I've just been listening to Fergus the Forager on the Jeremy Vine Show. Talk about taking things to extremes, I went right off my lunch, dead badger biscuits?
Extract from email from cousin's husband visiting Taiwan -
"Yesterday I snacked some pig's ear (just like bacon)
Today I had a hot pot, with jellied duck's blood and select rectums....(no kidding)."
We went to Taiwan on a working trip in 1990 something and were asked if there was anything we didn't eat. Having read the guide book on the plane, I said I didn't eat snake (which I don't wish to see either dead or alive) or dog. They looked at me as though I was very stupid and then explained that it was the wrong time of year for dog which is very heating and only eaten in the winter.
But I did eat everything else and generally it was fine. Things like chicken feet (which I did eat) and your cousin's pig's ear and assorted insides are things you learn to cook when there is very little meat about. A generation on (as China gets richer and consumes a more western diet) they will be approaching extinction like pig's trotters, cow heel, chitterlings etc etc in the UK and meat prices all over the world will probably rise.
PS I did think that sea cucumber was best left in the sea!!