tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:25:10 +0000WeirdMeat.com, a travel and food blog. Documents experiences eating strange foods around the world. What is weird to one, is normal to another. I want to find out why. Includes articles, travel stories, photos.http://www.weirdmeat.com/index.htmnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)Blogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-7321272241289776171Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:19:00 +00002009-06-29T05:50:57.892-07:00snakeThere is a restaurant at 115 Xingfu Road in Shanghai called Lin Lin. Lin Lin specializes in fresh snakes. It's a small, divey place and in the little courtyard behind the kitchen there's a stack of cages that hold several species of live snakes.The waiter walked us back there to check them out and we pointed to a few of the big ones he said were the tastiest. He put some heavy thick plastic http://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/06/snake-cake.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-8441060500970269642Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:07:00 +00002009-06-12T03:37:49.536-07:00beijingpigturtleWe were up in Beijing with our favorite new band Reptile & Retard, and across the alley from the Boat club (awesome frozen mojitos!), we grabbed a nice meal at the Qingdao Restaurant. Qingdao is a city on the coast of North-East China, and it's most known for the main Chinese export beer "Tsingtao" which is the old spelling of "Qingdao" and should be pronounced "ching-dow", not "sting-tow"... http://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/06/pig-hoof-vs-turtle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-2002298788321833076Sat, 02 May 2009 06:28:00 +00002009-05-05T07:56:32.082-07:00traditional chinese medicinesnaketaiwanaphrodisiacTCMHuaxi Jie, Taipei, TaiwanAfter filling up on Rooster Testicles and Deer Penis Wine, we had to hit the main attraction on Snake Alley, and down some shots of snake bile.The restaurant hosts a twice-hourly public snake feeding. They feed a mouse to a big boa and announce the spectacle on megaphones. A crowd of families form in front of a glass cage, but no photos are allowed. (I sneaked one herehttp://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/05/snake-alley-taiwan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-8591941593481202118Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:44:00 +00002009-03-18T21:56:19.481-07:00hangzhoudurianWe were back for our monthly party in Hangzhou, China, when we ran into some durian at a fruit stall. Hangzhou is one of the top domestic tourist attractions in China. Not many foreigners have heard of it, but it's an easy 1 and half hour train ride from Shanghai, and they've got a nice lake, hills to hike, tea plantations, and an enormous Buddhist temple to gander at. Marco Polo -- that http://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/03/public-durian-eating-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-5161335174205961694Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:43:00 +00002009-06-29T04:13:23.545-07:00catguangdonganimal rightsWe meant to post this a while back, it's from December 2008, but we were busy eating placenta, and durian.There's a saying in Chinese, that Guangdong people (Cantonese) eat everything with legs except the table. You see, people in Guangdong have a reputation for eating weird animals. Like dogs and cats and monkeys and snakes and lizards. A lot of northern Chinese people believe southerners eathttp://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/03/guangdong-girl-saves-cats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-2831563357111880886Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:10:00 +00002009-02-27T07:44:31.012-08:00traditional chinese medicineaphrodisiacplacentasheepTCMI was in a crappy hotel room in Hangzhou, China last week for this party at a bar called Joy Luck Club. The morning after the party, woke up with a fuzzy head and looked at the mini-bar in the room to see what might un-fuzz my head. Coca-cola, 7-up, hmm, how about this little bottle of ... "SHEEP PLANCENT ELEMENT" [sic] (羊胎素精华口服液).What?Bad spelling. They mean to say Sheep Placenta. It's a http://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/02/sheep-placenta-shots.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-2713641278290947330Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:46:00 +00002009-02-18T02:19:54.132-08:00durianPublic Durian Eating #2Location: The Shelter club, Shanghai, ChinaVictims: The Antidote Party peopleAll pics by Joey Gu @ PhoggerAnother crazy party night at my favorite bomb shelter in Shanghai. Late into the night I brought out the stink bombs, super juicy ripe cuts of prime durian fruit. I circled the rooms looking for victims. Interestingly, most of the girls ate it right away, but most http://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/02/public-durian-eating-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-5940681041506704477Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:47:00 +00002009-02-27T07:49:09.761-08:00traditional chinese medicineshanghaiaphrodisiacplacentaTCMdeerShanghai, ChinaThere's a hub of fancy-pants clubs and restaurants surrounding the intersection of Dongping Road and YueYang Road in Shanghai. French bistros and bakeries, German breweries, wine shops, upscale Chinese and Japanese, and even an old stalwart, the Eager Beaver Bar (English teacher watering hole). Between that and Club Mao (Euro-trash disco), is a fine little Chinese restaurant http://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/01/deer-placenta.