Chinese Restaurant Chicken

Let's not kid ourselves here people. It's cat. And it tastes damn good.

View Original Size previous

Edible Excretions: Taiwan's Toilet Restaurant

By Natalie Tso / Taipei

"There's poop everywhere! Y-u-c-k," says 6-year-old Jordan Lien as he and his family dine at the Modern Toilet, a popular Taiwanese restaurant chain that's expanding into China and other parts of Asia. The boy was looking at the poop-shaped lights and dish covers and the curry on toilet-shaped plates.

Diarrhea for dinner? That's the point. "It's supposed to shock and confuse the senses," says Modern Toilet manager Chen Min-kuang. But as Jennifer Finch, an American who was dining there, described it, "They do it tastefully. It's all very clean." (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)

Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed with images of roses, seashells or Renaissance paintings. Everyone dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your meal atop a mini toilet bowl (quite convenient, as it brings the food closer to your mouth), you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a souvenir), and soft-swirl ice cream arrives for dessert atop a dish shaped like a squat toilet. (See nine kid foods to avoid.)

I went there on a Wednesday evening, and the place was packed with students and families who were having a jolly time eating out of the john. "It's very progressive and irreverent, like a practical joke," says junior high school teacher Chen Kin-hsiang, who went because her students raved about it. "It's a little gross when you see other people eat," she says, "but when you're eating, you don't notice it, 'cause you're hungry and the aroma is appetizing." Smell is one poop-like quality the chef does without. (See pictures of China on the wild side.)

The reasonably priced food includes curries, pasta, fried chicken and Mongolian hot pot, as well as elaborate shaved-ice desserts with names like "diarrhea with dried droppings" (chocolate), "bloody poop" (strawberry) and "green dysentery" (kiwi). Despite the disturbing descriptions, the desserts were great. But after seeing curry drip down a mini-toilet, I may never have that sauce again. (See pictures of what makes you eat more food.)

The Chinese can take this, Finch muses, because they are more nonchalant about bodily functions, such as burping, farting or even going to the bathroom — an act performed squatting sans doors in some places in China. But many Westerners enjoy the novelty of toilet dining too. Chris and Julia Harris took their visiting mother, who they say is obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness, to "freak her out," but she had a great time (though she refused to drink out of a urinal). The only people who have a hard time, says Chen, are the elderly who have exclaimed, "I will not eat on the toilet!" (Folding chairs and normal dishware are available for the faint of heart.) (Read "The Science of Appetite.)

Toilet creations aren't new to China. The ancient Chinese may have been the first to use the throne — a flush toilet was found in a tomb of a Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 24) king — and they invented toilet paper in the 6th century. Modern Toilet owner Wang Zi-wei, 29, an ex-banker, got his idea from the Japanese robot cartoon character Jichiwawa, who loves to play with poop and swirl it on a stick. Inspired by that image, Wang began selling chocolate ice cream swirls on paper squat toilets. Customers loved them and wanted more edible excretion experiences, so he opened Modern Toilet in 2004. The theme-restaurant chain now has seven outlets in Taiwan, one in Hong Kong and one opening in Shenzhen, China, this week. Plans for other cities in China, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are also under way. Dinner à la latrine, anyone?

See pictures of bug cuisine.

See 10 things to do in Beijing.

How to Order Healthy Chinese Take-Out

by Brandon Guarneri

Chinese food may be tasty, but more often than not it's an ab-killer. We asked Jim White, R.D., a Virginia-based dietician, to help us make some smarter choices.

LEARN THE LINGO
Anything steamed is obviously good, as is Jum (poached), Chu (broiled), Kow (roasted), Shu (barbecued), lightly stir-fried, dry stir-fried, or braised. Anything breaded, fried, or coated in flour is not.

USE THE RIGHT TOOLS
Chopsticks are your friend. "You're going to get less oil than you would with a fork," adds White.

GET SAUCED
Steer clear of thick gravy or sauces made from sugar, flour, or cornstarch (such as those found on General Tso's or Sweet and Sour Pork). They're loaded with corn syrup. Instead, White suggests hot mustard sauce, hoisin sauce, or oyster sauce. And no matter what, always make your order "half sauce." That way, you get half the sauce—and half the calories—of what they'd normally use in the dish.

GO VEGGIE
Here's an inside tip: Order your meal cooked in vegetable stock (a traditional Chinese style of cooking called "stock velveted") to reduce the calories in your dish by 150-300 and the fat by 15-30 grams. "Expect your protein to be a bit more moist and tender, with less crunch than usual," says White.

SKIP UNNECESSARY SIDES
A serving of crispy noodles can set you back as much as 200 calories and 14 grams of fat, and Lo Mein is even worse. That dark brown color in the noodles? It comes from soaking up all that oil. A large portion generally runs in the thousands of calories.

BROWN RICE vs. WHITE RICE
Fried rice is undeniably bad for you, setting you back 450 calories and 14 grams of fat. Brown rise is better, with only 215 calories and a generous 3.5 grams of fiber per cup. But even though it's trendy to avoid white rice because it's a high-glycemic carb, it's not so bad. "Calorie for calorie, they're about the same," says White. You do lose the fiber, though (only a gram in a serving), and you get hardly any vitamins at all. Still, it's definitely not as bad as it's been made out to be.