<Don't the Chinese consider it a delicacy?>
Yes [though like everywhere about groups of people, that's a wild generalisation - for example, there are plenty of Chinese vegetarians [I guess]]. Here is a recent item [as seen on TV here too] about growing St Bernards for food:
uk.news.yahoo.com
They have thousands of them being bred for food. They grow really big really fast.
<BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese have taken a liking to a revered symbol of Switzerland -- the St Bernard dog -- but the Swiss are not flattered.
Gentle giants famed for rescuing people in the Alpine snows of Europe, the St Bernard's size and docile nature have become a major selling point in China, where dog meat has long been a popular delicacy known as "fragrant meat".
Driven by increasing demand to boost meat yields, dog breeders have been drawn to Saint Bernards because they are huge, resistant to disease and prolific, with annual litters of around eight to twelve puppies, double that of other dogs.
In a promotional video, a state-run Saint Bernard breeding farm in the northeastern city of Shenyang praises the big dogs as perfect for breeding because they are gentle and don't bite
The video boasts that investing in Saint Bernard farms is "more lucrative than pig farming and livestock breeding" and says that 48 breeding stations have been built in 10 Chinese provinces with a total of 5,000 Saint Bernards.>
I suspect the squeamishness about eating dogs is because in the West, man's best friend is a dog and eating your best friend seems weird as well as cannibalistic. In a similar way, eating horses seems odd. I can say they are nice to eat [we ate them in Belgium]. Chinese presumably think it's weird to have an animal as a best friend instead of eating them.
No wonder Jiang and W have the odd glitch of misunderstanding and conflicting intent.
Mqurice
PS: No, I don't eat my best friends. [Edit... I see CB likes Grubs [see previous post]. Incidentally, huhu grubs are considering edible in NZ - they are the larval stage of an large flying insect in NZ nelson.planet.org.nz You can see some happy KiwiKids having lunch at school in that link... they are being trained for when Jay's world financial crash comes - we won't starve.]
More New Zealand food habits here: travelplanner.co.nz
<Huhu grubs, battered snails, fried locusts, barbecued wallaby, drunken wild boar, brazed steer, water buffalo fillets, raw fish, marlin, shark, goat, possum stew...or curried burgers, stroganoff, or chocolate truffles laced with juicy earthworms and washed down with locally-made gorse or manuka wine...
Hokitika's Wildfoods Festival - held on March 8 for the eighth year - is uniquely West Coast! (In fact, this year's New Zealand Event Management and Marketing Conference voted it the best in the South Island). I attended...
Against a background of wheezy early-century accordion music by the ever-present Kokatahi Band - average age 70 - I sat on the grass under a cobalt sky, clutching a punnet of kokoda (Fijiian marinated fish) and a beaker of "Virgin Kiwi" iced tea. > |
