Chinese streaming platform Bilibili took an “anti-gourmet” perspective for documentary "Crazy Delicious" – winner of the ContentAsia Award 2025 for Best Factual Entertainment Programme Produced for a Single Market in Asia – using unusual foods as a lens to explore local culture. With season three now in production, producer Teng WeiQiong talks about how the series came into being, cow stomach and fried stones as food, documenting human perseverance, and key takeaways – “Food has no hierarchy...the ‘strange foods’ born of unique environments are among the most primal expressions of human life”.

Where did the idea for an “unusual foods” documentary come from? And what was its original appeal to your commissioning team?

"Crazy Delicious"is the result of a creative alignment between Bilibili Documentary and the production team. As documentary filmmakers, we travel frequently. When we want to quickly understand the customs and culture of an unfamiliar place, we often ask locals to take us to eat something that only people from that area would normally eat. Through past experiences, we discovered that many foods locals consider ordinary or even mundane can be utterly shocking or emotionally intense for outsiders. This stark contrast in emotional response, as well as fundamentally different definitions of what “food” means, revealed a rich thematic space for exploration.

At the time, Chinese food documentaries were entering a highly competitive ‘red ocean’, with increasingly similar styles and narrative approaches. We realised that these “non-conventional” foods could serve as a unique and differentiating starting point.

As development continued, and as we gained deeper insight into these so-called “strange foods,” the cultural traditions, social customs, and ethnic identities behind them gradually emerged. This helped us recognise the deeper value of the subject. As many folk traditions and local customs are disappearing, documenting these unusual foods became a way of recording living, place-based cultural practices.

This is how"Crazy Delicious"came into being – a food documentary fundamentally different from the conventional genre, adopting an “anti-gourmet” perspective and using unusual foods as a lens to explore local culture.

Why do you think "Crazy Delicious" landed so well?

The theme of “strange food” is naturally well-suited to Bilibili. Young audiences on the platform are deeply curious about the world around them and eager to discover unfamiliar knowledge through documentaries. No matter how one defines “strange,” the concept itself is enough to spark curiosity.

Secondly, the series emerged at a time when Chinese food documentaries were becoming increasingly homogenised. Like another Bilibili documentary, The Story of Chuaner “人生一串”, Crazy Delicious broke away from conventional formulas, seeking new narrative directions through unconventional approaches and offering audiences a refreshing viewing experience.

Did the idea change during the production/filming process? 

Our definition of “strange food” has continued to evolve and expand – from “weird” to “unusual”, “rare”, and “peculiar”. However, the core concept and direction have remained unchanged: using these foods to reveal local customs and place-based cultures.

Food is the most direct entry point for understanding a region’s people and way of life. As our tagline states: food has no hierarchy of value. A land nourishes its people, and the ‘strange foods’ born of unique natural environments are among the most primal signals of human activity.

How difficult was it to find very unusual foods? How did you decide which foods or stories are worth featuring? 

Finding truly extreme foods is, by definition, extremely difficult. Fortunately, today’s information networks and self-media landscape allow us to access food-related information from remote or border regions during early research.

However, true understanding requires being on site. Some foods can only be fully experienced through their smell and taste. From a documentary perspective, we must consider multiple dimensions: the characteristics of the food itself, its cultural significance and inheritance, the methods of sourcing and preparation, and the individuals being filmed. These factors together determine whether a subject is worth presenting.

Is there anything you filmed but eventually decided not to include in the final cut? What was it, and can you share the reason?

Yes. Some foods were researched and even partially filmed but did not make the final cut. One example is Foshanluo (佛手螺) (Buddha's hand snail/goose barnacle) found along China’s eastern coast. It is a rare crustacean that grows only on steep, wave-battered sea cliffs, and can only be harvested manually.

