A Guangzhou restaurant aims to boost business by serving the endangered animal
Times are bad for restaurateurs in Guangzhou. So bad that one restaurant in Baiyun district is trying to lure back customers amid the Sars outbreak by serving up endangered salamanders - raw.
Managers of the Longxi Restaurant, owned by a village co-operative, advertised its new dish last Tuesday, hoping to capitalise on the Labour Day holidays and reverse the 40 to 50 per cent drop in business.
One manager said: 'We have just received our licence to serve salamanders, so we thought an exotic dish would bring back diners. But no one has shown any interest.'
No one has tasted the new delicacy, but chefs at the 1,000-seat restaurant think of it as a fish and are going to serve it raw, steeped in a rice wine, or steamed. 'It is especially good for women because it will give you a clear complexion,' one waitress told two female diners.
Managers later admitted the claim about its nutritional value was just promotional spiel, but according to the Chinese traditional medicine bible Compendium of Materia Medica, eating salamanders keeps hair jet black, and boosts longevity and immunity. The meat, which is also said to have cancer-fighting properties, is allegedly so tender and fragrant that it has been likened to aquatic ginseng. The creatures are so valuable that in the 1970s, China earned rare foreign currency from salamander exports.
It is not known what type of salamander the restaurant plans to serve, since none of the creatures was at hand. Judging from the description of its size, it is likely to be a Chinese giant salamander, which can grow to a metre in length. It is called a wawa fish in Putonghua because of the sound it makes and it looks like a fat slug with vestigial legs.