Texture is a big thing in Chinese food. Crazy offal is one thing (and I love the aforementioned Szechuan pig blood and intestines hot pot!) but different textures are what can be really challenging to the average American. For instance, the gummy and slimy texture of slow-cooked tendon is a delicacy. The same mouth feel can also be found in dried and reconstituted sea-cucumber.
Ironically, jellyfish does not have that sliminess, and is usually prepared so that it is crunchy/crispy in texture. Fresh vegetables are typically cooked to the point where they retain their crispiness, instead of being cooked to mush. Shrimp are often seasoned and chilled before cooking to retain some snap when you bite into them, instead of the mushy feel you get with pre-cooked shrimp.
You’re not going to see anything close to these exotic textures in the floured and batter-dipped meats and overcooked vegetables at Panda Express. And the sweet cornstarch sauces don’t count!
Tony Bourdain said something (on, IIRC, one of the “No Reservations” episodes) about how the more Americanized any given Chinese food gets, the shinier the sauce becomes…
Obligatory Wikipedia link. Birds-nest soup and shark-fin soup are expensive delicacies for special occasions. They don’t have any ‘exotic’ taste that may surprise the Western palate, and I think many Americans would like them, as long as they don’t know what the soup was made from.
And here I always assumed it was some sort of soup with thin long pasta.
How hungry does someone have to be to climb a cliff wall, see a nest inside a cave and think, “You know, I bet I could *eat *that!”???
I’d love to try it, mind you; the description reminds me of the gelatinous soup texture of hot and sour, or even wonton, and I love that texture. I just can’t fathom why someone thought making soup of actual birds’ nests was a good idea the first time!
Chances are that buffet restaurant I went to had dishes like that, save the bird’s nest and shark fin. I remember there was very little I recognized apart from the obvious, which no doubt enhanced my timidity.
Well, growing up in rural Virginia a lot of people in my family (and myself) ate stuff that doesn’t sound any more offensive than what people here are speculating would “turn Americans’ stomachs.”
Things I used to eat semi-occasionally as a kid (and that older members of my family ate a lot more before my time):
Pickling in generally was a lot bigger when I was a kid, from what I can tell. While I don’t know why, people also find it a bit off putting when I tell them I used to love pickled eggs and pickled beets. Most of the stuff I listed above came from animals that my grandparents kept and killed themselves.
I like pickled eggs, pickled beets, gizzards, liver, and tongue, but while they taste good, I have no problem understanding why most others are put off by them. I’ll also never eat brains, and though I am really intrigued by sousse, I’ve never worked up the nerve to try it, even though I’ve even gone so far as to buy it in the past.
Squirrel brains were much loved in my family and around squirrel hunting time it was a very common dish. I haven’t had it in years, though. I wouldn’t know how to prepare it as it was always cooked by my mother or grandmother.
I’ve also read news articles in the past few years in which doctors have advised against eating squirrel brains because of links to a mad cow-like disease that can apparently get spread to humans who eat the brains of infected squirrels.
It doesn’t address the origins of the dish, but the “Caves” segment of the BBC Planet Earth documentary shows the nests and their rather dramatic collection process. You can start watching at the 7:00 mark of this video and continue through to the next.
I think the idea is more the “average American” palate, not individual Americans, more than a few of whom are comfortable with all sorts of non-standard fare. However I’ll also add that beef & chicken livers, as well as to a lesser extent chicken gizzards are not considered unusual in American cuisine. Not widely beloved, mind you - but not that unusual. Even pigs feet is an accepted regional item. Squirrel brains I grant you is far, far outside the norm ;).
But for whatever reason pork offal is not part of the standard culinary repertoire in the United States. Nor is duck tongue, preserved duck eggs, beef tendon, or many of those other items. Objectively the above should not be anymore off-putting than chicken livers. But because of unfamiliarity I guarantee you that subjectively they are for the vast majority of American citizens. I doubt squirrel brains would sell well in most restaurants, either.
Hence Asian restaurants catering overwhelmingly to more standard American palates in Springfield, Missouri are most unlikely to include them on a menu. As noted you will usually find such dishes only in large urban areas where there is a substantial enough minority population that will actually pay for them. Which is what this thread is about.
I don’t think either is “worse”, but I do think that brief observation of wild beasts probably lead humans (or whatever proto-human first ate eggs) to see that eggs are edible. Therefore, I’m more gobsmacked by the original guy who boiled up a swallows nest and ate it then I am by people eating eggs.
Of course, it’s possible that wild animals also eat swallow’s nests, so that would be my answer. But it seems as if the practice is so old, no one really knows how it began. I find it interesting, not worse.
In the East, you should go to New York’s Chinatown, but you would need to do some research first, since some of the places cater to tourists. Ditto for the San Francisco Chinatown. We went with a friend of ours from Hong Kong (both places) and we let her both select the restaurants and order.
The best Chinese restaurants in San Francisco are not in Chinatown. Clement Street is a much better place to go for good (and more authentic) Chinese food. The problem with Chinatown is that it attracts many tourists, so the restaurants there don’t depend on repeat customers, nor on people familiar with the cuisine. A place in S.F. Chinatown that had things like beef tendon and duck tongues on the menu would scare away the tourists.
Another option would be to cross the bay and go to Oakland’s Chinatown, a neighborhood with many fine Chinese restaurants.
I haven’t been to LA recently, but when I lived there, City Wok was a popular place and my favorite. A small local chain, which will probably make some people dislike it on principle.
I liked their City Wok beef best. It included super-spicy dried Thai peppers that exploded in your mouth, so be careful.
Didn’t read my post, did you? No tourists in the place we went, which is why I recommended that anyone without a friend from Hong Kong research the place first. I’m familiar with Oakland Chinatown, down the street from the Paramount. Not many tourists, that I’ll grant you, but kind of small. Given limited time, I think SF Chinatown is a lot closer to other places where visitors might like to go.
The place we went to in NY, btw, was a branch of a well known Hong Kong restaurant.
