hong-xing-seafood-restaurant

On our third night in Guangzhou, we visited a venerable tourist trap of a restaurant called “Hong Xing Seafood Restaurant”. And if you’ve heard that old saying that the Chinese eat anything that has its back facing the sun, this restaurant reinforces that stereotype all the way.

What greeted us as soon as we walked through the front doors was this poor little crocodile tied up waiting to be someone’s dinner. This is my uncle Chris next to it.

chris-crocodile

Though I have a feeling that it’s more for the tourists to go “ooh” and “ahh” over.

fabian-crocodile

Nonetheless, the crocodile is paraded for a reason – these are some cuts of crocodile meat which you can order. The sign says “freshly slaughtered – grilled, stewed, stewed with spring onion”. Fresh perhaps, but I doubt it’s slaughtered on the spot – a crocodile ain’t a chicken.

crocodile-cuts

And next to the crocodile meat were these gigantic sea slugs that look like fat penises. :mrgreen:

sea-slugs

The novelty of the place is that there’s no menu – a hostess follows you around, and you pick and choose from whatever is on display.

water-prisons

Apart from the live seafood, there are plastic displays of other foods cooked to order.

food-plastic-samples

choosing-food-samples

And to cap off the whole exotic-ness of the place, there’s also snake-infused liquor.

snake-infused-liquor

The food was only so-so (hence why I said “tourist trap”). But it goes without saying, the place was very interesting and you probably won’t see it anywhere else but Asia. Now if only the chefs cooked better. ;)

chinese-cooks