Thursday, December 15, 2011

"They Actually Eat That:" Seahorse.

"Seahorses rule the world now. Surprised nobody saw it coming."

Seahorses are among the hardest fish to dislike. They're probably the cutest fishes in the sea, what with looking like legless ponies and all. The good connotation of horses carries over to their seaborne counterparts. In China, they're even considered baby dragons. They're also pretty cool in that the male carries babies for a while, making feminists everywhere happy.



Oh, and China eats them.  Seahorses with sticks up their guts can be found all the time in Asian night markets. These night markets are hotbeds of weird food. If it is a thing and was once alive, China has skewered it on a stick. Seahorses are no exception. So much for ruling the world.

Of all things, seahorses are described as tasting like spiced pork rinds. Somebody needs to tell us how this works; yes, that seahorse is probably mostly air, but pork? We were expecting, umm, another fish.  It just goes to show that, with the right seasonings, anything can taste good. Anything. 

 

By the way, seahorses are also used in traditional medicine. In the seadragon entry, we mentioned that seadragons, close relatives of seahorses, were under threat because they could be used as medicine, of all things. Given what China does with almost every other animal on the planet, seahorses probably have some magical properties, too. I'm not sure whether the seahorse-kebabs are captive-bred or not. Beware of buying anything seahorse-related. There's a good chance you may be picking up something endangered.

This blog needs a tally board. Every time China eats something weird, I will add another mark to the board. After a few months, I am quite sure that the board will be full. 

6 comments:

  1. Yeh. I've learnt that most things get eaten by someone somewhere, but this is just weird.

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  2. There's weirder stuff out there that is considered food...like zombie jellyfish.

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  3. woah, I like seahorses! :) Sorry 2 hear they r in danger. :(

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  4. Seahorses, they're super weird. Horse and fish combined.

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  5. Geoduck, you mean like a sea squirt?

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