I look for the strangest item on the menu and order it when I am traveling abroad. The other day I had a frog dish.
This evening I was in a small alleyway of stalls in beijing (right behind the modern mall; a little like quincy market in Boston) with lots of food stalls. Many had shish-ka-bobs of various types. Chicken, beef, squid. While you would have difficulty finding them in the US, they aren't too strange.
Then I looked closer at the selection: starfish perch un-geometrically on the skewer, and sea horses proudly there. Then I noticed what looked like cocoons. Sure enough, silk worm cocoons as large as the last knuckle of my thumb. Next to them were beetles of the same size. I didn't take a picture because it felt too much like uncouth gawking nat having purchased and eaten some. But walking back out of this alleyway I found something I had to photograph: scorpion shish-ka-bob.
No, I didn't eat it to assuage my feelings of voyerism. I just clicked and ran.
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I wish I read this set of China entries earlier. The scorpion kebabs are good stuff. Last I was in Beijing a friend of mine had some, said it was quite a delicacy.
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