Things That Make You Go "..."

[tuftears]

Well, as some of you know, I have been clearing out an incredibly huge accumulation of detritus and memorabilia that my parents brought over and then never cleared out. I found one item that made me go "..."

Now I must share this with you!

The paper is titled 'Gaa Gow Ngok - Imitation Dog Meat Stew.'

I'll pause a moment to let that sink in.

For reference, my dad's from San Francisco and his parents were from China, and my mom's family is from mainland China. It's most likely that my mom or someone else transcribed this from my maternal grandparent's cooking.

Now, the recipe itself. Warning: I have not cooked this myself! I include it because if you've read this far, you want to know.

Gaa Gow Ngok
Imitation Dog Meat Stew

Bean curd skin
Beef
Garlic and fermented bean paste
Fermented bean cake
Dried red dates
Dried orange peel
Water

Braise beef in hot oil.
Add garlic and fermented bean paste and fermented bean cake in the beef.
Add water.
Add red date and orange peel.

Ahead of time: deep fry bean curd skin and wash out the oil.

Gentle readers, please don't take this as a cue to find a neighborhood dog and taste test its meat. I'm pretty sure the beef will taste better. Also, I apologize that the quantities, cooking time, etc. are not present here. I simply post this for the bafflement of my readers, just as it was written.

Comments

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

We avoided the food markets because my mother is very sensitive, and seeing snakes being skinned alive and the carcasses of dogs and cats hanging up was something we really didn't want to see. Now that I think about it, though, we were told that eating dog was not legal in Hong Kong itself, so people went to Canton to eat dog.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Oh, good plan. Even if they didn't have dogs and cats, they would definitely have had whole roast pigs on hooks! heck, they have that in San Francisco.

[desertcoyote.livejournal.com]

I don't think I could handle that either. Poor snakes! O_o I don't have a problem with killing animals for food, but I do have a problem with animals being tortured before they're killed (or during), and that qualifies. And if I saw them doing that to a dog, I'd either go catatonic or all "Rambo" rescue mission. :P (Plus, just seeing a dog or cat at that kind of market would depress me for the rest of the trip. :( I'd want to rescue them all.)

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Eeegh. I can;t even muster enough mongoose to be happy abotu snakes being skinned alive. :P mind, I'll klill and cook lobster, but that's fast and *necessary*. I'd like my tasty animals, ideally, to be humanely treated and killed. :P