Last night I went to the infamous Snack Street in the heart of Beijing and ate a variety of interesting "foods" which included: sheep testicles, sheep penis, silk worm larvae, giant centipede and snake, which we later saw offered at another stand and concluded that what we ate was actually octopus. Each item was on a skewer which was fired to order by vendors who yelled out things like "penis, penis" at you as you passed by. The balls weren't too bad and tasted like generic meat that was heavily seasoned with chilis. The penis was EXTREMELY tough to chew and my first comment upon putting it in my mouth was "it's so hard," which I then realized was inappropriately appropriate. The silk worm larvae was by far the worst, crunchy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside. I was wretching soon after I started chewing and was only able to swallow it down by taking it half-chewed like a pill with my cheaper-than-water beer. The giant centipede wasn't all that bad, although Beth thought so (she thought it tasted like metal or chloraseptic), although the legs clung to my lips and tongue and eventually got stuck in my throat and made me have to hack and cough and gargle wth beer to get it down. The sticky legs were definitely the worst part! The snake/octopus was just really chewy and mostly flavorless and not all that exciting. I have many photos documenting the whole thing.

Going to a real dinner now so that's all for now!