The Best Food that I've Had in China (Also the Craziest)

The Best Food that I’ve Had in China (Also the Craziest)

Food is what makes China China. You simply can’t experience China to the maximum unless you eat and drink like a local and try whatever dishes you can get your hands on (trust me, I’ve done this even by accident). In my time in China, I seemed to spend all of my time eating, whether it was street food, or in a restaurant. But people always still ask me what is the best and the worst, well craziest food that I’ve ever had in China.

I guess some of the best tasting food I’ve had in China and is one of my favourites is Peking Duck from one of the top restaurants here in Beijing, when you’ve eaten this duck, it’s literally life changing, you’ll literally hate Chinese food when you return back to your home country, because you’ll miss the amazing smell and taste of the food here. In Beijing especially you can go to any famous duck restaurant, and you’ll be given the choice of half a duck or a whole one, you’re in China you might as well go for the whole one! So you’ll be given everything from the duck, and not only this but you’ll have the experience of the chef carving and preparing the duck right in front of you! The food in China is about experience, and also the taste, and you’ll be given the duck’s head (no joke), but it’s actually really nice, you’ll also be given a soup of duck, pancakes, cucumber and whatever sides that specific restaurant might offer, and then you can load everything into your pancake alongside the duck sauce, and honestly I’m drooling at the thought of the sauce right now… So you need to come to China, and you need to try the duck, it will literally be the best thing you’ve ever done or eaten in your life.

So, the thing that most people look forward to, is what the worst or craziest thing I’ve ever eaten since being in China. Where can I start? I found it quite hard to narrow it down to just one, so starting with sea cucumber, this guy was a bit of a slippery customer, something that I hope never to ever eat again in my life, imagine eating a slug that tasted and smelt like fish that had died for maybe a year? You got it. To be honest it wasn’t that bad, the taste was covered in spice, but the texture is something I’ll never forget, it was mushy like a slug (not that I’ve eaten a slug before), and I couldn’t even pick it up with my chopsticks!

Another strange food was donkey. I’m really sorry if you’re imagining a cute little donkey and going ‘aww’ but I didn’t know it was donkey until I was told after I’d eaten it, now that I’m thinking about it, I did eat a lot of things without first asking what it was… The donkey stick and donkey burger wasn’t actually too bad, it smelt and tasted a bit like the smell of a farm, but the meat was quite juicy and is considered a delicacy here in some districts in Beijing.

One thing that is considered quite scary rather than crazy was eating scorpions at Houhai Lakes. I literally just picked a few live scorpions and the guy put them on a stick and boiled them and soaked them in sugar, and honestly they were absolutely gorgeous, I was still a bit worried about the tail so I threw part of it away, but now I know that I like scorpion! When you come to China you may not necessarily like trying things, but you need to throw yourself into the deep end and give it a a go, because you’ll only regret it if you don’t!