What's so wrong with tiramisu?

We ended this week with a dinner with a car manufacturer customer, in a high end restaurant overlooking the marina that spins slowly. 90 minutes for one rotation. A high end place with a high end menu and a high end price to boot. Our guests were Asian and American, and we, the hosts, Asian and European.

The soup course. I recognised some of the food as I ate it...sometimes chewing quickly, sometimes choosing not to chew and not to think too much about what I was not chewing. I saw pondering on the faces around me, a furrowed brow, a question forming, and then asked.... "What is this?"

I had my mouth full, with the last of my bowl.
Don't answer, just don't answer
"Fish stomach in chicken broth"
I thought it was fish bladder. Still....
Swallow, drink wine, think of chips.

Other courses came and went. Those more visually paltable were eaten in silence. Those that were more local in appearance were challenged. Didn't see many non-Asians clean up the abalone. I did of course, it was delicious. I thought it was a meaty mushroom....it was served with rice and was very mushroomy in taste. No, apparently it's a sea snail.
Tasty or not, it's a snail.

A. Fucking. Snail!

And at the end, never had before, birds nest!
Consisting of birds nest, egg white and coconut, served as a warm broth in a coconut shell.

"Why is it called birds nest?"
It tasted ok. Don't answer, please don't answer....
Because it's made from the nests of birds that are found in coastal areas. The nest is cleaned and then used in sweet soups as a delicacy, affording a delicious gelatinous base.

Roby ate slowly at that point. I focused on extracting egg, you know where you stand with egg. Comes out of a hen's arse but it's in a case that can be discarded.

Why does knowing what you are eating affect how it tastes? Thinking is over-rated in these situations, but can't be avoided. The focus in Asia is on the taste, but more so, on the best bits, on eating something expensive. Fish bladder or stomach is good for you, birds nest is high end and expensive. Fish cheek, fish tail, and it wouldn't surprise me, rats arse. I recall the technical summit in Shanghai in 2016 and how we left a beer hall, which had fried food and seats and above all shit-loads of beer, to go to an expensive restaurant where we didn't eat the expensive food that was on offer, because it wasn't fried or beer.
Was still a great evening, BPC knows about the best places, and we had fun. Ended the evening wandering around the funfair and Festival of Lights.

This morning, having finished our coffee and chocolate biscuits in bed, a lazy Saturday treat, Roby wondered out loud what would be wrong with a dessert of tiramisu. An espresso to go with it. In this apartment Asia is outside; we venture out and experience it, and then lie here amazed that we tried it, ate it, swallowed it...we even bring it in sometimes, but we westernise it.

Roby misses tiramisu. I miss sticky toffee pudding. I think we will do our bit for nature and henceforth endeavour to leave the birds nests where they are, for the birds.