Bizarre foods have been a focus of many shock television shows in the past. Today, you can find some new faces shredding such odd treats as lizards, ants, beetles, and - if the right circumstances arise - an entire animal could be consumed during a meal or two. You might think that being bombarded with all of these strange and sometime disgusting television images would be enough to prepare you for what you will find in Beijing. But, more than likely, you will still find yourself feeling a little bit shocked by what on the menu in Beijing.

Beijing Foods

You might be surprised at what is considered to be fast food to the people of Beijing. In fact, you might even find some of their delicacies to be a bit taboo. Still, if you visit Beijing, you just might want to try some of these delicacies and folk-medicine foods.

The pictures describe the scene: an expansive assortment of neat row carts ready to receive the crowd of Beijing night crawlers on their way back to the hotel or hostel. This is the perfect time to experience the cultural difference between nations! The cool Beijing night allows for the aroma being emitted from fry pans to fill the air, while the braising pots are lifted by the steams of cooking temperatures. Now that you have an understanding of the experience, you can step up to the plate for some authentic Beijing fast foods. Here where you will find some things you would never have thought you see on a stick.

Experimenting with Your Taste Buds

To find yourself faced with a multitude of obscure foods to choose from while on vacation can seem daunting particularly if you are really hunger, yet afraid to try something new. Most of the food you will see in Beiing fall within one of a few categories of Chinese Cuisine. Each class has examples of what may be considered to be extremely rare and quite unnatural. Here are a few examples:

Folk-Medicine Foods: Some of the food choices you will encounter in Beijing are from the folk-medicine category, which means they may contain some obscure food ingredients. Foods that fall into this category may include ingredients such as grilled snake, silk beetle, oysters, and lizard. These foods are eaten by the Chinese to improve their health circumstances. And, many find them to be quite delicious. You might want to try some grilled snake for yourself. If cooked well, it can be a tasty treat that has health benefits too!

Delicacy Foods: Some obscure and bizarre foods of the Chinese culture are considered delicacies to their people. As such, they are eaten only on rare occasions and enjoyed because of their taste or as a part of a celebration, prayer, or tradition. Some foods that are considered to be delicacies include sea urchins, fried starfish, shark fin, scorpion, sea horses and iguana tails. These ingredients are combined to make some of the most expensive meals you can find in Beijing. Enjoy some jellyfish or bird nest soup if you e ready to see what the Chinese gourmet is willing to eat everyday if they could.

Family Foods: Here where the food taboo levels rise and the safety net of morality comes into play for most Western visitors that dare to venture into the exotic foods display offered in Beijing. Within the family foods category of foods, you can find meals that are crafted from recipes that were developed over 2000 years ago! Remember that most of your fear of trying these foods comes from how your own culture regards its foods. Therefore, if you want to completely immerse yourself in the culture, you will have to get used to a different mindset when it comes to food. In Beijing, dog, horse, rat, and brains have been common ingredients in stews. For the brave, comes an true experiment in taste, fortitude, and trust in culture when sampling family foods in Beijing.

Historically rich or medicinally helpful, Chinese fast food in Beijing comes in a thousand different flavors, shapes, and sizes. It may be the most abundant market of obscure ingredients in the world. Enjoy grilled snake and its effect of rejuvenation in an otherwise overloaded body. Have some shark fin soup if you want to try a Chinese delicacy. Or, dine on the brain stew if you want a meal of historical significance.

What makes China different from the Western nations is its ability to delve deeper into its past in order to create a future unlike our younger and less experienced nations of people. Remember, for every type of Beijing fast food you do not want to eat, there are Chinese who enjoy these foods on a regular basis. The foods of Beijing can be as beautiful as the experience of eating them if you allow yourself to experience something new.

Download the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 ebook to find out where all the best restaurants are.

Photo Credits: G. Pollak