A Bizarre Pallette

Every time I sit down with a group of Chinese people, that in truth is daily
due to my job, inevitably comes up the subject of food. This is not suprising considering that despite the media/celebrity/personal pressures of wanting to be slim or skinny, we do have a love and hate
relationship with our stomach and taste buds.

For some, the mere sight or smell of food can revert them to a blubbering mess, for others such as myself, the glance is enough to make me gain weight!! I often say that I wished that I had a 'love affair' with food, but the furthest that I can say that is my passion is yogurt and cheese, both of which do me no service!!

Living in Asia, or maybedue to the hours I work,or TV access is different due to another sat elite system, I have unlimited access to food and travel programmes and can happily indulge myself in a daydream (usually night one) of planning, all the places that I intend to visit in my lifetime. The only trouble with this is that it will not be '1000 places to see before you die' but more of 'the thousand you wish to afford to see before that appointed time!'.

So, it is with great interest that I watch a variety of travelling persona taking me from the Americas to the exotic, happily placing 'food stuffs'in their mouths, either with a grimace, wink or ....... as they attempt to show
excitement in being the one to eat beetles, worms, whale blubber, squirrel or anything else that in that part of the world resembles food! All I can say to that is 'good on yeh!'.

Before I came here to Beijing, I was warned of all the awful food stuffs that they eat, but in truth have been unable to find anything too ghastly except for scorpions! Chicken feet, that I remember we called 'giblets' as
children, would often be served in the chicken soup, together with the bird's neck, but the difference between those 'extras' and the ones served here, are that at least my mother's ones had had a manicure!

My own personal conclusion to the awful things that I subject myself to watch, is that these particular 'foods' were once the only source of protein
or diet that some people had in more remote areas and thus became part of the national diet. Growing up watching your grandparents eat these
strange and moving insects and wigglies, would have seemed normal, for I myself who would think twice about picking up a worm today, thought nothing of it as a child. So, I believe that even though our logical western mind finds these goodies distasteful and some even venture to be brave and taste, I don't believe that any one can look at some of these ugly creepy crawlies, or whale blubber (that stinks to high heaven) and say, yummy yummy!!!!!