Just for the Ladies at the Oswegoland Park District…

This entry is a special tribute to all of my friends at work who were asking about what kind of food I would be eating in China. Are you ready for this?

Last night we finally went to the night market that is just down the street from the East Gate. It is a huge hangar sized room filled with rows and rows of little grill stations surrounded by little wooden tables. Just like everything else in China, these food purveyors all seemed to have pretty much the same foods to offer. Upon entering, I noticed the wriggling bags made of white plastic netting. They were filled with frogs. Next to the frogs were two tubs, one filled with crayfish and the other with mini crabs. A stack of cages took up the space immediately next to the grill. In these cages were (stop reading if you are easily disturbed by the thought of eating fluffy things) chickens and rabbits. Katie definitely blanched at this sight, while I got really excited to try some of the food. At least you know it is fresh!

We picked a random vendor near the center of the room (side-stepping a few hides and avoiding the airborne fish scales that were going in every direction as the woman unceremoniously prepped the next meal). With our limited Chinese, we ordered one beef dish, two fish dishes and one omelet-like dish that we saw at the table next to us. The beef was a beef and bell pepper dish that we have had several times around town. The meat slices were bigger this time, but also tougher. The fish came whole- head, tail, bones and all- as usual. I couldn’t identify either types of fish, but the first one that we got had way more flavor than the second one. The egg dish had some sort of meat in it. The meat was light in color, kind of “like chicken”. It honestly could have been anything.

After we ate, Nick and I walked around to check out some of the different offerings. There were plenty of veggies for grilling, lots of food on skewers, a TON of seafood (snail, crab, squid/octopus), some dumplings, and some little clay pots that were bubbling and brewing more like a medieval science experiment than a meal. We found more fresh critters (including eel and hedgehog). I am honestly really excited to go back and try more. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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