Turtle jelly

It's fairly common knowledge that Chinese people will eat pretty much anything. Perhaps culinary courage runs in my veins then. Today I braved eating turtle jelly. Well, not really turtle, more the soup made from boiling the shell... but it wasn't particularly pleasant all the same. We went to Hoi Tin Tong (海天堂) opposite Sogo in Central. I sat down and my eyes were drawn to the large LCD TV showing how the itsy bitsy baby turtles were raised from eggs, killed and shells boiled, along with a ton of other nameless roots and herbs to make the turtle jelly... mmm... Aunty assures me it is very good for you though, so I ploughed through to the bottom of the bowl. According to the flyer on the table, the jelly was a miracle cure for... "improving bodily organs, keeping youthfulness, preventing certain strokes and improving skin, skin diseases, Sore throat, Arthritis, Cold Sore, Hemorrhoids, Constipation, Stomach diarrhea, Stomach Vomiting, Stomachache"...  well, I will be simply devastatingly gorgeous and healthy tomorrow!!

The taste wasn't repulsive, almost like grass jelly (a Chinese black jelly served with syrup as dessert, and one of my favourites), but as I had it straight, no honey, you could really taste the Chinese herby medcine flavours... if anyone's ever been to a Chinese herbalist, they'll tell you, Chinese medicine isn't pleasant! Anyway, one more to add to the list of odd foods I've consumed, along with snake, horse and racoon (all rather ordinary by Chinese standards by the way!).




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone