Hello Foodie Followers,
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| Cicadas on a Stick... |
Sorry for our absence in the blogging world for the past couple of weeks. I've been traveling (and eating) my way across
Beijing for the past two weeks, and as most of you know, China's blocked a fair amount of blogging sites. On the upside, they haven't banned the art of photograph (or eating), therefore I have a lovely assortment of photos for you all.
I spent the past two weeks with Georgetown students (GIRC) and other students hailing from a number of universities teaching kids about Model UN and working for a Model UN expo called WeMUN. Hands down probably one of the best experiences of my life that just so happened to allow me to collect some good street food info too! Therefore, I'll be using the next couple of posts to elaborate on the deliciousness of Chinese food (the real stuff, we're not talking about Panda Express).
Up first, Bugs!
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| Cocoons, Cicadas, & Scorpions, oh my! |
So, it's pretty common to be walking down a Beijing street and see either vendors selling snack food or people walking about the streets with items on sticks or in plastic bags. Both methods of packaging work well for those traveling on foot. However, generally speaking if you're walking around with something a stick, chances are you're a bit more of a risk taker in terms of trying the local fare because meat/bugs are usually what come of a stick. Whilst casually strolling down a neighborhood walking area of Beijing, our small group of
Georgetown IRC reps decided to try out some of the more risky of the "on a stick" variety, which is how the four of us ending up nomming on cicadas. Now, bug eating in China isn't some ancient delicacy by any means, I would say 50% is a tourist attraction, 25% is because the Chinese actually enjoy eating bugs, and 25% is for the protein. We had three options, something that looked like giant maggots (which in fact turned out to be cocoons, thank goodness we avoided eating a butterfly), cicadas, and scorpions....
Each item was nicely placed on a stick and lined up in rows. Obviously the cocoon was a no-go due to the probability of it going "pop" in our mouths, the scorpions were also quickly set aside as an option since only three came on a stick when we had four willing to sample the bugs, that left us with the cicadas (shell intact). So for all of
$2.50 USD, we were handed a freshly fried and salted stick of cicadas and left to our own snacking. Needless to say, we all survived the bug eating, but some of us took it better than others, haha.
Long story short, the cicadas were incredibly crunchy and salty, so it could have passed for some other type of food on a stick. However, since we were well aware of what we were nomming on, the tastiness index dropped. I could sort of taste the sharpness of the outer shell, which was not appetizing, but at least is was better than a butterfly...
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| Dane (G'town IRC) mentally preparing for the crunch |
Would we do it again... yes! Why? cause it's a good story to tell, which half the fun of cooking, baking, eating, and the culinary tradition is about sharing food experiences and stories to build a sense of community.
So try something new (and if you're not up for deep fried bugs, maybe start with seafood?)
-Georgetown Foodie
