Before I start, I want to share one story, one of my real experiences. I worked at Hillcrest Marketplace last year and a fellow student, an American, who was one year older than me, asked me a question:"Do you really eat dogs?" I got a little embarrassed after hearing that. Because I knew this could be a super sensitive topic to some Americans. Many Americans really love their dogs and treat them as family members and the truth can be very shocking. So, I didn't answer him until he said "I'm just curious and want to know the answer." And I will talk a little about it today.
1. Dog meat
Don't hate me but my answer of question above is "Yes, we do. Some of us do eat dogs' meat." But I want to emphasize a point that we eat dogs but we don't eat pets. I guess these words might not be enough to comfort or persuade dog lovers. I can imagine how hard for those guys who own dogs and don't live in China to accept this. Despite the illegal stealing and selling of others' pet dogs, the dog meat for general use has no difference with chicken and beef.
Rice noodles with dog meat
http://www.dianping.com/photos/156816624/photocenter
2. Insects
Warning: This part can be disgusting to some people. People who are sick with insects such as worms, spiders, scorpions, etc. should be prepared before continuing.
Many places in China have traditions of eating insects. In my hometown, Yunnan province, a kind of worm called "bamboo worm" is material of a delicious cuisine. It actually is the larva of "cyrtotracjelus longimanus." We usually fry them in hot oil and eat them before or after the entrees. And we also eat pupae of bees. The way of cooking is the same as "bamboo worm," frying in the hot oil. In some places, people eat scorpions and spiders. My girlfriend said fried scorpions were very good, though I didn't try those yet. There are more other insects can be cooked as food but I don't know all of them. Eating insects may sound very scary, but they actually contains plenty of proteins and even better than meat. I can't say all of them delicious but you may like them after you try.
Fried "bamboo worm"
http://baike.baidu.com/pic/%E7%AB%B9%E8%99%AB/3664236/0/0865b5182db3c53c34fa4170?fr=lemma&ct=single#aid=0&pic=0865b5182db3c53c34fa4170
Fried scorpions
http://www.mafengwo.cn/g/i/717581.html
Fried larva and pupae of bees3. Animal organs
Chinese people are very thrifty on food. We try our best to make good use of every part of animals. So there are some dishes are made from animal organs, such as pig's liver, lungs, intestine, brain, and cattle's stomach. And you can see chickens' heart and intestine if you have chicken soup in China. We also have animals blood, the condensed blood, whose texture is like jelly. It sounds not tasty when you hear different animal organs, but actually they taste good. Most of Chinese like to eat at least one or two kinds of them.
Spicy Cattle's stomach (sliced)
http://sucai.redocn.com/tupian/3301283.html
Spicy Pig's lungs (sliced)
http://www.nipic.com/show/12544454.html
Pig's intestine
http://www.nipic.com/show/11729003.html
4. Heads and feet
I know Americans don't eat animals heads or feet, and I never see any market sells these things. But both heads and feet are loved by many Chinese people. We have many ways to cook them, boiling in soy sauce, stir with chili sauce, etc. In Sichuan province, there's a special local food which is only made by rabbits' heads, and it's famous all over the country. But eating them usually take a lot of time, we usually eat them as "snacks."
Sichuan rabbits' heads
https://www.nuomi.com/deal/wqknhuwx.html
Chicken feet with spicy wild peper
http://www.douguo.com/cookbook/213289.html?f=beiwa
In conclusion, these are some examples which can be extremely disliked by foreigners. But, believe it or not, they all are very delicious. Chinese food culture have thousand-year history and there are many other delicious and acceptable choices for you. If you don't want to try those above, you can try other things such as regular hot pots.
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