Eating Scorpions, Centipedes, Snakes, and Tarantulas in Wangfujing Street

The hustle and bustle of the new Lunar Year was upon us and it just turned to the year of the snake. A dear foodie/fashionista came to pay me a visit in China at this time.

As a Beijing resident I thought I would be a good host and take my guest to the food streets of Wangfujing. Being in China for a few years and being an adventurous person, I’ve tried a few interesting foods here.

Wangfujing is a street filled with foods. They have lamb skewers, various buns, rice dishes, fruits, and desserts. They also have some things that you might not see in a typical restaurant – live scorpions for example.

My guest had no idea that there were live insects waiting to be prepared and then ingested. In my head as I made a devious face and a motion of washing my hands without water, I planned to give her a little surprise. Heh heh heh.

In Wangfujing street they have these scorpions that are wriggling and writhing around on a stick and when you order them the merchants quickly dip it in hot oil, sprinkle some seasoning, and serve it to you fresh.

So as for my devious surprise? Well we ate those little scorpions alright. That was NBD. I was in for the surprise. It turns out that she was way more hardcore than I was. Apparently little scorpions were not enough. We moved on to these huge scorpions and centipedes!

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. See us chomping down on these huge insects! See our reactions to eating huge scorpions.

Although all of these critters did not look appetizing, centipede actually tasted the worst. It was gritty and bitter tasting. See our reactions here!

After eating that big juicy scorpion and the dry bitter centipede, the rest were a walk in the park. We had snake and tarantula. Actually the snake was a little too fried so it tasted more like a crispy chip than anything. It still had some taste, but it was definitely a little too fried.

Looking back the tarantula actually tasted more like a soft-shelled crab. It also had a similar taste to the small scorpion or maybe it was because they used some similar seasoning. =P Here is part 3/3 of our Wangfujing exotic food adventure – eating spider and snake.

I do like being adventurous, but for food normally I would not have tried all of these unique creatures especially all in one sitting, but it was a pleasant surprise that I had someone equally if not more adventurous pushing me to taste them. Honestly, except for the centipede none of the other bugs had a “bad” taste. The reason some people can’t bring themselves to eat insects is more of a mind over matter thing. Taste-wise, health-wise, and nutrition-wise there is no specific reason we couldn’t be including some insects in our meals — not that I am an advocate of eating bugs now, but just saying. Now when I see insects, I’m a little less grossed out since I put those guys in my mouth and ingested some that were larger than the size of my hand. =P