Living in China, slowing munching through the animal kingdom...
A few years back I moved to China to work in the fastest growing sweatshop in the world.

There are many sights, smells and tastes that are very unfamiliar to the western senses, it is all worth it for the best of them. However in the culture of ying and yang there is also the opposite to balance it all out. Nothing like your local Chinese take-away.

Drunken prawn. Not unknown in the west: fill a bowl with ice and big live prawns, then liberally fill it with Chinese rice wine (an acquired taste in itself, smelling much like a stale bar floor mixed with formaldehyde) which makes the prawns twitch and jump as they die of acute alcohol poisoning. When they stop, peel and eat, only to discover they are not quite dead. Would be delicious like raw shrimp sashimi, if the rice wine wasn't there.

Sea Cucumber: long dark knobbly thing, often served whole on a plate with a dark brown reduction. Basically looks like a turd on a plate. Tastes of nothing particular and has an unappealing bouncy texture. Famous and unreasonably expensive.

Fish swim bladder: A thin wrinkly membrane which is basically a vehicle for a sauce. Expensive and used for pointless showing off like the sea cucumber.

Abalone: Odd but interesting. Also show off food to your guests.

Snake: while it looks like Japanese eel in the teriyaki sauce, it tastes less interesting an tends to be a bit tough if fried.

Dog: didn't know it was dog, but not bad really.

Goose head: Duck is common place here, not the expensive meat it is in the west. So goose is the next up, and BBQ goose (think Peking Duck, sort of, but richer and tender) is sublime. Nothing is wasted from head to toe, and therefore all on the menu. Goose head soup it surprisingly good, once you get over the bisected heads floating around on the surface, brains showing. The nostril meat isn't all that, but the brain itself is nice, spiced in the soup with a very soft pate texture.

Chickens feet. Cooked in a light sauce for breakfast you nibble around the cartilidge and bone. Tasty when hot, unappealing (to me) when served cold as a snack

Scorpion soup: a pork and scorpion broth. Very tasty. As the venom is not removed I cannot be sure if it was that or jet lag which was causing the dizziness.

Durian fruit: Mentioned below, this is a love it or hate it thing. It stinks to high heaven, but of what no one can agree. It basically stinks of durian. But the flavour it incredibly complex. First notes are of buttery banana, then almonds, then... Oh heavens its good (or disgusting)!.

Stinky tofu: this is rotting tofu. i suppose the equivalent of stilton cheese. I smells so bad even I won't try it. Yet...

Country chicken: I haven't tried this, as it is basically rat. Well I don't think I have...

Always get a translation if you are not sure what it is, as you may prefer to avoid genitals in your dinner...
( jagwap, Fri 27 May 2011, 7:08, 8 replies)

Have tried all of these except durian, stinky tofu and scorpion soup. No way on earth I am eating stinky tofu. I love blue cheese but that stuff is off the scale.
(McChinaman banned, Fri 27 May 2011, 8:28, closed)

Choudoufu is actually really nice, I buy it every time I see (or smell) it now.

( Zuowan, Fri 27 May 2011, 8:49, closed)

Haven't tried drunken Prawns yet, or scorpion soup (never heard of that before actually), agree with most of your other summaries though.
Durians are amazing, but you have to catch them at the right moment. Too ripe and you can't take the smell, not ripe enough and it's like eating soap.
Chicken feet are ok barbecued, it's the ones stewed in vinegar I can't stand. I won't eat them generally as I still prefer to be the weirdo who refuses to spit out bones.
( Zuowan, Fri 27 May 2011, 8:53, closed)

*uber click*
Hahahahaaa...for the fact that I almost puked whilst reading.

TTFN.
(iamdoingapooasisignup, Fri 27 May 2011, 9:18, closed)

"Always get a translation if you are not sure what it is, as you may prefer to avoid genitals in your dinner..."
*click*
( speedyballbangpots, Fri 27 May 2011, 9:58, closed)

In Singapore last year
I was always amused by the stalls selling pig organ soup. I might have tried it had they specified what the organ was.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 27 May 2011, 10:33, closed)

My brother had sea cucumber once
at a banquet - he says to this day that it was the worst thing he'd ever had.

Also, there's a great blog out there you'll be interested in: www.weirdmeat.com (it's SFW, don't worry)
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Fri 27 May 2011, 10:34, closed)

durian fruit is something to experience
P.s. it's Yin and Yang
(Kip, Sat 28 May 2011, 17:08, closed)