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-86688087270146982Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:43:00 +00002009-02-27T07:47:59.027-08:00durianPublic Durian Eating #1Location: Logo bar, Shanghai, ChinaVictims: South Rakkas Crew, various drunken patronsWe always pick a vice for a new year's resolution. We wrote about that before, here. This year we struggled with a few ideas -- prostitution, petty theft, nose picking... and then settled on something brilliant. Public Durian Eating.Durian is the best thing you can ever put in your http://www.weirdmeat.com/2009/01/public-durian-eating-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-6619783721699265279Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:29:00 +00002008-12-20T08:03:51.378-08:00yaksichuantibetChengdu, Sichuan, ChinaMe and B6 were in Chengdu for a few days as part of our China national tour [B6 Post Haze]. Chengdu is the heartland of Sichuan province in China, which makes some of my most favorite food in the world. The signature flavor is "ma la", which means "numb spicy". They use the hua-jiao (Sichuan peppercorns), which I wrote about before, because they used to be illegal in http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/12/raw-yak-in-chengdu.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-1045760193731051944Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:11:00 +00002009-01-28T03:48:42.964-08:00bugsI ordered some bugs to eat from this UK-based company called Edible Unique. They came shipped in a white envelope, to my office in Shanghai. So many bugs to choose from! We went down to our favorite spot on the Bund, our friend Jeff's dive bar I Love Shanghai [recently moved to new location]. Let him decide which bug to eat. Here's how it went...Jeff made a blind choice for the crickets. http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/10/jeff-eats-crickets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-6345854149396848536Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:31:00 +00002008-10-22T11:37:46.242-07:00alternative meatWe're happy to see that everyone's gone green these days. Can't open any magazine or newspaper these days without articles and adverts pimping green this and green that. One of the aspects of all this greenness that is often over-looked is in food production. Meats like beef and pork and chicken can be inefficient and environmentally nasty. A lot of people, my former self included, turn to a http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/10/irans-big-ostrich-sandwich.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-7468013926512032312Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:48:00 +00002008-10-20T01:12:48.201-07:00This week, a man from Oregon, which is somewhere in California, I think, broke his ankle while mountain climbing, and was missing for several days. He survived by eating centipedes! And water from creeks. Photo from University of NebraskaThat's totally awesome. I love to hear nature survival stories like that. I have a few of my own, which I'll get around to sharing one of these days. Likehttp://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/10/man-eats-centipedes-to-survive.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-7336196099329632727Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:13:00 +00002008-09-22T02:07:25.779-07:00street foodantsthailandbangkok... some alley off Sukhumvit, Bangkok, ThailandThe Sukhumvit area of Bangkok is a paradise for the amateur adventure eater. From weird, unidentifiable bugs served by multi-gendered street vendors, to odd goat parts in strictly halal restaurants, and even a condom restaurant. We'd already eaten all the insects we could find, and after a few shots of various exotic liquors, we found a soup vendorhttp://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/09/white-ant-eggs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-3381236563810316210Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:18:00 +00002009-02-18T02:28:23.594-08:00catanimal rightschinaOh here's a fun story... over the weekend in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province (a few hours south of Shanghai), a bunch of cat lovers rescued 800 kittens that were going to be sent down to Guangdong (where they eat all that weird stuff). Supposedly these cats were meant to be eaten too.Shanghai Animal Protection Association President Zhang Yi appealed to society to cultivate better dining habits. [http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/09/china-cat-lovers-rescue-kittens-meant.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-1378334859880116068Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:23:00 +00002009-01-28T03:53:53.208-08:00dog meatdoganimal rightschina[Photo from TrekEarth]During the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, the government banned some restaurants from serving dog meat and encouraged Koreans to not eat dog when around foreign visitors. There was a lot of hoopla surrounding this, with anti-dog meat organizations rallying and "Korean culture" supporters defending their right to eat dog meat. It's important to note that there were Korean http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/09/china-bans-dog-meat-during-olympics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-3041735643919197680Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:51:00 +00002009-01-23T03:53:10.340-08:00traditional chinese medicinetaiwanaphrodisiacTCMdeerTaipei, TaiwanAfter eating chicken testicles, we continued down the main lane on Snake Alley, until we came to a shop