The Accidental Zimmern: China Edition - Year of the Rat

Three Accidental Zimmern posts on one day you ask? What did you do to deserve this?
My dear readers, I give you one AZ post for free and throw in two AZ posts, no charge. If you wish, my digital fedora is upturned for any contributions you wish to make through paypal or buying any of my stickers.

Back in a Chinese factory kitchen! The very idea of this sounds heinous to the uninitiated, but some of the best food in China can be encountered here. After all, this kitchen prepares meals for the factory owner and his guests, so it has to be good.

After enjoying another good meal, I decided to help the cook and take my dishes to the kitchen. On the kitchen counter where my food was prepared was a 8x12" piece of flat metal with bits of fur stuck to it. After all, a glue trap can be reused if you peel the rat back off of it...

A coworker had a similar experience. He entered the kitchen to see two freshly dead rats (the Chinese like their food fresh) laying on the same kitchen counter. Apparently he was early for dinner.

No matter when you visit China, it is always the Year of the Rat...

The Accidental Zimmern: China Edition - Chicken Soup Surprise

Welcome to the China Edition of The Accidental Zimmern.

When traveling in China, I often encounter delicious and unusual food. Due to language differences (I speak Chinese with the ability of a native 4-month old), a lot of the time I find out what I ate after the fact...or I end up never quite sure.

Soups in China are wonderful, no matter if they are simple broths or laden with ingredients. This time I sat down to a lunch prepared in a factory I was working with. I promptly sat down and ladled a bowl of soup and dug in. It turned out to be a savory chicken soup. It was very rich and oily with flavor. It was so rich the soup was dark and not a typically clear chicken soup. As I often do when I encounter something delicious, I went back for more.

This time I submerged the ladle deep in the pot to make sure I got all the ingredients. I pulled up the ladle to reveal a DUCK HEAD, beak and all...

I shrugged, put the head back in the pot then ladled myself another bowl of soup. After all it tasted good, so I ate it.

The Accidental Zimmern: Korean BBQ Taco Box

And now introducing a new segment called the Accidental Zimmern in which I encounter new food, occasionally bizarre, often accidentally.

I'm the type of person that can say, "why yes, I HAVE tasted bear gall bladder fluid!" I'm also often the person that tries a dish first only to find out later it was something slightly unusual.

Why is this segment the Accidental Zimmern and not the Boredain? Because I want to enjoy food and just say whether it was good or bad, not wax poetic in a faux Kerouacian beat style. Bourdain is the DeNiro of food critics. Amazing and honest in his younger years, still has the chops in his older years, but decides to put out crap like Meet the Fockers.

This inaugural edition does not involve weird food but still is a first for me - the food truck. More specifically, the Korean BBQ Taco Box!

My brother (the bromad himself) and I were headed for a bowl of pho when we spied a huge yellow delivery van. The Korean BBQ Taco Box!Spontaneous guys that we are, we put off thoughts of pho turned back to the big yellow truck! I ordered the spicy pork taco and bromad got the chicken taco. Blazing hot out, we retreated to the cool confines of the apartment.So for about six bucks, I got a ginger salad (lettuce with ginger sauce. meh.), a spicy chicken wing (not bad), a fried tofu roll (nice), two fried cheese rolls (very yummy) and a spicy pork taco. The spicy pork taco was very delicious.

This is how I judge whether food is good or not: If I want to keep eating it just to continue experiencing the taste even though I am overstuffed. And the fried cheese rolls and spicy pork taco is good food.

WHAT SHOULD I TRY NEXT? ANY SUGGESTIONS?