Don't forget that exotic dishes are exotic only for us, but not at all for locals, and the old saying 'what is good for a Russian is death for a German' can be rephrased as follows: foods that are perfectly edible for Africans (Thais, Polynesians, etc.) can result in severe poisoning for a European (including a Russian). But if the desire to experiment with one's digestion is still great enough, one should follow some safety rules.
Eat only in trusted places (preferably at the hotel) and avoid any dubious establishments. Do not indulge in exotic fruits or vegetables; it is best to prefer fruits with a peel, which should be peeled with your own (necessarily clean) hands. The safest fruits are pineapples, bananas, and all citrus fruits.
Do not eat raw meat, even if offered in the most expensive restaurant. By tasting raw snails, fish (don't be surprised, it happens), snakes, or crabs, you can easily pick up worms. Moreover, such delicacies may simply not be digestible by a 'European' stomach.
For many peoples, seafood is the main source of nutrition (especially in Southeast Asian countries). When eating seafood, it is important to observe some precautions.
Many daring gourmets are attracted to dishes made from bivalve mollusks (oysters, mussels). The chef or waiter of any Asian restaurant will long convince his client that the mollusk from which the dish is made is completely harmless and edible. Indeed, most mollusks are edible. But there is one 'but' here.
At certain times, many harmless shells begin to accumulate harmful microorganisms from the order *dinoflagellates. In warm seasons, they multiply rapidly and accumulate in the coastal zone, so the water becomes reddish-brown. 'Red tide' is often observed not only in regions with hot climates but also in the North Sea and the northeastern Atlantic. During these phenomena, mollusks should under no circumstances be eaten: even culinary processing does not destroy the dangerous poison of dinoflagellates.
The cause of shellfish poisoning can also be more prosaic. Shells living in coastal waters are often exposed to wastewater from large cities... No comment! Cases of poisoning from edible mollusks have been recorded in France, Great Britain, Germany, the USA, South Africa, New Zealand, and many other countries, including European ones.
Sea cucumbers are considered the 'highlight' of Asian cuisine – echinoderm benthic animals, also called holothurians. Preparing sea cucumbers requires careful processing of the product: some glands and internal organs of the animal are poisonous.
Sea urchin roe is also considered a tasty dish, which, by the way, becomes poisonous to humans during the breeding season. Sometimes poisoning, sometimes fatal, is caused by eating some types of moray eels and even the delicious meat of sea turtles.
One should be cautious about eating dishes made from sharks. It is better not to try shark liver at all – it bodes nothing good for human health. But even the meat and fins of some shark species can sometimes cause severe poisoning. At various times, poisonings have been recorded from the meat of reef, polar, sixgill, soupfin (shark fin soup is a delicacy of Chinese cuisine), and some other sharks.
As for various 'coral' fish, such as triggerfish and boxfish, dishes from them should only be prepared by a highly qualified specialist chef, otherwise the consequences can be very sad. Some fish accumulate the poison of the mollusk *ciguatera in their bodies. Ingestion of this poison causes prolonged (several weeks) and dangerous poisoning, with a high percentage of fatalities.
The same applies to the famous Japanese dish fugu, which is made from pufferfish (the internal organs of this fish contain a dangerous poison – *tetrodotoxin). Only highly qualified specialists can properly prepare fugu using a method specially developed for each species of pufferfish. It is officially forbidden for non-professionals to cook this dish, but this ban is often violated.