Posted on 08/03/2008 7:34:26 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
There is a Cantonese saying that the Chinese eat everything that flies, except aeroplanes; everything with four legs, except tables; and everything that swims, except submarines - and visitors to Beijing's fast-food market during the Olympic Games will be left in no doubt of that.
A stroll among the food stalls of Wangfujing Snack Street, not far from Tiananmen Square, reveals delicacies of every conceivable kind.
Laid out in trays and boiling in cauldrons are everything from goat lungs with red peppers to scorpion brochettes, seahorses on skewers, iguana tails, dung beetles and silk worms on a stick, by way of fried sparrows, grilled snake and turkey vulture schnitzels.
The locals insist that Western visitors shouldn't be put off the food on sale on this street - after all, it is mostly 'conventional' Chinese cuisine and great for lunch or dinner.
Indeed, even though dog meat is off the menu for competitors during the Games - they'll be filling themselves up with high-protein drinks and masses of carbohydrates - tourists can still sample dog brain soup or dog liver with vegetables.
As the official Beijing travel guide points out, Westerners should not turn up their noses at these dishes.
'While you might consider things eaten in China to be distasteful, you must bridge the cultural gap and look at it with an open mind,' it advises.
And an open mouth come to that - for as the guide also points out: 'There have been times of severe famine (in China), even as recently as the late Sixties, when tens of millions died of starvation in the Great Leap Forward. Back then, you would have been glad to have had what's on today's menu.'......
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Yeah, I’ve been eating street kabob lately. The stalls may look awful, but the food is great.
Only the scorpions and insects. The rest looks like food booths at any street fair or swap meet in the US.
Now I know where to go for my diet, I would starve first.
Yum! Wonder who thought of that dish. Probably someone in one of their “Reeducation Camps”.
The ones I’ve tried are in dim sum (Chinese hors d’oeuvres) places - they’re fried and then slow-cooked in a savory sauce
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Just put the savory sauce on a hamburger. People say snails are good - thanks, I’ll eat the butter and garlic on bread.
That’s reason enough to stay home!
Nor will I ever likely do so, unless Tibet again becomes a free nation.
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