A gastronomic tour of China

[formercia]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6897844.stm

Losing the taste for China's delicacies

In the week that China executed the man once responsible for ensuring the safety of China's food and drugs, Fuchsia Dunlop, an expert on Chinese cuisine, finds tainted food has blunted her appetite.


The highlight of this particular banquet is the whole sea cucumber. Mine lies on my plate in a slick of dark sauce, glistening.

To Western eyes, it looks more like a sex toy than a delicacy, with its phallic shape and rows of playful little spikes. And to the Western palate, it is also baffling, because it is eaten only for its texture, and has no flavour of its own.

Chinese gourmets adore its kou gan, or mouthfeel, that squelchy rubberiness, that surprising hint of crispness in the bite.

--snip--

[notadmblnd]

1. wouldn't a bowl of dried up jello give yout mouth the same feeling?

[Kali]

3. nah - too soft

freshly set silicon sealer would be closer

[formercia]

6. You can be some one has figured out

how to make counterfeit sea cucumbers. It's big business here in Maine, harvesting sea cucumbers. Urchins used to be too but that was over harvested.

[Kali]

2. mmmm sea cucumbers

rubber in sauce that tastes vaguely like mud. Yummy.

[rucky]

5. they're much better when you make sea pickles out of them.

Back to the briney you go!

[LiberalEsto]

4. These are the folks who eat tiger penises

and bear paws and other things that should be left on the poor critters.

[kurth]

7. "Chinese restaurants are the engine driving a global trade in endangered species."

'Nuf said.

Travelers to China should seriously consider bringing their own food supply.