Moon Festival: Scary Food

Yesterday, I visited one of my favorite neighborhood Chinese restaurants, the Happy Garden. A week ago I was talking with the waitress about the Chinese Moon Festival (this month) and how I like the mooncakes with the salty egg in the center. She said, she would bring me one. Saturday when I had lunch there, she gave me one of the mooncakes her mother had bought. She also gave me a couple of these spooky looking things - available at this time of year.

From my internet searching, they are Water Caltrops, from the water chestnut family. It took a lot of work to get one open to eat (even tougher than opening a Brazil Nut.) I used a heavy knife to cut down the center and the side tines of a fork to dig out the meat. It had a bit of a smoky taste and a dry-powdery texture. The coolest thing about these is that demonic face. I think the Chinese name may translate to something like bull-horns; but it's a pretty scary looking bull!