Japanese food v. Chinese food

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

I remember going down a street in Beijing where they were selling scorpions on a stick and grasshoppers on a stick. That was the only thing in China that I just couldn't bring myself to try.

That's an improvement on the stuff I had. I stomached the sheep tripe without much problem, but the propane-torch barbequed parakeets were too much. The latter were literally parakeet sized birds, the preparation of which entailed (as nearly as I can tell) the removal of the head and cooking with a propane blowtorch and nothing else (i.e. innards attached, feet remaining, etc.). We asked our translator how we were supposed to eat these things - were we supposed to nibble the meat off the miniscule bones? We were then informed that the bones were crunchy and we were to consume these much as one would would eat a mini-snickers bar: pop the whole thing in at once and chew away.

Thankfully, this was a scarce two weeks after my worst culinary experience ever (exotic sashimi in Japan - raw abalone liver is quite the deal), so I was able to choke it down with minimal gags and no puking.