Adventurous Eating in China pt 2

Our second unusual eating adventure in Guangzhou was at a hot pot restaurant. I had heard of hot pot before and knew it was sort of like our fondue here, and I was anxious to try it. We got a table in the back. The table itself had a large pot in the center, in the table, not on top of it, with an even smaller pot inside it. The large pot contained a very spicy liquid, which looked and smelled similar to what crawfish are boiled in here in Texas. I am not big on spicy foods though so I cant tell you what it tasted like. Mason and our guides used it and Mason said it was very hot. The pot in the middle contained a mild stock and tasted very good. This is what I used to dip my meats into. Our guides once again ordered, since the menus were entirely in Chinese. We told them to not let us know what anything we ate was until after we'd eaten it. We wanted to try new things, but were still a tad leery of it all. The server brought out a large quantity of different kinds of meat...not meat as we know it in the states, but obviously different parts of the insides of animals. We used our chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat and toss it into the stock. After a minute or so you take the meat back out and its done well enough that you can eat it. It was very delicious and I am hoping to return to a hot pot restaurant again when we are back in China. Once our meal was over, our guides told us what we had been eating. Amongst the different dishes were duck kidneys, cow stomach lining, goose stomach, pig intestines, and cow livers. Also, my guide asked if I knew what a certain meat was, and I said yes, I assumed it was some sort of liver. No, he said, it wasn't liver. I was stumped so I gave in. "BLAT" he said. "What? Blat? Bladder?" I questioned. "No, not bladder. BLAT. BLAT. B-L-O-D. BLAT" He replied. "Blood? It can't be. Its solid! Blood is liquid!" My guide laughed. "Its cooked and then cut into strips." Oh my. It certainly didnt taste like I thought blood would. I've cut my mouth before, and though this cooked blood did have a mineral taste (which is why I thought it was liver), it didn't taste as coppery and metallic and I thought. All in all, a very strange but delicious experience!