Most of the time I just eat with reckless abandon. Is that a soft-shell turtle paw in my soup? No worries, I'll slurp around it! Fly? Just pick it out! Yup, living in China seems to have blasted away any food inhibitions that I might have...or so I thought.
For months now, I have been eating Tanuki Udon at the Japanese Chow Hall. Years, literally. That's about all I'll ever order. Imagine my suprise when I stumbled across the Tom Robbins book "Villa Incognito" with the opening line "It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute." Yup. There it is. The Japanese Raccoon had a scrotum of such "unusual size" that he was able to slow his descent to the earth with it. And now that's all I can think about when I eat those damn noodles.
As Momma would say, "BALLS."