Let Them Eat Snake

Beijing

A few of us went out in the centre of town last night and found a long strip of stalls selling all sorts of fried food. The little menus were translated into English and the people running the stands were doing their best to entice us to buy stuff. One guy held up a snake on a stick and went "ssssssss!" while waving it at us. Obviously I couldn't refuse such a tempting invitation so he stuck it on the fryer put some seasoning on it and gave it to me. It was just the snake skin and was so covered with different spices they were just about all I could taste, but the slimy texture was just as you'd imagine. A bit better was the fried scorpion I got at another stall. In fact they fitted three little ones on a stick and they were very crispy and actually not bad. The legs and tails just tasted of batter but the body was definitely fishy. Even I drew the line at the doubtless delicious "goat cock with testicle" though. I think I made the right decision.

Went along to the Sky News bureau today. It's considerably nicer than the one in Moscow and because not much was happening I was able to have a good chat to everyone there. Correspondent Dominic Waghorn took me out for a long and very civilised lunch which I managed to get through only swallowing one very spicy chilli by accident. My chopsticks technique still needs quite a bit of work though, in the end I gave in and used a fork.

Not sure about what to do tonight although I've discovered there's a brothel underneath my hostel. Thankfully it's probably beyond my budget, but watching Chinese dolly birds taking drunk Western businessmen down there is entertainment enough for a few hours.