Chinese restaurant serves dessert made from... elephant dung

The dessert has a crunchy and crumbly texture, like breadcrumbs.

Canopia Restaurant, a tropical rainforest-themed restaurant, attracts attention with its 15-course menu priced at around $550, including leaves, honey-covered ice cubes, dishes made from insects and especially elephant dung.

The two founders - a Chinese ethnic Bulang and a Frenchman - spent seven years studying the tropical forests of Yunnan province, southwest China, to get inspiration for the restaurant's design.

Mixue's Culinary Notes, a food blogger with more than 400,000 followers, shared her dining experience at the restaurant on the Xiaohongshu platform on April 7.

The blogger said diners enjoyed the starter by picking leaves from the pot, dipping them in sauce and eating them raw. The next course was ice cubes coated in honey and pollen. The next course was a black slime-like texture, emitting the characteristic stench of Rafflesia - the corpse flower famous for its rotting flesh smell.

Controversially on the menu is a dessert called “flowers in elephant dung,” which has a base made from real elephant dung that has been sterilized and crisped to resemble breadcrumbs. It is topped with herbal perfume, fruit preserves, pollen, and a non-dairy honey cream. Diners have a variety of toppings to choose from to make their dish stand out.

Rainforest inspired restaurant

However, many diners are not sure whether the dessert made from elephant dung has been tested for quality. According to Chinese food hygiene law, the ingredients used in the dish must be safe and meet nutritional standards.

The dish is currently causing heated debate on social media. "None of us Yunnan people eat elephant dung," one user Xiaohongshu commented indignantly.

Other users said the dish was like a challenge to see if the rich would be willing to ignore the objectionable taste to eat strange things to show off their status.

The Shanghai Minhang District Market Regulation Bureau is currently investigating Canopia restaurant for possible food safety violations.

TB (summary)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/nha-hang-trung-quoc-phuc-vu-mon-trang-mieng-lam-tu-phan-voi-409649.html