Buzz, buzz . . . crunch.

I thought I'd already eaten my share of weird foods in China (snake, eel, live shrimp, starfish), but one of the dishes at supper tonight has to make it pretty high on my Top 10 List of Bizarre Foods I've Eaten. The dish was fried bees. That's right, bees . . . as in the insects that make honey. A whole plate of fried bees and fried bee larva. And yes, I ate a bee. And a bee larva. It tasted like chicken . . . just kidding. It was crunchy and just tasted like the batter it was fried in. I don't ever need to eat another fried bee. Maybe this is why we have a bee shortage in America. The Chinese are eating all the bees. I never saw this in Yichang so maybe it's a Yunnan specialty? . . .

Half way through dinner, while our host wasn't looking, Dave made a buzzing sound and threw a bee at me. It landed on my plate and I about choked on my tea. There's just something funny and slightly disturbing about a plate of fried insects on the table.