Our subject was an elderly woman nearing 80, who had spent her life harvesting these barnacles to support her family. Her body bore numerous scars from fractures and cuts caused by sharp rocks. While both the food and the character were compelling, the harvesting process was extremely dangerous. Moreover, due to the barnacle’s rarity and high market price, it is sold to restaurants. Internally, we debated whether it was appropriate to portray a food obtained at such personal risk for commercial value. Ultimately, we decided not to include it.

Were you conscious of the potential shock value?

During planning, we anticipated some interactive responses via Bilibili’s bullet comments. However, after release, the overwhelming volume and variety of reactions made us realise the vast information and perception gaps surrounding “strange food.” This reinforced our determination to continue the series.

Is there an episode or a particular food that left the deepest impression on the production team? 

The “aged pork” 陈猪肉 from Zhaba, Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan – more commonly known as “stinky pork”– left the deepest impression on our team. The word “stinky” barely captures its complexity. In an environment marked by extreme scarcity and harsh climate, locals processed an entire pig through elaborate methods and hung it from rafters to naturally age for decades. It functioned as a “time capsule” against uncertainty, a silent symbol of family wealth, and the highest form of hospitality. Serving it meant offering not just food, but preserved time itself.

Its smell – reminiscent of ammonia –  was overwhelming; the initial bitterness felt like rejection. Yet, with patience and guidance from locals, a deep and complex fermented flavour emerged. It felt like a microscopic journey through time, sinking from sharp immediacy into mellow depth.

While the crew visibly struggled on camera, beneath that discomfort lay a profound cognitive experience. We realised that so-called “strange food” is often born from extreme environments pressing against human survival. It is first a form of wisdom, and only then a culinary marvel.

What was the most significant challenge in filming? And how did you overcome it?

One major challenge was balancing the ‘weight of reality’ with viewer comfort – especially when documenting traditional slaughtering or deep fermentation processes. Pure documentation could be overwhelming, while excessive beautification risked erasing cultural authenticity.

Another challenge was the natural environment, particularly in southwestern mountainous regions where weather is unpredictable. Waiting for the right light or seasonal ingredients often required extended periods of patience. This taught us that true “locality” cannot be scheduled.

What was the biggest surprise?

The biggest surprise was realising that the food itself was never the strangest part – behind each dish lies a story of survival.

For example, Sa Pie, a traditional dish from Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province in southwestern China, is made from partially digested cow stomach contents. Though it may seem shocking at first, it embodies a zero-waste survival philosophy born from periods of scarcity.

In Lianyungang, a coastal city in Jiangsu Province in eastern China, locals eat Dou Dan (caterpillars found in soybean fields). These insects are typically seen as crop-damaging pests, but locals have found a way to turn them into a dish. It’s a wonderfully inventive reversal – transforming an agricultural enemy into a source of nourishment – a small but powerful example of folk ingenuity in the face of constraint.

Along the Yangtze River in China, veteran river boatmen passed down a famine-time practice known as Suo Diu. In times with no food, they would pick small river stones, fry them with salt, and suck on them for flavour – using a trace of saltiness to trick the body and steady the mind. It was less about nourishment than survival – a stark expression of human resilience in desperate circumstances.

Through these stories, we understood that what we were really documenting was not strange food, but human perseverance.

How long did filming take?

Despite the difficulty of finding truly extreme foods, the series maintains an efficient production process. Each season typically takes about one year to develop, and is often released during the Chinese New Year period to offer audiences a counterintuitive viewing experience during a time of celebration.

What was the social media strategy?  

We focused primarily on social media promotion, supplemented by small-scale offline tasting events where core viewers could experience the foods while watching the series.

Are you making another season?

The third season is currently in production. This time, we will venture beyond China to explore more place-based, culturally rooted “strange foods” around the world.

What do you hope is the key takeaway for viewers?

Food has no hierarchy. A land nourishes its people, and the “strange foods” born of unique environments are among the most primal expressions of human life.


An edited version of this interview appeared in ContentAsia's eNewsletter of 23 February 2026