Good Eats

There are a million things to write about the  food and the dining experience in China.  For example, I'm yet to see General Tsao's Chicken on any menu.   And a typical Chinese Restaurant resembles a hotel more than it does a U.S. restaurant.  But those are stories for another day.

All we have time for today is a short blurb on odd things we've lately eaten.  Not that it is rare to eat odd things, mind you.   These are just a couple of recent items.

At the top is a heaping plate of Duck Tongues.  This is a common starter, or "cold dish" in the better restaurants.  I'm not really sure how they're cooked...whether boiled or braised or fried or what.  They taste good, but don't have a lot of meat on them.   And they have a bone in them.   I never realize that a duck has a  bone in their tongue.

The photo above is from Japanese restaurant in China.  Japanese restaurants in China are kind of like Mexican restaurants in the U.S.   (Read into that what you will - it works on several levels).  Anyway, the Japanese are famous for their raw fish - sashimi and sushi.  The Chinese especially love these Japanese raw fish dishes.  Freshness is important to the Chinsese.  And nobody in the world does fresh fish better than the Japanese. The dish in this photo represents the ultimate in freshness.

What you are looking at is a fish on a bed of ice.  On top of the fish, the glistening stuff, is thinly sliced raw fish meat which was carved from the body of the fish.  (There is not much between the head and tail of this fellow, except his bare spine.   You just can't see the bare spine because it's hidden by the meat and the ice and the other garnishes.)  You eat the glistening, raw meat like any Japanese sashimi...but dipping it in a little sauce and then slurping it down.  If the fish is very fresh, then it is very good.  If the fish is not so fresh, then it's like eating an old pair of socks.

This particular fish was very good.   And as we were eating it, a Japanese colleague explained that it had to be fresh because the fish was still alive.   The dish is prepared by carefully carving a live fish.  Just because the meat is off the bones does not mean that Elvis has left the building.

And to prove it, he said, you just need to drop a little beer on the nose of the fish.

And we did.

And the fish's head gulped air through its gills and wiggled it's tail around. 

Of course, you can't leave that alone, so a few minutes later we dropped some more beer on it's nose.  Again, he bobbled his head and wiggled his tail. 

He kept on doing this long after his former possessions had been eaten and until the waitress took his remains away.  About 15 minutes later he came back again, this time as the main ingredient in a boiling pot of fish broth.  At that point, though, he was no longer wiggling and most assuredly Elvis had left the building.