The Olympic games in Beijing, China, have helped to introduce to the world some of the country’s cuisine including, by Western standards, unusual foods such as what’s described in the Daily Mail article, Scorpion kebab, anyone? It’s fast food Beijing style…. For another example, see the video below which depicts reporters from the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times dining at a penis restaurant. They appear to enjoy their meal up until when they’re faced with an ethical dilemma involving one particular type of animal.
In some Asian restaurants, diners point to cages containing the animal that they’d like to consume for dinner. In an article published in the June 2008 edition of Men’s Journal called, “I’ll Have a Glass of Fresh Snake Blood, Please” (see pages 116-120), Lawrence Osborne describes visiting such establishments in China and eating an array of critters including seagull, dog, and donkey, ingesting bull semen, and drinking snake blood.
Unfortunately, some animals are endangered species that were smuggled into the country, many are kept in small, filthy cages, and some are eviscerated alive for purposes of presumed libido enhancement. Here’s a grim video that includes fish being boiled alive for a bizarre cooking contest: Chinese speed cooking live snake and live fish eating. The Telegraph published this article about a video that’s been making the rounds: Chinese diners eat live fish in YouTube video.
For more on the topic of exotic foods, check out the blog, Weird Meat, where the site owner describes eating a panoply of creatures.
[Note: One or more links in the story were updated since the original publicaton date.]
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