Have you ever heard about preserved eggs, deep fried scorpions, stinky tofu and pig's head?
This is only a small part of what you can find in a food market in China.
2 dollars and 50 cents for a scorpions stick? Why not!
By the way I've never tried this before but some of my friends did. I like to stroll through food market at night but just to have a look or to take pictures.
Since today I just dared to try small bites of strange food like the green tea eggs (eggs boiled in green tea leaves for a long time, when you open them the inside is completely brown), the sweet/sour/salty dry prunes, the famous and stinky Durian fruit, the lotus root and the fermented rice soup. As you can see I just tried vegetarian dishes since I don't like to eat meat, it happens sometimes but very seldom.
Please pay attention:
I would recommend animals lover not to read the part below, since I will describe some things that happen to animals in the food market, cruel dishes and will attach some pictures I personally took.
I will never forget the day my and a good friend went for a walk in the old town of shanghai to see the food market.
I saw so many impressive things, me and my friend as well, actually felt bad for a moment. We saw freshly cut pig's head hanging from a hook, very sick and also dead fishes in small boxes with just one inch of water in it, water turtles chained at tables, many many frogs in plastic bags with some holes to let them 'breath' or boxes with water, people wearing rain boots going into cages and boxes full of chicken to tear apart their heads from the body and trow them on the floor and a lot of unhygienic and cruel things. The smell in there was very strong and heavy, the street floor was covered in feathers, blood and other things. The market was selling fresh meat, vegetables and fruits as well as preserved ones and different kinds of teas.
These are some of the pictures I took during that afternoon walk through old Shanghai food market.
I love animals and I don't like to see this cruelty but since I am a world traveller I had to see this at least once in my life.
In China the relationship between people and animals is very different compared to ours. They also own pet animals and they respect and love them but not all of them can really take good care of them, they think animals are animals and people are people. For us is very different, our pets are for us important and like family members.
They will pet them, give them food and provide things they need but they are not really able to understand their pet feelings, if it's too cold for him to stay outside or too hot, if it can eat certain food or would better not, if they need something soft and warm to make them feel more cozy when they sleep and so on....I would say, western people are very empathic with animals cause it is in our culture too to treat them with respect and love, but in China they will never think about these aspects.
I heard about some terrible but high 'fashion' food in China, as bear paws, live monkey brain, small mouse and turtle soup. Those are very expensive meals since they are very hard to find and there is only a small quantity of them. I will describe them better below but won't attach pictures since these are to strong and impressive (if you have a personal interest to see them or have to study the topic you can find a plain of these pictures just texting the name of the 'dish' in Google).
Bear Paws: Bear Paws is one of the 8 delicacy of Chinese cuisine. The meat sometimes have to be treated for 2 years before it can be served at the table. Nowadays it is strictly forbidden to eat it and to kill bears. But unfortunately you can still find this on the black market.
Live monkey brain: This 'dish' is so cruel I am actually shocked that somebody actually could have such a sick mind to invent this.
A monkey is pulled to the center of the table, which have an apposite hole in the middle, where the waiter will put the monkey and force it to not move fastening it with hoops. The head of the monkey is then in the middle of the table ready to be opened with a hard knock of hammer used by the diner. The other diners will at this moment use chopsticks made from iron to extract pieces of the brains. I let you immagine the screams and pain of this poor animal.
I don't even have words to describe this kind of cruelty and I actually don't even want to think about this, if you ever have eaten this dish in the past you should be ashamed, I have no respect at all for people like this.
Small mouse: In Chinese is called 2 breaths mouse. Cause the mouse will have such a short life it will for real just breath 2 times before dying.
As soon as the little mouse comes to the world people will use a long iron stick to pierce him and fix it to the stick, at that time the mouse will scream for the first time in it's life. The next step is to put the mouse in boiling oil to cook and this will be it's second and last scream.
Turtle soup: The poor turtle you saw in the picture before is actually put in a container with some seasoning and salt until a pan containing water with other seasoning and vegetables is boiling, at this point the turtle will be placed in the hot broth and start to cook in it.
