Pharmacy Update, Food that May Send Us to the Pharmacy, and a New Helicopter Question

OK, I found the street where all the pharmacies are located. There are three large pharmacies, including one with a green cross sign outside, on Wangfujing Dajie, a huge shopping and eating area near the Forbidden City. Part of the street is closed to cars and pedestrians have free reign. There are two side streets with food vendors selling all sorts of meat and seafood, as well as fruit in a hardened sugar glaze, on sticks like kebabs. The smaller street food area is open all day, and the longer one doesn't open until 5:30 p.m.

A group of us went there this evening, and it turned out to be an adventurous crew--some of the group ate scorpions and silkworms on sticks, sea snake cooked in a wok, and a bubbly drink that must have had a piece of dried ice in the bottom--it was foaming and wafting dry smoke like a science experiment. I tried one claw of someone's scorpion, and it was just a flavorless crunchy experience. It really was like eating a crab shell or a thin sea shell--something that my mind kept telling me should NOT be in my mouth (or in my stomach) and that I should spit out. Crunch, crunch, crunch, and I only had about 1/8th of the scorpion in my mouth. I guess it's an acquired texture. The color of the scorpion was very nice, a dark jewel-like green, almost black really. The folks who ate the whole thing said the abdomen was less crunchy and more meaty. The report on the silkworm was that it was very powdery inside, didn't smell very nice, and wasn't an experience anyone wanted to repeat. They all said they were glad they tried it. Maybe I'll try one another day.

I also had a sip of someone's dry ice drink--kind of like flat cola but with some other unnamable flavor mixed in. Mikala gave me a taste of her fried ice cream, which was not like the fried ice cream I've had at Tex Mex restaurants in the US. This had strawberry ice cream dipped in a flour breading, fried, and placed on top of a friend piece of white bread. The inside of the ice cream was still cold, but the outside with the fried batter was melty and greasy. I think I just like my ice cream unfried (which is also available lots of places in Beijing) but it was fun to try it fried for once.

So after I got home from the Wangfujing Night Market of strange foods, I was thinking about the pharmacies I finally saw (apparently there's one near campus, I just heard, too.) I started reading some articles and blogs about the Olympics and came across one by an English-speaking expat who mentioned that in some of the security drills before the Olympics, helicopters flew over the city. They were the first he'd seen flying over Beijing in his five years here. I hadn't even realized yet that helicopters are missing from the skyscape here. I wonder if I'll see or hear any myself before or during the Olympics.