Note: Best if viewed in Firefox -- many pictures won't display in Internet Explorer

Tuesday, September 6

Wacky Food, Takes the Cake



Today's gourmand search started with an interesting breakfast that included a few unknown bits, such as meat on a stick and the odd clustered objects that look like they came out of the south-facing part of a northbound yak. They were crunchy, and had a center that was very similar to Thanksgiving style candied yams. Even though they had all the looks of herbivore droppings, they were quite tasty. Along with the anonymous meat on a stick, we also had two kinds of sausage, otherwise unlabeled, that were sliced like bologna, but had large chunks like souse. However, since all of that was at the White Swan, it was relatively benign.

It was when we went across the bridge to the fish market that things really went off the wire. Though we didn't nibble on the morsels, we did see a huge variety of objects we normally see in a zoo that were being sold for the table.
This included hundreds of baskets of snakes and frogs, tanks of (giant!) lobster, crabs, shrimp, prawns, many kinds of turtles, salamanders, puppies, bugs (really), scorpions, things that looked like giant water beetles, and some larvae in cocoons shaped like oversized bee combs, turkey parts, dozens of kinds of fish, eels, and more.

OK, the puppy was a pet, but all the rest was being sold for food. We got good video footage of the bigs crawling around (shudder). It was fascinating, though I wished I had not worn flip-flops, as the water sloshing around my shoes was none too sanitary. In fact, I'm not sure it was water. Some of the lobsters were enormous, and the pictues don't do them justice, as their tails were larger than my forearm.
Although we were taking copious pictures and obviously there to gawk, I also felt on display, as they'd never seen anything like me, and some of them were a bit obvious with their double-takes and stares, but most were friendly. In fact, one guy kept on trying to give me a large eel, telling me I could slice off pieces like sushi. Perhaps it was his idea of fast food.

No comments: