Blood or no blood? That is the question. Whether ‘tis smarter on the bowels to suffer the slings and bacteria of outrageous blood. Oh my!
While my iambic pentameter may not match that of the Bard himself, I consumed as crude a dish as he ever had. The buddy I play soccer with had taken me out to get dinner, and the food was absolutely money, even if the cleanliness of the restaurant would surely warrant a half star on Yelp. I wanted my birthday party to be here simply because of the tasty food and a relaxed atmosphere, but the bathroom was (shall we say) not suitable for large groups.
However the first dish I had there was a full chicken cut up into chunks and drained of blood. The chicken pieces went on a plate and the blood also went on a…plate. I’ve never really seen blood like that, but it was remarkably viscous. So the chicken bits were dumped into the broth, and if we were truly local, we would’ve simply dumped the blood into the steaming pot and consumed. The adventurer in me tried to urge my friend to dip some into the dish, but, alas, he said it was pretty vile. Maybe he knows best.
Another dish I got there was a fully cooked fish, called grass carp (wanyu in Chinese) and it had offered me my first chance to eat fish face. The best part of a fish in Chinese cuisine is the meat under the cheek bones, and I tend to agree. You simply eat the meat off the plates of fish head bones, and if you’re lucky you even get one of the eyes. The other dish we ate was squid that was (heavily) salted with these Chinese peppers and deep fried, and my god it was absolute gold.
My favorite no-frills restaurant on the planet, bar none.
Let me know if you have a favorite hole-in-the-wall place like this!
Like what you’re reading on China? Check out some other related articles in: The China Chronicles!
