We ate dog meat tonight. It was dish with meat, tofu and spinach. I particularly love spinach, but had no idea what the dog meat was. The restaurant we were in only served dishes that had dog meat in their names. The people at the table next to ours where eating something that looked tasty enough so we ordered the same thing.

It was very tasty. The meat was dark and tender. Although we packed a dictionary and were anxious to know what we were eating, we decided to wait. And now I’m pretty sure it was a good decision. dog meat (gou rou in pinyin) is dog meat. Yes, we ate dog meat, and frankly, it tasted OK. It tasted like mutton, a bit between mutton and beef, to be more exact. Dog meat has a very distinctive flavor and once we knew what it was, we were sure we had it before. (I bought some meat at the market last week, just by pointing to it.) It’s also sometimes called the fragrant meat.

There you have it. If you plan on visiting us, memorize those two characters. The first is for dog, the second is meat. By the time you’re visiting, we’ll probably eat anything.