Chickens and Deer Parts

Surprising, well at least to me, was a bit of group hesitancy after visiting several of the Hong Kong street markets.  We strolled the streets lined with locals peddling exotic fruits and vegetables and displaying their fresh fruits of the sea, but when it came time to visit the indoor meat and poultry market, the vegetarian in the group was the only one heading for the entrance.

I guess I have an acceptably morbid curiosity for the hanging carcasses and live chickens, knowing that I don't actually eat any of the end products.  And entering the market would surely only confirm my status as a vegetarian.  Cindy's fear of chickens however, apparently called alektorophobia, overshadowed any natural curiostiy and she had to wait outside.  

First photo opp: walls of meat hanging on hooks, illuminated by pinkish incandescent lightbulbs to enhance, we hope not feign, the look of freshness.

Second photo opp: a live chicken, selected by one of the shoppers, being shoved into a guillotine-esque metal funnel.  

We all turned our heads in horror, imagining what was about to happen, but Larry reassured us that the contraption was simply a scale and that all of the unmentionables of how the chicken goes from screeching, feathered creature to dinner, all goes on in the back of the market.  Tim however, still a little hesitant, warns me as I reassure him,  "If that chicken's head falls off right now, I am going to kill you." 

Probably a good call Cindy.  

Safely out of the meat and poultry market, we stop to browse the medicinally beneficial dried goods at the herbalist.  

We discover that a medicinal benefit of dried deer penis is its aphrodisiac effect.  Mmmm, deer penis soup, couldn't think of anything more romantic.