“The heads and feet of various fowl loll over the rims of soup tureens and serving dishes. Ten fishheads…their open mouths stuffed with fishballs made from their own cooked flesh. Eleven lizards have been partially skinned and deep-fried…”

I recently picked up Fuchsia Dunlop’s Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, and couldn’t get past page 60. As a vegetarian who loves animals dearly, I knew that I wouldn’t wholeheartedly embrace the culinary culture (i.e., in some parts of China, they really do eat everything), but I was interested in it nevertheless. But it wasn’t the eating of the animals I found disturbing, it was the way they were slaughtered. Can’t one attempt to kill the animal humanely before it’s prepared? Enough said, but not recommended for bunny lovers like me.