5 Most Disgusting Things to Eat in Michigan State

To locals, these dishes are fierce points of state pride and the ultimate nostalgic comfort foods. To the uninitiated tourist, they sound—and often look—like culinary dares or messy kitchen accidents.

Here is a breakdown of the most wonderfully weird and outwardly disgusting things you can eat in the Great Lakes State.

1. Czarnina (Duck Blood Soup)

Head into Hamtramck or the old-school Polish neighborhoods of Detroit, and you will find Czarnina (pronounced char-nee-na) on the menu of almost every historic restaurant. It is a traditional sweet-and-sour soup made from a rich poultry broth. The catch? The broth is heavily thickened and darkened with fresh, raw duck blood (and sometimes pig's blood), mixed with vinegar to prevent coagulation.

• Why outsiders hate it: You are eating a bowl of hot blood. Visually, it is an opaque, muddy, dark-brown sludge. To make matters weirder for the modern palate, it is traditionally served with floating chunks of dried fruit (like prunes, raisins, or cherries) and kluski noodles, making it look like a murky, bizarre fruit soup.
• Why locals love it: The vinegar and the dried fruit completely mask any metallic "blood" taste. Instead, the blood acts as an incredibly rich, velvety thickener. The resulting soup is an amazing balance of sweet, sour, and deeply savory flavors that instantly warms you up during a brutal Michigan winter.

2. The Olive Burger

If you order a burger in Flint, Lansing, or Grand Rapids, you are likely to encounter this incredibly hyper-regional monstrosity. Instead of standard ketchup and mustard, the burger is absolutely buried under a massive, gloppy scoop of mayonnaise mixed with the brine and chopped remnants of cheap, green, pimento-stuffed olives.

• Why outsiders hate it: Visually, it is a nightmare. It looks like someone took a perfectly good burger and dumped a cup of chunky, greyish-green tartar sauce all over it. Furthermore, warm, greasy mayonnaise mixed with the intense, aggressive saltiness of cheap green olives is an incredibly jarring flavor combination if you aren't expecting it.
• Why locals love it: It is a masterclass in fat and acid. The sharp, vinegary brine of the olives cuts perfectly through the rich, heavy beef fat of the burger, while the mayonnaise melts down slightly to coat the bun in a creamy, savory glaze.

3. The Authentic Detroit Coney Dog

If you think a Detroit Coney Dog is just a standard chili dog, you are sorely mistaken. The fierce rivalry between American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island in downtown Detroit centers around a very specific type of Greek-style meat sauce. A true Coney sauce contains no beans and no tomatoes—instead, it is a heavily spiced, thin, soupy chili that gets its distinct flavor and texture from finely ground beef hearts.

• Why outsiders hate it: Hearing that your hot dog is covered in a slurry of ground cow hearts is a massive turn-off for most tourists. Visually, the sauce doesn't help its case—it is a gritty, loose, brownish-grey meat paste that drips everywhere, quickly turning the hot dog bun into a soggy, disintegrating mess.
• Why locals love it: The beef heart provides an incredibly rich, earthy, and gamey flavor that standard ground beef cannot replicate. When layered with the sharp bite of raw white onions, a streak of bright yellow mustard, and the "snap" of a natural-casing hot dog, it is the ultimate late-night street food.

4. Bar-Jar Pickled Ring Bologna

Walk into almost any hunting lodge, corner store, or dive bar in the Upper Peninsula (or northern Lower Peninsula), and you will find a massive plastic or glass jar sitting right on the counter next to the cash register. Inside the jar, floating in a cloudy, bright-red vinegar brine, are massive, horseshoe-shaped loops of Koegel's pickled ring bologna.

• Why outsiders hate it: Staring at a jar of giant, unrefrigerated, pale-pink meat tubes floating in a vat of spicy red acid is not most people's idea of a good bar snack. The texture of the bologna becomes incredibly dense and slightly rubbery from the vinegar cure, and peeling off the casing while sitting at a barstool feels slightly barbaric.
• Why locals love it: In Michigan, Koegel Meat Company is a legendary institution. Pickling their high-quality ring bologna preserves it for long hunting trips or snowmobile rides. The intense, spicy tang of the vinegar perfectly cuts through the rich fat of the sausage, making it the absolute best companion to a cheap, ice-cold domestic beer.

5. Whole Fried Smelt

Every spring, when the ice melts on the Great Lakes, massive schools of tiny, silver fish called smelt make their spawning run up the rivers. "Smelt dipping" (catching them with long nets in the dark) is a massive Michigan tradition. The classic way to prepare them? Toss them in a light breading and deep-fry them completely whole.

• Why outsiders hate it: You are eating a basket of whole fish. There is no filleting or deboning involved. You grab the fish with your fingers, bite through the head, the eyes, the guts, the spine, and the tail. For anyone used to clean, white fish sticks, the crunch of tiny fish bones is deeply unsettling.
• Why locals love it: The bones of the smelt are so tiny and fragile that they completely soften when deep-fried, providing nothing more than a satisfying crunch. Because they are caught right out of the icy, fresh waters of the Great Lakes, they aren't "fishy" at all—they are mild, sweet, and taste like pure, crispy springtime in Michigan.