I’m back! Sorry for the lack of updates, I couldn’t manage to make any new posts from Hong Kong. Not because Internet access was hard to come by (the entire city was pretty much blanketed with Wi-fi access points) but because I had almost no free time! It was a very busy vacation.
Anyway, in North America, you can find hot dog stands on almost every corner in metropolitan areas — also affectionately known as “street meat”.
I had the opportunity to visit Beijing for a week and got to experience their version of street meat… this is not for the faint of heart!
In Beijing, there is a popular street full of vendors that sell various types of street meat. Disclaimer: I took pictures of this myself but my pictures weren’t complete nor as clear so the following pictures are taken off an e-mail forward I received.
This is the street I mentioned. All the vendors wear the same uniform and they all sell different foods. Most of the stuff was surprisingly inexpensive. Most skewers were between $1 to $5 USD.
Let’s start off with some seafood… we have some deep fried star fish, baby sharks and sea urchins.
Who would have thought my first time seeing a seahorse would be on a skewer.
The meat popsicle on the top left is actually vulture meat. Lower left we have some sea snakes. Top right we have lobsters on a stick (I think) and on the lower right, we have silk worm cocoons. I’ve been told sillk worm cocoons are pretty tasty since they’re deep fried — its just like eating a potato chip.
Here we have one of the vendors trying to entice passing customers into eating a snake on a stick.
These tiny scorpions on a stick look kind of sweet actually — I wonder if their tails are still poisonous…
This delicious looking stew is actually made from horse meat!
Here, dog liver is served on a stick with vegetables to make it look more colorful and appetizing.
Apparently, this is goat lung and red pepper skewer.
The above is described as dog brain soup. I’m not sure how correct that statement is.
Much larger black scorpions as well as beetles on a stick.
Lizard legs… looks more like baked cheese on spaghetti to me.
Before anyone starts saying how gross and disgusting some of this stuff is, there really is no difference eating say… salmon and eating a sea snake. They’re both just animals of the ocean. The real difference comes from what types of food we’re used to and what animals we put on a pedestal in our society. For example, we keep dogs as pets so it seems despicable to eat them for food… aside from that, is eating a dog that different from eating a cow?
That being said, I didn’t dare eat a SINGLE thing from there… I didn’t have the guts (nor stomach) for it. So I can’t give a fair assessment of the taste.
Anyway, most of the above are NOT things that the Chinese eat on a day to day basis. In fact, I consider this street to be more of a tourist attraction than anything. If you ever visit Beijing, be sure to visit it for the shock factor.
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In Canada, data plan rates are through the roof. They’ve gotten a bit better recently but is still out of reach for many Canadians.
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