Wangfujing Night Market

As most of you already know, I am a huge fan of the television show "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" on the Travel Channel, and I had always said that he has the perfect job; travelling all over the world on someone else's dime, and experiencing all sorts of exciting cuisines and ingredients. Well, after my experience at the Wanfujing Night Market (which I had originally seen on his television show) I have decided that he can have that job. I don't want it. Especially if I had to go back an try anything more than I did on my first trip. My plan was to eat sea urchin right of the shell, try all sorts of crazy bugs and beetles, and just try as many new things as I could. Well, we arrived at shortly before ten p.m., and just strolled along the seemingly endless stalls that were selling everything from corn on a stick to silkworms, and I I think I was more put off by the smell than excited to try all of this food. None of the food is on ice, including all of the seafood. Just imagine about a hundred stalls, all serving some sort of meat or fish, in 90 degree weather, and it has been sitting out since 4:00 pm. Let's just say, it's not the most appealing aroma in the world. I would rather a shirtless FUB put me in a headlock for thirty seconds, than smell what I was smelling. So, you're first thought is I left, right?

Wrong. I needed try at least one thing there before I left. So I perused for a spell, narrowing down the very limited selections that I could brave, and after much deliberation, decided on two items I thought would be a safe bet. The first was what the hawkers were calling a "Chinese hamburger". It was more like chopped lamb, with a ton of cilantro, fried and put into a soft white bun.

This was actually pretty darn tasty! I reminded something that you can buy on the streets of New York City, and I happen to be pretty fond of the street food in NYC.

My next pick, on the other hand, was not the wisest choice. I saw Andrew Zimmern do it, so I figured what the heck, I'm only here once. So I ordered fried silkworms on a stick. I'm not going to get into the gory details of what happened next, but let's just say that my first bite did not stay in my mouth for very long. And that is all I have to say about this....

Overall, the experience was well worth it, but I would be content never to do it again. Why come to China to eat bugs, when I could just sit in the backyard and eat the same thing??!?!??