February is always a really busy time of year for us. Our kung fu school puts on a lot of Traditional Chinese Lion Dance shows in celebration of the lunar new year.
This past weekend we did the craziest of them all, at the
Eden Center, in Seven Corners, VA. One of the reasons it is so crazy is that the people and store-owners have no sense of personal safety, and they explode massive amounts of firecrackers right at people's feet, in enclosed spaces.
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it was difficult to breathe through all the smoke and
ash in the air |
In return for all of the danger we are placed in, the Lions are rewarded with gifts, usually monetary. One of the stores though, instead of giving us money, gave us this
object. Nobody was really sure what it was. It was fairly heavy for its size, and a little squishy.
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| I think the label says "mystery food" |
We decided to take it home and try it out, as we had a guess as to what it was, fairly certain that it was some sort of food. My grandma makes something that is similar, a Chinese dish that we call "
doong" (no idea how to write that without it looking gross). It is basically sticky rice, stuffed with various pieces of meat, all wrapped in leaves similar to the mystery log. We
love my grandma's version, so how different could this one be?
I decided to find out.
I steamed it to heat it through, just as I do with the
doong.
After about 30 minutes, I decided it was hot enough, and it certainly smelled enough. It was emitting an odor that was not familiar. A little sweeter than I was expecting. I unwrapped it from its leaves, and the smell only got stronger. It was not coming from the leaves, but from within.
The color was the second warning sign. Usually green would indicate "Go", or good, but this was not where my head was going at this point. Undeterred though, I proceeded. At this point, the entire kitchen (and probably most of the main level of our house) smelled like this odd concoction.
There were some strange black things embedded in the rice which looked like either raisins or black beans. It was hard to say for sure. But doing my duty for you readers, I soldiered on and decided to cut it open and see what was inside.
I have no idea what that stuff was. Perhaps some sort of refried bean paste? I tasted it. Chalky, not very pleasant. The rice also, was not
right. I tried another bite, with a (mostly) open mind, and decided that it was not going to be our dinner that night. Something else would be quickly scrounged together, but this would not be it. It was wrapped up, placed gently in the trash, and taken out of the kitchen, to remove the source of the vile odor.
Have you ever just thrown food away because it was so gross?
Also, does anybody know what this actually is?
