We ate an "interesting" variety of food on our recent eclipse expedition in China some was very good, some okay, some was, well ... less good.
At lunch-time in the water town of Xitang near Suzhou, this was the first of several dishes served chinese-banquet style. It was not beef in black-bean sauce -- I promise you.
The conversation (and this was a common conversation around the dinner table every day) (only the dish varied) went something like this:
"Has anyone tried this one ... what is it?"
It looked like it had been dug up somewhere deep in the swamps of Okefenokee.
"Nope, but I'll (bravely) give it a go."
So I tried some of this thing that looked like congealed bitumen around ... something. It tasted a bit bland and kinda oily.
"Well ... what is it?"
"Ummm ... dunno, might be chicken ... I think it's chicken ... though ... it could be pork. It's not overly tasty ... or interesting ... Fish maybe??"
What I do know is I spent the whole night afterwards heaving my guts up almost non-stop and felt like a major tributary of the Yangtse river was gushing out of my ...
Sweating profusely I ultimately became delerious from dehydration. This was worse than anything of this sort I have ever experienced.
All night, on and on I yelled and screamed down the toilet "A curse on you mmmmwahhhhhhhgggghhhhh bwah bwahhh bwahhhhhhhhh mmmmwahhhhhhhgggghhhhh ..." damned cook!
I honestly thought at one stage that I might die. For a little while, I actually entertained the hope that I could.
I still don't know what it was. I don't think I want to know now ...
I found this seahorse feeding under Rye pier. Photo was taken on scuba at about 5 metres depth. It was quite unperturbed by my bubbles & general attention.
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Soup of the Day
