Care for a scorpion on a stick?
It seems that one of the more strange aspects of going to Beijing for the Olympics has been the culture shock associated with some of the Chinese "delicacies" - though that's hardly the word I would use for the array of items for sale in the open air markets. Today I received 13 extremely colorful and horribly revolting emailed photographs which I find hard to believe, even though I earlier saw a television newscaster eating a fried starfish on a stick. In this email I learned that the starfish had been fried in shark oil.
Though I (fortunately) was unable to post a photo (They must be protected by the equivalent of the Chinese CIA), here is a list of the culinary items which vendors had for sale:
* Baby sharks, deep fried star fish & sea urchins.
* Grilled snake.
* Dog liver with vegetables.
* Goat lungs with red peppers.
* Corn with ginger sauce. (Well, okay, I guess no little baby corns were harmed in this dish...)
* Mixed cow and horse stew.
* Silk worms and black scorpions on a stick.
* Scorpion brochettes. (Whatever the heck that is.)
* Lizard legs. (No indication of what happens to the rest of the lizard.)
* Dog brain soup. (Let's not even go there.)
* Oysters, squids, and iguana tails.
* Assorted scorpions and beetles.
* More scorpions, crickets and beetles.
* Seahorses (on sticks, of course).
* Grilled snake and silk worms.
The photos showed vendor after vendor with a massive assortment of dead creatures fried to a crisp and skewered on sticks.
So, if the population of China is 1,321,851,888, can we speculate that it takes a considerable number of the above-listed creatures to satisfy the carnivorous tastes of that nation?
I have to admit that in the past when someone asked, "Wanna eat Chinese tonight?" I had no idea that the choices could involve the destruction of a large part of the animal world.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term "carnivorous," doesn't it?
From the peaceful Tillman world of vegetables and greenery, this is your roving reporter Madeline, signing off on a lovely summer night and hoping for visions of sugar plums dancing in my head tonight...
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You know, there is a TV series that I dislike very much - "Fear Factor." The brilliant writers of this "show" are always thinking up horrible things for the contestants to eat - and the audience is expected to sit there and watch this "entertainment." As I looked at those emailed photos, I thought of how little difficulty the contestants would have if they had been raised in China, eating all manner of creepy, crawly critters.
(You'll notice that I have my dear daughter with me this morning, and she furnished the specific name for the cockroach, courtesy of her entymology class several years ago. I would have called the critter a BUG!)
I also enjoy reading your comments on the blogs, too, ct. I guess by now Hoonowski has figured out that you're female, don'tcha think??