The Last Supper (of China)

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Our very last meal of the trip was a traditional Peking Duck. Our anticipation had been growing since the previous day. For an appetizer we had hit up the Beijing night market where you can buy just about anything deep fried; and I do mean anything. As the street vendor said, "You want eat testicles - BALLS" as he included an appropriate (or one could argue inappropriate) gesture. As we walked away he said, "Penis, you want fried penis" as he held up a penis on a stick. There was fried snake, birds (yes, the kind that land on your windowsill), starfish, sea horse, scorpions, silkworms, tarantulas and many, many more. We figured, "When in Rome" and jumped in to try something. Feeling refreshed from our massages and diagnosis by a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor, I was ready to try some friend bugs. We met our friends out on street who had just finished eating a scorpion. They asked if Erika and I wanted to eat a silk worm and she replied, "Hell NO!" I jumped at the chance to practice for my future chance to win Fear Factor! We bought a stick of six and distributed them among Jess, Dave, Abby, Jessica, and I. Jess wasn't sure about the experience but after a heart to heart about once-in-a-life time experiences, she caved in. After a quick discussion about whether we should make this a two bite experience of just shove the entire thing in our mouths we went for it, "1-2-3." Immediately we were all gagging as we had an entire, overly crunchy silkworm in our mouths. It was so disgusting. Thankfully, Erika got it all on camera! We were seriously disgusted. The flakes of the outer shell were impossible to chew. I found them in my teeth for hours after. We looked at our watches and saw it was time to head to the duck dinner. We went back to find Jing, our tour guide. On the way over Erika decided she wanted to try a fried scorpion. Since we were in a rush, we grabbed a stick of two on our way to the bus. Once on the bus we braced ourselves and... "Down the hatch!" She did not have pleasant things to say about it but I actually thought it wasn't bad. I found the scorpion crunchy and a bit salty; a pretty satisfying treat, really!

Finally we arrived at dinner. Our group of six friends had become accustomed to sitting together at each meal. It was Jessica and Abby, Jess and Dave, and Erika and I at every meal. However, each table always holds ten people. Each time we would have a different four people sitting with us. It was as if after they sat with us once they thought again about sitting and listening to our nonsense chatter a second time. Well, the last meal, we finally had our perfect table mates - The Diva Squad (as nicknamed by Jessica). They were a blast. The ten of us laughed so hard throughout our meal. It was Dee's birthday and she wanted a cake. The restaurant told her it was too late to order one so Jing came to the rescue and found one somewhere! At the start of our meal we discussed U.S. Customs, telling the Divas too be careful about all their purchases so they would not get the confiscated. They begin to list off their purchases: 12 knock-off bags, 3 fake Rolexes, 5 pairs of imitation Beats, an unknown number of bedazzled hats, and much, much more. We were laughing so hard out of mere shock and disbelief of their extreme purchases! They had to buy an entire giant bag to hold the twelve bags they bought! After about a five minutes, Dee pipes in, “Oh, I get it. They might confiscate them because they are not real name brands.” Wow….. Major delayed reaction. After eating some delicious duck we were disappointed that we didn’t actually get to see the duck. Dave had been talking about putting the duck neck in his mouth for 48 hours now. We requested for the duck to be brought to our table. Jing explained, “Most Americans don’t want to see that. You want to see duck.” We replied, “Yes, specifically, could you bring us a duck neck?” She explained to the waiters that we would like them to cut off the duck neck and bring it to us. They looked very confused but they obliged. A few minutes later, Dave had his duck neck. As the Divas ate cake we laughed about Dave finally getting his dream come true. Apparently I’m not the only one slated for a Fear Factor audition. It was a great ending to an amazing trip. And it was only fitting that we found our perfect table match at our last group meal!

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Photos

Jess
"Not so sure I'm eating this!"

Comments

[joel]

foooood!
looks like a fun trip. I like that you partook of all the local delights and didnt stick to food you knew. I always try to get a taste of the local food and leave behind every type of food I am accustomed to when I am on the road.