August 20, 2010

Special Borneo Brew

Recently after a good organic dinner cooked by a relative we all sat down in the patio for after dinner drinks.

Out came a bottle of very very clear arak. In the bottle were two penises (crocodile and tiger). These two body parts have been kept by the family for more than 15 years. The tiger penis was given by a Chinese sinseh from Hong Kong. The crocodile penis came from a river hunt a few years ago.

And why are friends and relatives drinking from the bottle?

15 years ago the Chinese sinseh helped the patriarch to over come a physical ailment. AT that time the old man had a long time cramp in his right arm and he could not raise his arm up for more than three months. After drinking every night from wine soaked in a tiger penis for a period of just one week he was cured!! Hence the family swore allegiance to the bottle. The old man still takes one shot every evening after dinner.



The penis of a tiger, deer, turtle or cow is consumed in restaurants in parts of China and southeast Asia and is commonly offered as a soup delicacy.[4] People have been known to spend up to $5700 (£3000) on a particularly rare tiger penis dish, something that needed to be ordered months in advance.[1] A dried tiger penis is more commonly sold at around $2500 (£1300) in Singapore and Taiwan.[5] The penis can be taken in soup, ground in wine (tiger penis wine), or soaked in rice. One method of preparation, particularly in the Mekong River Delta, is to place a dried tiger penis, with testicles still attached, into a bottle of French cognac or Chinese wine and let it soak for many weeks.[5] Then, as it matures, the preparer takes sips of the liquor every night.[5]

(Wikipedia)


(The one on the right belongs to a tiger from China and the one on the left belongs to a crocodile caught some where in Sarawak)

I can drink but I do draw a line between good wine and arak which has soaked in mystical properties from animal parts! Call it bad nerves if you like. My relatives can definitely understand me for this. And they were very humourous about it. Well an organic meal had turned into an "organ-ic" drinking session. Forgive me.....

Again forgive me for saying this. I kept thinking of all the bottles of specimens in the school biology lab where snakes and other animals were bottled ; labelled nicely and dusted by students....I had a few specimens bottled up - e.g. scorpians and I think they are still around somewhere.

Would you like a shot? If you want to have a try you need to call me and perhaps make a special trip to this place out of town. Destination unknown for the moment.

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