Food ???

Location: Beijing, China
Local Time: Friday, May 19, 2006

Well, last night I went out with a few people from the school. Peter (a British fellow), Mark (Canadian), Jon (Australian) and Tina (Belgian) were there. Later we were joined by a Swiss woman who I haven't actually met so can't name.

To start the evening, we dropped by Snack Street. The attraction of Snack Street? Someone said the scorpians on Snack Street are still alive and wiggling on the stick before they drop them on the oil to deep fry them for you to eat.

It wasn't true, but they purchased a stick of scorpians anyway. I say they because I really couldn't bring myself to eat one. I thought I should try it, but one look and I completely lost my appetite, for nearly an hour. Of course, I'd already eaten once that day, so I didn't have much appetite anyway.

The scorpians were followed by seahorses. Jon held back from eating a seahorse. He figured they are too cute to eat. I was busy keeping down my previous meal and also declined.

Next, we wandered north along WangFuJing street to the food street. There, surrounded by delightful delicasies, I regained my appetite, enticed by a 'Chinese hamburger', which is minced meat and parsley in a bun. Delightful.

I was up early again this morning, and made my way to Raitan Park again to sit and study for a while.

A woman I met in Thailand said, Chinese really know how to do parks. It is true. They also know how to use parks. There are people walking running, practicing various martial arts, juggling sticks, playing hacky sack, all sorts of lovely things.

A very interesting place to sit.