Eating weird stuff
This afternoon Myles and I had taken the metro into Sanlitun to grab lunch before his art class. We were walking to a pizzeria (Gung Ho!) when we were approached by two men and a woman who identified themselves as visitors to Beijing from Lebanon. They asked me if I lived in Beijing, and after I answered in the affirmative, their next question surprised me.
"Is there someplace near here where we can get something strange to eat?"
"Strange, as in weird? As in lizards and scorpions?" I asked back, hoping I wasn't offending them assuming that grilled vermin wasn't what they meant.
"Yes!" one of the men said excitedly. "Is there someplace close by, maybe (gesturing toward the shiny, high-end mall) over there?"
I paused a moment to think. Of course I knew of a place where weird things could be sampled, a very famous place, 王府井小吃街 Wángfǔjǐng xiǎochī jiē (Wangfujing Snack Street). But it wasn't exactly close to where we were standing. And I was still surprised at how excited they were about the idea of chewing on barbecued bugs. They were all at least ten to fifteen years older than I. I always thought that eating weird stuff was the domain of folks much younger.
So I began, "At Yunnan restaurants, they sometimes serve fried bumblebees, not because it's a weird thing to eat, but it is a normal part of their diet."
One of the men replied, "We have already done that. It was delicious."
"Crunchy," chimed in the woman, smiling.
"Well...." I drew a breath. "There's a restaurant chain called Haidilao, and they serve brains...."
"We had brains, too. Very small. Duck brains," the same man volunteered.
O--kay. 王府井小吃街 it would be.
As I explained where 王府井小吃街 was in relation to where we were, they concluded they probably wouldn't want to walk to it. They decided to find a taxi to take them there. I typed out 王府井 on my phone and two of them took a picture of the characters with their phones so they could show the taxi driver. I then described the main pedestrian street of 王府井. I told them that when they arrived there they might think it the wrong place. It is a big shopping street with an Apple Store, and a Gap, and bookstores. If they looked for the gate (I showed them a picture on my phone), they would find quite a bit of weird to eat.
They thanked me profusely and began walking toward the mall, hoping to find a taxi.
Myles and I resumed our walk in the direction of Gung Ho! After a few minuted I was struck with a sudden dread--what if 王府井小吃街 had been closed in the recent gentrification projects around this part of Beijing. Many of the small, independent food carts and barbecue stands that Beijingers had come to depend on for morning 煎饼 jiānbing or late night 串儿 chuànr have been banished from most city streets. Small bars and restaurants, once populating the hutong, have been bricked over and all signs of their existence erased. I had no idea if 王府井小吃街 had also fallen victim to urban revitalization. I may have sent the adventurous Lebanese tourists to a boring old open air mall with no sign of crispy starfish or spicy beetles.
I searched on twitter for any recent mentions of snack street. To my relief, there were some posts from the last month or so, with pictures to back up the bragging of having eaten some creature on a stick. So, maybe 王府井小吃街 has not yet been targeted for removal. I'm still not sure.
"Is there someplace near here where we can get something strange to eat?"
"Strange, as in weird? As in lizards and scorpions?" I asked back, hoping I wasn't offending them assuming that grilled vermin wasn't what they meant.
"Yes!" one of the men said excitedly. "Is there someplace close by, maybe (gesturing toward the shiny, high-end mall) over there?"
I paused a moment to think. Of course I knew of a place where weird things could be sampled, a very famous place, 王府井小吃街 Wángfǔjǐng xiǎochī jiē (Wangfujing Snack Street). But it wasn't exactly close to where we were standing. And I was still surprised at how excited they were about the idea of chewing on barbecued bugs. They were all at least ten to fifteen years older than I. I always thought that eating weird stuff was the domain of folks much younger.
So I began, "At Yunnan restaurants, they sometimes serve fried bumblebees, not because it's a weird thing to eat, but it is a normal part of their diet."
One of the men replied, "We have already done that. It was delicious."
"Crunchy," chimed in the woman, smiling.
"Well...." I drew a breath. "There's a restaurant chain called Haidilao, and they serve brains...."
"We had brains, too. Very small. Duck brains," the same man volunteered.
O--kay. 王府井小吃街 it would be.
As I explained where 王府井小吃街 was in relation to where we were, they concluded they probably wouldn't want to walk to it. They decided to find a taxi to take them there. I typed out 王府井 on my phone and two of them took a picture of the characters with their phones so they could show the taxi driver. I then described the main pedestrian street of 王府井. I told them that when they arrived there they might think it the wrong place. It is a big shopping street with an Apple Store, and a Gap, and bookstores. If they looked for the gate (I showed them a picture on my phone), they would find quite a bit of weird to eat.
They thanked me profusely and began walking toward the mall, hoping to find a taxi.
Myles and I resumed our walk in the direction of Gung Ho! After a few minuted I was struck with a sudden dread--what if 王府井小吃街 had been closed in the recent gentrification projects around this part of Beijing. Many of the small, independent food carts and barbecue stands that Beijingers had come to depend on for morning 煎饼 jiānbing or late night 串儿 chuànr have been banished from most city streets. Small bars and restaurants, once populating the hutong, have been bricked over and all signs of their existence erased. I had no idea if 王府井小吃街 had also fallen victim to urban revitalization. I may have sent the adventurous Lebanese tourists to a boring old open air mall with no sign of crispy starfish or spicy beetles.
I searched on twitter for any recent mentions of snack street. To my relief, there were some posts from the last month or so, with pictures to back up the bragging of having eaten some creature on a stick. So, maybe 王府井小吃街 has not yet been targeted for removal. I'm still not sure.
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