Since it was our last night in Yangshuo, I wanted to try some river snails — a local specialty. As we flipped through the menu, once again it was Christina who spotted the thing we’d been hoping to find without even realising it. Right there on the menu in English: “dog meat.” We stared at each other, wondering if we were really that bold.
I can’t remember which of us had mentioned it first, but an obsession with eating dog had been running through our conversations for weeks. It was probably me that brought it up, as I’d been telling friends in New York that I would definitely eat a dog in China if I had the opportunity. This was partially to amuse myself, a way of really cementing my status as a dog hater, which was an aspect of my personality I’d been playing up a lot lately, but it was also something of a conversational gambit. Eating dog is such a taboo in America that I just wanted to see my friends’ reactions. I wasn’t even sure if people really did that in China. In fact, until that moment, I had kind of doubted I would actually have the opportunity.
“We can’t let those dogs we saw this morning go to waste,” I said, feeling very practical and noble all at once.
“Oh shucks, we have to try it!” Christina agreed. Her only hesitation was the price — 60 yuan for the dish seemed a bit steep. “What if it doesn’t taste good?” she worried. Then we’d have wasted a whole 10 dollars — about five meals at the Muslim restaurant near her apartment in Guangzhou.
Did they enjoy the meal?