It’s hard to miss the big turtles swimming around in the tanks at the grocery store and the markets… At first I wondered what pets were doing in the seafood section… Then I started noticing them in menus (mostly high end restaurants…)
One friend from church said she tried a soft shell turtle when she first arrived in China. She said it tasted mainly like cartilage, until she got down to a bony, hard section of the shell.
So, I almost tried turtle once at a restaurant, but due to a friend’s shellfish allergy, we restrained ourselves.
Anyway, it ends up that when I mention this to any of my Chinese friends and associates, they usually look at me in disgust… “We don’t eat turtle!” Then they stick their tongue out, the way most Americans would after being propositioned to eat turtle….
I’m beginning to think that the turtles are just for the rich foreigners that want an exotic China tourist story…
Kind of like the Scorpions and spiders they sell on a stick that was pretty much the extent of the Olympic coverage of the food in China. It ends up that on the Street vendor row, there’s probably 50 stalls, of which most of them sell chicken, lamb, beef, pork, dumplings etc. Then there is one stall that has scorpions and spiders that no one is buying anything from…
Hyun Family 