A little detour: Street foods of Beijing - Fried Liver( Chao Gan )

Hey folks, dweeb here.
I know, I know, the Australian series has not been finished. I am aware of that. I've got about 5 more of installments of the Australian series. They will arrive very very soon. I promise.
Since we've been doing fine dining reviews here for a while now, I feel somewhat ashamed to say that we have yet to cover some of the street food tastings since my move to mainland China. (That's right, Dweeb's no longer in the United States, from now on, all the new stuff you see here about the US tastings will most probably be done by Dr.T and Techmogeek.) Afterall, we do have street food in the little "sub"-title of our site. So, here we go.
In this installment, we cover an local favorite of the Beijing people(the Doc is from there.), fried liver(Chao Gan). While the name of the "entree" suggests serving of savory offal cooked in oil, possibly with some very pretty caramelization on top. What I can tell you would be this: While it does contain offal, quite a bit of it, the cooking method and service, however, is something that's quite different to what the name may suggest.

Location: Yao's Fried Liver Shop ( Yao Ji Chao Gan) No, it's got nothing to do with that Yao.
Tasting personnel: Dweeb, Dr.T

The dining room is hardly anything worth talking about. If you have been to China, it's the typical small dining room(some call it hut) that the common citizen buy their breakfast to go. Located in the Drum Tower area of Beijing(Gu Lou), The room is dimly lit, with about 6 tables next to a diner style counter. Strips of plastic curtain lined the only entrance, trying to block out the cold. There's some random posters of discolored flyers on the wall. There's a couple old local guys milling around in the dining area doing pretty much nothing.
So, The food. Fried liver looks like this:
That's right. It's in liquid form. The guy that serves it scoops it out from a stock pot that looks like it's been simmering for ages.(you can tell they've burned through a couple pot bottoms, there's weld marks) The large dark pieces you see near the spoon would be the one thing that this dish is named after. Liver. (there's some intestine in there for good measure as well) The liquid you see containing the offal is, well, highly viscous(yes, it's a gel). It's got about the same density as the offal, capable of suspending the bits of meat without letting it touch the bottom of the bowl. The little off-white pieces in there you see all over would be stewed garlic, enhancing the dish as it cooks.
Tasting wise, this is not bad. This is not to say it's fantastic either. Of course, this comes from a man who's love with offal is fairly pronounced. So feel free to scale this review to your own liking. The intestines and liver had been cooking in the liquid for a while now, releasing it's flavor into the soup, while picking up a mildly garlicky flavor and supple texture. The soup itself doesn't have much flavor aside from the garlic. It is somewhat underseasoned, probably for the sake of early morning consumption. Yes. It's a breakfast item. The Texture of the soup is, again, very thick. It feels like it's been thicken with a combination of starch and gound lotus root, with a oily, lumpy, also waxy texture to it. It is eaten with a spoon, assuming you are not hungry. The guy sitting at hour next table demonstrated another method of comsumption: Pick up the bowl with one hand, spoon with the other; tilt your chin up with the bowl resting on your lower lip, use the spoon to help getting the material down your throat as fast as your can.(Think trying to get the last gulp of dense ICEE at the bottom of cup, without the lid)
As you may know, The Doc being from the part of town, he loves this stuff. He's practically praising and moaning with every spoonful. Me, on the other hand, has very little feeling about it. It's not good, nor is it awful. It tastes, well, garlicky, and Blah.
Oh, one thing I can tell you though, when you bite into the offal, which you get between a few spoonful, it is quite nice.(just the offal, not the soup).
Thanks for reading, folks. Stay tune for another installment of, well, whatever the hell I feel like writing. Which will probably be about food, hopefully good.

-Dweeb