Tien Chiu

  • Home
  • About Tien
    • Honors, Awards, and Publications
  • Online Teaching
  • Gallery
  • Essays
  • Travels
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Dye samples
You are here: Home / All travel posts / Chicken heads and carving bamboo
Previous post: The Mogao caves
Next post: Around Xining

September 12, 2007 by Tien Chiu

Chicken heads and carving bamboo

Today was a travel day, so not much in the way of sightseeing.  I did, however, get the opportunity to try an Asian delicacy which I skipped in Vietnam and have regretted ever since:

img_1514.JPG

(Background: when I was traveling in Vietnam, my guide took me home to see his family’s lychee farm, and they slaughtered a chicken in my honor.  I was fascinated, since (innocent American I) I had never seen a dead chicken before, but was NOT prepared to find the chicken’s head in my bowl at lunch!  He explained that it was a delicacy, but I wasn’t prepared to try it, so I gave it back to him, whereupon he ate it with gusto.)

The chicken head was okay: the skin part (the comb, etc.) was tasteless and slightly rubbery.  The inside, which I suspect of being chicken brain, was rich-tasting and not at all bad.  But when I got to the eyes, I decided I’d had enough.  I thought it was OK, not going to rate it as a delicacy though.  I should track down my guide in Vietnam to tell him I finally had the nerve to try it, though.

I have also managed to break nearly a complete set of ebony and birch size 0 double-pointed knitting needles.  Nothing daunted, I went over to the nearest department store with my mother and asked for bamboo chopsticks.  No dice.  Apparently it’s the middle of a desert and bamboo warps badly, so nobody sells it.  No bamboo skewers or other utensils either, naturally.  However, at the last moment I noticed a cheap bamboo flute, which I promptly bought for $1.50, brought home, and hacked up.  I now have 3/4 of a bamboo flute, and a full set of five size 0 hand-carved bamboo dpns on which to finish knitting my sock.

More later, when I have a chance…

Share this post!

  • Tweet
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Filed Under: All travel posts, Asia, China

Previous post: The Mogao caves
Next post: Around Xining

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Archives

Tags

aids lifecycle outfits autumn splendor book cashmere coat cats celtic braid coat color study cross dyeing design design class devore doubleweave doubleweave shawls drawing dye samples dye study group gradient colors house infinite warp jacquard loom katazome knitted blanks kodachrome jacket ma's memorial mohair coat network drafted jacket/shawl project network drafting painted warp phoenix rising phoenix rising dress phoenix rising kimono phoenix rising reloaded pre-weavolution project sea turtles taquete tie-dye tied weaves tomatoes velvet weaving drafts web design website redesign wedding wedding dress woven shibori

Categories

  • Africa
  • aids lifecycle
  • All blog posts
  • All travel posts
  • Asia
  • Bangkok
  • Belize
  • Cambodia
  • Central America
  • Chai Ya (Wat Suon Mok)
  • Chiang Mai
  • Chiang Rai (Akha)
  • China
  • chocolate
  • computer stuff
  • creating craft
  • Creative works
  • cycling
  • Delhi
  • Dharamsala
  • drawing
  • dyeing
  • Fiber Arts
  • finished
  • food
  • garden
  • Ghana
  • Guatemala
  • Hanoi
  • Ho Chi Minh City
  • Hoi An
  • India
  • Khao Lak
  • Knitting
  • knitting
  • Ko Chang
  • Laos
  • Luang Namtha
  • Luang Prabang
  • markleeville death ride
  • meditations on craft
  • mental illness
  • musings
  • Phnom Penh
  • powerlifting
  • Rewalsar (Tso Pema)
  • sewing
  • Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)
  • Southeast Asia
  • surface design
  • textiles
  • Thailand
  • travel
  • Vangvieng
  • Vientiane
  • Vietnam
  • Warp & Weave
  • weaving
  • Weaving
  • weavolution
  • writing

© Copyright 2025 Tien Chiu · All Rights Reserved ·