Sea Horse Soup
My assistant Coco was chatting up WeirdMeat to a Guangdong-ese friend of hers and they suggested we go to a traditional Chinese medicine shop and get some dried seahorses.
I've always thought sea horses were cute little bizarre animals. I learned that it's actually the male sea horse that gets pregnant and carries the babies, from watching indie rock band Yo La Tengo play a live performance set to the films of Jean Painleve -- an underwater cinematographer from the 1930s or something. Real stoney stuff.
Anyway, the Cantonese make a medicinal soup with dried seahorse. Good for the facial skin and a restorative detox/cleanser. I happen to be blessed with perfect facial skin, but I could always use a little detoxing. So we found 4 seahorses -- 2 pregnant males, and 2 females (virgins?) -- and put them in a soup with carrots, ginger, and some pork stock.
The broth had a salty and pleasantly pungent oceanic flavor. The seahorses were just thrown in dry and lent their flavor and magical medicinals to the mix. And they still looked cute.
Have you ever looked at a seahorse? They have a boxey body shape, the profile of a horse's face skeleton, and a tail that curls inward towards the belly and head. They also have these perfectly symmetrical little bone spikes sticking out (like the Hellrasiser guy) that make them very difficult to eat. That's when I asked the question -- are we actually suppose to eat these? How? A few desperate calls to the medicine shop and some random Guangdong-ese comrads didn't help -- no answer. But we could taste the things from the soup broth. I did manage to extract small bits of meat from the softer part of the tails, and from the pregnant bellies of the males, and found it reminded me of dried scallops, but more salty and less complex.
There's all kinds of weird stuff I want to try in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). One that really intrigues me is this little worm thing that every Chinese person I've talked to tells me, begins life as a plant, and then turns into an animal species. Or vice versa. That's impossible, I tell them. Something lost in translation perhaps?
Why is everything in TCM good for male virility? Is there anything in TCM that isn't? What do I take if I've got too much male virility? I suppose if male humans got pregnent like the male seahorse, we'd be a bit less horny, you think?
Labels: sea horse, seahorse, shanghai, soup, TCM, traditional chinese medicine
posted by Michael @ 9:06 AM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Peter
You're talking about "winter worm, summer grass". It is actually a fungus that grows on/in insects in the winter, absorbs (eats up?) the bug's body, then matures and grows out as a plant. Sounds like a pretty evil carnivorous plant!
This plant/worm is called cordyceps sinensis, and you can read about it here and here.
Peter
Forgot to comment on this... but before they were able to send scientists with microscopes onto the Tibetan Platau, all people could see was this magical creature that's both worm and grass.
This doesn't concern seahorses, but weird meat: This one time at my favorite restaurant, the executive chef brought out a plate that he had prepared "just for me." It looked like carpaccio, which I am not crazy about, but could get down in order to save face. I asked what it was and he said he would tell me only after I ate it. So I had to eat it. The meat was definitely way too chewy to be any part of a cow. After I choked it down, he informed me that it was an Italian specialty - donkey carpaccio. Totally serious.
Arn't Sea Horses endangered species? Although most are not officailly endangered, they are traded unsustainably and Sea Horse populations quickly declining. I'm not some kind campaigner, but I just remember when I was a kid and I saw on Newsround that these super cool creatures were under threat from people who use them for medicines and souvinirs.
ummm...male seahorses do not get pregnant. they just carry the little fuckers after the female gives birth
In a reply to the comment
"ummm...male seahorses do not get pregnant. they just carry the little fuckers after the female gives birth"
The female injects an egg into the Males pouch, she doesn't give birth... The male fertilizes the egg in its own pouch, and then Gives birth. So essentially everything is the same, but it would be like us squirting an egg into a woman instead of sperm.
umm.... seahorses do get pregnant says at least 14 websites why dont you do some more research
lrcocontinued from
umm. seahorses do get pregnant says at least 14 sites why dont you do more research
it is the male.... i checked and it is like really and truely true if that makes any sense
you're right, seahorses are endangered and harvested unsustainably under the false pretence that they carry some sort of medicinal value (similar problem to shark fin soup, tiger penis soup, etc). They don't. I suggest you do research into where it is that the 'weird meat' you seem to find so hilarious is coming from, before you eat it. At least then you can make an informed decision whether it's a good idea to buy the animal carcases for your frivolous pleasure or perhaps you can managed without it.
I wish to add to my above comment...please check this link out.
http://www.nationalwildlife.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?articleID=1076&issueID=15
simply google seahorses and lots will pop up on how the species hangs in the balance.
As if eating sea horses wasn't bad enough, the fact that the males are dried while still full of their young (killing the next generation too) just emphasises how ignorant you'd have to be to perpetuate the practice.
haha i just had the same exact soup as your did. I was wondering the benefits of the soup and my curiosity led me to your page.
Yes, please don't eat any more seahorses ok weird meat guy?
this is horrible, i'm chocked, how could you eat this animal? Sea horses are almost gone, did you knew that? :'S
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