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Q: What foods or drinks did you think were weird when you first got here but you like now?
I probably never would have eaten grilled rat, snake blood/bile, deep-fried grasshoppers back in the States,,, but seems no real big deal now. Still working up the nerve to try cat & dog next. Problem is I have seen dog being prepared many times, and I just don't find it appetizing, quite the opposite in fact. And I always had a soft-spot in my heart for felines... meow
mArtiAn:
I tried dog once, it tasted fine, but then I started picturing my old dog Ralph turning over in his grave, giving me those sad eyes and whining "Whyyyyy?" I couldn't get it out from between my teeth fast enough. Worst thing i've tried was pig's brain. Give me one plate of that and another of cow shit and i'll have to think plenty hard to choose which one to eat.
diverdude1:
pig brain? yep, I agree,, I cannot think of Anything worse to eat than that ! any brains actually..
I been back in the dog markets in Seoul suburbia, dogs roasting on spits, dogs crammed in cages,, dogs being butchered in full sight. meat looked strange shade of red and had strong odor, at least to me. I think the only people more keen to eat dog than Chinese are Koreans....
seen plenty of catz in Chinese wet markets,, not sure if I remember any getting butchered/cooked or not. probably, but there is much going on in a wet market at any one instant.
Chicken heads and chicken cartilage in batter are weird as far as I'm concerned.
I never met an animal I didn't like, but I suspect that cats hate me. Regardless I won't eat cat or dog.
Sorry, there are no weird foods here that I've developed an appetite for.
I thought those old eggs were weird/the dark kind...I like them. I believe they refer to them as the 100 year old egg or something like that. That was the first time I had an egg like that.
There is another type of egg here I've tried I like that one too. Sort of green!
diverdude1:
I'm sure you have enjoyed the cute little quail eggs (anchun dan),,, sooo yummy.. :-p
I didn't like buying drinks that had loads of little jelly balls floating around inside them that you'd suck up through the straw and eat. It seemed weird. Now I enjoy sucking those balls. Haha...sorry.
The mere concept of eating dogs and cats has always bothered me. Not so much the general "idea" of it, but for more practical reasons.
Dogs and cats evolved WITH humans - almost all of those animals you see today are due to selective breeding BY HUMANS.
Why on Earth would you ever eat an animal as useful as a dog or cat? Dogs can be trained to help you find more food, used for protection, plus an unprecedented level of companionship. Cats kill vermin and can keep pests away from the food you already have. Also an unprecedented level of companionship.
I honestly just don't get it. I know there is some mumbo-jumbo hokum about "traditional medicine" properties of eating these animals, but this is about as truthful as the idea if you eat a tiger penis you'll have an everlasting hard-on. All it really tells me is that over "5000 years of history", the Chinese have pretty much failed at animal husbandry and the domestication of animals. I shutter to think what would happen if Chinese people suddenly discovered that panda meat gives you a boner....
Whoa, sorry for the rant, but people mentioned eating cats and dogs. I won't try it, simply because the idea of eating something so useful other than food is just so foreign to me.
Dogs and domestic cats are not native to China - they were brought here by early humans as companion animals.
Now look, if I was starving, and there was no other food source available, and by that I mean my trained dog can't even help me get food, I might eat one. Big IF though.
The way Chinese people treat animals is abhorrent. Any given day I can go to the market near where I live and see a Chinese woman clipping the feet and wings off of a small live bird, or throwing a live chicken into a de-feathering machine. Why? Because they "taste better" if you torture the shit out of them first. People that like to eat cat swear that if you dip the live kitty into boiling water while it's still alive to remove the fur, well, that makes it more tender. The more lively the cat is after that process, well, the better it will taste. According to southern Chinese anyway.
Sorry, don't buy it.
Anyway, to the original point of this post: I actually enjoy a variety of insects. Cicadas being my favorite. Always thought it was weird, then I tried them, quite good. Except for scorpions. Those are gross.
I think it's called "Zhen zi mian". Basically, noodles bathing in some kind of corn porridge, with garlic and a huge ton of onions.
I loathe corn more than any other food, but this dish is DELICIOUS.
Ma la tang, those skewers cooked in sauce, where you pick the ones you want from a collective pot. These places are so filthy I didn't dare approaching them for the first few years. But once I tried, I regretted avoiding them for so long.
Also, chicken heart skewers, chicken ligament skewers, and those weird ones where it's slices of meat and slices of something with the consistency of rubber.
