Eating the exotic in old times

Ever eaten a quail foetus???

We have heard of people eating dogs, rabbits, worms, bat and etc. Let's go through something more exotic...About eating things we would not have imagined and the selection of tender wild meat.

Singapore
Quail Foetus: The above picture cast a thought of an uncooked liquid quail egg. But in actual fact, there used to be many people eating baby quail foetus. In olden times, located at some Telok Ayer old houses, where quail nest rested on pillars, there were people who picked the quail eggs and observed under sunlight if baby quails were almost form in shape. Those foetus eggs were cooked and fried with chicken egg to go with rice. I heard the shape of the quail egg when being broke open to cook was an unborn baby quail foetus.

Photographed by Adrian Pingstone

Bat & Crocodile gall: It is quite a common sight of eating bat or crocodile gall to cure asthma. As eating bat meat is quite heaty, it should be consumed in balance according to one's body condition. Bat meat is available in Chinatown wet market, at those stores that sells frog meat. It is best cooked with sesame oil and ginger.

Cat & Dog: Dog should be eaten when it is at its tender age, about 1 year old, and cat should be eaten when at old age or as old as possible, so the meat will be tender. (Of course in current days sg, nobody could eat that, not only is it disgusting, gross & cruel to the animals, it should be against the law as well.)

Rat: The rats running beneath our HDB blocks are earth rat, they eat faeces and dirt and is a very dirty and poisonous kind of rat. Those rat that are running around fields or vegetable farm are edible, and those baby house rat in olden days attap house which are about under a week old, without fur and unopened eyes are edible. It is reddish on its outer skin, with little short tail. Once any fur is seen on its skin, it is deemed as inedible. The baby rat will be wrap with leave and fully dipped in condensed milk. While still alive, the whole rat is swallow down the throat, 'NO BITING IT, SWALLOW'! I was discussing this topic with grandpa and hence asked if my maid from Indonesia had ever tried it too. To my amaze, she did swallow baby rats before, when she was pregnant and before she delivers, her mum told her that it would make her strong.

Four legged lizard: In either brownish wooden colour or blackish colour, four legged lizard best catch is at 8-9 kgs (10kgs above are useless), cooking method is to boil with 'dang gui' until soft at approximately 11/2 hours. Cleanse the inner body to retain pureness.

Malaysia
Monkey Brains: Tied the monkey to the tree, shave bald its head, hammer a nail onto the head to make a hole to it. Use a straw to suck the brain until the monkey's eyes blinked until its death. Actually this is a rare case, as a nourishing nutrients to provide cure for certain sickness.

These are some of the factual cases people ate exotic, I find it real interesting.

Best regards,