There's an old saying that the Chinese "will eat anything with four legs except a table and anything that flies except an airplane."
That claim is put to the test at the Donghuamen Night Market in Beijing. Every evening, a mix of camera-wielding tourists and locals gather at this 2,000-square-metre bazaar, where red lanterns mark vendors hawking standard Beijing street fare such as boiled corn - as well as slightly more exotic dishes including fried scorpion and lamb penis.
Truth be told, while the unsuspecting Olympic visitor to Beijing might find a crispy duck's head or sautéed pig's intestine on their plate, most people I have met here certainly do not eat everything but tables and planes.
But maybe they should. On a recent visit to Donghuamen (better known as "Snack Street"), I found most of the samplings surprisingly delicious. Not to mention good for your health. Or so the vendors kept telling me.
Donghuamen Night Market is open daily from 5:30 to 10 p.m. It's located on Donghuamen Dajie.
ASSORTED INSECTS
Apparently, insects are good for you: high in protein, loaded with fibre - and better for the environment than most of the meat we eat. Still, it's tough to get over the fact that they're ... gross. For the faint of stomach, though, perhaps the easiest introduction to the world of entomophagy (a.k.a. eating insects) is crickets. Lightly fried in oil, they're crispy, slightly fishy, with a buttery aftertaste. Silkworms, too, are surprisingly edible: A crunchy exterior reveals an interior with a taste and texture like mashed potato. Altogether, not bad.
Crickets are about $2. Silk worms are 75 cents for five.
SEA URCHIN
Sea urchin, the vendor tells me as he crudely points to my groin, enhances a man's sexual performance. "Wanshang gaoxing," he adds, nodding at the woman standing beside me. "Tonight, happy!" He then cracks the spiky invertebrate in half like a coconut, and stirs up the meaty interior with soy sauce and wasabi. It all has a distinctly oyster-ish taste. A pleasant surprise.
Sea urchins are $2.
SNAKE
Snake is the one truly awful thing I ate on Snack Street. Skinned and wrapped around a stick, the serpent is then grilled and sprinkled with spices. This gives it the texture of calamari, but the taste is all rotten fish. One bite is enough to make me fear Beijing Belly, expatriates' nickname for the bimonthly stomach ailments many of us suffer.
Snake sticks are $2.
GOLDEN CENTIPEDE
Above the stall selling golden centipedes is a sign written in "Chinglish" boasting of the insect's myriad health benefits. "For medicinal purposes value is high," it reads. "Its effect has relieves sickness, kills poisonously, overcomes one's fears the anticancer treatment..." And on and on, so with all those benefits, I would be stupid not to try it. Right? Even dripping in oil, it tastes like Buckley's cough syrup, but I force it down anyway, much to the delight of the grinning vendor.
Centipedes are $4.50 - or bargain the vendor down to $3.
STARFISH
To chase down my centipede, I decide on a starfish - which isn't necessarily good for your health but is mighty delicious. Cracked open, starfish reveal a green, fleshy interior that tastes like oily crab meat. Why don't they serve this in restaurants?
Starfish are $7.50. Haggle and you might get one for $1.50.
SEA DOG
"Sea dog," as the vendor calls it, looks like roasted salamander to me. But even after a number of Google searches I still don't know for sure. Whatever it is, it doesn't taste bad at all - a bit like dried fish soaked in margarine. It is, however, the most expensive snack I try at Donghuamen. But for good reason. As the lady behind the counter flexes her bicep, she tells me, "It will make you strong!"
Sea dog is $7.50.
LAMB PENIS
When it comes to eating lamb penis, a when-in-Rome attitude wins the day. After all, Beijing is a city with not one but four branches of Guolizhuang Penis Restaurant - which serves up the privates of deer, snakes, yaks, horses, seals and more. I bought a skewer of eight penises from a mustachioed Tajikistani vendor, who advised a couple of young Chinese women to avoid them right after telling me in English, "They're very delicious." They aren't. It isn't that they taste bad - rather bland actually, even smothered in spices - but it's difficult to get past their squishy texture. The veins don't help either.
Eight lamb penises are $3.
SCORPION
Many a visitor to Beijing has snapped photos of scorpions on a stick. And they insist that in China, they really do eat them. Not quite. I've lived here nearly a year and a half and have yet to spot anyone scarf one down. Nor have I seen them on a restaurant menu. In fact, when I ask my Chinese teacher about the delicacy, she recoils. "Only foreigners eat that!" But even if they're just a tourist draw, fried scorpion turns out to be one of the tastiest dishes on Snack Street. They remind me of buttery popcorn kernels and taste great with some overpriced Yanjing Beer. I, for one, leave Snack Street a satisfied customer - and ever so slightly more fertile.
Scorpions are $2. Yanjing beer is $3.
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