On one of my first trips to Hong Kong (where I was born) alone I stayed with a family that live in more of a rural area. We went out to eat and had two of the most revolting things I can remember:
Steamed fish intestine in egg – A pot of steamed egg all soggy was streaked with grey and brown from the extracted intestines of some poor fish cooked all together. It tasted like that butcher shop smell left to rot in dirt. I was told this was very special because it takes a lot of work to extract the intestine from the fish maybe because the digestive tract of fish was never meant to be taken out and eaten.
Chicken testicles – The worst part was they played this sadistic ‘game’ with me making me eat this before making me guess. I figured it out just as I bit into the sac. The taste is actually not horrible but conceptually it’s gross enough and definitely mind over matter here. Very rubbery, almost like eating a small balloon packed with meat.
Did I mention this was part of the hot pot so they were presented raw and we had to cook it ourselves in the broth. Which meant we had to cook everything in the broth that had cooked the chicken balls. Good job, hot pot.
The good thing is that nothing I’ve ever seen in the restaurants in Toronto, Canada ever phase me.