Guest post by Shelley Seale
The Donghuamen Night Market near Beijing’s Forbidden City is an almost psychedelic scene not to be missed. If you love street food, this stretch of pavement will provide you with one of the best such experiences to be found anywhere.
Under brightly lit awnings, dozens of vendors hawk their delicacies like barkers at a state fair – and what delicacies they are. Along with more sedate dishes such as dim sum and soup, you can also find bamboo skewers of silkworms, scorpions, seahorse, snake and starfish. If insects or innards aren’t your thing, a huge variety of fresh vegetables are on offer – I discovered a caramelized lotus root that I couldn’t get enough of.
Half the fun of this market, however, lies in simply checking out the food on gorgeous display and bantering with the vendors and other patrons. Our group of Americans and Canadians made friends with some Greek tourists; as I meandered along behind the others, a vendor screamed out “sheep penis!” right in my ear, delighting with laughter at my double-take as he dangled the offending organ in front of me.
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