CHINA: New restaurant promises increased virility and improved skin tone - as long as diners can stomach what's on offer

Record ID: 854390

  • Title: CHINA: New restaurant promises increased virility and improved skin tone - as long as diners can stomach what's on offer
  • Date: 9th March 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF WAITER CARRYING DISH WALKING BY
  • Embargoed: 24th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • City:
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA11JAI563GMJ5SBC5EF88DJN8S
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  • Story Text: You should add what "bian" is to your ken before you open the menu in the restaurant "Guo Lizhuang".
    Guolizhuang (literally "strength in the pot") is a unique Chinese restaurant specializing in all kinds of "bian" (penis) and "bao" (testicle) dishes.
    It opened at the end of last year to cater to customers interested in giving their love lives a boost.
    "Now, (except for our restaurant) there is no other restaurant specialising in 'penis' dishes. Most restaurants offer some of these dishes, but they have only two or three kinds of animal penis. So we decided to make our restaurant original and unique. After doing some market research, we decided to make 'penis' our speciality," said the owner Guo Jiansheng.
    Located in a elegantly decorated courtyard near Beijing's 'West Ocean' lake, the restaurant offers customers more than 30 kinds of animal penis served in Chinese hotpot style.
    For between around 40 to 400 U.S. dollars, you can have a wild experience of many kinds of "bian" hotpots - yaks, donkeys, dogs, oxen and even seals.
    According to traditional Chinese medicine, "bian" is full of nutrition, which brings men the energy of "yang", or vigour.
    "I often come here to eat, and I feel very well. If I eat here four or five times a month, after a while, I will feel full of energy," said customer Du Yongguo.
    And as "bian" contains gelatine albumen, it boasts it can help improve the skin and looks of women. One female customer, Ms Li, is a connoisseur of the restaurant's dishes.
    "It's not only good for your skin, but it also makes you feel happy, especially when you are working. Some people say 'you are what you eat', but I think it's more than that. It is good for your nervous system and puts you in a good mood," said Ms. Li.
    For many Chinese people, frogs, silkworms and scorpions are delicacies - and for them "bian" is just another culinary delight.
    The only thing Mr. Guo (the owner of "Guo Lizhuang") needs to do is make sure that the he does not violate any wild animal protection laws and convince people animals served in his restaurant are as good as wild ones.
    "Human-raised deer have almost the same amount of nutrition as that contained in wild deer. So our business doesn't violate the laws concerning protection of wild animals and meanwhile we can assure customers that our food is as nutritious as that of wild animals," said Mr. Guo.
    Chinese cuisine is widely seen as one of the richest and most diverse culinary heritages in the world, and Chinese people are famed for their willingness to experiment with foods often shunned in other cultures.
    A famous Cantonese saying states that "anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible" - and Guolizhuang is proof indeed.
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