Would you like dog, frog or donkey?

The one night we stayed in Guilin, we had to venture out to find some dinner.  We soon discovered that not only do the restaurants keep giant fish tanks so you can choose your fresh fishy dinner, you can also choose your duck or chicken from a cage out the front.  One near our hotel had a pheasant as well. 

We all quite like the cute little duckies who live in the lake near our home in South Perth and every spring, parade their ducklings through everyone’s gardens, so it wasn’t particularly nice to see a couple of them locked up in a tiny cage, quacking away, knowing they were only another menu order away from the barbeque!  We have seen the photos of the duck dishes – they come basically whole (just chopped into bits) with the head and beak still on the plate – it’s really gross!

We skipped by the duck cages and finally found a restuarant that looked a little less farmyardish – only problem was that the whole menu was in Chinese and the waiters spoke basically no English.  Luckily a diner at another table spoke a bit of English, so he helped us order. We completely over ordered and left a lot of food on the table – but the whole meal cost about $11.  It was rediculously cheap and really tasty.  A nice change from the bland Vietnamese food.

At Yangshuo, it’s a lot more touristy so the menus come in English.  Our Lonely Planet had warned of going to the local farmers market as they do sell dogs there – not as pets!  We discovered, duck was the least of our worries, as these menus included, dog, frog, donkey and snake.  Yum! 

When we went to the travel agency, they spoke good English so I asked them where do they get the dogs from that they sell in the market – do they have dog farms or something?  They told me that local families just breed dogs for the purpose.  There are apparently 2 different types of dogs – ones for pets and ones you eat.  The eating ones are big and ugly so I’m told but our American friends also told us that they don’t eat the adults – the puppies are presumably more tender.  Way too much information for me!  I think I’ll stick with the broccoli…