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Post by Sixerfan on Jun 1, 2005 11:25:51 GMT 7
Every day I am constantly baffled by the different types of food here. I was curious, in this forum, what is the strangest thing anyone has ever eaten? Personally, I had roast goat's eye that I ate on a dare for 2 kuai...I should have asked fro 200...grrr..
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Post by con's fly is open on Jun 1, 2005 11:31:37 GMT 7
In the letters I send home, the most popular segment is "Disgusting Food of the Week". In this tour, the worst has been pig esophagus. From a cow, it's wonderful, delicately chewy, each ring-shaped slice resembling a tortellini, and the taste was magnificent. But from a pig, the taste, when it sunk in, was like raw liver, only far worse.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 1, 2005 13:16:12 GMT 7
Worms. Definitely the weirdest, was worms. Local speciality dish. Tasted like squid, texture very much like worms.
Pigs stomach, goose intestines, etc are all ok. Same as the esophagus. Camels hump was just like fat, along with the camel's blood sauce. I like fried fish bones, with spicy salt flavour.
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Ruth
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Post by Ruth on Jun 1, 2005 16:56:34 GMT 7
Sixerfan, you win. I've never heard of roast goat's eye.
I tried fried silk worms. No more thanks, although I'm told they are a delicacy.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Jun 1, 2005 17:51:01 GMT 7
Silkworms definitely qualify as the weirdest thing I've eaten...at least that I've known I've eaten. I actually like them, though. I will eat them voluntarily. Duck lungs are a strong runner-up for the weirdest.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 1, 2005 18:34:10 GMT 7
These were worm worms not silk worms. Silk worms do not sounds so bad
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Lager
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Post by Lager on Jun 1, 2005 19:05:36 GMT 7
There are things I would have thought mighty odd at home but just seem normal in Asia.
Hmmm.....pigeon, snake, pig ears, dog, blood-gut soup---it's all so routine.
My one regret was not drinking snake blood in Thailand.
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Post by hankuh on Jun 1, 2005 19:30:06 GMT 7
No poo: OX PENIS! Here in my little place under the Red Sun, there's a restaurant that mostly specializes in falsified Xinjiang food, and this outlandish dish of OX Penis is something I've eaten twice. Usually, when I do eat it, I am pretty much plaster off of baijiu after gorging myself. Actually, it's served in a soup and when you eat it, it has a great deal of elasticity to it--so it's not easy to chew, so you must...ok I won't go there.
Also, I've eaten roasted cicadas many times.
I've eaten my share of snake too, but I don't really care for it.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Jun 1, 2005 21:06:44 GMT 7
Tube worm - you know those worms that live in the littoral zone and have a curved soft membrane as a shell? They are interesting but not all that tasty - nothing to really write home about. My students cannot understand how wasteful we are in the west not to eat all parts of the animals. That is why it is so expensive to eat in the west - because we have to throw out over half of the animal.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Jun 1, 2005 21:15:07 GMT 7
Ugh...tube worm! I was going argue that woims is woims, but I'm glad I hesitated. If there is anything worse than this you've eaten, please don't tell us about it.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 2, 2005 8:01:53 GMT 7
Dunno what sort of worms these were, but they were long, ropy things and toughish not soft. About as thick as an earthworm, but longer, and no head or tail. I could get no details, none there knew. Don't forget, I am a biologist, and I couldn't recognize it. I think some kind of worm, though, definitely.
The other think I thought was pretty weird was Rooster gonads for a mongolian hotpot.
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Post by con's fly is open on Jun 2, 2005 12:16:19 GMT 7
A specialty restaurant just opened up next door: you call in an advanced reservation, they slaughter and barbecue a lamb. I heard one bleating as we approached- this gave me simultaneous pangs of compassion... and hunger. Damn, it was good! Then the cutest puppy you ever saw toddled into the room. The biggest different between Chinese and Western cuisine? Zoning.
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Newbs
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Post by Newbs on Jun 2, 2005 13:10:05 GMT 7
This is totally an urban myth but it fits right in here, and after all, aren't urban myths more important than the truth.
WARNING! DOG LOVERS, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!
