The Night Market

Ah, the Night Market. This is something really worth doing. It's a place to eat, a market that opens only at 5:00 PM. It is off one of the main shopping streets called Wang Fu Jing and is just a line of maybe one hundred stalls selling every type of kebab available, along with a few other goodies. You walk along the line of stalls, viewing the uncooked food, looking at the signs for the opening prices (everything is open to bargaining), and pick up portions as you find food that you like. You can get everything from basic beef on a stick to bugs, scorpions, snakes, goat penis and testicles (they love this. You'll be walking along and have some guy shout out at you "Penis! Testicles!" - a bit unnerving from a crowd of otherwise non-english speakers). There are even various fried fruits on a sticks or fruits covered in a sweet glaze. I managed to snag some uncooked kiwi that was pretty good. They even have starfish and sea urchins on a stick. Other non-kebab type foods include various types of Chinese wraps (these aren't very common, so when you stumble across the opportunity, definitely grab it!), fried dumplings, sweet potatoes, and sweet pineapple rice. The last is amazing. They cut a pineapple in half and fill the middle with sweet sticky rice and cook it together like that so you get something the smells and tastes strongly of pineapple. Wonderful!! Fried banana is another option that I highly recommend. And if you are in the mood for a little adventure, you've got the bug/weird body parts options. I hear that they do baby sparrows and mice as well, but I didn't see any the night I went. I didn't get too adventurous. I ate things that were new and looked delicious, but I see no point in putting myself under unnecessary pain just to be able to say that I ate scorpion. No thank you. Food shouldn't be daringly choked down and then bragged about, it should be enjoyed and then raved about. Then again, I am my father's daughter. I did drag Katie and Trevor all over South China looking for new types of Chinese cuisine. And did we find it! Everything from "succulent chicken" to coconut rice to taro root (a Guanxi province specialty).

For some great pictures, take a look at this site. It'll give you some better ideas of just what kind of food was offered at this place.

http://www.hobotraveler.com/143jeff01_01.shtml

Enjoy!