Hungry?

Eating is central in the Chinese culture. So much that when they greet each other during the day, they ask each other if they have eaten yet. Big circular tables are ensuring all can share an equal place at the table. Cooking is an art of balancing the ingredients of a dish in the right proportions to ensure they will reveal the best not only their flavours but also the healing powers of some of its elements. Without banquets there are no business deals. Chinese New Year is celebrated around food with family. And I could find you more and more examples (maybe later).
But our Western eyes and stomachs might not always be accustomed to some of the local delicacies. We had our first experience of the Chinese culinary tastes yesterday.

We took a trip around Wangfujing street. It is in the center of Beijing, 20 minutes from us by taxi. Wangfujing is a pedestrian market/commercial area. We found there a huge English language bookstore (yeah!), lots of other stores (Beijing is about shopping it looks like), many new buildings, even a very pretty scaffolding in disguise. The street was filled with Chinese tourists wearing coloured caps in groups and frantically following a guide waving a flag of the same colour.
We arrived at a junction, and on our left several hundred tables are lined up in a row, light up by as many bright red lanterns: the night food market of Donghuamen. On these stalls, an immense display of foods of all sorts. Kebabs are awaiting your selection to be grilled, vegetables and meat are ready to be dumped in hot broth, stirred fried or grilled. Dumplings are steamed, and hot oil is fuming here and there. Every man (and woman) behind the counter is together a cook and a merchant, talking and shouting and stirring and cooking at the same time. The colours are beautiful, the smells intense and my appetite somewhat awaken but damped by the content of some stands. Sea horses, sea stars, water bugs, cockroaches, to name a few. 

Here are a few pictures for you to make your own opinion.

De Food fair

De Food fair

De Food fair

De Food fair

De Food fair