Beijing Day 7 Tour 3 and the Waufujing Night Market aka Scorpions the other white meat

We went on our last Tour yesterday to the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. They were very relaxed tours that consisted of looking at pretty buildings and lawns. They were impressive and the view from the Temple of Heaven was spectacular. You can see all of Beijing for miles around. It's like their Eiffel Tower but much shorter. After they took us to the Pearl Market where I spent far to much money considering I don't wear jewelry. The Nevilles had tickets to track at night so they left after we got back to the hotel. (On a side note of course they made it on the Today show. I am sooooo unlucky!!!!) I decided to do some more shopping in Waufujing. Waufujing is like Times Square. Lots of shops and walking people. We had attempted to make it to the Waufujing Night Market before but we got their too late. I decided to go on my own after checking out the more regular shops. I shouldn't have to explain the Night Market. You have undoubtedly seen the email of it that has been going around for ages. There are about 50 stalls all in a row on the street. They sell some shall we say "interesting" foods. The first stall sold carmelized glazed fruit (My statements on what something was is an educated guess. I don't speak Chinese. It could have been anything). I tried it and it was quite tasty. This encouraged me to keep going. I wandered past many stalls with raw meat on sticks. I don't do raw, so I stopped at the deep fried ice cream stall next. The merchant told me the cream puff balls were bannaa so I bought them. It tasted fine but certainly not like banana. It was also super greasy. I gave up after 2 balls. I continued on and came upon 4 American Guys. We'll call them the Braves from now on. The Braves had sticks of giant scorpions. I pretty much dared them to eat it. And of course they did since men are simple creatures. Unfortunately they felt that since they had tried big ones I should be willing to try small ones. I did not particularly agree with this plan.
I claimed poverty-they offered to pay.
I claimed food allergies- The Brave pointed out that I could hardly be allergic to what I had never eaten.
I claimed a delicate stomach-the Braves pointed out that small scorpions could hardly do much damage.
I told them raw food is unhealthy-The Braves pointed out the scorpions are deep fried.
This was actually something I did not know. All sticks of meat are actually deep fried before they are given out. This includes the scorpions. At this point they were waving the stick in my face and I didn't want to seem like a punk (I guess women are simple creatures too). I grabbed it off the spike and popped it in my mouth whole. Then I crunched and crunched and crunched and swallowed. Honestly it really isn't that bad. Scorpion is not as bad as you think. It's sort of nutty and squirmy. However that was as adventurous as I was willng to get. The Braves went on to try catapillars, silk worms, snakes and other assorted dishes. However they did have to draw the line somewhere. When I suggested they try the sheep penis they all refused. Something about once you cross that line you can never go back. I couldn't talk them into it at all. Oh well.... Next up is my last full day, the Basketball finals and the Night market with the Nevilles. It's almost over....