I’ve decided to start a new series called “Weird things I’ve eaten,” inspired by a snack brought back from Nanjing in Jiangsu Province this week, and then gifted to me. For those who, like me, have no idea where that is, see map:

Close to Shanghai, near the coast and around the same latitude as southern Japan.

I have eaten too many weird things not to keep a chronicle of them.

So today, I think I might have eaten duckling. Listen, I’m not thrilled about it. Why would anybody want to kill a sweet little duckling? I don’t feel like there’s any meat to make it justifiable. In my defense: (1) it was a snack gift from my superior, and (2) I found out it was duckling AFTER consumption, and (3) I’m sure it wasn’t the whole duckling. But the weird part (no, we haven’t gotten there yet) was this: it was in a sealed, unrefrigerated package.

Notice the happy duckling, bib and all. “Eat me!” I think the bib has a symbol with a rooster on it? There are also peppers — this is appropriate. It was spicy!

Imagine you’re a Chinese kid in Nanjing, hanging out with your friends. You feel a bit peckish, but don’t want to ruin your dinner. You decide to stop in a little convenience store and pick up a snack. Torn between a red bean-filled gelatinous rice cake and duckling in a package, you decide on the duckling in a package (pronounced yā zhēn xiǎo qù) and open it up. This is what you pull out:

My first thought when opening this package: “is this cat food? Because it kind of looks and smells like cat food.

I bit into the duckling from the top and quickly got some bone marrow. And yes, like a barbarian, I ate it with my fingers. (Chinese people do not eat with their hands, as we established in our 3 important lessons from China). It was soft, salty, and a little spicy. But it was meat, so it tasted OK. Just… kind of cat food-y. As you might be able to see, it was a little gelatinous — but the bones were still pretty hard, so I spit them out, in traditional Chinese style. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll seek it out anytime soon. But I would DEFINITELY eat it before eating pig feet again. Pig feet or duckling, you ask? Duckling, any day.

In other news: how do my cats feel about being fed packaged meat? Sir Winston reports.

“It’s bullshit, Mom. This is what I’ve been trying to tell you for years. I demand fresh fish directly from the market!”