Interesting/Unusual Foods

A famous Cantonese saying states that “Anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible.†So it’s not surprising that the Chinese eat several unusual foods. Here are a few examples:

“Stinky Tofuâ€:
Take a brine made with shrimp, vegetables and salt, ferment for months, soak a block of tofu in it for several hours, and the result is a dish renowned for its pungent odor. Stinky tofu (also known by its Chinese name, Chou Dofu) is one of those foods that it’s impossible to feel neutral about – people either love or hate it. Asian tourists who follow their nose will have no trouble locating a stinky tofu stand – street hawkers who sell it have been fined for breaking air pollution laws.

Sea Cucumber:
Found in Chinese medicine shops is what appears to be a chunk of cement in one of the display cases. This is the dried form of sea cucumber, also known as beche de mer and sea ginseng. This strange looking ocean creature looks exactly like a cucumber with the addition of tubed feet and a ring of tentacles around its mouth. The sea cucumber’s taste doesn’t live up to its appearance – it’s rather bland. Nonetheless, its reputed medicinal value and reputation as an aphrodisiac make sea cucumber a popular dish at Chinese New Years banquets and other festive celebrations.

Thousand-Year Old Eggs:
Thousand-year-old eggs aren’t really that old. A more accurate name for this pungent hors d’oeuvre would be salted or preserved eggs. Thousand-year old eggs (also called century eggs or hundred-year old eggs), are made by preserving duck eggs in ash and salt for one-hundred days. This turns the white of the egg a darkish gray color, giving the eggs an ancient appearance. Definitely an acquired taste, thousand-year old eggs have a strong salty flavor.

Bird’s Nest Soup:
The chief ingredient in Bird’s nest soup is the nest of the swiftlet, a tiny bird that lives in caves in Southeast Asia. Instead of twigs and straw, the swiftlet makes a nest from its own saliva – the only bird in the world to do so. Harvesting these nests requires great skill – men must balance on tall bamboo poles to grab the nests from inside the dark caves. Like sea cucumber, bird’s nest actually tastes rather bland. Its recent rise in popularity comes from its growing reputation both as a health tonic and an aphrodisiac.