The Daily reported a few days ago that “Health authorities are putting a stop to restaurants serving chickens that have been bitten to death by poisonous snakes and cooked up for a supposedly detoxing meal.”
Well, that doesn’t sound too appetizing, does it? Why go to Japan for fugu when you could eat snake-bite chicken in Guangdong? I’ll stick with the kung pao version myself.
Now don’t get your feathers in a ruffle. You have to understand that many Chinese restaurants serve dishes that we might find exotic, to give it a euphemism. But Chinese netizens got upset after seeing a video of how the chicken and the snake came to terms and the authorities then got involved.
I write about this because it’s bizarre but understand it isn’t the norm. Chinese food in China is, in a word, fantastic. You won’t find crazy dishes on the menu unless you seek these kinds of things out. And if that’s your thing, why not be adventurous? I’ve heard many a folk remark that scorpion on a stick (a popular snack in Beijing) is actually pretty tasty. 
Photo: Famous Shanghai Restaurant Bao Luo’s sheng jian dumplings. No snakes – or chickens – involved. © 2009 Sara Naumann, licensed to About.com, Inc.