The Most Bizarre Foods Throughout History

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Garum - Fermented Fish Sauce

Usually if you leave something organic out in the sun for three months, it ends up in the garbage, not on your plate. The Ancient Romans were a bit more "resourceful," however. A popular condiment of its time, garum was essentially fish sauce made from fish intestines, salt and herbs, and fermented in the sun. Whole towns were devoted to the production of this pungent paste, and the Romans used to put it on absolutely everything, including dessert. It was also used as a condiment in ancient Greece, Carthage and Byzantium. Today, fish sauce, a widely used condiment in East and Southeast Asian cuisine, is almost like its modern-day equivalent, made from the briny liquid of fermented fish in salt.