| To Eat or Not to Eat |
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| Food | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 10 November 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
‘The only four-legged thing the Chinese won't know how to eat is a table.'There is a common belief that we Chinese are willing to put anything in our stomachs as long as they are dipped in soya sauce. When I take my non-Chinese friends to a Chinese restaurant, they are always eager to try the ‘local' cuisines, the real Chinese food - ones our parents and grandparents cook, or ones where you have to really know your A-Z in Chinese food. However, the minute I mention noodle soup with cow tripe and tendon, they just run a mile.
What these cultural travel programmes lack is an explanation of how these eating habits come about. Chinese people strongly believe wasting is a sin, and for the decades where China was still a developing country, poverty and famine taught us well. You ate whatever you could find. You would count yourself lucky if all you found was certain parts of a pig. After these harsh lessons, our theory of cooking became clear: you breed a pig, you slaughter a pig, and EVERY part of it is to be used: pig skin gives us leather; pig hair is used to make brushes; soaps are often made from pig fat. Once the domestic purposes are served, culinary purposes kick in. After all, we need to satisfy our stomachs before we can satisfy other materialist desires. Let me introduce you to some of the unusual but mouth-watering dishes many non-Chinese might not be able to imagine: Animal parts Chinese chives with congealed pig blood cubes Chicken testicle soup A more home-y way of cooking chicken testicles is a soup with Chinese wine (Shao Xin wine). My mum makes this for me every time she can get them from the meat markets near home. Chicken testicles are getting increasingly popular so they are harder to come by in residential markets. Most hot pot restaurants order them by the gallon. For the soup, chicken testicles are boiled in chicken stock and ginger; just before you remove the saucepan from the heat, you add a generous serving of Shao Xin wine and cook it a few seconds. Alternative animals: If you want a more luxurious version, the tai shi five snake soup is the leading dish in the Chinese snake banquets. The difference between this and the street version is that the tai shi five snake soup consists of meat from five different types of snake, as the name suggests, and abalone (this is where the luxurious feel comes in). In all-snake banquets, every dish uses snake meat and you can really sample how the chefs can turn one ingredient into a variety of dishes, each with their unique taste and presentation. Frog porridge (Trivia: The Chinese often call frogs ‘tin gai'. ‘Tin' translates to ‘cultivated field' and ‘gai' to ‘chicken'. It is thought that when frogs first came to the attention of Chinese farmers, they were not aware of their identification. They subsequently named them ‘tin gai' because they were animals that jumped from the fields). Chinese mud field snails in black bean sauce There is a little technique when it comes to cooking and eating these snails. If you are lucky enough to be served the best mud snails in Hong Kong, check the tip of their shells as the pointy ends should have been cracked (often by the back of a knife). This extra step in the preparation ensures the snail meats can absorb all the flavours and allows easier maneuver when it comes to getting the meat from the shells. Now comes the interesting part... when you are ready to tackle, try spotting the experienced mud snail eaters from the amateurs because the former should all be sucking the cracked tip of the shells forcefully before using the skewer sticks to pick out the meats. This is the quickest and most enjoyable way (for some) to get the meats. Final words Until the next time, my fellow food lovers, remember to love your food, treasure your food, don't waste your food. Bon appétit! Joey Kwong
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Numerous high-profile TV presenters have broadcasted their shock when they sampled the unusual cuisines China has to offer. Steamed chicken feet in black bean sauce, barbequed duck heads(SEE IMAGE RIGHT), braised pig ears in garlic chili sauce, to name just a few. Although they tried to present the shows as more of a cultural eye-opener, the close-up shots of their nauseous expressions are probably what stuck with the viewers.
Again, frog tastes just like chicken but it is a lot softer. I grew up with frog rice - my mum marinates the frog meat with soya sauce, salt, pepper, Chinese wine, ginger and garlic, and the marinated meat is mixed with rice and water and cooked together. Frog porridge is made in a similar fashion, only you would put in extra amount of water in order turn it into porridge (SEE IMAGE RIGHT). 
