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Q: Why Chinese eat almost eveything?
Chinese eat almost everything,pig feet,chicken claw,pig skin,animal organs,fish head.,etc.
I am wondering if there is some history reasons.Western ppl are picky about food,any history reasons as well?
Do you not know your own history? This comes from famine, if you're starving then you'll eat anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines_in_China
TedDBayer:
Does anyone remember the ''eat your (crappy) dinner, people are starving in China'' speeches. I still complain to my mom about why the crappy meals then.
Please don't lump 'western people' into one group.
There are about 200 countries in the world other than China
We are all culturally diverse and each culture has different cuisine.
Even in Europe, each country will take different animal and their parts and cook them in different ways, so i am sure you will find that all the things that are eaten in China are also eaten in at least one other country.
Chicken feet - what nutritional value do they have? maybe someone can enlighten
TedDBayer:
or chicken wing tips, you can manage to get some skin off. I have never seen anyone eat a chicken or duck head even though I always offer them. 
RobertZimmerman:
People in the states eat pigs feet and I've seen people eat chicken feet as well in the south.
Bravelife:
There is a saying in China:Chicken claw keeps your skin from getting old.Mum always told me to eat Chicken claw for having a healthy feet when I was young.
Bravelife:
Ted,my Dad eat chicken and duck head.I found duck head is popular in some restueants.
it taste of ginger and soy anyways, so why not eat pigs arse ?
'picky'? I don't eat dog! Dog or cat are my (only) friends.
I came home 20 years ago: my mum is screaming about something I did last year, pop's yelling because music teacher told him I was no show for 'Oscars audition', my sis is pissed because I ate her last night desert, and then mum comes screaming again about something new....but dog (or cat) is always happy when it sees me. Always!
Now, I'm in China teaching English, and you invite me to a 'dog on the plate' dinner.....I can't eat my friend! Doesn't matter what! I'd rather die together with my dog from hunger, then munch my friend!
I saw beggar with monkey few days ago. I stopped, because I wanted to see animal. It was chained like dog, with missing 10 cm of L paw/leg.
Stinky beggar cut off part of monkey's leg, so animal couldn't run and jump as monkeys do.
I guess, beggar has to have easier life, so 'taming' animal by cutting of its paw make sense.
Do Chinese really believe that if animal bleed to death (some 2 hours ordeal), meat tastes better, than when it's instantly killed? If your answer is 'yay', we consider you retarded! That's not 'culture' thingy! You're probably suffering from lack of brain! In My Opinion ..shorter IMO!
No more comment!
Because Chinese have been starving during most of their history.
Yep, that's it, China's history is anything but glorious-mighty-for-5000-years, awful management of soils and outdated agricultural methods resulting in recurring famines, despotic leaders and bloody uprisings that led the country back in dark ages.
Even today you can see on the faces of elders that they have been starving or were undernourished for decades under Mao.
"Westerners" are picky about food because they can, even today the average Chinese earning 1200RMB/month can't afford to be picky, and for the people above 35~40 there is the memory of days when food was limited to rice and vegetables.
Bravelife:
It is kinda of true.My parents often told me how tough it was 20 years ago,eatting meat is even a luxury thing.I get to know my country better from you,thanks. But 1200rmb as the average salary is low in my city,the place you are talking about must having a very low living cost. I felt my parents now,they suffered starving in their life.I am going to treat them good as much as I can do for them :) Now I understand why the old generation always saving rather than always spending.I feel I wasted lots on luxury shopping,bars,and eatting out.Gonna cut my budget.
xinyuren:
@Bravelife - you wrote a comment about something other than yourself? I'm kind of proud of you!
Good comment! More like this coming, I hope.
Lord_hanson:
Older Chinese I have talked to said that rice was a luxury. They would grind up a vegetable and make it into a pancake. That was once a day between the family.
I don't know. History maybe, but who cares. people eat what they eat and as long as it's not a dead baby or something I don't think there's anything wrong with eating a fish head if that's what you like. In fact it's a good thing, nothing gets wasted. That could be the reason, waste not want not.
Bravelife:
Food not gonna wasted.That is a good saying for China has a large population.
Pig feet, chicken claw, pig skin, animal organs => We eat that in France too
In France, you can also eat beef head and tongue, sheep brain, snails, live oysters, rabbits (some countries in Europe don't). So there, it's not a purely Chinese thing.
sorrel:
rabbit - a French friend cooks this perfectly
in Scotland they eat sheep's stomach - haggis
A traditional family winter recipe includes ox-tail
a brother-in-law hunts and provides local venison every autumn/winter
shell-fish - collected in the west of the country
pigs-feet - another traditional recipe
tripe - cow's stomach
i could go on.......
