RE: weird foods

>>>You may be right, but with the Chinese I've assumed many items on the menu originated out of desperation:  If you're starving, you'll eat anything.  As you know, they eat almost anything and everything.  Some of those anythings with a little soy sauce or sesame oil tasted pretty good, so they stayed on the menu even in good times.  This is my hypothesis.  One piece of possibly supporting evidence: duck eggs buried and aged in soil.  (Tried 'em yet?) 

 

Or are they just adventurous?  With such a long history, this characteristic could also have played an important role. 

 

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I think that the length of time and the stability of this area with few cultural breaks has helped widen the palate. I hadn't thought of the temporal aspect of this so thanks for reminding me of it.

 

I am having trouble with email--I can't get it except at work. If this continues long, I may have to unsubcribe for a while.  I don't know what the problem is, but I can't even get my webmail page to come up. So, if I don't answer someone's email please forgive me