Tian over at What Tian Has Learned pointed out this funny skit from an Australian comedy show. The premise: just what are those dishes that you can only order from the Chinese side of the menu? As the waiter in the skit says, “Only Chinese people order that. You don’t like it.”
Watch the clip and see if you agree.
Rambles Blog at Star Chamber 
I’d suggest that the adventurous diner point vaguely over to the Chinese side of the menu and ask for a vegetable dish.
My wife’s parents have stayed with us for a few weeks on several occasions, often to help out when we have a new baby. They go shopping at the Chinese store and cook dinner for us many nights.
This is sort of hard to say tersely. In my adult years, I have seen more unrecognized vegetables on my own dinner plate in my own house, than I have seen in all other venues combined.
Not that I’m complaining: I haven’t disliked one yet.
I ask my in-laws the names of these things. Sometimes they look at each other and one of them says “well, I don’t know the name in English, but the Chinese name is like ‘winter melon’.” Or “… ‘Buddha’s hand’.” And sometimes they look at each other and one of them says “… In Chinese it is (something). There is no word in English.”
So that’s sort of the wimp’s version of being an adventurous diner, I suppose. :)
–JMike
A friend of mine who lived in Japan was once vacationing in Okinawa where she toured the local aquarium. As they strolled past the leafy seadragons and the spotted soapfish, she was struck by the question someone in her tour group kept asking the guide: “Can you eat that? And that one, can you eat that? Can you eat that one?” I like that story, because that’s something you can count on NOT hearing when you stop in front of the goldbelly damselfish at a U.S. aquarium.
Mmmm… damselfish.