Europe has a rich culinary history
Bravelife:
Never gonna eat rabbit.They are cute plus I was born in the rabbit year.Rabbit is me.
DrMonkey:
@Bravelife When I was a kid, my mom would cook a rabbit about 3 to 4 times a month. It was cheap meat and we were in economy mode... There are *many* recipes for it. Cooked with carrots and dried plums, with mustard, with olives, stewed with potatoes, etc... Rabbit is easy to breed and is plentiful in the wild, the skin is nice for clothes, so it's an old classic, nothing is wasted.
I'm pretty sure people born in pig year eat pig ;)
Lord_hanson:
When my father was a kid his family was very poor. He had 8 brothers and sisters. The only meat they ate was rabbits they had caught and fish from the rivers.
Actually, eating everything is fine so long it's cooked well. A few countries I've been to, including China have some very inhumane ways of eating. I was in Penang, Malaysia and happened to visit one of their 'exotic' restaurants. This restaurant specializes in monkey brains. If it were cooked from a dead monkey it wouldn't be bad, just disgusting. BUT...get this, they actually shave the top of a LIVE monkey and carve a hole in it's head with a box cutter, then pour Chinese wine, stir it and sip the Brains out of the LIVE monkey's head! The idea was supposed to make one smarter! That is cruelty at it's best! I don't know if the restaurant is still around but I hope to God it's been closed down and the owner put down!
The other one was in China, this restaurant actually cook carps while they're alive. They wrap a wet cloth around it's head and immerse it's body into boiling oil! When the fish is served, it's mouth is still gasping for breathe!
I can't understand WTF these people were thinking when they did that. I mean, is there nothing else better to do than do see live animals killed in such a way? I wonder who the animal is?
Bravelife:
I cooked living shrimp,crab,etc.I am not going to do that more.Your words makes me feel sad to do it.
ambivalentmace:
had the monkey brains in thailand also, about 6 years ago, the most disgusting was in zaire, they take a lizard and eat the back end while its still alive, so you get the "yimmer" spirit of the animal in your soul. so the lizard is barely alive from the bottom half being cooked and then somebody takes a bite out of your ass. gives a whole new meaning to the boss ' chewing your ass out" at the office.
But I found it is weird to eat fish without being cooked in Japan.
Eorthisio:
Raw fish has immense health benefits, such as high amounts of omega 3 (good for sight) that is cruelly lacking in Chinese diet. There are downsides, sea fish often contains mercury, but the pros outweigh the cons anyway.
Japanese have (by far) the longest life expectancy in the world, that's partly because they eat raw fish.
Scandinavian:
and we all know how mercury just completely disappears by cooking. The only health concern in raw fish would be bacteria if not handled properly and the chance of the fish having worms, which is mitigated by freezing the fish prior to serving.
xinyuren:
ahhh. Sushi. Now I want to go to Tokyo and eat at my favorite sushi bar.
ambivalentmace:
eating raw sushi off a naked lady in a restaurant had to be the most interesting meal i have ever had, i recommend it highly when your in tokyo, make sure your friends are paying though, dinner can cost more than a plane ticket.
TedDBayer:
saw a TV program, Mitsubiki is stock piling a certain tuna and trying to fish them out to drive prices threw the roof.
they teach me 好吃 but they didnt teach me not hao chi
Working in London some years past, I had some Turkish friends who invited me to dinner one evening, I was feed 'snake' gess I was sick. Certain restaurant locations throughout China like to serve up and eat donkey meat.
My other half tucks into the chicken feet, but has to do it when I'm not around.
ambivalentmace:
donkey meat is served in many restaurants in gaomi city, even the foreign approved 4 star hotel has this on the menu. stubborn tough jackass is best swallowed with baijo for a great evening of intestinal chaos. damn im hungry.
When I was young, my grandmother used to cook chitterlings (pig intestines), pig's feet, liver, frog legs and other undesirable parts of animals. My ancestors had to learn to make this type of food taste good because slaves were only allowed to eat what their masters threw out.
ambivalentmace:
pig intestines with garlic rice is a very common dish in philippines and china and actually i have this about once a week, it will probably kill me especially the deniguan is high cholesterol but hell eat drink, tomorrow we die.
