I have always drawn the line with dog. Even though my Chinese friends tell me that cooked dog in China is of the wild variety, I just cannot bring myself to partake of it. I always politely refuse. But that does not mean that I have not eaten some other very strange foods in China. Sometimes, you just have to go with the local specialty.
A few years ago, I visited Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Chinese Kung Fu, in Henan Province. I stayed in the downtown area of Dengfeng, which is just a ‘stone’s throw’ from the famous temple. After spending the day at Shaolin, I wandered back into town and began looking for a place to eat. The streets of Dengfeng were filled with white tables and pink chairs and it seemed that the whole town came out to eat. While the sight of so many people eating dinner on the street was interesting, what was more fascinating was what they were eating. And also what I would be eating a few minutes later. At first, I really did not believe what I was seeing. Throughout the downtown area, people were being served grubs mixed with vegetables and spices on small metal trays covered in plastic. That is right, grubs. For a few brief moments I was repulsed; but I was also hungry. There was a battle that waged in my mind for those brief moments. Sure, I told myself, we do not eat grubs where I come from but that does not mean that they are not worth eating. And besides, I asked myself, why are Westerners so obstinate about not eating these little creatures? Maybe we have been missing out all along. So, within ten minutes, I was sitting at a small table popping grub after grub into my famished mouth. Look, I will not say it was the best meal that I ever had but other than the ‘squish,’ that occurred everytime I ate one, the meal was quite enjoyable. The spices and added vegetables helped to make the experience even more enjoyable and I went to bed with a full stomach that night.
Grubs are probably the strangest and grossest (by Western standards) food that I have ever eaten. Well, maybe not. Some of you may consider donkey meat to be a bit “exotic.” Or how about turtles? Turtle eggs? Anyone? Then there is rabbit meat. It is a bit bristly and tough, but does not taste too horribly bad. Chinese people also have an affinity for pig and chicken blood. I am not a big fan of anything’s blood but I cannot say I have not ever tried some. In Lhasa, Yak meat is a local specialty and I shared many a cup of butter tea with the local monks.
Eating new and strange foods is just part of life in China. While I am always concerned about the cleanliness of food that I am eating, I am definitely not afraid to try some foods that the West would consider disgusting. You should not be either. While it is okay to draw the line at eating dog, I think that experiencing some new tastes and sensations in your mouth is not such a bad thing.
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Hong goo mushrooms from Datian (only) Fujian Province the soup amazingly delicious and looks like a light red soup.
As for trying something different i am keen to but scared for my sensitive stomach here the cleanliness is the challenge not the food itself, hell i will even try wild dog just to give it a go, i want to eat the stuff but not at the expense of killing myself.
But i should also say that Chinese are without a doubt the most boring eaters on earth, sure they have local foods but the locals only ever eat local food they do not partake of anything foreign, outside of KFC and McDonalds (god help us) they think our food is crap, but they never try some of the more delicious foods we have, our local delicacies never reach them, they never see a black pudding or a jam rolly polly, spotted dick, treacle tart, sticky date pudding, cornish pasty, scotch egg and pork pie etc, the Chinese must be made to realize that KFC and McDonalds are fast food and as for Pizza Hut being romantic place to eat pleeeease i am on the floor laughing when the chines told me this and there is a huge queue to eat there to in Xiamen shopping center SM all the young taking their partners for romantic meal ha ha but lets face it is hard for them to get out and see this and harder too for us to bring it to them so i want to suggest we encourage recipe sites in the west to have accurate translation to English and to have alternative ingredient options to cater for china. This way we can bring the good stuff to them and hopefully they can add what they have and bring the good stuff to us like the grubs!! Variety is the spice of life, life is about experiencing new things not the same each day, please tell the Chinese this they seem stuck in a groove more than any foreigner visiting china.
I have sent a request to http://www.allrecipes.com to do this and hope it gets a listen, we shall see.. i put in there the commercial benefits to so maybe i have a chance.
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[...] hope that helps answer your question. Robert Vance wrote an interesting article entitled Could You Pass Some More Donkey Please? which you may enjoy [...]