Literally, two days ago, if someone had asked me what the strangest thing I've ever eaten, I probably would have gone with "pigeon." Yeah, its a common bird and a delicacy in a lot of countries, but in America, you don't eat pigeon (even though those are probably safer to eat than the ones here). But, as of tonight, we have a new winner:
Bombyx mori. Silkworm. Two of them to be exact. Fried and served alone. Tasted (I know its cliche to say) like chicken. Very chewy chicken. Definitely not a bad culinary experience.
How did this come to be? Well, Carter (another American teacher) and I decided to become regulars at this resturant right next to the foreign teacher's apartment. Nothing really special about it - just a 'food-on-a-stick' resturant. We go there every night or two, either for a quick bite or for a beer. We befriended one of the waitstaff. We called him 'Cool Dude' and refered to the resturant as: "Cool Dude's." His real name is Yu Qiang Wang, but when we speak casually about it, he is definitely 'Cool Dude.' He hooks us up occasionally by taking a few yuan off the bill (or giving us something), we help him with his English, he helps us with our Chinese. Tonight, as we were preparing to go, Cool Dude comes out of the kitchen with a tiny bowl and puts it down in front of us.
Our initial reaction, looking at the fried little lumps in the bowl was something to the effect of:
"Uhh...what is this?"
Cool Dude pauses for a moment, struggling for the word. "Its....baby butterfly."
Oh.
We took a sip of beer, nodded to one another and then I willingly ate my first bug.
I am just racking up the new experiences. And I've just been here a week. Where am I going to be a month from now?
Hakuna Matata,
- Andrew
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