In my time in Taiwan, I’ve had the opportunity to try lots of different foods and beverages. My philosophy has always been “try everything twice.” Simply, I think that if you try something once, whether you like it or not, there might be extenuating circumstances. Maybe you are having an exceptionally good/bad day, maybe the cook didn’t something different, maybe… etc. So, I try everything twice. If, after I’ve tried something twice, I still like it or a definitely don’t like it (very rare), I will continue to eat it/not eat it. It has served me fairly well thus far.
One of the weirdest, most outlandish foods I’ve had the opportunity to try here has been Snake Penis Wine.
It’s exactly what it sounds like: snake penises put into a bottle to add flavor to Gaoliang Rice Wine. Jane’s grandfather ([hanzi]阿公[/hanzi]/[pinyin]a1gong1[/pinyin]) had a bottle of this. The bottle on the left is, I think, Snake Gall Bladder Wine or some other such snake organ. I don’t remember trying that one. As for the Snake Penis Wine, it wasn’t bad. If you get over the fact that you are drinking penis-flavored Gaoliang (generally, Gaoliang by itself is bad enough), it’s actually OK. Nothing something I would want to use to celebrate New Year’s, but it was nice to be able to try it.
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