Beijing Boyce

Update number two on my “scorpions on a stick” media monitoring project (for full details, see: On a stick? In Beijing? No way!).

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Category: Wait, do GIANT scorpions on a stick count? (See photo here.)

Candidate: Chris O’Brien, Forbes

Clip:

A traditional Chinese medicine doctor will tell you that scorpions have a potent medicinal value, but in Beijing they are skewered on sticks at Donghuamen night market, deep-fried in oil and sprinkled with spice. They are mainly munched by giggling overseas tourists who, unlike long-term residents, don’t shy away from the $7 asking price. (From the photo caption)

Comment: Um, exactly. Way to go O’Brien and wreck all my fun! An informative piece that covers some Beijing food background, a street food alternative to Wangfujing, and dishes ranging from the common kebab to fusion cuisine (example: bean curd and foie gras), with a few historical anecdotes thrown in. And it puts those scorpions into context, both in the clip above and at the end of the article:

A world away from fine dining, the daily Donghuamen night market in Wangfujing, Beijing’s premier shopping district, offers some unusual–at least for Westerners–eats, such as dog penises, silkworms and snake skins.

However, overseas tourists are often the most enthusiastic and adventurous when it comes to sampling these delicacies. One Chinese pensioner recoiled in horror at the sight of an American tourist biting off the head, and then tail, of a giant scorpion on a stick.

“That scares me,” she said, chewing on a rather plain-looking bing, a dry pancake.

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Category: I like mine with jam?

Candidate: Matt Forney, Wall Street Journal

Clip:

In Beijing, where my family lives, I once returned home from a restaurant with a doggy bag full of deep-fried scorpions. The next morning, I poured them instead of imported raisin bran into my 11-year-old son’s cereal bowl. I wanted to freak him out. The scorpions were black and an inch long, with dagger tails.

“Scorpions!” shrieked my son, Roy. “Awesome!”

Comment: OK, these are scorpions in a bowl, not on a stick, so they fall outside the jurisdiction of this media monitoring project, but I found this a creative non-night market, non-stick related way of talking about scorpions. Nice. I bet Forney poured fermented mare’s milk on to those scorpions, but he didn’t want to gross us out.