Before coming to China I watched a few documentaries and they covered foods in the country. My area is famous for zongzhi which is a rice ball with meat,veggies, or dates in the center. That is pretty tame to what other things I have eaten here. Some by accident. Here are my top odd foods thus far.
5. Fish with the heads and tails still on. Every fish here is served with everything but they are all buttery and delicious. We are close to the ocean which is probably why they are tasty. Look intimidating but good meat.
4. Chicken feet. My school serves these and my initial reaction was HECK NO. They look gross and scary. There are no claws on them but still...feet. After walking by a restaurant we smelled something heavenly and walked in and ordered whatever the smell was. IT. WAS. CHICKEN. FEET. They are delicious. That restaurant cooks them in a broth for hours until they get tender. They still look horrible but they are good.
3. Pork tongue. I had this when I was in high school and it was horrible. It was slimy, cold, and hairy. When I was at my Chinese school I was eating what I thought was ham and gosh it was good! It was more flavorful than normal pork and served with cabbage, warm. My Chinese co-workers stared at me and when I asked why they told me they had never seen a foreigner eat pork tongue without freaking out. I didn't freak out when I learned and played it cool because it was the best pork I had in a while.
2. Jellyfish. One of my principals invited me and a few other co-workers to her house for a meal. We made noodles and dumplings and then ate a buffet style meal with various meats and veggies and nuts. I scooped up these short hard white translucent noodles and thought nothing of it. When I was describing the noodles to my friend she was confused as she never heard of a noodles like that before. Fast forward to a week later at a wedding and I say, "These are the noodles I had at the principal's house!" My friend looked at the bowl, then me, then the bowl. "Those are shredded and dried jellyfish." These are okay to eat but they are very hard and chewy (not like what I imagine jellyfish to be).
1. Duck tongue. My school had a fancy dinner the first week I was in China to celebrate all the teachers finally arriving to Jiaxing. We get our typical buffet style meal on our rotating table and the Chinese teachers think it is hilarious to hold up a food and ask me what I think they are. (I got every one of them wrong.) They hold up a red twirly thin meat, "What is this?" "Uh, octopus tentancle?" "No duck tongue!" My eyes almost popped out of my head. I pick one up and bite into it and guess what...bone or something like it. The duck tongue is attached to the tendon that goes down the animals throat and it is hard as a rock when cooked. There is not a lot of meat on them but they are succulent. I had five.
Also yes, I did giggle when I ate them because it was like "french kissing a duck." Except you know...the duck was dead.
BONUS! I did not eat any of these but they do sell bugs to eat here. What I saw were fried trantulas, scorpions, and cockroaches. I freaked out and ran far away from those. They maybe just for tourists but I do not plan on eating those in my life.
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