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| Guolizhuang – Beijing’ Famous Penis Restaurant Posted: 31 Jul 2012 01:27 AM PDT
They couldn’t pay me enough to try a bite of cooked animal genitalia, but there are people who would spend hundreds of dollars on delicacies like cooked yak penis or sheep gonads. These are the kind of foods that have made the Guolizhuang Restaurant so popular in China’s capital city. According to a well-known saying, “Chinese eat anything with four legs, except tables. And everything that flies, except airplanes,” and the food served at the Guolizhuang Restaurant, in Beijing is proof of that. This bizarre establishment opened its gates in 2006, offering all kinds of dishes with animal genitalia as the main ingredient. Many Chinese believe animal penises increase male potency and do wonders for women’s skin, so word about the culinary wonders served at the restaurant on Dongsishitiao Street spread quickly, and the owners were happy to expand their business. There are now several franchises throughout Beijing and one in Atlanta’s Chinatown.
Photo: Rex Features Eating at and even visiting the Guolizhuang Restaurant is not for the faint-hearted. Almost all the dishes served here are made from animal genitalia, although most of them are presented in an edible form and have interesting names like ”The Essence of the Golden Buddha,” “Phoenix Rising,” “Jasmine Flowers with 1,000 Layers”. They sound pretty good, but they’re really just ox penises cut into the shape of stars, sheep gonads on a bed of curry, or thinly sliced donkey penis. The bizarre food is sometimes also eaten raw. Because the foods served at this restaurant is uncommon, even for China, part of the waiters’ job is to explain the properties of each dish to guests. For example, women should not eat testicles, because the hormones could give them a deeper voice and a beard, but penises are harmless.
Photo: Spiegel.de The Guolizhuang Restaurant was apparently dreamed up by a man known as Mr. Guo. He left China in 1949, during the civil war, and moved to Taiwan, and later to Atlanta, Georgia, where he started studying traditional Chinese medicine, and experimenting with animal genitalia. Although they are mostly known for their potency boost, animal appendages are said to be low in cholesterol and are used to treat all kinds of ailments.
Photo: China Daily Young people under the age of 15 aren’t allowed to eat at Guolizhuang because the hormones in the food can interfere with natural growth. Most of the clients are businessmen who often come here with Government officials because they need their help with something. What better way ro strike a deal than over a steaming dish of sliced animal penis, right? Another aspect that attracts this kind of clientele is the privacy guaranteed – all tables are set up in private rooms and booths, away from prying eyes.
Among the most expensive dishes served at Beijing’s penis restaurant are the yak penis (over $220), or the 10 assorted penises plate ($110), but for really special clients, Guolizhuang offers treats costing over a thousand dollars. One of these exclusive delicacies is tiger’s penis, which is valued at over $1,500 and has to be ordered several months in advance. And in order to get the opportunity to eat it, a client must first fill out an application for a silver, gold or platinum membership card. Sources: BBC, Spiegel.de, China Daily Guolizhuang – Beijing’ Famous Penis Restaurant was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Japanese Photographer Tries to Keep Love Fresh Forever by Wrapping It in Vacuumed Plastic Bags Posted: 30 Jul 2012 11:54 PM PDT
Some couple try all kinds of romantic tricks to keep love alive for longer, but Japanese photographer Haruhiko Kawaguchi takes a more literal approach – he wraps people in plastic wrap, sucks out the air and takes photos of their distorted bodies. The bizarre images of people huddled together in weird positions, in vacuumed plastic wrap may look like stills from a a sado-masochistic practice, but they are Haruhiko Kawaguchi way of showing and preserving the love between two people. His project, “Flesh Love”, is pretty straightforward. Two people, usually couples, are “packaged” in a 100 by 150 by 74 centimeters plastic bag the artist buys from the Internet. After carefully arranging their body parts so he can get the best shot, Kawaguchi uses an old vacuum cleaner to suck out all the air and make the subjects look like a pack of packaged meat you buy at the supermarket. It takes about 10 to 20 seconds for hit to take the photographs, during which time the shrinkwrapped couple has to endure the pressure and lack of air. But it’s all in the name of love.
Love is the source of everything, according to Haruhiko, who like to be called Hal. A man who accumulates wealth does is out of love for his wife, or for expensive cars. People go to war out of love for power, or out of love for their country or their own life. So he feels proud to be able to capture the hottest, greatest moment of love, when the lovers are welded together in plastic wrap. If one of them dies, or if they break up, there is still this photo of their immortalized love.
The magic happens of the kitchen floor of Hal’s Tokyo apartment, under the watchful eyes of the artist and his American girlfriend, Katherine. Photo subjects are covered with lubricant so the skin doesn’t burn when the plastic presses upon it as all the air is sucked out. Still, the sensation isn’t very pleasant – the plastic seals off your nostrils, presses on your eyelids and the ears pop as if you’re diving into deep water too fast. Kawaguchi says he’s so far photographed about 80 couples for Flesh Love, and there have been some accidents. It’s the men who panic the most, he says. Four or five of them started struggling for air while in the bag, and one even peed in his pants, but none of them were able to break the plastic bag from the inside. But there have been no major incidents, and the artist always has oxygen sprays nearby.
So, would you have yourself wrapped in a vacuumed plastic bag, in order to have your love immortalized on a Tokyo kitchen floor?
Photos by Haruhiko Kawaguchi via Spiegel.de Japanese Photographer Tries to Keep Love Fresh Forever by Wrapping It in Vacuumed Plastic Bags was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
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