Deep Fried Duck Tongue - Olympic Food Challenge : China

 I've become aware, as I have been doing the Olympic Food Challenge, that I could have been a bit more adventurous in my choice of dishes for some countries, and in others maybe tried to find a few more strange and exciting ingredients.  So as today's meal rolled round, I knew that it was time to push the boat out a bit.

Having visited a rather amazing Chinese restaurant in Leeds called Red Chili, I couldn't help but stuff my face with as many dishes as I could that I hadn't tried before, including eel, tripe, heart and tongue.  I would have gone for the frogs legs and crystallised pig's uterus as well, but the horrified faces of the people I was meant to be sharing the banquet with told me it was time to stop.

I love the fact that Chinese cuisine uses all sorts of bits of animals that we would throw away - when I was buying the tongues for this dish, I mistakenly picked up a packet of pig's tendons instead (Come to think of it - I may go back and try those later...)  - and duck's tongues are no exception - they are a strange thing to eat, not least as they have a little bone running through the middle of them, and have a creamy, fatty texture to them.

A quick straw poll of of consumers that tried the tongue (me & Mrs Soup) was that it tasted lovely but looked  like something from the film 'Alien'... (Also, please do not google anything to do with the sex lives of ducks 0 they are perverts.... just sayin'...)

On a more olympic related not - China have won all the medals that are not in the posession of the US or UK teams.  They are quite good at this whole sports malarkey...