specializing in Deer Penis Wine. This is purported to be an aphrodisiac, giving men sexual vitality. They have these big glass jars filled with liquor and in the middle is a preserved penis of a deer. Porn star size.Feeling inadequate, we sat down and ordered a shot. Like most http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/08/deer-penis-wine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-3457996222846480375Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:22:00 +00002008-07-16T21:22:00.665-07:00rabbithangzhouHangzhou, China.Remember that scene in 24 Hour Party People, when Shaun Ryder's character says "I don't want no bunny rabbit food" when he looks at the veggie food spread on Tony Wilson's fancy new table? Except he's got an accent and it sounds like he says "bully rabbi" instead. I wonder what the Happy Monday singer would say if we offered him a bunny rabbit head. Would he eat it?That's what http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/07/bunny-rabbit-heads.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-4736327169369416870Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:41:00 +00002009-01-23T04:00:02.329-08:00traditional chinese medicinetaiwanaphrodisiacTCMConfession: Sometimes even I have trouble stomaching this stuff... well, of course, I was hungover again.Taipei, TaiwanWe were looking for the infamous Snake Alley night market in Taibei, when I spotted a tray of gross looking balls. We weren't sure what they were at first, but the thin veins and tight plump shape hinted that they weren't just a stomach or kidney. We asked... Chicken http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/06/rooster-testicles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-8281322465669705354Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:50:00 +00002008-09-01T18:40:41.473-07:00taiwanstupidTaipei, Taiwan (and, unfortunately, other places too).Two girls, one toiletThis could go under "Stupid Food Products" but it deserves its own post...There is a restaurant -- a chain of them, heaven help us -- that serves food in toilets. It's called Modern Toilet and it's poopular with teenage girls. I was wandering about Ximending shopping area in Taipei, near the "American Street" (slang termhttp://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/06/toilet-food.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-8149831949907503193Sat, 10 May 2008 05:52:00 +00002009-02-10T18:44:37.970-08:00australiastupidWe were shopping at Shanghai's expat food mecca, City Shop, and in the baking aisle found a food product we find so incredibly stupid, we had to share it with you. This item comes from Australia. It's "White Wings Shaker Pancakes ORIGINAL" in a bottle:Here's the deal. It's sold in a see-thru plastic bottle, and it's only half-full of the dry mix. You are supposed to fill the rest of the http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/05/stupid-food-products.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-8277541010773519859Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:02:00 +00002008-09-22T20:27:51.054-07:00traditional chinese medicineaphrodisiacantsTCMWe recently passed a shop in Shanghai, China that had a poster advertising ant essence. We went in to grab some and found the shop was actually an adult sex toy shop. There are lots of these all over Shanghai. They have fake viagra, exotic condoms, dildos, rubber boobies, blow-up dolls, and other plastic genitalia. Yeah, there's some really weird stuff in there. There's also tons of pills http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/04/ant-essence-at-shanghai-sex-shop.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-7942156224023198303Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:34:00 +00002008-09-22T20:30:18.272-07:00traditional chinese medicineantsTCMMountain Ant Essence @ Oxygen Bar, San Francisco.In the late 1990's we lived in the Mission District in San Francisco. This mostly Latino neighborhood (some claim it's the true birthplace of the burrito, as we know it) saw a period of gentrification and hipster-ism coinciding with the dot-com gold rush of the time. We had mixed feelings about this, but the diversity of people it drew, and the http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/04/ant-extract-at-oxygen-bar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-2497013558024261071Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:37:00 +00002008-03-24T23:23:13.228-07:00indiabrainsAfter a month of easy village living in the South of India, we took a break from the yoga routine and went up for a wild weekend in Bombay (Mumbai). There we ran into our friends in the Smirnoff Ten, and checked out a new music club called Blue Frog. In the club's brochure, the chef claims to be knowledgeable about "obscure meats" but we didn't see any on the menu. We were told that lamb http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/03/brains-in-bombay.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13106431.post-3518392549353603438Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:47:00 +00002008-03-16T23:50:36.120-07:00reviewillegal foodsbookJust finished reading the book "The Devil's Picnic" by Taras Grescoe. The author travels the world in search of illicit and illegal food and drink. He enters Singapore with a bag full of outlawed chewing gum, he hunts down real moonshine absinthe in Switzerland, and chews coca leaves in Bolivia. The book has a solid examination of the history of prohibition, and how some current laws work in http://www.weirdmeat.com/2008/03/devils-picnic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael)3