difficult to suppress.

Shark Eggs

It’s No Yolk: 7 Amazing Edible Non-Chicken Eggs

It’s No Yolk: 7 Amazing Edible Non-Chicken Eggs(images via: Guttorm Flatabo)

Some sharks give birth to live young; others lay curious leathery egg cases known as “mermaid’s purses” – they and their contents are not edible, technically speaking. Unfertilized shark eggs, on the other hand, are both edible and nutritious. So-called “ova” like those of the Dogfish above are found by happenstance in the ovaries of sharks caught for food or sport. They can range in size up to that of chicken eggs and can be prepared for eating in many of the same ways. Bonus: no shell to crack and no distinct “white” to blend or separate.

It’s No Yolk: 7 Amazing Edible Non-Chicken Eggs(image via: by and by)

You can eat eggs and you can eat jellyfish, but can you eat a Fried Egg Jellyfish? This tasty-looking creature (Phacellophora camtschatica) lives in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea and its sting is very mild compared to others of its genus. We’d ask whether the creature’s eggs look like eggs or jellyfish but that’s one of those “chicken or egg” questions better left unanswered.