Deep Fried Sand Worms

I was cast in a small role in a Chinese film -- 旗舰 - 巴特尔 (qi jian - ba te er) -- as an American soldier. We traveled down to Zhanjiang, Guangdong -- a navy town. The foreign actors had to do background checks and leave our cameras and mobile phones before we entered the military areas. Which was funny because all the "Chinese" people were allowed to take pics all over the place, and I'm sure they've already been posted all over the internet.



One scene was filmed on an active warship -- a deck top cocktail party where I have these stupid embarrassing lines "Hi, wow, what beautiful Chinese militiawomen you are!"

I was on the boat because, in the script, my friend "Zheng", a Chinese soldier, has this exchange with me, and invites me to see a navy ship:

[Zheng] "I invite you to see our warship"

[Edelman - my character] "I'd like to see these Chinese warships. I want to see if they are as powerful as reported"

[Zheng] (looking very impassioned and serious) "You overestimate the Chinese army. Your American army is much stronger! But China, we have a great cultural history, and many beautiful rivers and mountains!" blah blah blah...

Yeah, it's all really silly nationalistic nonsense.

Me and Mr. Didje had character names in the film, but our friend JP from Africa, played a character known as "Black Student", but they misspelled it as "Blank Student" on the script. Eh?

So me and Mr. Didje -- a friend of mine who is French and lives in Shanghai and makes a living running around China playing didgeridoo and freestyle rapping/reggae toasting on the mic in Chinese nightclubs -- spent a few days killing time and trying to find trouble in Zhanjiang. The first bit of trouble and adventure we found was at a late-night divey and dirty strip of outdoor sidewalk bbq places. We ate kebabs of lamb and bbq'd oysters and mussels covered in raw garlic.



Me eating BBQ chicken feet with local dude smoking from bong

There were groups of men there, dressed in camouflage like every man in Zhanjiang, smoking from bamboo bongs. We were disappointed to find that the smoke was only the local tobacco. But the stuff still gets you quite a buzz. I'm encouraging Mr.Didje to start weirdsmoke .com, but for now, you can see his blog (click here if you are in China) with videos of our adventures.



MC Didje rocks the club!

Anyway, one night we wandered into a very Chinese hotel nightclub called "Beauty Club", sponsored, of course, by Chivas. While Mr.Didje jumped on the stage with the microphone and started freestyling to the 140 bpm Chinese electro spazz music, I perused the menu and found "Deep Fried Fresh Milk" (WTF?) and "French Tries" (hah!) and ... Deep Fried Sand Worms. Mmmmm.



I placed an order with the disco waitress.



They looked and tasted like any deep-battered onion rings, but instead of an onion in the center, there was a worm. A light-tan almost colorless worm with an almost hollow middle. Some of the worms were sticking out, like they expanded erect from the deep fry batter. It was all good beer-soaking munchiness. Everyone in the group tried a worm or two and I ate about 20 of them, one for each beer I drank.



Mr. Didje eats the worm

I knew we had to get up at 7 in the morning to start filming the next day, so the trick to avoid a hangover is to just stay awake the whole night, and sleep on the job the next day. That's what I did. Most of the time you're acting in a film, you are waiting and waiting, when the actual work takes about 10 minutes. I watched Mr.Didje do the fight scene with Zheng , the Chinese soldier, and as it's a Chinese film, guess who wins the fight? But not before lots of fake blood and fake sweat and blows to the face, and even a 9 second count with the Chinese guy on the floor after a hard hit.



Director shows the boys how to fake fight

Beef Tongue

I love Hong Kong. It's a foodie paradise. Everything is good. While you might not find the absolute best of any particular dish, you know you're not going to get anything bad. They don't have time for that here.

They also have the best waiters here. They don't bother you when you want to be left alone, and they know what you want before you order. Some of the older guys intimidate me -- they don't even need to write down an order of 20 some-odd dishes -- they just have impressive memories.

My favorite part is the seemingly wacky combinations that always work. Won-ton soup, bitter melon, chicken curry, crab in milk, tea mixed with coffee, and for dessert? This place does cheesecake. At a Chinese restaurant? Of course! Look around, everyone's got cheesecake. Go with the tao.

Hong Kongers are the crazy about food. More than any other people or place I've experienced. Restaurants are open at 4am everywhere, and they're packed. It's common to have two dinners in one night, then hit up a dessert cafe or soup joint after a night out.

But one mystery that still haunts me -- why the hell do Hong Kong restaurants blast the air conditioner, even in the middle of winter? We were freezing at almost every restaurant we went to. Is it so people can show off their winter collections? Oh, great, I can wear my Prada jacket in here! Not cold enough outside.

One night a friend took me to a Hong Kong institution called Tai Ping Koon. When I took a look at the menu, I was worried -- It's one of those historical places that packs in the sucker tourists. They've got a story about the restaurant on the front of the menu, and there's a list of dishes that are "favorites." Usually a bad sign. But not here, this place is good.

The waiters are elderly men with pep and energy, no-nonsense, but total class. You know you're in good hands. Things run smooth. We ordered the favorites. Or rather the waiter suggested this and we agreed. They know, we know, all's good. Go with the tao.

The most famous of these "favorites" are the "Swiss sauce chicken wings" -- the story is, about a hundred years ago, a waitress at the original location misunderstood "sweet sauce" for "Swiss sauce" and the misunderstanding was a legend born. They're yummy. Tender juicy chicken wings marinated in a thick, slightly sweet soy sauce.



(sorry, it's a cell phone pic)

I was surprised, considering this was a tourist spot, that our waiter suggested the beef tongue. Most tourists I know would flinch at a large, unadulterated cow tongue on a plate.

I'd had beef tongue only once before... but I don't remember if I actually ate it. I have a vague memory of my mother bringing home a beef tongue from the grocery butcher in Kansas City (we spent a few years living in Missouri). I remember her having fun freaking out my Dad and us kids, when she told us to open the fridge and look at the cow tongue, like a dare. We didn't believe her, but then there it was, sitting on a plate, all large and gooey looking. We picked it up and played with it, and I chased my sisters around the dining room, delighting in grossing them out. That's all I remember, I don't recall eating the thing.

So now, years later in Hong Kong, I finally had a chance to carve into some beef tongue. The texture was pretty close to what I expected, but the taste was much better than what I imagined. Thick and juicy and fulfilling, and only very slightly rubbery. It was a good match for a Guinness, which I would never choose to drink in Hong Kong's warm climate, but then with the air conditioner on full blast, it made sense.

Address:
Tai Ping Koon, 40, Granville Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.