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Most Americans are very familiar with what they’d refer to as “Chinese food,” but a lot of the dishes you’d find at most of the restaurants in the United States specializing in that cuisine don’t resemble what you’d be able to pick from if you made the trek to that country. Tennis star Taylor Townsend recently learned that the hard way, and she apologized after catching heat for a rant she went on after a meal where frogs and turtles were on the menu.
Getting the opportunity to flex on Instagram is just one of the many appealing aspects of traveling to other countries, and those trips provide you with an invaluable opportunity to broaden your horizons by exploring and immersing yourself in another culture you can’t truly experience without leaving the comfort of home.
We live in a global society where cuisines associated with a particular country have managed to firmly establish a foothold in others halfway around the world, and that’s certainly the case with Chinese food when you consider there are more than 40,000 restaurants serving it up in the United States.
However, anyone who heads to China hoping for a meal that involves General Tso’s and a fortune cookie is going to be left very disappointed. Plenty of tourists have been treated to some culture shock, and that includes Taylor Townsend, the American tennis player who had to backpedal after expressing her displeasure with what she encountered at one restaurant.
Taylor Townsend apologized after ranting about encountering live frogs and turtles at a restaurant in China
The China Open will kick off in Beijing next week while attracting tennis players from around the globe. Some men who will be playing that event are using the Chengdu Open as a warmup, and women have the option to do the same at the Billie Jean King Cup in Shenzhen as China hosts the international team competition for the very first time.
Taylor Townsend, the 29-year-old American who entered the tournament as the top-ranked women’s doubles player in the world, headed to the event as a member of a stacked American squad that also includes Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro.
Townsend and some of her teammates got the chance to head to a restaurant during the tournament, and she chronicled some of the food that was served on her Instagram story before offering some commentary in a rant where she made it very clear she had no interest in consuming the frogs and turtles that were on the menu (as well as the sliced up lung of an unidentified animal).
Taylor Townsend on the dinner buffet she saw in China:
“I’m honestly just so shocked at what I saw in the dinner buffet. As I go back and I look… these people are literally killing frogs… bullfrogs. Aren’t those poisonous? Aren’t those the ones that give you warts and boils… pic.twitter.com/IQHDp49yrZ
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) September 16, 2025
I’m not going to act like I’m an expert when it comes to discussing the food in China, but I once spent two weeks in the country and ate at multiple restaurants where a menagerie of live animals (including the frogs she mentioned) were on display in tanks as a testament to their freshness.
I had some tasty meals that included some sort of bugs and what I was told was donkey meat, and while I can’t say I’d rush to try them again, I’m glad I at least gave them a chance.
Townsend’s remarks were greeted by plenty of backlash with the help of some people who went as far as to accuse her of being racist for expressing her disdain (Zheng Qinwen, who hails from China, responded by letting her know there’s a KFC at the airport in Shenzen).
She subsequently hopped back on Instagram to walk those comments back while apologizing, saying:
“I just wanted to come on here and apologize sincerely from the bottom of my heart.
I understand that I am so privileged as a professional athlete to be able to travel all around the world and experience cultural differences, which is one of the things that I love so much about what I do, and I have had nothing but the most amazing experience in time here.
Everyone has been so kind and so gracious, and the things that I said were not representative of that at all. I just truly wanted to apologize. There’s no excuse. There are no words. And for me, I just, I will be better.”
That should put things to rest.