The Marrow Spoon

In China, it seems like the most frightening things are good for you. Take this snake wine, for example. In some way the tour guide and lady serving the snake wine was too busy laughing at me to explain, it is supposed to be good for ladies. They have some other blends with legged animals infused, but those are for men. They put hair on your chest, or something. Anyway, it was not advised for moi.

Of course, I didn't go halfway around the world so that I could tell you all just about how McDonalds is the same everywhere, so I tried this in order to report from the fringes of adventure. But I have to say, it wasn't so strange. It did make me feel rather powerful, though. And I can report that I was able to drink more and sleep less in China than I can in the US. In Japan, whole garlic and pickles fermented with fish heads kept me going. It seems that the problem of fitting various social engagements and physical needs for sleep into the same busy schedule is universal.

The flavor of the goji berries (wolf berries) imparts more to the liquor than the snake does. I will keep trying to delight and amaze, but I am running out of places to look for new foods.

On a hot day at the Great Wall of China, there is a vast array of frozen treats to tempt you away from your hard-earned RMB. You can choose ice cream bars in corn, pea, soy bean and taro root, as well as the general strawberry and vanilla flavors you'd see here at home. Pictured here? Taro, a purple root vegetable that is something like a sweet potato. In ice cream, it is wonderful, subtle and not very easy to describe. Not like potato, but vaguely maple-y is the best I can say. Anyway, if you have the opportunity do try it.

Oh, I shouldn't say so. I didn't try it, so perhaps it is magically delicious. I am happy to report that the filet-o-fish continues to be the same everywhere.