Those Kooky Chinese !

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:19 am

Edible Excretions: Taiwan's Toilet Restaurant

By Natalie Tso / Taipei Monday, Mar. 02, 2009

Diarrhea for dinner? That's the point. "It's supposed to shock and confuse the senses," says Modern Toilet manager Chen Min-kuang. But as Jennifer Finch, an American who was dining there, described it, "They do it tastefully. It's all very clean." (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)

Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed with images of roses, seashells or Renaissance paintings. Everyone dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your meal atop a mini toilet bowl (quite convenient, as it brings the food closer to your mouth), you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a souvenir), and soft-swirl ice cream arrives for dessert atop a dish shaped like a squat toilet.

I went there on a Wednesday evening, and the place was packed with students and families who were having a jolly time eating out of the john. "It's very progressive and irreverent, like a practical joke," says junior high school teacher Chen Kin-hsiang, who went because her students raved about it. "It's a little gross when you see other people eat," she says, "but when you're eating, you don't notice it, 'cause you're hungry and the aroma is appetizing." Smell is one poop-like quality the chef does without. (See pictures of China on the wild side.)

The reasonably priced food includes curries, pasta, fried chicken and Mongolian hot pot, as well as elaborate shaved-ice desserts with names like "diarrhea with dried droppings" (chocolate), "bloody poop" (strawberry) and "green dysentery" (kiwi). Despite the disturbing descriptions, the desserts were great. But after seeing curry drip down a mini-toilet, I may never have that sauce again.

The Chinese can take this, Finch muses, because they are more nonchalant about bodily functions, such as burping, farting or even going to the bathroom — an act performed squatting sans doors in some places in China. But many Westerners enjoy the novelty of toilet dining too. Chris and Julia Harris took their visiting mother, who they say is obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness, to "freak her out," but she had a great time (though she refused to drink out of a urinal). The only people who have a hard time, says Chen, are the elderly who have exclaimed, "I will not eat on the toilet!" (Folding chairs and normal dishware are available for the faint of heart.) (Read "The Science of Appetite.)

Toilet creations aren't new to China. The ancient Chinese may have been the first to use the throne — a flush toilet was found in a tomb of a Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 24) king — and they invented toilet paper in the 6th century. Modern Toilet owner Wang Zi-wei, 29, an ex-banker, got his idea from the Japanese robot cartoon character Jichiwawa, who loves to play with poop and swirl it on a stick. Inspired by that image, Wang began selling chocolate ice cream swirls on paper squat toilets. Customers loved them and wanted more edible excretion experiences, so he opened Modern Toilet in 2004. The theme-restaurant chain now has seven outlets in Taiwan, one in Hong Kong and one opening in Shenzhen, China, this week. Plans for other cities in China, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are also under way. Dinner Ã la latrine, anyone?

See pictures of bug cuisine.

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:43 am

Gross!

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Fri May 01, 2009 11:41 am

Do you have to sit at the table with your trousers round your ankles ?

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Fri May 01, 2009 12:18 pm

It's not gross at all ducky. i saw this on TV and it really does look like a fun place to eat.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Sat May 02, 2009 1:15 am

:eek:

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sat May 02, 2009 12:35 pm

Pass..!!

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Sat May 02, 2009 12:37 pm

fuzzywuzzy;1182421 wrote: It's not gross at all ducky. i saw this on TV and it really does look like a fun place to eat.

Maybe if I was still 6 yrs old:wah:...you know when they all talk potty mouthed at that age.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Sat May 02, 2009 3:39 pm

CARLA;1182825 wrote: Pass..!!

you said it!:-5:-5

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Sat May 02, 2009 4:16 pm

I hope there is not a carry out window.....................:wah:

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Sat May 02, 2009 7:21 pm

chonsigirl;1182936 wrote: I hope there is not a carry out window.....................:wah:

:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl...I will however eat cheesecake in the bathtub with candles, etc. and a nice body next to me.:sneaky:

Post by **Sunshine** » Sun May 03, 2009 5:50 am

I think I would try it just for the novelty of it. Just hope the chairs are more comfortable than they sound. Do you use toilet paper for a napkin is my question. :yh_rotfl

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sun May 03, 2009 10:33 am

I bet the wages are shyte

Post by **Betty Boop** » Sun May 03, 2009 12:52 pm

qsducks;1182950 wrote: :yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl...I will however eat cheesecake in the bathtub with candles, etc. and a nice body next to me.:sneaky:

Would that be dead or alive :-2

I have too many memories of being forced into such a position in front of one of those to be able to sit and actually eat from one, it would kind of be like a reversal of life as we know it

farmer giles · Post by **farmer giles** » Mon May 04, 2009 2:48 am

flushed from the succes of their throne meal how about an after meal ciggy or 250 000

No butts: China orders officials to smoke

3 hours 32 mins ago

AFP

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Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported. Skip related content

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A smoker in Shanxi province Enlarge photo

* A smoker in Shanxi province Enlarge photo

* Men smoke along a street in Beijing. Enlarge photo

More photos: Oddly Enough

The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.

"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.

China has 350 million smokers, of whom a million die of smoking-related diseases every year.

More than half of all male doctors in China smoke, but the government is now trying harder to get them to kick the habit in order to set an example for others, state media reported recently