First-time visitors to China never fail to be shocked when they order a poultry dish and the chicken or duck head comes out on the plate, often staring fight at their face when the plate is respectfully placed in front of them. For Americans who have never even seen a dead chicken head in grocery stores, let alone on a dinner plate, it can be unsettling.

For the Chinese, however, when they order a whole roasted duck, they want to see the whole duck on the dinner table. If the restaurant served it without the head or the feet, the customer would think that the kitchen staff had eaten part of the duck. Similarly, when you order seafood in China, the kitchen staff will come out with a fish or a lobster still flopping and struggling in a black plastic bag to show you that it is indeed fresh and alive. My friends and I always joked that we should mark the fish with a permanent marker just to make sure that the staff doesn't switch it for a different one in the kitchen.

Sometimes the heads are more than displays on a plate. They are considered delicacies in their own right. The duck tongue and the duck brains, for example, are popular among Chinese diners.

So if you don't want to see the head of your dinner fowl staring at you from your plate, you should request that the wait staff not to bring out the heads when you order your Peking Duck.

(selected from 101 Stories for Foreigners to Understand Chinese People by Yi S. Ellis and Bryan D. Ellis, published by China Intercontinental Press in 2012)