The Horrors of Chinese Street Food

I’ve heard it said before that in China they eat everything from scorpions to starfish. It makes sense; they’ve got almost a billion and a half people to feed. But really, I never believed there would be a market for such obscurities until actually seeing it with my own eyes. Donghwamen Night Market in downtown Beijing – proceed with caution (or a belly full of alcohol).

Moved in the year 2000 to the Wangfujing Business District, a sign at the market’s entrance proclaims that “100 famous, special, and delicious new snacks from all over China [have been made available] to carry forward Chinese culinary culture and enhance the friendly exchanges with foreign countries”. Although it sounds tactful, there’s nothing diplomatic about skewers of sheep testicle.

At first glance, Donghwamun Night Market seems quite inviting.  The sweet smell of roasted lamb and well-seasoned chicken created a bottleneck at the market’s entrance – the most delicious part in my opinion. But as we gradually moved down the street, lines got thinner as the food got much weirder. I tried some grilled squid with octopus tentacle, which would have been decent had they not given it a salt bath prior to cooking.

How best to erase this ocean foulness?  Dry ice cocktail, of course; available in a variety of freshly squeezed. Next, we had strawberries on a stick that were coated in hardened syrup. Bundles of these can be seen throughout Beijing strapped to the back of bicycles or in pushcarts. Things really got nasty towards the market’s end, both in terms of food and the people serving it – probably because nobody was buying. As I tried to take a picture, one man behind a cart leaned over and tried to poke me with a sheep’s, ummm, member. “No picture! You buy something!” He barked.

“Dog meat, lamb testicle, sheep dick – it’s all good. What do you want?” Then came the bugs; scorpions, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets – I think they deep fry them first, but didn’t stick around to find out. Even more out of place was the price. Why pays 40 RMB for a basket of fried bugs, when you could get delicious pieces of lamb or chicken for 5 RMB? Maybe it really is that good, but I wasn’t brave enough to find out.  Perhaps you will be more adventurous.