My new favorite proverb comes from China: “Never hit a dog with a meat-bun.”

The saying indicates that punishment with a reward is doomed for failure, and that one must be careful when choosing how to solve problems.

A traditional Chinese place setting includes the following items:

• bowl
• plate
• chopsticks
• spoon
• warm, damp towels (instead of napkins)

Chinese aphrodisiac foods (the kind that make your heart go pitter-patter) include:

• shark fin
• swallow nest
• tiger bones
• hundred-year-old eggs

Hundred Year Old Egg, courtesy of Kowloonese

What are hundred-year-old eggs? Why duck eggs that have been preserved about three months:

[…the eggs] are enclosed in a coating made of lime, mud, saltpetre, fragrant herbs and rice straw […] They can be eaten after the third month, but their smell grows stronger with age. When they are broken out of their covering, the eggs are black and shiny.

Larousse Gastronomique

I hope you have a most wonderful Friday!