This is a cage of small snakes:

You can also get medium ones:

Or if you are really hungry, you can get large ones:

They even have water snakes…yummy:

You chose with snakes you want, and they carry it in a basket to the kitchen:

Here is the finished product – snake soup:

You can also order bugs, like these beetles:

I am not sure what these are…maybe some kind of sexual organ or egg sack:

They had the standard turtles:

And rabbits:

And birds:

They also had these shell fish-looking things that grossed me out:

And different kinds of fish – check out the bloody one on the left:

Lots of crabs:

And the largest yams I have ever seen:

Goodbye restaurant!

Chicken Feet

This is a chicken foot that I ate. I couldn’t figure out how to eat it at first, but later someone showed me how to eat them. You start by biting off the toes and then spitting out the bones. You don’t have to bite the toenails off first.

There isn’t much meat on them and I was told that they are good for snacking on when watching a movie. You can pick up a bag of chicken feet at any night market.

Stinky Tofu

When I first got to Taiwan, I often smelled a bad smell that I thought was from people who had thrown up on the street somewhere the night before.

It turns out the smell was a certain kind of food called stinky tofu or chou tofu in Chinese. It’s tofu that has been marinated in vegetable and shrimp broth that has been fermenting for months. Apparently, there is one type of stinky tofu that is served with goose blood, but I couldn’t find that kind.

It actually doesn’t taste as bad as it smells. I tried it a couple of different ways, but in the image below it’s deep fried with some sauerkraut and sauce. If you can stand the smell to get close enough to the vendors’ chou tofu stand, I recommend trying it because the taste is good.

Asparagus Juice

Every convenience store that I went to in Taipei has asparagus juice. It’s a very sweet drink — kind of like asparagus-flavored sugar water. It’s too sweet for me, but if you have a craving for asparagus-flavored juice, you might like it.

Duck Tongue

You can find duck tongues at most night markets. The person I was with said she didn’t eat duck tongues because "it’s like making out with a duck". I tried one anyway. It’s not terrible, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat it.

Blood on a Stick

Many stands sell blood on a stick. You can get duck blood or pig blood. This one is pig blood on a stick, "spicy flavor". It’s rolled in hot sauce, peanuts, and cilantro. It’s very tasty.

Chicken Hearts on a Stick

You can order any part of the chicken you want to eat, from chicken wombs to chicken intestines. The following picture is chicken hearts on a stick. They aren’t bad.

Healthy Plum Vinegar

As mentioned in another post, due to a miscommunication at a coffee shop called 85 degrees, I ended up with a drink called healthy plum vinegar. "Healthy plum vinegar" tastes like pickled, salty plums (umeboshi) soaked in vinegar and then served it over ice.

Boiled Assorted Animal Parts

One of my favorite foods from the Taiwanese night markets is a type of stand where you pick ingredients from the stand and put them in a basket. You then give the basket to the vendor and they boil the ingredients for you.

Ingredients include things like duck intestines, chicken intestines, animal tendons, and other things that I couldn’t identify.

This is one of the best foods that I’ve ever eaten. If you can’t stomach the weird animal parts, you can just choose noodles, vegetables, and mushrooms.

Rooibus Tea Latte

I generally avoid Starbucks because their coffee is bad and I don’t like their business practices. But when traveling they are often the place where I can get wireless Internet access.

Starbucks in Taiwan has a lot of different drinks, like green tea lattes, black tea lattes, and rooibus tea lattes. This is a rooibus tea latte with a sweet pork bread. I like rooibus tea and green tea, but I don’t like the latte versions.

McDonalds Grilled Chicken Toasted Rice Burger

In Japan and Taiwan you can get burgers that have buns made of rice. If you get them at MOS Burger, they are great. McDonalds’ version of the toasted rice burger is not good, but I recommend trying MOS Burger.

This rice burger photo is from a McDonalds in Taipei:

What kinds of weird food have you eaten?

Here is a beautiful pink water lily:

A pretty purple one:

A purple water lily in Beijing:

I think this pink flower by a lily pad is a lotus:

Here is a white flower with pink trim…another lotus I think:

This pink one is a water lily:

Here are some great water lilies and lotus flowers together:

A purple lotus flower on a black background:

Here is a beautiful shot of a purple/pink water lily beginning to flower:

Purple and while water lily on a lily pad:

White water lily with reflection:

White water lilies in a turquoise blue pond:

These images are copyrighted and we don’t have permission to redistribute them.

