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| Pretty much like this. Image source. |
Yesterday I was looking around in a fancy imported-food grocery store, as part of a seemingly endless search for pancake syrup. Seriously, you cannot get syrup in China. (Well actually I did find some at this imported grocery store, but it was super-expensive fancy maple syrup, and I just want Mrs. Butterworth, come on.)
So anyway. I'm walking through this grocery store, and I see a tank full of frogs.
Like, living frogs. Big bullfrogs, bigger than your hand. A whole bunch of them, just sitting in this tank with a bit of water in the bottom. Frogs. Big bullfrogs. Living bullfrogs, you guys.
Frogs.
Frogs. Just a freakin' tank of bullfrogs. Just sitting there. And then one of them waddled around a little bit.
I wish I had a photo to show you, but I was just so shocked/ it's not really polite to gawk at and photograph what's being sold in a grocery store.
FROGS!!!!!
Living frogs. Really big bullfrogs. With a little sign in Chinese that said "牛蛙[niú wā]" (bullfrogs) and the price per 500 g.
So... so people buy them and take them home and kill them and cook them and eat them? Does the grocery-store attendant put the frog in some kind of plastic container with air holes? How would you kill a bullfrog? Ewwwww...
There were frogs, you guys.
I've seen live lobsters and fish for sale at grocery stores in America. In China even more so. But I've never seen live frogs for sale. And of course, in my mind frogs are completely different because they are cute while the lobsters and other seafood aren't.
Oh my goodness you guys, these frogs were huge.
Wow. I've never seen anything like that.
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| Bullfrog dish. Image source. |
Oh by the way, I've eaten bullfrog before. The meat was really soft, and the taste was pretty normal. Maybe like chicken. It's a very normal food you can find in Chinese restaurants.
Still totally shocked to see live ones for sale at the fancy imported grocery store. Wow. Frogs.
Frogs.
Lobsters are ADORABLE.
ReplyDeleteHehe, but I would be taken aback if I saw frogs being sold, too.
The best part was how my boyfriend (who is Chinese and was totally unfazed by the presence of giant live bullfrogs) was like "...?" and I just kept pointing and staring and saying "frogs."
ReplyDeleteI wonder if bullfrogs are a Chinese native species? Here in the Pacific Northwest of the US, they're invasive, and pushing out our much smaller and more adorable Pacific tree frogs and other species. I think the more bullfrogs that get eaten, the better!
ReplyDelete