Dog Meat Off the Menu at Olympics

Every two years a country gets a chance to host either the Summer Olympic Games or the winter Olympic Games. Countries compete strenuously for the chance to host the games and showcase their culture to the world. This year, the Summer Olympic Games are being held in Beijing, China. However, China does not want to highlight at least one piece of its culture, the eating of dog meat. The Chinese government has requested that restaurants around the Olympic venues remove dog meat from their menus during this year's Summer Olympic Games season. Of, course a polite request from the Chinese government is not to be refused (just ask the people of Tibet), so if you were anticipating a goodmeal of dog meat, you may be disappointed. It will, presumably, be difficult for tourists to find dog meat on the menu of local restaurants if you are travelling to China.

My Own Dining Experience in China

I spent about 10 days in China on a business trip a few years ago, and I made it a point to try a number of foods that I wouldn't normally find on the menu in the United States. I can't say however, that dog meat was on my list of things to try. I visited a number of different restaurants in different cities in Southern China and never once saw dog meat on any menu. It could be that dog meat was on all the menus and my colleagues simply did not see it necessary to translate that item for me, figuring that most Americans are not interested in dog meat. I can even imagine some of my American friends wanting to walk out of any restaurant that might have dog meat on the menu.

My hosts knew of my desire to try unusual foods, so I was presented at various meals with such things as a bowl of something translated as frog essence (supposedly very good for one's virility), various fish, crabs, eels, and various vegetable dishes, but never any dog meat, which, of course, was fine with me. I wanted to try new foods, but dog meat wasn't really on my to-do list. Let me make that clear, I was not looking to try dog meat, I have two dogs of my own at home and prefer them sitting under the dinner table rather than on it.

No Dog Meat in the Breakfast Buffet

Each morning the hotel in which I was staying offered a variety of breakfasts, buffet style. Some dishes changed from day to day, others were present all the time. Two constants were eels and chicken claws. You can buy eels in the United States at some restaurants, but I had never tried them before. I have to admit that eels were my favorite breakfast food while in China. I tried the chicken claws as well and had a couple each day. They were ok. There were also various soup dishes, featuring such things as rabbit or frog meat. Soup meat is treated a little differently in China than it is here. In China, it seems, the animal is butchered, and cleaned as we'd expect. Then, however, with bones intact, it is chopped into bite-sized pieces with something like a cleaver. The result is that when you get a bite of the meat in the soup or stew, you get a mouthful of bones that need to be spit out once you've worked the meat off them. That was unusual, but one can only imagine the same effect with pieces of dog meat. I don't know if dog meat is prepared the same way, but the thought of rolling dog bones around my mouth doesn't thrill me.

Fish Heads

Dinner in China was usually a group event, with various business partners taking us to dinner each night. In Chinese restaurants, it is common for dishes to be served family style and placed on a large lazy-Susan type tray in the center of the table. The tray will be spun to place various dishes in front of the various parties at the table. It is customary to spin the tray and offer a dish to someone else rather than just spinning it for yourself. The custom is that once you spin and offer food to someone else at the table, they will return the favor so you can eat. There's probably some convention to indicate what you want, rather than relying on everyone guessing your taste, but I never learned one. As a result I was offered a number of fish dishes at various dinners. Fish is typically left more or less whole after gutting and cleaning. The head, with eyes intact, is left on the fish when it is served. Over and over I was encouraged to take my portion from the fish head. Apparently the fish head is reserved for the most senior or most respected person seated at the table. I'm told this is true, but I'm not entirely convinced it's not a game to see what silly things foreigners will eat when they visit. I can only imagine which parts of the dog are reserved for honored guests when dog meat is on the menu.

Spotted Lizard?

At one restaurant, the menu had English translations next to each entry. My eye was caught by a dish that I was pretty sure I would never see on a menu in America. So I ordered the dish called spotted lizard. However, when it arrived at the table, I was disappointed on one hand, and relieved on the other, to find that it wasn't lizard at all, but was a result of a poor translation. The dish was, in fact, a spotted crab, prepared no doubt to test the very limit of human tolerance to spiciness. It was challenge to get through.

At no time, during my ten days in China, did I see dog meat in any street shop, on any restaurant menu, or in any company cafeteria. I didn't even see any dog meat in the groceries bags of people returning from the store, although the thought of a dog tail wagging from the top of a grocery bag is a little disconcerting.

Ping's Dog Stand?

Admittedly, I was in the South of China and not in the region where the Summer Olympic Games are being held. Typical menu fare might be different where I was. Apparently, dog meat is a common enough menu item that the Chinese government felt it necessary to request its temporary removal from restaurant menus in order to avoid offending the delicate sensitivities of foreign guests during the Olympic Games. Frog parts, fish heads, chicken claws, and spotted crabs, though are still fair game.

Be warned, however, if you're travelling to visit the Olympic Games in China this year. Even though dog meat is supposed to be removed from menus in the area, if you wander a little bit off the beaten path and come across a small roadside stand or diner called something like Ping's Dog Stand, ordering one jumbo dog may have an entirely different meaning than it would back home in the United States.