They Eat Dog in Beijing, And Maybe in Cambridge, Mass., Too
By now, we’ve all heard that dog will be removed from menus around Beijing during the time the Olympic competitions will be taking place there this summer.
I have a story about eating dog. First, I would never do it myself. I have a dog and it would make me sick to think of it. I can do chicken, fish and a few other animals, but no dog. Anyway, I was in a Chinese restaurant about two weeks ago in the fair city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was waiting for my takeout order when a young Asian women walked up to the counter and spoke to the hostess in Chinese. The young woman giggled a little, never consulted a menu, but seemed to have a lot of questions. After much conversation, I heard her say the word “Gow.” Gow means ‘dog’ in Chinese. I know because I had Asian roommates in college and they taught me Asian things, like how to play badminton, how to request the special Chinese menu in restaurants, how to listen to (dissonant) Chinese music without going nuts, and how to insult people in Chinese (”crazy dog!”). The young woman’s order came out of the kitchen before mine. She took the brown bag, cheerfully paid for it, and left. Had she actually ordered dog? I will never know. But one day, I may get my courage up to go back to the restaurant and ask if Lassie is one of their off-the-menu specials. I wonder if it is legal to serve dog in Massachusetts. Maybe I should stop eavesdropping.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Hah! Funny!
(I suspect perhaps General Gau, but still…)
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Hmmm … glad I didn’t go there while I was up that way this weekend as I truly believe that something like that would really kill my appetite! I know that dog is a delicacy in some countries but please … some things are just wrong on way too many levels and that’s one of them!
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Ewww , no dog for me either. Since I got my dog (Louie) I have become more aware of animals in general and am eating much much less animal meat.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Suldog, you have a good point there. But I prefer to think I was onto some big controversy.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I absolutly draw the line at Dogs and Cats for meals. the thought of this gives me the chills. ICK,ICK,ICK!
Hugs and God’s Blessings. Mike Golch said that.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I’m still waiting to find out exactly what is in a HOT DOG. Scraps of meat is all I’ve ever heard. Scraps of WHAT meat????
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:54 pm
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/chinese.asp
July 24th, 2008 at 1:17 am
I doubt it.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Hi, Dumbass,
If you click the link in my post above, you will be taken to a New York Times story which confirms that, indeed, dog is part of the cuisine in China.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:10 am
If they were speaking Cantonese and you’re not a fluent speaker, you may have confused the word for “nine” with the word for “dog”; they are homophones. She could have been ordering the #9 special and giggling about something else. It’s hard to believe that in Cambridge, a famous hive of animal-rights activism, a restaurant would risk doing this; it would ruin them in most American cities, even ones less pro-doggie than Cambridge. The whole thing just reeks of urban legend.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:17 am
If you knew anything more about Chinese than your highly concrete reasons for knowing ‘Asian things’, then you’d also know that it’s a tonal language, and saying things with a different tone can mean very different words. “Gou” or “Gow” can also mean “enough”. You just sound pretty ignorant in your post.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:25 am
You.
Are.
An.
Idiot.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:52 am
This made me lose my appetite.
Not your story that is.
It is your naked bigotry and ignorance. Seriously – what happened in your life, or what were you taught or not taught that has made you so racist and intolerant?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:01 am
1.) Loved your blog for its thoughtful maturity.
2.) Gau is a steamed or fried dumpling consisting of vegables and/or pork.
3.) If you seriously know, that dog meat was being cooked and sold, in an American city, report it . why make a joke about it in your blog.
4.) India doesn’t eat cow (beef) meat. They think we are barbarians.
5.) I can’t believe any baby boomer is prejudiced or a bigot. That’s not what we were about.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Having read the post, then the comments, then the post again, then the comments, I’m having a hard time understanding the vitriol.