Gourmet cooking isn’t just about flavor and texture; it’s also about presentation. A little ingenuity and artistic sense can bring a dish to life, providing a feast for the eyes before the food even reaches your mouth.

However, a certain Chinese dish prepared by sodomizing a chicken with a bamboo tube and then boiling it has recently become the butt of an internet joke for showing what happens when such ingenuity is mixed with a sick sense of humor.

The dish is called “Bamboo Burst Chrysanthemum Chicken” (竹筒爆菊鸡). The images above and below were taken from Chinese internet message board site Tiexue, where the user writes the dish was presented as part of a banquet dinner.

The cuisine is said to hail from Guangdong, a province long known for its reputable culinary tradition, and is actually a variation of the well-known Cantonese soy sauce chicken.

Indeed, preparation of the dish is nearly identical to soy sauce chicken: simply submerge a chicken in a pot of soy sauce-based broth and simmer. The only difference is that with Bamboo Burst Chrysanthemum Chicken, a bamboo tube is jammed through the chicken’s rear to help the soup to soak into the meat through the inside as well.

On paper, that sounds like a sure-fire recipe for some delicious chicken. But like we said, presentation is essential and we can’t think of one good reason why you would serve the chicken with the bamboo tube still sticking out of it like some cruel woodwind instrument.

Source: Tiexue, CNTV (video)

▼ Because reusing the same bamboo tube carries health risks, be sure to use a new one before insertion.


[ Read in Japanese ]