Jellyfish. I ate it.

My sister will enjoy this story, I’m sure. A long time ago during a family trip to Hawaii, my sister was stung by a jellyfish. She felt her arm burning while swimming in the ocean, lifted it up only to find a single jellyfish tentacle draped over her forearm. She yelped, flung it off her arm and ran to the shore and cried on the beach. I think my dad brought meat tenderizer as a precaution, so he sprinkled it on the sting and she waited for the pain to subside. She still has the scar to this day. In fact, she showed it to my cousin when she was here last month.

So when I was asked if I wanted to try some jellyfish today at one of Bec’s farewell lunches (she has a few more coming up. This was part 1) I could not wait to try it. I would seek vengeance for my sister’s Hawaiian wound! What would it taste like? What would it look like? Where do you find jellyfish to eat, anyway? And who thought it would be a good idea to eat the gelatinous sea animal, anyway?

We found this delicacy at an enormous restaurant located in Chinatown called Floata Seafood Restaurant. It seats 1000 people. One thousand people can eat there all at once. They serve delicious dim sum – pork buns, dumplings, bok choy, taro root and jellyfish served with a slice of BBQed pork – with a yummy crunchy rind on the top. This is what it looked like before we dug in.

I wasn’t sure what to expect other than it was pickled, served very cold and was warned the texture was similar to chewing rubber bands. When I tried it, I found the texture to be more like slippery el dente noodles, and they were chilled and the seasoning tasted like spicy, roasted sesame seed oil. Charmaine, Catherine and I all dove in, but Bec wasn’t into the jellyfish. Good thing we ordered other things, though. See?

See all those Chinese characters? That’s what we had for lunch.

In a surprise move by the restaurant, they sat us up on what Catherine excitedly called “the stage!”. This is the spot where the bride and groom sit during a traditional Chinese wedding dinner.

There was no wedding or anything, they just needed to sit us someplace and we were the lucky ones who got to sit under the Phoenix:

and the Dragon:

According to Chinese tradition, these mythical animals are mates for life.

Just like us with our Australian buddies.

Tagged as: Chinese tradition, delish, dim sum, I ate it, jellyfish, let's not talk about Bec leaving next week, mates for life, Vancouver