Weird Foods Of The World - Chinese

By Colette York


I have eaten some weird and      cast iron constitution        
wonderful dishes around the      couldn't stomach what I am    
world but some of the more       about to describe to you.     
interesting concoctions have     Anyway I am not sure if it's  
been served up to me in          just a popular folklore or if
China.                           people really did this. I am  
A particularly interesting       sure it must be illegal now,  
delicacy I ate some years ago    if its not it should be!      
consisted of Cow's bronchial     Legend has it that,           
tubes - the airways between      particularly in the southern  
the cow's lungs and windpipe     parts of China, people had a  
gruesome! in a light white       specially designed ritualistic
wine sauce.                      table with a hole in the      
The appearance of a plate        centre, just big enough to    
full of macaroni, the taste of   take the upper part of a      
nothing but the white wine       Monkey's head.                
sauce and the consistency of     Apparently the ritual         
over-cooked calamari, you        consisted of capturing a live
could describe this dish as      Monkey and securing it with   
the original Chinese chew        it's head wedged up in to hole
recipe!                          in the centre of the table.   
Another time I was served        The next step in the ritual   
with a plate of vermicelli       was to trepanne the top of the
with 20 or so delicately         live monkeys' skull off and   
arranged deep-fried crispy       pour boiling water into the   
scorpion complete with sting!    Monkey's brain.               
The trick to eating this         People sitting around the     
particular delicacy was to       table would then proceed to   
convince myself it was nothing   eat the braised Monkey brain  
more than a prawn and all I      with chopsticks directly out  
had to do was to pick it up      of the Monkey's skull.        
with my chopsticks and slip it   I did warn you it was         
into my mouth.                   gruesome it can't possibly   
Actually once I had said to      be true, can it?              
myself it's a prawn, it's a      Fortunately the dishes that   
prawn 20 times this was not      we are more familiar with are
such an ordeal and basically     not quite so outlandish and   
the texture was, well, just      use much more traditional     
crisp! and the only taste was    ingredients. There are many   
of the oil it had been fried     easy Chinese recipes on the   
in, not so much of a Chinese     Chinese food menu, just as    
chew, more of a Chinese          well really because I don't   
crisp!                           know about you but I think I  
But Cow's bronchial tubes and    must be part Chinese as I love
deep fried crispy scorpion       the food and all about the    
are not the most gruesome dish   place.                        
I am aware of.                                                 
I say aware of rather than                                     
ate because even me with my                                    

About the author:
Colette York loves all things Chinese but especially Chinese food and loves nothing more than cooking a delicious Chinese recipe. Come to http://www.chinese-foods.organd sample some delicious tastes.


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