This is an entire roasted pig’s head staring back at you. Complete with BBQ sauce and a raw vegetable salad. Don’t knock it till you try it, the various components are quite tasty! Credit: Photo via Yelp
Not for the sushi novice, the urchin is cracked open live and eaten. Good luck! Credit: Photo via Yelp
You need to head to this Peruvian restaurant to order this dish. The antichucos peruanos with beef heart is prepared kebab style. Marinated in Panca pepper and served with potatoes and Peruvian corn. It’s a gem. Credit: Photo via Nazca Restaurant
Many versions of popcorn have been popping up lately, but The Willeyville’s is the most extreme and delicious. Served on their dinner menu, the spicy phat popcorn is tossed with pork fat, cilantro & jalapeno powder, and lime zest. Credit: Photo via The Willeyville
Alligator sausage is topped with French fries, BBQ sauce, and cole slaw resting on a hoagie bun. Try it. Credit: Photo via Emanuel Wallace/SCENE
Rincon Crillo in Gordon square does this Puerto Rican dish proud. Starting with mashed plantains in a wooden mortar, garlic, olive oil, and seasoning are then added to the mixture. Served in a ball, Rincon’s Mofongo must have shrimp added. Credit: Photo via Cleveland Scene Archives
This Asiatown cornerstone serves something you don’t see everyday – cold jellyfish! Like a bowl of aquatic spaghetti, the jellyfish is tossed with sesame seeds and pickled vegetables. You be the judge. Credit: Photo via Yelp
A local and TV legend, Ray’s Sausage is famous for its souse meat. Presented like a cold cut at the deli counter, souse meat is a combination of a pig’s snoot, ear, and tongue balanced with some awesome spices. Trust us you will love this. Credit: Photo via Emanuel Wallace/SCENE
When you think sausage in Cleveland, Raddell’s Sausage Shop comes to mind. An “out of the box” sausage they offer is their blood sausage. Blood sausage is pork, dried pigs blood, and suet(pork fat). You don’t have to be a vampire to enjoy. Credit: Photo via Yelp

Jason Beudert has had a dynamic career as a leader with The Walt Disney Company, ESPNZone, The Cleveland Indians, and as a restaurant entrepreneur. He is utilizing his twenty years of hospitality experience along with his love for the Cleveland food scene to contribute exciting and insightful food pieces for Scene. Along with being one of our food writers, Jason is also the food critic for WOIO 19 Action News, and makes a weekly appearance on Q104's Fee's Kompany radio show to promote food and the Scene. Jason is also a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure Magazine.