So..... Bit of a stir in my area as a supermarket chain named C-Town just opened a store.

The chain is primarily known as a New York retailer specializing in ethnic products, so transplanted New Yorkers have been/were/are especially intrigued at gaining access to more eclectic selection of items.

Like this guy here!!! 😜

And..... Add one thoroughly traumatized Guineapig raising little girl to my household..... 🙃

 

Edited April 13Apr 13 by HiFlyer

You haven't lived until you've sampled the snacks available from vending machines at Chinese airports. 

Pickled ducks feet or if you're a real connoisseur how about the deep fried ducks head?🙃

 

I guess the Guinea pig on the label is smiling because he escaped his colleague’s fate.

3 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

You haven't lived until you've sampled the snacks available from vending machines at Chinese airports. 

Pickled ducks feet or if you're a real connoisseur how about the deep fried ducks head?🙃

 

Yeah, but I bet they at least try to make those look attractive/appetizing.

This little guy looks like he's gone through some seriously rough times.....

Guinea pig?  How hungry was the person to think of eating a guinea pig?

I'll stick with the "Pecan Log" at Stuckey's.  That's where my sense of adventure takes me😏  I'm sure Dave will know what I'm talking about living in Tennessee. 

1 hour ago, HiFlyer said:

Yeah, but I bet they at least try to make those look attractive/appetizing.

The Chinese like to see what they're getting so everything has a clear window in the packaging.

The ducks feet are an allegedly tasty snack in Chinese culture but there's simply no way to make a fried ducks head...or a frozen guinea pig, any sort of an attractive proposition. 

 

2 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

allegedly

🤣😂

7 hours ago, Mike A said:

🤣😂

The classic Chinese business visit scenerio:

  After an eleven hour flight that arrived in the evening local time, the following morning you and your colleague meet up with the interpreter and your driver. You travel out through an enormous, shining metropolis to find the brand new factory on the edge of town - just where it starts to get medieval again.

You then enjoy a long, exhausting factory tour where the jet lag starts to kick in and you really want to visit the bathroom.

You know you've asked an awkward question when your interpreter goes silent;

"What are they saying Hao?"

"I don't know Mr Arthur, they're speaking in dialect."

Straight after the tour, when you really want to return to the hotel and collapse, you go into the conference room to be ambushed by a three hour formal chinese banquet, kicking off with several rounds of Baijiu (50 to 60 ° proof) to toast your joint business success and then followed by a seven course meal of simply indescribable proportions. Generally, the only remotely recognisable dishes will be the enormous baked fish and the roast suckling pig.

"What are we eating Hao?"

"Pickled jellyfish Mr. Arthur"

"Oh christ!"

Eventually you're released into the care of your driver (who speaks the best English of everyone and has seen this all before) who helps you stumble back to the car without falling on your word not allowed and loosing face.

While waiting, he's eaten at Burger King...

On my last trip to China - fifteen years ago now - we met up with an engineer from our Boston office. He announced he was a Californian and a vegan.

"Have you been to China before?

"No..."

By day three he begged us to take him to a KFC....

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14Apr 14 by DD_Arthur

13 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

The ducks feet are an allegedly tasty snack

I don’t care how hungry I was, I’m going to think how much duck 💩did that duck foot step on when it was still attached to the duck?

When I lived in Japan and had a Japanese wife I ate a lot of things foreign to me.  Most of them I liked.

My wife, on the other hand, did not have a taste for American food.  She had to get used to eating beef.

She did like pop corn though.  When we went to the movies on base we usually went through two large boxes.

One day she found popcorn in the commissary and bought a package.  She was going to surprise me with our home made popcorn.

She was in the kitchen while I was watching TV and apparently dumped the whole package of raw popcorn into a skillet.

I heard the corn popping and popping and popping.  When I went into the kitchen to see what was going on there was popcorn all over the counter and floor and she was crying.

We were picking popcorn out of crevices and corners of the kitchen for a month.

So, it works the other way too.  What is delicious extra rare prime rib for me was not delicious to someone who was used to eating raw fish and rice all her life.

Noel

On 4/13/2026 at 11:39 AM, DD_Arthur said:

or if you're a real connoisseur how about the deep fried ducks head?🙃

I wondered what would it be like biting into a fried duck head, so I posed the following question:

Mmmm, this AI is quite the connoisseur 👨‍🍳

Reminds me of this sketch:

 

Edited April 14Apr 14 by Mike A
Add video

Strangely, I managed to avoid the fried ducks head.

However, I can tell you that on a crunchiest scale ducks feet are probably best avoided by denture wearers.

(Smell of bacon frying)

"Guinea pigs are wonderful magical animals!"

21 minutes ago, Fielder said:

(Smell of bacon frying)

"Guinea pigs are wonderful magical animals!"

 

Was it the Wayne family of stately Wayne Manor who first developed pop corn?

" the oldest ears of popcorn, found in the Bat Cave in New Mexico, had been dated to 5,600 years ago." -Guinness Book of Records.