Spiced Donkey | China

Yeah, you read that correctly – I said spiced donkey. And not just any spiced donkey, we’re talking pre-packaged, vacuum-sealed spiced donkey. The type of spiced donkey that you’d only order on a dare from a passing cart vendor on a 36 hour train ride from Lhasa to Xi’an. That kind of spiced donkey.

It was only a matter of time. With a fun group, plenty of Budweiser and rice wine, nowhere to go, nothing else to do and a ridiculous (ridonculous?) amount of time on our hands, cheap entertainment was abound. Someone in our group noticed a label with the words “spiced donkey” on it and that was the end of it. It had to be ordered and had to be sampled by all within its stench.

Let’s talk about that stench. Once that vacuum-sealed pouch was broken the dining cart never smelt the same. Wretched, horrible, ill, disgusting – plug in any adjective describing something terrible and it will fit. I will, however, give credit where credit is due. The taste was not all that bad. The texture was a bit chewy, but the flavor and taste was, at least, palatable.

It was a sort of “breaking bread” experience for the group. After the train ride, we were all to go in different directions, but no one will ever be able to take this experience away from us, say we didn’t do it – this one special thing together. It is a part of us and we are a part of it. For that I say, “Thank you, Spiced Donkey.”