I knew that a day exploring Chinatown in San Francisco would be an adventure with unique foods to snack on, but I never could have imagined that I would be eating Jellyfish. Can you even eat jellyfish? Don’t they sting? Aren’t they poisonous? Apparently not.
I did do some research before I ventured out on my day trip to be assured that I would not be dining at a restaurant that was not up to health department code. After reading the rave Yelp reviews and being confident that I would see no rat droppings, cockroaches or “pet” cats lurking around we went to R&G Lounge on Kearney St.
When we entered we were quickly ushered downstairs to a bustling restaurant filled with seemingly happy customers. I perused the overwhelming menu, thanking the culture for insightfully including photos for folks, such as myself, who are in foreign territory.
I immediately narrowed the selection down to four Asian delicacies that I have never tried before; eating jellyfish, shark fin, conch or pig knuckle. Yum, Yum! I opted for eating jellyfish because it was the one thing that I didn’t realize you could actually eat.
It arrived at the table, accompanied with BBQed pork and I was happy that at least I had another option. I ran my fork through my lunch which had the consistency of gummy worms. Dig in! It turns out that jelly fish really has no taste besides the sauce it was marinated in.
I urged my mother {AKA: partner in crime} to take a little bite, but she vehemently declined, disgusted at the thought. I wiggled the fish in front of her face and for the first time in years she scolded me using my entire name…did I go too far?
oh, you should try pork knuckle!! i had that in germany this summer and it was soooooooooooo good!
I’m going to have to go back and try knuckles next time. It has to be better than jelly fish! Is it very popular in Germany?
I was in Honduras last week and while I was there I got stung by jellyfish at least 20 times. I'm a Floridiot and I've gone my entire life without being stung in our waters, so I was shocked (literally) when I felt the tingling of their tentacles. Had I known eating the suckers was an option, I would have caught the suckers and made them dinner.
Ouch!!! Yep, you should have just sliced them up and sauteed them with some soy sauce!
Very cool. I would have liked to have tried shark fin and conch too!