Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Donkeys and dogs

Before today, I didn't even know people ate donkeys. But in China they do.

According to the Jiangli Donkey Meat Restaurant in Beijing, it's supposed to be quite healthy for you. A pamphlet reads:

"Donkey meat is a tonic food and healthy for people's liver and kidney. As a moderate and nutritious meat it is ideal to be used in food therapy..."

Later it adds that donkey skin and penis are also quite good for you too.

I had some of their donkey meat with my granduncle and his family.  It was alright, very beef-like in texture and taste. I even had some donkey ear and donkey intestine too. Those weren't quite as palatable, but at least they went down.

As for my granduncle, he really enjoyed the food. But out of all the meats he's had, donkey meat doesn't rank as the best.

"Donkey meat is really good," he said. "But dog meat is even better."

As we ate a plate of donkey meat dumplings, my granduncle couldn't help but add, "These dumplings are great. I just wish I could eat some dog meat dumplings."

I said that I hadn't had dog meat before. Naturally at our next meal, dog meat was available.

I haven't been much interested in having a taste of dog meat; it seems a tad wrong to be eating man's best friend. But I tried it anyways. Frankly, I couldn't really tell any difference between the meats. If you lumped donkey and dog meat all together, I would get confused as to which was which. It all tastes like beef to me, although maybe dog meat is a little harder to chew through.

My granduncle was quite happy with the dog meat we had to eat. But, apparently there is one kind of meat that can even top dog.

"Have you had cat meat?" he asked. "That cat meat is even better than dog meat."