Dinner. On a Stick!

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I managed to solve the food dilemma by meeting a very fun couple from Seattle who invited me to grab a bite to eat with them at the Night Market. To all of you guys who warned me not to eat from street vendors, I can say that I'm ignoring you completely and although my stomach doesn't always love me, it is holding up OK to this point.

The Night Markets are a long block of food vendors. They are a bit expensive by Beijing standards (I still spent less than $10) because they are for the tourists, but they certainly aren't for the American tourists. I realized that the Chinese will cook just about anything in kebab form. I saw mutton and beef but also kidneys, scorpions, larvae, snakes, full squid, other types of insects and even starfish (I found these especially interesting since they seemed to be pretty popular). I'm sure I'm missing something as there were several other interesting smells that I'm not sure what they originated from and then I definitely saw some intestines of some sort. Although I'm an adventurous eater I stayed away from all of this. I did try some delicious minced pork sandwiches, pork dumplings, fresh fruit kebabs, and some doughnut balls with banana in them. All was delicious!

Peking Duck!
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This was to be my turning point on Beijing food. Everything I ate from this point forward was delicious. There was a tiny little place right beside the hostel that had a sign out front that said "Cheap Chinese Food." Turns out it was both cheap and very good. Before we got out of town we had pineapple chicken, shrimp noodles, Peking Duck, fried chicken, and sweet and spicy eggplant. Every bit of it good and I never paid more than $3 for a meal (including the 40 of beer that costs less than 50 cents).

It's even pretty easy to get American breakfast here. That's especially great because this seems to be the food I crave most after not having it for a while. Basically I can have eggs for breakfast and then pure Chinese deliciousness for the rest of the day. So much for losing weight =)