To Market, To Market To Buy A Fat Pig

This morning we walked about 4 blocks from our hotel to a traditional Chinese market. I love that these markets still exist in a huge city (Guangzhou is China's 4th largest city with ~12 million people). Each street seemed to have a theme. We walked the Food and Pet Supplies streets.

Lian was fascinated by cats and dogs on the Pet Supply street, and she wanted to pet every cat we passed. She also pet some puppies. So hopefully that bodes well when she meets our animals at home!

The varities of foodstuffs on sale on Food street boggled the mind. One booth sold 4 kinds of LIVE scorptions (apparently they are tasty when fried). Quite a few booths sold huge fungus pieces - the kind that grow in a half-circle on trees - some of these were easily a 12" diameter. Dried starfish and seahorses were also a popular item. Seahorses seem so bony ... I can't quite imagine that they would taste good, but who knows?

Anyhow, here were some of our market favorites.


An overview shot of the Food street:


Black ants, anyone? FYI, these were dead. Our guide said that people eat them for strength.


Sure to be the next "thing-on-a-stick" hit at the MN state fair:


I still haven't seen the movie, but I can only imagine one could have fun hydrating these and hiding them all over the plane on the long over-seas leg. Plus, I could practice my Samuel L Jackson voice while doing so.


Need a leg? Perhaps useful if you are in a theater production and friends tell you to "break a leg" before opening night.