Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Three Screams


Our first day in Bejing is when I decided that I never want to fly again. A 16 hour plane ride is, well brutal. It began to hit me around the 6 hour mark. As I watched the GPS plane flying excruciatingly slowly across the top of the world, my imagination ran wild. It's 77 degrees below zero outside at 35,999 feet up. What would we do if we had to have an emergency landing? Freeze.

At eight hours in, I was too tired to watch a movie, but too awake to sleep. The baby behind me didn't help. I wanted to scream, too. At ten hours in, I only had SIX MORE HOURS ON THE PLANE. It gave me plenty of time to work on my character.

I arrive in Beijing exhausted and yet it's only 1:30pm. We take our luggage up to the room and meet back downstairs for a walk. Our guide is lovely and I can't help but wonder if Grant would like her as much as we do!?

We walk and walk and walk. At a vendor on the road, we try Dragon fruit, Mangosteen and man alive.....Lychee (pictured above) are fabulous! I'd had a drink made with lychee here, but if I ever see those little jewels at the grocery, you can be sure that they will be coming home with me!

Finally, we make it to dinner and can sit. Oh the luxury of sitting. Just hours ago, I think I'll never want to sit again, and now it is EXACTLY what I want to do. Jean, our guide, orders our meal for us and dishes begin arriving. I couldn't tell you what anything was, but it was all amazing! She went easy on us and had mostly chicken, beef and pork. But she couldn't help but tell us about one of the most bizarre Chinese dishes, The Three Screams.

The diners would order mice that had just been born and a plate of sauce. The baby mouse would scream first when a diner seized it with a pair of chopsticks. It would scream a second time when it was dipped into the seasonings and its last scream was emitted as it entered the diner's mouth. from ChinaDaily.com

From then on, I went vegetarian. I'm brave like that. If you're brave, poke around with that link above on China Daily. It's another world.


8 comments:

nitebyrd said...

Poor baby mice! I wonder if they taste like chicken?

Grant said...

I hope you got pictures of your bunny guide. I'm willing to marry her based on your description alone.

I clicked on the China Daily link and the headline read "Flood-hit dyke in East China suffers new breach". I didn't know you were breached by a flood. I guess you're saving that story for later.

Akelamalu said...

They eat live mice?????? I hear they eat dogs too????

I love lychees.

Jay said...

I agree that we need pics of the guide! ;-)

16 hours on a plane? Oy! I wouldn't do that without drugs and alcohol. haha

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

Some Oxycontin and two Jacks as the plane take off...sleep 10-12 hours and be awake for the last 4..that would be my plan

OF COURSE we need a picture of your guide!

Dana said...

Reminds me of how I learned about the way Koreans make sure dog (a delicacy as well) is the most tender. And let's just say that I heard it - not about it - but heard it.

It's sometimes difficult to wrap your mind around what is so common in another culture.

CheekyMonkey said...

What the... baby mice? *gag* I'm never going to China.
So happy you're home!!!

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