Thursday, September 08, 2005
Donkey, marinated in tiger urine
A restaurant in northeast China has been raided and closed for listing stir fried-tiger meat on its menu, a dish that turned out to be donkey dressed with tiger urine.
The 'Hufulou' restaurant in Hailin city in Heilongjiang province is located barely one kilometre (less than a mile) from the Hengdaohezi Siberian Tiger Park, home to a species listed as one of the 10 most endangered in the world.
It was offering a dish of stir-fried tiger meat with hot peppers for 800 yuan (98 dollars), and raw tiger meat at 7,000 yuan (863 dollars) a kilogram, the China Daily reported Thursday.
Diners could wash it down with a bottle of wine pickled with tiger bone.
When asked how the restaurant obtained the meat, a waiter reportedly said the owner had good connections within the tiger park and got the meat of dead tigers.
Police subsequently raided the restaurant and the owner confessed the so-called tiger meat was actually donkey meat dressed with tiger urine to give it a "special" flavour.
Like much MSM reporting, the critical questions remain unanswered. Where did the restaurant get the "tiger urine"? For that matter, how does one get a tiger to pee in a cup? Was the restaurant closed because (1) it served donkey meat in tiger pee marinade, or (2) it misrepresented the marinated donkey meat as tiger meat? If the restaurant had honestly offered "shank of donkey a l'urine de tigre" would its doors still be open? Am I the only person out there who needs to know the answers to these questions?
4 Comments:
By 
Charlottesvillain, at
Thu Sep 08, 05:29:00 PM:
I think you should clarify the fact that we did not coordinate these two posts, despite their startling similarity in theme.
By 
, at
Thu Sep 08, 10:20:00 PM:
Camel meat, urine-marinated donkey meat...Do I detect a theme?
By , at
Fri Sep 09, 08:19:00 AM:
Am I the only person out there who needs to know the answers to these questions?
With complete confidence, I can state the answer is "yes".
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Sep 09, 08:50:00 AM:
Locker Room, you're just not curious enough. Which is strange for a guy who posts comments on blogs.
