Chengdu, China –

Chinese diners avariciously cracked the delicate rabbit skulls, thrown off their contents, and caught up in such a popular delicacy in a province that it had to be imported from France.

Sichuan is famous for its spicy, chili-flavored local dishes: one of the favorite is the rabbit brain, often in the streets of Chengdu, its capital for dinner.

In the city’s famous restaurant Shuangliu La Tuutu, dozens of customers use gloved hands to open the skull covered with soy sauce, sucking out the brain in the satisfaction of chewing and chewing cheek.

“If the Sichuanese do not eat spicy food every day, they are not happy,” a 20-year-old woman, named Ma, with friends to eat.

“I eat at least once a week,” she added.

Westerners often avoid the animal parts – duckbill, chicken feet, head and belly – Chinese cuisine as a delicacy.

But even in China, there is little hope for the meat of the rabbits, let alone their heads. These minds are a remote province in Sichuan, isolated by mountains.

The dish is a specialty of the region – rarely found in several popular restaurants in Beijing and other major cities.

“Two of the three rabbits consumed in China eat in Sichuan,” said Wang Min, a restaurant manager in Chengdu. “The locals are proud of the snacks.

“My parents and grandparents ate them, and I grew up liking them,” she says, adding that traditions can be traced back to centuries.

“My friends in Guangxi (Southern Province) and elsewhere do not understand why we eat them,” she said, adding that “they can not stand the heat.”

In Wang’s restaurant, chef Yin Dingjun said rabbit head recipe looks simple, but needs a sound technology.

“You have to drain their blood from the rabbit, then remove the guts,” and “marinate in the broth for several hours,” he said.

“Rabbit in Chinese mythology features (” Rabbit “live on the moon), is considered by many young people to be cute, and is not considered a delicious, although in Sichuan dialect eat rabbit Head is slang for French kissing.

Although sucking on a rabbit’s head seems strange to some diners, even in China, it is the standard for Sichuan cuisine, Fuchsia Dunlop, a London-based Chinese food expert told AFP.

“There are a lot of spicy dishes, such as spicy duck head, covered with peppers and peppers,” she said.

For Sichuanese, playing with your food is part of the fun, she says, adding that they like the “grabbing factor”.

“Use your fingers and teeth to get a little bit of meat, which is part of the fun.

According to China’s Rabbit Industry Association, the country’s annual consumption of about 500 million rabbit head.

When the evening in Chengdu, numerous booths selling rabbit head to the locals with beer washing treatment.

“The night market is part of our culture in Sichuan,” said Rong Lipeng, assistant to Hage, China’s leading supplier of rabbit meat and products.

He sells more than 8 million rabbits per year. But in the face of huge local demand, Chinese farms are struggling to supply enough.

As a result, nearly 20 per cent of the head of the company’s sales of rabbits comes from Europe, mainly from Italy and France, in the same way that American chicken producers export unappreciated birds to the Chinese market.

According to the French government statistics, France in 2014 to China exported 166 tons of meat and edible offal.

Rong, who says the head is healthy, because they contain a small amount of meat, hoping the taste of this treatment will one day extend beyond Sichuan, but he acknowledged that the obstacles are high.

“Many of us outside the province did not dare to taste them, because the rabbit head looks terrible.

MANGO Tree Worldwide, in partnership with local restaurant operator 1957 & Co (hospitality), has launched its first, much-anticipated Mango Tree Café in Hong Kong inside Cityplaza in Taikoo Shing, one of the largest malls in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island.

The smart Thai-styled café was designed by the award-winning Hong Kong architect and interior designer, Steve Leung, who also designed all the existing Mango Tree outlets in Hong Kong and China.

The Cityplaza outlet is on the third floor of the mall and offers a minimalist contemporary feel with Thai elements infused through a generous use of natural materials such as wood and bamboo, plus hand-painted walls featuring rainforest scenes.

The 3,500-square-foot (325-square-metre) semi-open dining space offers seating for up to 140 diners with a welcoming ambience and a warm, friendly service culture.

“Following the success of our other Hong Kong restaurants, we are very excited to launch this dynamic new café concept in a new part of Hong Kong for Mango Tree,” said Trevor MacKenzie, managing director of Coca and Mango Tree Group Worldwide.

“Taikoo Shing is a vibrant neighbourhood with a strong mix of commercial and residential venues.

“Mango Tree Café will cater mainly to office and business clientele during the week, but we’re also aiming for a strong local following at weekends, attracting a new generation of diners and their families.”

Catering to the eclectic range of tastes and expectations in its vibrant city location, the menu at Mango Tree Café Cityplaza has been carefully researched and crafted to offer a wide choice of dishes.

The restaurant’s Thai executive chef, Anunte Sae-ung, has more than 30 years of experience, including positions at the Shanghai-La Hotel in Bangkok and renowned restaurant Apichat Lad Phrao, located inside a converted aeroplane.

Beyond Thai borders, he has introduced his inspired Thai cuisine to the kitchens of several five-star hotels and upscale restaurants, including the Furama Hotel and Macao Jockey Club.

“For Mango Tree Café, we have created a product to match the varied tastes of customers who dine at shopping mall locations, particularly in Hong Kong and China.

“This approach fits well with our strategy to tier the Mango Tree brand and reach a much wider audience for our unique style of food,” MacKenzie added.

The mother of a seven-year-old pupil was said to have been beaten 99 times by a female teacher. Yesterday the Minister of Education, Theerakiat Charoensetthasin, issued a disciplinary procedure against the teacher, Chalida Paijitprapa-porn, and revoked her teaching license.

Boonseub Khanthong said her son – a student at the Wat Sang Am School in Bathontani – is suffering from a nightmare that can not sleep because of his injuries, too afraid to return to school.

After making her request to her representative, Deputy Permanent Secretary Prasert Boonreung, the mother said her family wanted the school and Chalida to take responsibility and apologize.

At the same time, Watti Saengsri, director of the Primary Education Services Office, 1, said his office set up a committee on Chalida’s disciplinary investigation, who was recently hired and reported in seven days.

Chalida was not in school yesterday, as she was said to be taking part in a rehearsal for a graduation ceremony.

Boonseub said she was interviewed earlier by education officials and school administrators, who gave her money to help and proposed that the boy be transferred to another school if the family wanted it.

However, she said she wanted her son to stay in school, because his three cousins ​​were also studying there, and it was near the home. The other teachers at the school are very good, she added.

She said Chalida, who allegedly had her son forget a bag, had contacted the family to file a medical bill to pay the boy for 50,000 Pakistani pounds (S $ 2,000).

While Chalida will submit the resignation of the school, the legal process must run their course, lawyer Worakorn Pongthanakul, who accompanied the mother yesterday said.

He said the family would see a psychiatrist at the Thammasat University Hospital today with the injured boy.