Celebrate Easter by Eating a Bunny Head, or Leg, or the Entire Thing ...

Tracy Wang, Senior Editor | Mar 22, 2016 11:30 am | 4 comments | 3995 reads

This is for those people who are always on the lookout for an adventure, want something with a little extra thump, or are just plain tired of bunny-shaped chocolate and candy, below are some slightly different Easter dishes to celebrate the second coming of Christ ... Let’s start with the least cruel option so as to not upset ol' Jeezy: the rabbit heads!

Relevant: Your Complete Guide to Beijing's 12 Best Easter Brunches

Shuangliu Laoma Rabbit Head 双流老妈兔头
Shuangliu Laoma Rabbit Head already has four outlets (the most popular is in Shuangjing), meaning that you'll never be starved or wondering where to calm quench your desire for delicious rabbit heads. There are two flavors of these cute little heads to choose from: spicy (麻辣) or five spice (五香). Judging from reviews on dianping.com, the five spice heads are already super hot and spicy so don't opt for the spicy unless you truly went to feel the burn and are confident in your tolerance of spice. Almost every other item on the menu is spicy, so, masochists will have a field day.

Recommend: Spicy and hot, or five spice rabbit heads. Approximately RMB 87 per person.
 

Laojietu Yanbangcai 老街兔
If you are a rabbit head lover, you could also try Laojietu Yanbangcai. There’s a saying that Laoma is No. 1, whereas Laojietu comes in a close second. As well as the rabbit heads, the shui zhu yu (水煮鱼) is also worth a try.

Recommend: More rabbit heads. Approximately RMB 95 per person.
 

Wangma Hand-Pulled Roast Rabbit 王妈手撕烤兔
Wangma is chain of Sichuan restaurants. Unlike the dry-as-hell roast rabbits or chewy-as-stone versions, these rabbits have crispy skin and soft meat.

Recommend: Hand-pulled roast rabbit. Approximately RMB 57 per person.
 

Spring Trees Restaurant 早春二月
The roast rabbit legs are the most popular dish here. The pleasant courtyard-inspired interior is rustic, the service is excellent, the prices won’t break the bank, and the offerings are inconsistent.

Recommend: Roasted rabbit leg. Approximately RMB 70 per person.
 

Zhangniangniang Hand-Pulled Roast Rabbit 张娘娘手撕烤兔
At Zhangniangniang, they only provide roasted rabbit heads and legs. You can order and take away. The offerings aren't better than Wangma's, but they are still especially tasty.

Recommend: Spicy roasted rabbit leg. Approximately RMB 19 per person.
 

Bage Hand-Pulled Roast Rabbit 巴哥手撕烤兔
Other than hand-pulled roast rabbit, you can also grab a bowl of typical Sichuan-style spicy rabbit noodles at Bage.

Recommend: Spicy hand-pulled roast rabbit, rabbit noodles. Approximately RMB 23 per person.
 



Beijing Gushi Quantuyan Restaurant 北京谷氏全兔宴餐厅
Ok, the above are the best places to munch on a rabbit head, leg or body, or twenty but if you want the real deal, Gushi Quantuyan is the only place that you can eat every part of the rabbit. Cute, right? They focus on rabbits: rabbit hot pot, rabbit meatballs, rabbit burgers, roast rabbit ... it's all about rabbit.

Recommend: Spicy roast rabbit legs, roast rabbit. Approximately RMB 49 per person.
 

Xie Lao Song 蟹老宋
You might also want to check out non-Sichuan-style rabbit heads. For this, Xie Lao Song is king, cooking the little morsels Hubei-style, as well as serving a not-so-spicy option. Patrons say that there is sweetness to the spice.

Recommend: Spicy rabbit heads. Approximately RMB 100 per person.

Hmmm, I realize that this is meant to be an Easter blog, not one for a Halloween ...

I have to admit that I have only tried rabbit head once, as as a foodie, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity, right? But – full disclosure – I don’t really want to try them again. You have to make some effort to crack their sweet little heads, all the while trying to ignore the teeth, and the soft touch of its tongue. To put your mind at rest, one friend of mine claims that rabbit skulls are “no worse than spicy pig brains,” which you can witness in this documentary, Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure, produced by BBC.

In the video, it says: “rabbit is a specialty in Sichuan, the Chinese produce more rabbit than any other country, although they export most of it.” It also teaches you how to eat a rabbit head and cook rabbit in your home. Well done, BBC.

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure

Photos courtesy of dianping.com, blogspot.com

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admin's picture admin Submitted by Guest on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 18:46

flyingfigure wrote:

Another interesting thing is, the meaning of Wangma, Laoma and Niangniang is basically auntie or mom, maybe people feel better when their mom/auntie does the cooking tearing off of the bunny's head

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PatrickLi's picture PatrickLi Submitted by Guest on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 14:31

If you just give me a rabbit skull with some meat attached to it, I will probably just eat it, even though I know it's a rabbit head.

But if you give me the food with a line of text telling me that they are rabbit heads, I'd feel very traumatized just by looking at the heads and by the idea that I'm going to eat them. 

The same situation applies to pig's intestine, chicken feet, monkey's brain, lamb's genital, etc. 

I think it's actually quite interesting. Two factors may be at play here. First there is a difference between being knowledgeable of one thing, and being consciously knowledgeable of it. 

Then I think humans are still culturally appalled by the idea of eating a specific animal organ in large quantity, e.g. a plate of bunny heads, a bowl of lamb's genitals, etc. because this type of eating may invoke a hidden connection to mass killing. In contrast, we usually feel quite comfortable of eating a whole chicken or a whole rabbit, which shows that the human meme is quite okay for us to be hunters, but not okay for us to cut a hundred bunnies' heads one after another. 

 

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