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May 30, 2006
Hong Kong (and Beijing)
As soon as I got into the Hong Kong airport, I felt like I had left the East and was traveling in Europe. It was a welcome change at this point, a brief but expensive switch in traveling. While Hong Kong doesn't have much history to see- when the British came here 150 years ago, there was a few thousand people in the area- it has some great food, an absurd amount of shopping, and more skyline than I expected.
I'm going for dim sum (or yum cha) today at Luk Yu Tea House, some antiques shopping on Hollywood Road, and I'm not sure what else.
The friend I met in Beijing, Laura Emerick, emails people her thoughts on her trip, and she's a lot more thorough than I am. She's happy to let me repost what she's written, and I really enjoyed this section about Beijing, which you can see in part in my pictures:
After dinner we saw the famous nightmarket. Basically anything that crawls, walks, flies or swims was on a stick for sale. Beef, Chicken, Liver, Shrimp, Oyster, Clam, Crawfish, Squid, snake, Scorpion, Grasshopper, Beetle, Sparrow, Starfish, Snake Skin, Sea urchin, and a lot more. In case anyone is questioning this I have AMPLE hotographic proof. There was also noodles, pastries, fruit and vegetables. Brian and I wandered around but began to wonder if anyone actually ate the stuff. We only saw normal items being purchased. A sign said that the Night Market was government sponsored - perhaps the delicacies were just for the tourists. We had just eaten so I was very full and declined any food. After dropped Brian off, I got to thinking and realized I'd never be able to maintain my pride if I didn't try something at the Night Market. So I returned. Then I saw one Chinese man munching on some kind of insect and thought "Well maybe people do eat this stuff." I ordered Sparrow - very scary looking - small and skinned and kind of human-like. It actually tasted just fine - like chicken skin and the seasoning was quite nice. I nibbled on a bit and got my photographic proof. Emboldened, I decided to try something more daring. Tossing out my remaining sparrows (which were snatched up by that Chinese man who was munching on the bugs) I screwed up my courage (Think fear factor Laura) and ordered the caterpillar cocoons. Yep, cocoons with the larva still inside. With the help of a nice South African woman I video-taped the experience. Cocoon definitely does NOT taste like chicken! It was crispy on the outside but gooey with a fiberous pasty taste on the inside. I took a little nibble and decided I'd proved my point. Trampsing over to the garbage can, I handed to it the beggar man who REFUSED it! The beggar REFUSED the caterpillars - that proves just how nasty they are. I guess these foods really are just for the tourists.
Posted by Brian at May 30, 2006 05:43 AM
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