Yes, you read right. Actually, there were three of those little fellows on my stick. So if I tell you that after I took care of those crispy and excellent seasoned guys there was none left on a stick, what do you think happened to 'em? Oh yes, folk, I DID GOBBLE THEM UP! And let me tell you, they were delicious. Who would have guessed that I would ever have the gutts to try scorpion and even more love it in the end?! Nobody, huh! But my crazy food experience didn't stop there quite yet, as I got treated by my favorite Nainai (Chinese grandma) to another stick which held 3 pupaes (yes, I never heard of this animal before - you might want to set up a google search for this one), that were crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Yes, it doesn't look very appealing, but just like the scorpions, those fried little animals also tasted great. Still now, almost a week after putting those things in my mouth, I cannot believe I actually ate it.
It all started on a lazy Saturday morning. It was my weekend off and I knew that my hostmom took this day off of work, too, to do something fun with the kids. So while everyone was sort of waiting for taitai (that's how we call the mother in the house here) to get up, we were all lounging in the living room, various electronic devices were in use, and for sure the TV blurred in the background. Only until they started presenting the current Chengdu International Food & Tourism Festival. Suddenly that big screen had everyone's attention. Pictures of great snacks and authentic Chinese provincial foods was shown, stalls got presented by this silly reporter I was jealous of bc he got a free sample at every stall. And man, did that food look good! Sure enough Rex, my hostkid, got hooked the most by this stall selling all sorts of weird fried animals on sticks and immediately started begging to go try it. Nainai, experienced as always, only kept adding more great stories to this festival, that even after my hostmom disagreed to go, Rex, Nainai, the cousin on holiday and I hopped on the next bus, metro and another bus to go have fun and try some delicious eats. You cannot imagine the size of this festival area. Huge space, covered with both tons of stalls and tons of people ready to eat. Prices were cheap and everyone was digging in. From fried ice cream on a stick, over stinky tofu, pineapple sticky rice, caramelized rice balls on a stick all the way to meat in every possible preparation way. Did I mention how much Chinese people love meat and eat it basically with every meal. Yes, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now we can talk about high cholesterol! But I have to admit, if our cook would prepare goat meat like those people at the 'spanish' stall at the festival did, I would totally join my family eating it 24/7. This was probably the most flavorful and best prepared meat I ever had. Hands down.
So you can imagine how filled we all were when it was time to start our 1,5 hour journey home. Filled and happy. Perfect combination!