Mandelon
03-09-2003, 01:04 PM
Eat Live Monkey Brains! In Pingxiang, Guangxi,
It Really Exists!
> Brutal Nourishment >
|Guangxi News| The "Man Han Quan Xi" [ Ä« ªG ¤é ³ø - "The Manchu-Han Complete Banquet"] has been well-known since long ago, but it is a pity that many of the dishes from this banquet may soon be lost forever. One example is the eating of monkey brains, a tale many have heard, but few have experienced. Now, this delicious dish of the palace, which was about to disappear, has finally been passed on to the next generation in southwestern Guangxi [ ¼s ¦è ] Province in Mainland China, near the border separating China and Vietnam. This reporter witnessed gourmets having a "Monkey Feast" at an inn in the quaint village of Pingxiang [ ¾Ì ²» ] near the frontier. Among the delicacies, live monkey brain is something no ordinary person would dare eat!
After the monkey is inebriated, it is placed on the table to await the hungry diners. For the residents of Pingxiang, it is not extraordinary to eat monkeys. A gourmet can buy monkeys in the markets and send them to the inns for cooking. The cooks first force the monkeys in the cage to drink rice wine to make them drunk, then pull them out from the cage and bind their limbs ( to prevent them from awakening), then they chop open their skulls with a sharp knife, and then scoop out the white brains, the blood vessels still pulsing, easily visible. They serve the brain as soon as possible, and dig the brains out when they are still warm, eating them with some seasonings, such as pickled ginger, chili pepper, fried peanuts, cilantro and so on. The gourmet chews and swallows the brains and feels great, while the monkey kicks the bucket still drunk!
The taste is like water tofu
One gourmet said that the taste of monkey brain is not terribly special, perhaps like water tofu, and that pickled ginger and chili are used to add more flavor. Moreover, he added that the monkey brains become pungent if they are not fresh (for example if the skull was opened too long ago), thus it is best to open the skull and eat at once, while the brain cells are not dead and the blood vessels are still pulsing.
Another gourmet was eating monkeys while drinking wine. He said that eating them this way can kill any germs and bacteria. The local residents also love to eat live fish, which they also consume this way.
The cook at the inn said that the traditional way to eat monkey brains was to seal its mouth and tie it tightly under a special table, with a hole in the center, so that only the monkey's head peaked above. Then the monkey's hair was shaved, the skull was cut open, and the brains were eaten while it was still alive. Sometimes the monkey's mouth was not sealed tightly enough, resulting in miserable screams or moans from under the table.
http://www.maxent.org/ch/images/05_eat.jpg
This method is too cruel by current standards however, and has thus been changed: the monkeys are inebriated and the brains are eaten after they lose consciousness.
The cook said that a long-tailed monkey which weighs 1.5kg has a brain that weighs 150 grams at most, so it is very special to eat raw monkey brain, but it is also wasteful. A better way is to stew the brains with Chinese herbs to create the traditional "ultimate brain food."
Monkey paw and meat stew
After eating the brains, the cook then makes other dishes with the rest of the monkey. The paws and meat can be used as stock, or stewed in a soup with nutritional herbs and chicken. The customers had only compliments on how delicious it was. One of the women was quite disgusted when a paw was ladled from the soup with the nails clearly visible!
Link to Monkey Stew. Caution: Graphic Pictures. http://www.maxent.org/ch/monkey_brains_ad.html
It Really Exists!
> Brutal Nourishment >
|Guangxi News| The "Man Han Quan Xi" [ Ä« ªG ¤é ³ø - "The Manchu-Han Complete Banquet"] has been well-known since long ago, but it is a pity that many of the dishes from this banquet may soon be lost forever. One example is the eating of monkey brains, a tale many have heard, but few have experienced. Now, this delicious dish of the palace, which was about to disappear, has finally been passed on to the next generation in southwestern Guangxi [ ¼s ¦è ] Province in Mainland China, near the border separating China and Vietnam. This reporter witnessed gourmets having a "Monkey Feast" at an inn in the quaint village of Pingxiang [ ¾Ì ²» ] near the frontier. Among the delicacies, live monkey brain is something no ordinary person would dare eat!
After the monkey is inebriated, it is placed on the table to await the hungry diners. For the residents of Pingxiang, it is not extraordinary to eat monkeys. A gourmet can buy monkeys in the markets and send them to the inns for cooking. The cooks first force the monkeys in the cage to drink rice wine to make them drunk, then pull them out from the cage and bind their limbs ( to prevent them from awakening), then they chop open their skulls with a sharp knife, and then scoop out the white brains, the blood vessels still pulsing, easily visible. They serve the brain as soon as possible, and dig the brains out when they are still warm, eating them with some seasonings, such as pickled ginger, chili pepper, fried peanuts, cilantro and so on. The gourmet chews and swallows the brains and feels great, while the monkey kicks the bucket still drunk!
The taste is like water tofu
One gourmet said that the taste of monkey brain is not terribly special, perhaps like water tofu, and that pickled ginger and chili are used to add more flavor. Moreover, he added that the monkey brains become pungent if they are not fresh (for example if the skull was opened too long ago), thus it is best to open the skull and eat at once, while the brain cells are not dead and the blood vessels are still pulsing.
Another gourmet was eating monkeys while drinking wine. He said that eating them this way can kill any germs and bacteria. The local residents also love to eat live fish, which they also consume this way.
The cook at the inn said that the traditional way to eat monkey brains was to seal its mouth and tie it tightly under a special table, with a hole in the center, so that only the monkey's head peaked above. Then the monkey's hair was shaved, the skull was cut open, and the brains were eaten while it was still alive. Sometimes the monkey's mouth was not sealed tightly enough, resulting in miserable screams or moans from under the table.
http://www.maxent.org/ch/images/05_eat.jpg
This method is too cruel by current standards however, and has thus been changed: the monkeys are inebriated and the brains are eaten after they lose consciousness.
The cook said that a long-tailed monkey which weighs 1.5kg has a brain that weighs 150 grams at most, so it is very special to eat raw monkey brain, but it is also wasteful. A better way is to stew the brains with Chinese herbs to create the traditional "ultimate brain food."
Monkey paw and meat stew
After eating the brains, the cook then makes other dishes with the rest of the monkey. The paws and meat can be used as stock, or stewed in a soup with nutritional herbs and chicken. The customers had only compliments on how delicious it was. One of the women was quite disgusted when a paw was ladled from the soup with the nails clearly visible!
Link to Monkey Stew. Caution: Graphic Pictures. http://www.maxent.org/ch/monkey_brains_ad.html