Check out this even more bizarre review video with the same Japanese girls learning some new English phrases for taking a taxi/getting assaulted abroad.

Dog is a delicacy in Korea and I knew it would be rude to decline the invitation. Before I went to the restaurant I did some research and here are some incredible facts about dog meat in Korea for you to chew on:

• South Korea consumes over $1 billion in dog every year
• Lean meat is considered better for dog soup
• Fatty dogs like Siberian huskies are better for making medicinal dog wine
• Medicinal dog wine is made by distilling the dog in a double boiler
• The penis is added to the wine for greater stamina
• Dog is not legally classified as a food in Korea
• Traditional methods of slaughter to get more adrenaline into the flesh: clubbing to death or hanging
• Most common method used today: instant electrocution
• Dog meat is believed to improve male virility and cool people in the summer
• An informal way of referring to dog soup in Korea is myeong myeong tang or ‘bark bark soup’
• As a solution to the city’s problem with its thousands of stray dogs, a city counilor in New Dehli said "maybe we can send all the stray dogs of Delhi" to Korea, where people enjoy eating them
• Millions of dogs are put to death at US animal shelters every year

Nutritional Value of Dog Meat

The real question is, but is it good for you?

Dog meat Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 260 kcal 1100 kJ
Carbohydrates 0.1 g - Dietary fiber 0 g Fat 20.2 g Protein 19 g Water 60.1 g Vitamin A equiv. 3.6 μg 0% Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.12 mg 9% Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.18 mg 12% Niacin (Vit. B3) 1.9 mg 13% Vitamin C 3 mg 5% Calcium 8 mg 1% Iron 2.8 mg 22% Phosphorus 168 mg 24% Potassium 270 mg 6% Sodium 72 mg 5% Ash 0.8 g
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: Yong-Geun Ann (1999)

Best Dog Meat Prank

In 1994 multimedia artist/prankster extrodinairre posed as Kim Yung Soo of Kea So Joo, INC. and sent the following letter to 1,500 dog shelters around the US in order to expose the "hypocrisy, intolerance, and prejudice harbored by so-called animal rights humanitarians, as well as gullible and racist media, towards other cultures":

Dear Executive Director,

Excuse my English Please, Thank You. First congratulation on all your good work with animal. We support. We would like to help your company make money, so we like to offer help so you make money. Dog shelter kill million of dog, cost money. Dog shelter cremate dog cost money. Dog shelter need money to operate. Where it get money? Hard to get money.

Many people like to eat dog. People need to eat dog. Where to they get dog? Some people they raise dog to eat. Some steal dog, make some people angry, hurt some people. That not right.

We like make proposal to your dog shelter to sell us dog. You save money, you make money. We buy all dog, regardless of size or color. We prefer big, young, strong dog but we take all dog from your dog shelter. We cook dog in America. We can dog in America and sell some dog in America in Asian market place. Lot people in America eat dog. Most dog we ship oversea. Lot people eat dog. Many country eat dog. Korea, China eat dog, Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia eat dog. Dog is healthy for you. This way your cost of business is less. You make more money, more people happy. You get cleaner air. No burn up dog. No waste dog. People pet no disappear. Everybody happy.

Cause we understand some people no like idea to eat dog. But they make trouble for people who like eat dog. Those people called two face. Those people eat cow, rabbit and mice, squirrel and frog and every thing else, but still give us trouble. But dog is good food. Dog is good medicine, make sick people strong, make old people young, make penis hard, make sex good again. Our business getting very big. Need more dog. We are prepared to offer you 10 cents per pound per dog. We pick up dog every day, so you also save on feeding dog. We like very much to speak with you and make deal. Please tell us how many dog available in your business. We have deal already to do same with dog shelter in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. We hope to be eventually in big city cross America. You can join us now, save money and continue doing your good job. We do big business together. We have big business already with many dog breeder and many dog hospital. Dog no suffer, we have quick death for dog.