Some years ago a French diplomat was sent to Beijing. He arrived with his wife and their poodle. A few days later they're out walking with their dog and saw a restaurant and thought why not try it. They went in, and due to no Chinese, gestured to the waiter that if someone could mind their poodle out back whilst they were eating they would be much obliged. This was done, and then they studied the menu. No language so they just pointed to some Chinese characters on the menu and got the waiter to understand that that was what they wanted to eat.
Some time later the waiter comes back with the dishes, which they ate, and found them all to be delicious. At the end of the meal they paid the bill and then asked for their dog. This is when it started to get difficult. Turns out they had pointed to dog on the menu, so the chef had killed and prepared their poodle, and they had eaten it. Oops!
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 2, 2005 13:16:30 GMT 7
Hey, I have eaten bat, but it wasn't in China. Vanuatu. That is pretty weird. Snake? That is pretty normal. So is crocodile. Tried both a few ways - the croc even cajun style yum? err, tastes like fishy chicken.
That is one thing i do not understand. If it tastes like chicken, why not eat chicken? Fish, or squid, eat them? Goat, goat etc? What the hell is wrong with the animals people bred especially to taste nice? OK, squid isn't bred, but there is no shortage of them, their numbers are skyrocketing as we kill off their predators.
My simple rules for safe eating: No pets, no endgangered species unless farmed, and no raw flesh.
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Post by con's fly is open on Jun 2, 2005 19:49:32 GMT 7
And I feel rather strongly in favour of that anti-cannibalism more.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 2, 2005 21:09:58 GMT 7
Nah, not endangered, not a pet and just cook it up. tastes like pork.
A friend of mine was at a restaurant with three young female vegetarians - the type who are temporarily vegetarian because it is some sort of cool protest thing. They were deciding which vegetarian dish to eat. My friend said loudly "I'll have the pork." then turned to the shocked girls and confided "it is the one that tastes most like human flesh"
Made me laugh a lot. Guess you had to be there.
So, Con, where did you get the human flesh?
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Post by Lotus Eater on Jun 3, 2005 7:29:25 GMT 7
Not always that easy in China. Do turtles constitute pets for you? What about rabbit, donkey or silkworms? Half the time you won't know what you are eating - plenty of the time you deem it safer not to ask !
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 3, 2005 7:45:59 GMT 7
I can identify most things, only once have been really stuck, except the worms - definitely annelids, but not one I know. Reluctant to eat turtle, they are so cute, and many are endangered- except the type all over China, the painted south american one. Is it eaten? Rabbit is vermin, happy to eat it.
Really, basically no dogs, no cats. Things that trust me, I have to be trustworthy to keep my self esteem. Although I unknowing ate a small peice of meat I thought was mutton, but might have been dog, and i didnt eat any more anyway. I didn't see the bones, I just didn't like the taste, so I can't be sure.
Anyway, the gf knows and agrees with my preferences, so we are ok there. And if something otherwise happens against my knowledge, what the hey? It is all food really.
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Newbs
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Post by Newbs on Jun 3, 2005 11:22:51 GMT 7
Culture is a bloody big influence on us and our choice of what we eat. Few years ago, when the Japanese were insisting on whale hunting for "scientific purposes" (just as they are today) I thought how the hell could they ever hunt and eat something that seems so intelligent and can navigate the oceans of the world, sing those incredible songs, etc. Well, in a flash, I thought what do the Japanese think of Australians, eating those cute little lambs, that some people actually keep as pets.
Not saying one is right and wrong, (although the whales just plain need protecting) just saying that culture is in there.
Lisa "Dad. Pork, bacon and ham all come from the same animal!" Homer "Sure Lisa ... a 'magical' animal."
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 3, 2005 12:43:46 GMT 7
Hey, did you know that there are more forms of dolphin which are about as smart as a rat, swarm in pods numbering in their hundreds, and are devastating to school fish? why don't they make those things a target. Most places they are protected and it makes about as much sense as protecting rats.
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Post by George61 on Jun 3, 2005 16:02:19 GMT 7
But they are way prettier than rats. I used to sit on my verandah on Nauru and watch my patch of ocean through the trees...I would see thousands of dolphins cruising past in the mornings. I even saw, what I am positive were "killer Whales"..you know they have a distinctive, large dorsal fin....Great place.....Never ate any though.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jun 3, 2005 22:03:10 GMT 7
so, con, where the flesh?
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Post by con's fly is open on Jun 6, 2005 23:57:25 GMT 7
There's a "dropout" problem in my classes...
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