Watch the birdie!

It happens quite often. Yesterday’s local newspaper reports that some man was arrested at Liuzhou railway station after being caught transporting 1,650 sparrows, 420 turtledoves and 80 grouse. These were being transported from Wuhan and were intended for the restaurant trade in Guangdong province.

I love a bit of game, me.

Several years ago, I was hauled off into the mountains for lunch. I couldn’t understand why we were leaving for lunch so early, but it was a long haul. Eventually, we ended up at a tiny shack literally perched on the top of a mountain. We sat down and dish after dish arrived.

“What’s this?” I politely enquired, waving my chopsticks at one particular dish.

“Er, wild animal,” was the reply.

Ok, I thought. They can’t translate that one. Try another.

“What’s that?”

“Um, another wild animal.” This went on for several dishes.

Finally, I wandered into the kitchen, but could only see heavily butchered examples of “wild animal”.

I had a moment of inspiration. “Write down the Chinese and I will check in my dictionary later,” I said.

They looked somewhat abashed for a bit, then finally admitted that they didn’t know the Chinese names, either.

So I never found out what I ate. But it was Gooood!

tags: game birds  wuhan  china  liuzhou  guangxi  protected  guangdong  sars  

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