Looking to hear from you soon,
Kim Yung Soo

President

Kea So Joo, Inc.

Learning to Eat Dog In Korea

I knew that dog was eaten in Korea and wasn’t surprised when my co-teacher asked me if I wanted to go to out for it after work.

"Do you like dog?" he asked me.
"I love dogs," I replied. "I had 4 of them growing up. They’re my favorite animals."
"You ate four whole dogs?"
"What? No, I didn’t eat the dogs. I raised them as pets."
"Oh, I see. Well, in Korea, we like to eat dog. Have you ever had spicy dog soup?"

I do not have anything morally against eating dog so I figured, what the heck. The dog soup, called boshintang, was actually very good. I did, however, think about the dogs I had growing up as I chewed on the meat. During my year in Korea I went out for dog 3 or 4 times and the more I had it, the better it tasted. Eating dog is no different than eating cows, chickens, pigs, or any other animal…it’s all in the eyes, or mouth, or the beholder.

Himeji Castle

You may have seen this castle as a ninja training school in James Bond’s You Only Live Twice. It also appeared in The Last Samurai, several Kurosawa movies, and in the TV miniseries, Shogun. Also known as the “White Heron Castle”, Himeji Castle was originally built in the 14th century, and then rebuilt in 1580.

Matsumoto Castle

Matsumoto Castle was built in the 16th century and is sometimes called Crow’s Castle because of it’s black color.

Maruoka Castle

Also known as “Mist Castle” because of the legendary mist that obscures the castle when enemies approach. Maruoka Castle was built in 1576 and is located in Sakai, Japan.

Hiroshima Castle

Hiroshima Castle was built in the 1590s and destroyed in WWII by an atomic bomb. It has since been rebuilt and is now a museum.

Fukuyama Castle (a.k.a. Hisamatsu Castle or Iyō Castle)

Originally built with a double moat in the 17th century, Fukuyama Castle was a major castle of the Edo Period. It was rebuilt after WWII and contains a history museum.

Kiyosu Castle

Built somewhere between 1394 and 1427, Kiyosu Castle is located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was a base of Oda Nobunaga who appeared in the Kurosawa movie Kagemusha, and as Goroda in James Clavell’s Shogun.

Matsue Castle

Also known as the “Black Castle”, it is one of the few castles in Japan that is the original wooden form. From the outside it looks like a five-story castle, but has a hidden sixth-level. Matsue Castle was completed in 1622.

Nagoya Castle

Built in the early 16th century, Nagoya Castle was rebuilt after being destroyed in WWII where it was also used as a POW camp.

Okayama Castle

Okayama Castle is a spectacular black castle located in Okayama Japan sometimes called “Crow Castle”.

Shimabara Castle

Shimabara Castle is a 5-story white castle located in Nagasaki Prefecture. The taxes imposed on the local farmers to build the castle were so severe that they revolted in an event called the Shimabara Rebellion. Shimabara Castle was completed in 1624.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) said on Tuesday it would beat its target for fiscal fourth quarter earnings and would meet or beat the high end of its target revenue range.

The wireless chip and technology developer also said it had bought back $1.2 billion of its shares during the quarter.

Qualcomm said it now expects quarterly GAAP earnings per share of 64 cents to 65 cents compared with its previous expectation for 41 cents to 43 cents.

It said revenue would be at or slightly above the high end of its previously announced target range of $2.15 billion to $2.25 billion.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Председатель комитета ЖКХ администрации Костромы Олег Смирнов назвал причиной более позднего пуска тепла установившуюся тёплую погоду. Среднесуточная температура воздуха в городе на сегодняшний день составляет около 10 градусов, при нормативе для начала отопительного сезона – 8 градусов.

В пресс-службе напомнили, что в учреждения социальной сферы отопление подаётся уже с 20 сентября. В настоящее время 62% медицинских и образовательных учреждений, а также учреждений культуры и социальной защиты населения обеспечены теплом.

В сложившейся ситуации денежно-кредитная политика должна быть направлена на смягчение инфляционных ожиданий и сохранение показателя инфляции в пределах целевого. В условиях сохранения перспектив экономичного развития, Совет ЦБ Армении не исключает дальнейшее уточнение процентной ставки РЕПО.