Despite efforts in Beijing to clean up its act, all indications are the Summer Olympic Games will be a culinary catastrophe.
A positive menu move was made a few weeks ago. Even so, if I were attending the Olympic Games that begin this week, I’d be leery of some of the local offerings. And this is coming from a guy who eats anything, isn’t picky, and fully understands the theory that a hungry tourist needs to be adventurous and dine as and where the locals do for an enjoyable, exciting experience.
Here’s something I wouldn’t expect to read in Gourmet Magazine. Remember, that’s Gourmet Magazine.
The headline teasing one of this month’s articles tells me that I can dine “exquisitely” in restaurants in the city hosting the Summer Olympics. I don’t doubt that, especially if I stay away from duck’s feet, steamed crap and burnt lion’s head.
The same headline then does an about face and informs me there’s a better alternative.
Prime rib in Beijing??!!
Hardly.
Gourmet Magazine….did I mention the title? GOURMET Magazine says I need to hit one of the outside vendors some evening and sample the wonder of what GOURMET Magazine calls, “A Banquet of Bugs.”
Writer Stephen Henderson recounts how one vendor in a rather unusual manner enticed him to stop and check out his bill of fare (You’ll find out when I link to the article).
There, Henderson of GOURMET Magazine discovered, “deep-fried centipedes, crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions, silkworms, and starfish. Most of these snacks were neatly arranged kebab-style, on wooden skewers.”
Henderson writes he could feel the little legs tickling his lips as he ate a centipede kebab. He refers to this and other odd dining experiences as broadening the palate and even quotes an “expert” who contends that eating insects, here we go………… will save the planet.
Sorry, Gourmet Magazine. Your arguments just aren’t persuasive enough.
Please pass the crisp Peking duck.
