We used to eat at a local Chinese place fairly often and got to know the owners. One evening they were eating something I didn’t recognize at their little private table. I said something about not seeing that before, so they sent an order over to our table.
Gelatinized, barbequed chicken feet. Had them flown in special, some sort of delicacy I guess. Definitely not on the menu.
The OP asked if any restaurants had a secret menus, and *specifically referred *to serving dog. I said that I seriously doubt that that is the case. What’s your problem, exactly, if we are in accord?
Here in Minneapolis, a few years ago, a Chinese restaurant was raided by the health inspector, and a dog carcass was found in the kitchen. They faced some serious consequences from the Health Department.
Turned out that the carcass had been supplied by a chinese father, especially for a special dish at his daughter’s wedding banquet. It was not going to be served to the public.
(It’s commonly believed that the tip to the health inspectors came from one of the other restaurants, who had refused to cook & serve dog, and so lost the business for the wedding banquet. When they saw that the banquet was to be held at a competing restaurant, they suspected that this competitor had agreed to serve dog, and so reported this to the health inspector. And they were right.)
Also, I believe dog is a more common dish in Chinese cooking (especially Southern China) than in Korean.
My friend always demands the menu with dog on it when we visit a Korean restaurant. He hasn’t got it, yet.
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I have seen more than one Chinese/Asian restaurant in SFO with one side of the menu in English with higher prices, the other side in Chinese with much lower prices, I thought the thoery is if you can read Chinese, you deserve a discount.
While I was going to school, I worked as a line chef at an Italian restaurant. Probably half of the dishes I made were off the menu, despite the fact that most of the dishes wouldn’t be as strange to the American palate as chicken-beak soup.
My wife is Chinese and she regularly orders things from the “secret menu.” The only reason it is secret at all is because it is written in Chinese which most Americans can’t read. Some of the things I have eaten are duck’s/Chicken’s feet, beef tendon, tripe, blood tofu. All of them are really good.
Actually, I bet if you were willing to pay enough for it you could find a restaurant willing to cook and serve dog.
I’m not sure how many of the restaurants in KC that you remember, elmwood, but Andy’s Wok, Bo-Ling’s, and Ruchi Indian all have secondary menus. Bo-Ling’s even has a translated menu, if I recall correctly.
Steamed with no sauce or spices is the way I’ve had it. Not very nice, to me. But you say you have a Hong Kong friend - ask him/her to order it. I believe the dim sum dish “five treasures” contains a roll of it, amongst other things.
There are several Chinese restaurants here that are owned by Koreans; the regular menus consist of the normal, Americanized, Chinese food, but if you ask, they’ll bring you a Korean menu and you can order Korean food.
None of them have dog. Which, by the way, isn’t that good… although the soup it is usually served in was pretty good (boshingtang).
It’s an open secret that all the restaurants in Philly’s Chinatown have second menus containing authentic dishes of little interest to Americans. The average American does not want pig blood jello or chicken feet. There are always rumors that these menus also have lower prices for the same dishes on the English menus. A few years ago, one restaurant made all the papers when it was found to actually do this. They were hit with heavy fines.
Just to add another anecdote, a restaurant I used to go to once gave me a menu all in Korean. It was basically the English menu, but with no English, which was nice, because it can be confusing trying to figure out what something is when you read it in English. The prices were lower, though, which was interesting, and it seemed to be a one time thing, because every other time I went, the menus were identical. In line with what others were saying, though, you could usually request just about any dish as long as it wasn’t too crazy, and they could whip it up for you. Not a secret or anything, just wasn’t a normal part of the menu.
Having eaten authentic Chinese food in Beijing, I’m fine sticking with the Yankee menu, thanks.
Many restaurants have off-menu items that you can get if you know about it. In fact, I just ten minutes ago ordered an off-menu item to be delivered to me from a Chinese place down the way. I found out about it when a friend turned me on to it. I ordered it by name the very first time I went there and they didn’t blink an eye.
There is a now closed place where my ex-wife and I were regulars. The owner/manager would from time to time get special things that he would offer to us and other regulars from time to time. This was an Asian fusion type of place. Usually it would be something made from a particularly good piece of fish where they had limited quantities or something they were considering adding to the menu.
I’ve been to a couple of Chinese restaurants where there are several dishes (usually in one section) that do not have an English translation.
Around here, you can’t order Guinea Pig unless you speak spanish - and most of the menus say you have to order it at least 12 hours in advance. I suspect that would turn a few people off…
Please note that while some ethnic restaurants have “insider” menus as described above, not all do.
Saturday night, I was treated to witnessing my favorite Scottish bartender, at my favorite Irish restaurant, declare a session-performing musician “a great penis” (note that a thick brogue affects the intelligibility of this particular utterance not at all). This musician had not been to this restaurant before, and he asked for fish and chips. This restaurant does not have fish and chips on any menu – secret, insider, downstairs, or upstairs. Bartender informed musician of such. Musician demurred. “What kind of Irish restaurant doesn’t have fish and chips??”
“Um, that’d be us,” said the bartender.
“Not at all?”
“No, sorry, not at all.”
“Are you SURE?”
“We - do - not - have - fish - and - chips.”
“Well, how about I go and get a bag full and bring it back?”
This particular musician will henceforth be known to all other locals as The Great Penis.
I don’t know if they torture the dogs. I do know that an entry on Wiki that says *"*Animal rights activists and others opposing dog meat consumption ** argue that the butchering process involves unimaginable cruelty" does not necessarily equate to it being anything even close to a fact that they torture the dogs.
Apologies for the hijack, but why is this illegal?