There is another inhuman dish. It's so disgusting I won't write a long chapter about this cause I prefer not to go get more informations than I actually already know about this topic on the internet, all I know is because friends (they haven't eat this) told me about it. All I know and for me is just enough to make me sick is that; with 4'000 yuan (600 USD) you can eat a baby soup.
The price of this soup depends on the age of the baby and if the baby was alive when he was sold to the restaurant. The Placenta can also be sold for 35 USD.
I actually don't know where the world is going, cause sometimes it's so sick... and makes me feel hopeless.
I wanted to talk about this cause as you know I traveled a lot in my life and I live in China right now. In my blog I talk without secrets and filters about my journeys, experiences, what happen to me and around me. This is unfortunately a very inhuman and sick part of what you can see in China but not only in China and I though it's correct to mention this.
Sorry for the 'not happy' blog of today. I will talk about more happy and beautiful things next time.
Trust in yourself and follow your heart,
Lisa
I love animals and I don't like to see this cruelty but since I am a world traveller I had to see this at least once in my life.
In China the relationship between people and animals is very different compared to ours. They also own pet animals and they respect and love them but not all of them can really take good care of them, they think animals are animals and people are people. For us is very different, our pets are for us important and like family members.
They will pet them, give them food and provide things they need but they are not really able to understand their pet feelings, if it's too cold for him to stay outside or too hot, if it can eat certain food or would better not, if they need something soft and warm to make them feel more cozy when they sleep and so on....I would say, western people are very empathic with animals cause it is in our culture too to treat them with respect and love, but in China they will never think about these aspects.
I heard about some terrible but high 'fashion' food in China, as bear paws, live monkey brain, small mouse and turtle soup. Those are very expensive meals since they are very hard to find and there is only a small quantity of them. I will describe them better below but won't attach pictures since these are to strong and impressive (if you have a personal interest to see them or have to study the topic you can find a plain of these pictures just texting the name of the 'dish' in Google).
Bear Paws: Bear Paws is one of the 8 delicacy of Chinese cuisine. The meat sometimes have to be treated for 2 years before it can be served at the table. Nowadays it is strictly forbidden to eat it and to kill bears. But unfortunately you can still find this on the black market.
Live monkey brain: This 'dish' is so cruel I am actually shocked that somebody actually could have such a sick mind to invent this.
A monkey is pulled to the center of the table, which have an apposite hole in the middle, where the waiter will put the monkey and force it to not move fastening it with hoops. The head of the monkey is then in the middle of the table ready to be opened with a hard knock of hammer used by the diner. The other diners will at this moment use chopsticks made from iron to extract pieces of the brains. I let you immagine the screams and pain of this poor animal.
I don't even have words to describe this kind of cruelty and I actually don't even want to think about this, if you ever have eaten this dish in the past you should be ashamed, I have no respect at all for people like this.
Small mouse: In Chinese is called 2 breaths mouse. Cause the mouse will have such a short life it will for real just breath 2 times before dying.
As soon as the little mouse comes to the world people will use a long iron stick to pierce him and fix it to the stick, at that time the mouse will scream for the first time in it's life. The next step is to put the mouse in boiling oil to cook and this will be it's second and last scream.
Turtle soup: The poor turtle you saw in the picture before is actually put in a container with some seasoning and salt until a pan containing water with other seasoning and vegetables is boiling, at this point the turtle will be placed in the hot broth and start to cook in it.
There is another inhuman dish. It's so disgusting I won't write a long chapter about this cause I prefer not to go get more informations than I actually already know about this topic on the internet, all I know is because friends (they haven't eat this) told me about it. All I know and for me is just enough to make me sick is that; with 4'000 yuan (600 USD) you can eat a baby soup.
The price of this soup depends on the age of the baby and if the baby was alive when he was sold to the restaurant. The Placenta can also be sold for 35 USD.
I actually don't know where the world is going, cause sometimes it's so sick... and makes me feel hopeless.
I wanted to talk about this cause as you know I traveled a lot in my life and I live in China right now. In my blog I talk without secrets and filters about my journeys, experiences, what happen to me and around me. This is unfortunately a very inhuman and sick part of what you can see in China but not only in China and I though it's correct to mention this.
Sorry for the 'not happy' blog of today. I will talk about more happy and beautiful things next time.
Trust in yourself and follow your heart,
Lisa