As we were browsing the online menu for our favourite Chinese takeaway, we noticed something that had previously been overlooked. 

I had always assumed that the sections with Chinese titles were a repeat of the English ones, but an accidental click revealed that this is not the case.

We found ourselves presented with seven unknown options. While the descriptions were in Chinese and incomprehensible to us, there was some English. 'Only Available Monday' stated one item, 'Only Available Tuesday' declared the next, and so on. 

Glancing back through the English options, there was definitely nothing with availability limited to certain days of the week. We had stumbled across a secret section of the menu, exclusively for Chinese speakers! Throwing caution to the wind, we quickly added the 'dish of the day' to our order.


As you can see, we were ordering more than enough food for just the two of us anyway, so it was reassuring to know that even if we disliked the unknown dish we were not going to starve!

The food soon arrived and with our stomachs rumbling we scrambled through the foil cartons to find the surprise. 


It might not look too appetising, but don't be deceived by the appearance. We tucked in and discovered fried rice with beef, tofu and vegetables in a delicious sauce. There was definitely a lot of ginger in there and a good sprinkling of fresh chillies. I am not a great fan of overly spicy foods, but this was just right - that is until a piece of chilli got stuck in the back of my mouth! My throat felt like it was on fire, my eyes started watering and there was a fair bit of sweating too. I had never known food to cause so much pain before! 

Unfortunately it was not a happy ending, but I'm still glad we lived a little and took a step into the unknown - it certainly spiced up our quiet night in!

What's the strangest food you've had from a takeaway?