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China-Japan-Koreas
Plague rats being used to supply restaurants
2007-07-16
LIVE rats are being trucked from central China, suffering a plague of a reported two billion rodents displaced by a flooded lake, to the south of the of country to end up in restaurant dishes, Chinese media has reported. "Recently there have been a lot of rats ... Guangzhou people are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good,'' the China News Service quoted a vendor as saying.

Some vendors had asked people from a village in Hunan province, near Dongting Lake, to sell them live rats, the Beijing News said today.

"The buyers offered 6 yuan (9c) for a kilo, but as to where they will sell the rats, they would not say,'' the newspaper quoted a local resident as saying, adding that villagers had to catch the rats live. "If we want to do that, there is no problem. We could catch 150 kilos of rats in one night .. .but we will not do this against our conscience,'' the villager was quoted as saying.

Some Guangdong restaurants were promoting "rat banquets'', charging 136 yuan ($20.70) for one kg of rat meat, the newspaper said.

Local governments in Hunan have been grappling with the rats, which had already destroyed 1.6 million hectares of crops and could spread disease, according to media reports. A lack of snakes, also a popular dish in the south, and owls, a traditional Chinese medicine, was held partly responsible.
Never could find a snake when I needed one ...
Chinese media reported last week that some internet users from Guangdong had offered rat recipes as a way to deal with the problem.

Scientists have also blamed China's massive Three Gorges Dam project and climate change for the Hunan rodents' flight to dry land.
Posted by:tipper

#9  I'd take rat over alkali softened cardboard any day....

whew!, luck still holding...
I just returned from my kitchen freezer, ..all my frozen Rat is local!!
Posted by: RD   2007-07-16 21:52  

#8  Is all of China turning into a Monty Python skit?

Man: What's for afters?

Woman: Well there's rat cake ... rat sorbet... rat pudding... or strawberry tart.

Man: Strawberry tart?!

Woman: Well it's got some rat in it.

Man: How much?

Woman: Three, rather a lot really.

Man: ... well, I'll have a slice without so much rat in it.

CAPTION: 'ONE SLICE OF STRAWBERRY TART WITHOUT SO MUCH RAT IN IT LATER'

Man: Appalling.
Posted by: Mike   2007-07-16 14:31  

#7  oh, and for more people, add

Rats' Nest Soup
Posted by: Querent   2007-07-16 13:06  

#6  Chinese Rat Banquet Menu:

Rat Salad
Deep Fried Rat Tails
Ratatouille
Posted by: Querent   2007-07-16 13:04  

#5  "Waiter, there's a flea in my soup?"

"No free soup for you!"
Posted by: mrp   2007-07-16 12:45  

#4  If only they hadn't already eaten all the cats, this would not have been a problem.
Posted by: Rambler   2007-07-16 12:01  

#3  Stir fried plague rat ... mmmmmmmmmmmm

Remember, that spicy Hunan cooking really Szechuan fire.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-07-16 11:48  

#2  Lye. It's what's for dinner.
Posted by: Seafarious   2007-07-16 08:34  

#1  I'd take rat over alkali softened cardboard any day....
Posted by: John Frum   2007-07-16 07:21  

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