Tasty Animals

“GUANGZHOU, China - Deng Deliu couldn't believe it when the government came for his pheasants.

It had been a lazy morning at the animal markets, with only a few shoppers perusing the snakes, turtles, rabbits, cats, dogs, badgers, ducks, geese, frogs, pigeons and hedgehogs crammed into cages. For lack of buyers, kept away by fear of SARS, the sellers played cards and mah-jongg and watched Chinese soap operas on television as the animals squirmed, clawed and quacked.

Deng was trying to sell his prized ring-necked rooster pheasants, striking for their multihued coats, for $4 a head. Then the wildlife conservation officers arrived.

What, no possum?”

“I ordered the Meow Goo Gai Pan the other day. It was delicious...”

“Your Honor, he's badgering the witless!”

“riverslapped or stumpwhooped?”

“I'll have some of that hedgehog in a pita, please!

Speakin' of P.E.T.A., where is Nigal The Vegemon?”

“The Chinese themselves have a saying about the folks down in the Guangzhou (Canton) province: "(Cantonese) will eat anything with four legs except the table."

CNN once did a feature on a Guangzhou restaurant that specialized in rat, particularly golden battered deep-fried rat.

Of course, the Chinese are a bit puzzled by our revulsion. They would probably point out our charming lobster and trout tanks at seafood restaurants, or our quaint little veal calf huts that fill the barnyards of all the dairy farms here in Wisconsin.

BTW, quail eggs, though small, are tasty.”

“I had quail eggs on some kind of sushi thing that looked like traffic lights.

The tiny raw eggs were the yellow lights.

We both got it down but it was an experience my son and I agree we don't have to repeat.”

“When we make our monthly trip to China Town and our favorite dining spot, I always look at the fish tank to see if anything is missing. Never have ordered the fish filets! :-)”

“I won't go to China Town.
Not sicnce 2 years ago when twignut wanted to go there for her birthday.
I fliped out when I had to put the frog back into the bucket because it had gotten out on the street.

between the Turles and the Frogs I was so upset.

I wanted to take then all home but treebeard would not let me.
he is a big fat meany!!”

“Yoo eat here, or carry out?”

“Ever try Iguana? Its not bad.”

“"Wish I was in Tijuana,

Eating Bar-B-Q'ed iguana."


---Wall Of Voodoo
(Mexican Radio)”

“Night of the Iguana

Richard Burton at his sodden best, Sue Lyon plays a teenage tart (again).”

“that's all I have to say”

“Wow. Deborah Kerr and her Blue Devils.

And what was that poem the old man wrote, just before he bit the big one.... ?



"I'm on a Mexican Radio..."”

“My wife went to her first Sichuanese hot pot restaurant with our Chinese friend in Chengdu, and among the items Li Ming picked out to boil in the pepper oil was an eel. The waiter delivered it freshly gutted (much the same as a smelt would be) but when my wife or Li Ming went to put it in the pot, the eel wriggled out of the chop sticks and "swam" under the pot. Tough little bugger. Really stoked my wife's appetite. I think she stuck to veggies that day.”

“I'm looking forward to trying guinea pig in South America...”

“sure you could pick one up at the local pet store rosey ;o)”

“Somehow they seem more appealing when they're already on the spit :)”

“How about turtle soup?”

“My wife worked in a French(YaY!) restaurant and hated serving the turtle soup.......it had little hands floating in it.

Mexican Radio.......Stan Ridgeway/Wall Of Voodoo?”

“I thought it was pretty good. Buffalo steak! Now that is a meal!”

“I never saw, but my dad tells the story about how annually my paternal grandmother would cook eel for a dear relative. He continues how they would flip around the frying pan. He would laugh when he told the story, but never said whether or not he ate any eel. My guess is NOT!”

“Never had a chance to eat eel.”

“Sue Lyon plays a teenage tart (again)."

wasnt that the chick from kubricks lolita?”

“Yep.”

“Eel roll sushi is mighty nice!”