Being adventurous (some say foolhardy), when on biz travel, I'll makan anything that my friends, clients, suppliers feed me.

In China, I've eaten standard stuff like char siew, roast duck to more exotic grub like scorpion soup, cow brain and penises of animals.

My modus operandi: If my friends in China find the food a delicacy, it's safe enough for me to eat.

This philosophy also explains why I get food poisoning at least 6 times a year.

To be fair, I kena food poisoning when I'm in S'pore (eg. Latest being eating bakuteh @ YWCA) and when I'm in India..

 

I was in Guangdong recently.

Cantonese are well known for their culinary excellence.

They are extremely picky about food.

Hence most restaurants in Guangdong are world-class and they are also HUGE.

 

I went to one recently.

It had 6 floors

Each floor was at least 30,000 sq ft (25 HDB, 4-room flats)

 

 

This was the place in the restaurant where you'd pick what you want to eat.

It's the size of the cold foods section of GIANT or Careffour (is this how you spell it?).

 

You pick your seafood from the aerated glass tubs (in pic above)

Alternatively, you pick them from an aquarium.

No kidding!!

See for yourself … it's only one section.

 

There were so many types of fish.

Some were disgusting looking.

I assumed all were edible.

 

There was also a roast meat and stewed meat section.

It's a whole row of cooked food maciam food court like that.

Didn't take a pic. 

Too many disgusting animals are being stewed and hung to dry.

 

Then there was a "small dishes" (xiao3 cai4) section.

There were easily 200 of them displayed.

Didn't know where to start, so I anyhow pointed at 5 of them.

 

 

 

My Guangdong friend, Wen, picked a fish (it's a groupa that looked like an iguana) that was steamed and abalone soup.

I ordered fish maw cooked with white cabbage too.

(I had to choose one from 30 ways of cooking the dish .... sigh... troublesome for an ignoramus like me)

 

It was a hearty meal for 2.

Cost us S$400.

Extremely expensive even by Singapore standards but it was damn good.

 

Stay tuned for my gastronomic adventure in Chengdu, Sichuan.

 

p/s Checked and found out that Cantonese don't eat hum.