Why Chinese province loves weirdest of delicacies ... rabbit head
Companies in Sichuan are having to import rabbits from France to feed locals’ unique taste for bunnies’ skulls and brains
Chinese diners greedily crack open delicate rabbit skulls and slurp down their contents, tucking into a delicacy so popular in one province that it has to import its supplies from France.
Sichuan is renowned for its spicy, peppery local dishes: one of its favourites are bunny brains, often eaten as a late night treat on the streets of its capital, Chengdu.
At the “Shuangliu Laoma Tutou”, a well-known restaurant in the heart of the city, dozens of customers use their gloved hands to prise open the skulls covered in sauce, suck out the brain and nibble on the cheeks amid cries of satisfaction.
“If Sichuanese people don’t eat spicy dishes every day, they’re unhappy,” said one 20-something woman as she dined with friends. “I eat them at least once a week,” she added.
Westerners often avoid animal parts - duck beaks, chicken feet, heads and tripe - that Chinese gourmets treat as delicacies.
But even in China there is little appetite for rabbits’ meat, much less their heads, which are overwhelmingly eaten in Sichuan, a remote province long isolated by mountain ranges.