Semi Nuclear Blood and Guts 毛血旺

The longer one lives in China as a foriegner, one may begin to learn to appreciate some of the foods that might be deemed culturally disgusting by western standards. China is a nation that will unapologetically eat organ meat. I can only speak for myself in the four and a half years I have been here, but it took some getting used to. This is because there is nothing similar in western food -- nothing to compare it to. So, some things feel utterly alien. 

Mao xue wang 毛血旺 is a good example. It's a soup from Sichuan.

It's actually mouth burningly spicy. The above photo was a product of asking the cooks to tone it down. If this made me cry, I can all but wonder what it would be at it's full nuclear strength. Ok, so what's challenging about this soup?

One of the main ingredients inolves slabs of congealed blood. The other really hard thing?

Tripe / cow or pig stomach. The rest is rather tame. 

Shrimp.

Squid, and a lot of other things. Too much to enumerate here, actually. So, I'm glad I tried it. However, I do see myself eating it again anytime soon. It's not the blood and guts factor, either. It's just way too spicy for me to handle.