Elephant dung with a side of jam: Chinese restaurant takes authentic dining experience to weird level

A restaurant in Shanghai, China, is raising eyebrows with its eco-friendly cuisine. While it is great to think about the environment, this restaurant builds on the theme of nature and takes things to a bit of an extreme. The fine dining eatery caters a 15-course “authentic” rainforest meal experience and charges US$550 for it, SCMP reported.

The meal ends with a dessert made out of elephant poop. A popular food blogger known as “Mixue’s Culinary Notes” shared her experience at the restaurant. It serves dishes made out of tree leaves that you are required to dip in some sauce, honey-coated ice cubes and the dessert that is now the talk of town - “Flowers Inserted into Elephant Dung”.

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The dessert features a base of elephant dung that looks like crispy crumbs. The chef adds herbal perfume to it, besides fruit jam, pollen, and honey sorbet. To make it an even more immersive experience, customers can take a “dessert tour” and choose the perfume and jam they would like to add.

China's Food Hygiene Law demands that all food served must be harmless, non-toxic and as per nutritional standards. However, elephant dung does not seem to meet the requirements. The poop is sterilised, but despite this, it is not clear whether the dessert is safe for human consumption.

Jiupai News reported that the restaurant is run by a man from China’s Blang ethnic group and a Frenchman. The two reportedly spent seven years researching the rainforests of Yunnan province and then created the dining experience at the Shanghai restaurant.

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The $550 meal sounds quite bizarre. People are told to pick a leaf and eat it from a plant. It needs to be dipped in a sauce and consumed raw. A server stands next to you, explaining the “ecological fusion cuisine”.

Ice cubes coated with pollen and honey make for one of the steps of the meal. People are told to lick off the honey and pollen from it.

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Another strange dish is called “black goo”. It mirrors the parasitic Rafflesia flower that has a foul odour. Chefs go to great lengths to replicate the pungent scent of the flower, which is a crucial part of the experience. The server explains that the dish is meant to evoke the scent of decaying flesh.

One social media user called the dish "disgusting and frightening", saying, "I’m from Yunnan province, but we definitely do not consume elephant dung here."

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Another user had a different view, saying, "It’s not a conventional restaurant; it’s more akin to a novel experimental venue."