Small but tasty!

Last night the I.B. department took all of their teachers (and Naomi and I) out to dinner at a restaurant that specialized in Peking Duck. The only difference between Beijing style and a normal roasted duck is how you eat it. They give you what are basically flour tortillas, onions and plum sauce and you are supposed to wrap the duck with that and eat it. It's actually quite tasty. The presentation of the duck is perhaps the most interesting though. The chef comes out with the duck he has cooked and slices it in front of you. First they put out some of the pieces of skin which you are supposed to dip in sugar and eat (it does taste better than it sounds, but I would have preferred salt to sugar). Then they give you the slices of good meat that you're supposed to wrap and eat. Then, they slice the head open and put it on the table. It seems to be that Chinese really value the head of any animal and seem to think it's the best meat.
So, yeah, I ate it (or at least half, and somebody else ate the other half).

Be forewarned, anybody with a good imagination and a weak stomach might want to skip over the next paragraph.

As I popped the little duck brain in my mouth, all I could think of was what my mother would say and how my dad would have definitely eaten it with me. The brain was tasty, but as they say, pure cholesterol (it really coats the inside of your mouth). I then ate the ocular muscle. I left the eye there because that just seemed to be going a bit too far for me in one night. I ate the cheeks, which were delicious and then I ate the skin. Frankly, it was tasty. Waste not, want not!

And I'm still alive!

After proving that I will try just about anything, one of the people at the table (originally from Taiwan) offered to take me to try sheep's head at a restaurant down the street. If I don't die in a week from some strange duck brain disease, I might take him up on it.