Wuhan

Interest in the wet markets of Wuhan reminds me of a story my late father used to tell about what happened when he visited China in the early 1950s as a journalist covering the visit of Prime Minister Jawharlal Nehru. At one state banquet the most memorable item on the menu was a whole cooked duck served with head, beak and claws intact.As a horrified Mr Nehru watched, Chou en Lai cracked open the duck’s head and offered its scooped out brains to Mr Nehru. If the Chinese authorities at the time had thought about it, they could have won the 1962 war by simply threatening to shower New Delhi with duck brains, lizard tails, rat genitalia and other such culinary delicacies. Squeamish Indians would have begged for mercy and sued for peace on any terms !