Last night, and after a rather anti-climactic sunset flag lowering ceremony on Tianamen Square (soldiers march up, lower flag, march away again), we wandered over to a nearby street-food night market. Despite being a huge tourist trap (made up prices, fake meat and banana-less banana fritters etc) it was quite clear that if it lives and if it fits, they're quite happy here to shove a skewer up it's backside and cook it. Among other equally horrifying delights, we saw baby shark, starfish, seahorse, millipede, tarantula, snake and still wriggling (still very much alive) scorpions. One could also munch on the testicles of most of your average farm animals, should insects and spiders not be your cup of tea.
Choosing to pass on most of what was on offer, we watched through our fingers as a group of testosterone fuelled American schoolboys took turns to nibble at increasingly disturbing creatures to the gleeful squeals of the nearby Aussie schoolgirls.
Rosie did try grilled octopus and I a tray of dumplings (plus a few other bits and pieces of the small amount of 'normal' food we could identify) but we both left feeling that the place was more of a tourist's photo opportunity / vendor's cash cow, than the place to sample the traditional Beijing street food we'd hoped we'd find. No doubt it will pop up another day when we least expect it, as the best discoveries often do.
No comments:
Post a Comment