Of all the Filipino foods, one of the strangest must be the mysteriously named "soup number five". Soup number five is a soup made out of bull penis, and testicles. It's supposed to be an aphrodisiac, though how chewing an animal's genitalia can help arouse anyone's libido, I cannot understand.
For a long time, I thought the existence of this soup was just an urban legend. But then, I chanced upon a restaurant one day, and on its signage quite clearly was "Soup # 5." I don't remember now where exactly this restaurant was, but I won't be surprised if it was in chinatown.
I didn't have the stomach to go in and try this exotic food, so I don't really know what it tastes like, or how it looks. However, I know this guy who claimed to have had soup number five in some local restaurant. Apparently, when you order the soup, in your bowl you get either one testicle, or the shaft of the penis.
"Well, what does it taste like?" I asked the guy.
"Oh," he said nonchalantly, "it tastes like soup."
We left the conversation at that.