Things I Ate

This last trip to China was a gastronomic extravaganza for me. So much fun. So much different food. So I thought I'd review the non-western delights in which I partook:

Snake
Yum. Double Yum. I had this before when over there. But this time my father-in-law prepared it for me, and it was just as good as I remembered. Mildly fried and tasty. Not much meat, and lots of bones, but well worth it. Comparable, only slightly, to pork. There is a video at the end of this post from the market preparing the snake for us. Not for the faint of heart, PETA people or vegetarians.

Snake spleen
So, after you are done devouring the snake meat, there is the spleen. Considered a delicacy and great for your health, you're supposed to eat/drink it raw in a glass of hard liquor (Maotai is what I had). Drop it in the glass and drink it down in one gulp. Yup, that's what I did and I'm still here to blog about it.


Eel
They're small. They're slimy. But they have a nice taste and not much bone. Comparable to Frogs legs.

Pig Brains
Yeah, I had second thoughts about this when considering the risks of spongiform encephalopathy (mad pig/cow disease), but I also think we overreact to minor outbreaks here and the Chinese don't feed their pigs pig meat or their cows cow meat. So I had some in a Hot-Pot dinner. Its like chalky soft dry tofu. Not much taste and not much texture. And so far, I'm not walking in circles and falling down (a lot).

Catfish Head
I've seen in Atchison, Kansas, they hang these on the fences. In China, that would be a travesty as it's a delicacy. A lot of fat, tastes like fish, with a lot of fat. Did I mention that it's a lot of fat? Gelatinous fat. Very fatty.

Pig Nose
Dogs actually have it pretty good here. Its not bad. Texture is like chicken gizzards, taste is like pork skin. And yeah, you know it's a snout - nostrils and all.

Turtle
OK, it pretty common here. But with the head, shell, feet and tail and all? And will there be an argument over who gets the head? I think not...

Camel
When went to a nearby middle-eastern restaurant and they offered Camel. So I thought, what the heck, why not? Not much different than beef, just a bit more gamy.

Durian Candy
Durian fruit is about the only thing Andrew Zimmern from the TV show "Bizarre Foods" just could not eat. Its smells like rotting flesh. I know. It was brought into my home one time and just about made me vomit. The candy though, does not have this smell. And it tastes like very rich vanilla ice cream - really.

Pig Feet
OK, that's fairly common here as well. But I had never had it before. Fatty, but not as much as Catfish head....

Pork Skin (soup)
Again, fairly common here. I've had this fried as Pork Rinds - like a lot of you have had. But this is the first time I've had it in a soup. Just about what you'd expect. Nothing really notable.

Here's that snake cleaning video. Don't watch unless your with that other PETA group: People Eating Tasty Animals.