Travel Channel Guangzhou

[N&J]

The Travel Channel will have a episode about eating bizzare foods in Guangzhou this Tuesday.

 

So what is the most bizzare food you ever ate in China?

 

I'm not adventurous so Turtle anyone?

[Jay & Ping]

I'm rather adventurous my self. I'll try almost anything - once. Ping is sweet. She knows what I like and tends to initiate me slowly. Now her friends - quite a different story. It's become quite a game with them. Much to their delight they order the most bazaar things and Ping watches me with great interest.

Turtle soup of course. This was OK. Even with the shell floating about. Snake was interesting. It wasn't disguised at all. 4 inch segments with bone and skin. "Not delicious", as Ping would say. Chicken blood was palatable, but not on my reorder list. All sorts of fish and eels and other water creatures. Little eels that look like worms are actually quite good. Thousand year old eggs are something I can not eat - yet.

I find you get your money's worth in China. Order chicken and you get the whole thing. Heads, feet, testicles, etc. If you've never seen chicken testicles before - they are huge (for the size of a chicken). For comparison, let's just say I'm envious - unless some's yanking my chain on this one.

One thing I've told Ping about America is that it is a land of "no bone". Man, everything has bones! You have to be careful. She is sweet. She always picks out "no bone" pieces for me when we eat. Makes me smile.

[IllinoisDave]

I've never been one to be too "adventurous" when it comes to food and didn't change my ways much in China. Although I was open to eating whatever was put in front of me. My then fiancee knew this about me so didn't push it.

So I guess the most adventurous thing I ate was pig's feet. I know, pretty wimpy huh? The nastiest thing was definately one of those black hard-boiled duck eggs. Ugh!

Edited April 13, 2008 by IllinoisDave (see edit history)

[rogerluli]

I've had turtle sesveral times now and folks...

 

I DON'T LIKE IT...

 

The last time the host honored me with one of the legs so I had to eat it right down to the toenails...

[rogerinca]

I love most authentic Chinese food, and really like the Cantonese, Sichuan, Beijing, and Hunan schools of cooking.

 

I draw the line with most organ meats, the black eggs Dave spoke of and the chicken feet, which my eleven year old daughter loves so much. I guess I will pass on anything which I would consider ¡°bizarre¡¯¡­¡­.including Croc¡¯, turtle, frog, and snake.

 

One thing about Guangzhou, is that fresh fish and other seafood is plentiful.

 

I love the baked whole fish with either the onion sauce or the sweet/sour sauce.

 

The Dim Sum in Guangzhou is awesome and I love most any dumpling, steamed or pan fried.

 

Beijing Duck is also high on my list.

[IllinoisDave]

I love most any dumpling, steamed or pan fried.

Ditto on the dumplings!!

[Corbin]

The most bizarre for me so far in China was when we were at a hotpot restaurant and they brought out live shrimp on wood sticks. I looked at them, but didn't say a thing until they were cooked and then was trying to figure out how to eat them.

[georgeandli]

Turtle? I didn't have to go to China for that. Grew up eating snapping turtle here 1st time over there did the family meet and greet in Beijing and they had their fun ordering stuff for shock value to see how I handled it. Joke was on them! I put on weight. 2nd time in GUZ I had the worse meal while waiting to pick up Li's medical packet. Took a walk and ate at a small joint by the tennis club on the river. Had eel balls and they were bad balls

[Zhen's Tiger]

Yea, I'll pretty much eat anything... except Durian so far (it's the smell). Dog is probably one of the sweetest meats you would ever taste. Turtle is nothing odd, you can find that here, same with Croc & Snake, but this is the most bizarre presentation or preparation for food I've yet to see...

Zhen, her sister & I were walking around Guangzhou one night & decided to get Snake for dinner. So we're sitting in the Restaurant & since I'm the only foreigner, the owner comes by & asks if I want to watch them prepare our meal. Ling & I hop up, but Zhen says no; so we go outside to the street-facing corner & it's all glass so you can see into the kitchen prep room. This woman picks up a Chicken in one hand & reaches into a cage with her other hand & pulls out a snake. The Chicken is freaking while she brings the snake in closer, she positions it so the snake bites the chicken on both armpits wing-pits and each of it's eyes & then lets the chicken go. I'm watching the Chicken go into convulsions and quickly die, so I look back at the snake & notice it's 'hood' for the 1st time - it's a Cobra! Well, WHACK, there goes the Cobra's head... she scoops up the snake & the chicken and off to the kitchen to make the meal. So... I ate Snake & Chicken Stew; where you get the chicken & the snake that killed it all together on one pot. Man, that was good!

The owner came by with a Shot of something that tasted like Moonshine that had a small green thing floating in it that looked like a lima bean, which was some part of the snake, not sure which , but the whole restaurant was watching me to see what I would do. I just thought of it like the worm in Tequila & it was 'bottoms up', I got almost a standing ovation for like 5 minutes, pretty cool!

[IllinoisDave]

The owner came by with a Shot of something that tasted like Moonshine that had a small green thing floating in it that looked like a lima bean, which was some part of the snake, not sure which , but the whole restaurant was watching me to see what I would do. I just thought of it like the worm in Tequila & it was 'bottoms up', I got almost a standing ovation for like 5 minutes, pretty cool!

So THAT'S where my kidney stone went.

[N&J]

we'll see tomorrow what the 'most bizarre' food in Guangzhou is

So far seems most post are too mild.

[Guest Mike and Lily]

The most bizarre thing I ate in China was fried scorpions. They weren't half bad! I would rather eat them than Durian or Stinky Tofu. It wasn't in Guangdong though. It was in Shandong. Some Filipino foods are nastier than the Chinese foods IMO.

[jim_julian]

Hmmm ... Well I can't bring myself to eat turtle. I had a pet box turtle for many many years. No problem with dogs and horses ... but I'm just a softy when it comes to turtles.

 

Duck blood ... very good in hotpot.

 

Would never eat insects.

 

Snakes ... ate them on survival training in the military, very tasty. Haven't had any in China.

 

Those little eels are nasty but the big ones are pretty good.

 

Pig's feet? Heck we used to eat pickled pig's feet at home when I was a kid in Chicago ... traditional German food. I guess I've eaten every part of a pig. When oldest brother kills a pig on the farm and has the whole family for dinner all of the "inside stuff" is eaten the first day. It all tastes good.

 

Thousand year old eggs ... I used to like them until I got a bad one ... was seriously sick for three days ... now I avoid them.

[DongDong]

I did not like organs, those nasty dark eggs or stinky tofu. I realized I was being treated, so I ate them.

I would not try chicken feet. After growing up on a farm, I just couldn't get past the image in my head. I guess I am a wimp!

Turtle and snake I had here. Durian I could tolerate.

The strangest thing I thought I had to eat was definitely toad. Granted, they were not very large, maybe an inch and a half, but still.... it was a whole toad

[N&J]

Not sure if it's already shown but the travel channel also has an episode featuring bizarre foods in Beijing.

 

Hasn't play here yet where I'm at but maybe it's over where you are.

 

JFYI