Enjoying Chinese cuisine, and I'm not talking about worms, scorpions and grasshoppers!

I had heard about it: "In China they eat worms!" - "Oh please!" Was my usual answer.

Until I went to Beijing and Qingdao street food markets. Food of any sort, insects of any sort, from worms to scorpions to grasshoppers. The scorpions were still alive ready to be spit-roasted, the grasshoppers were already warm and crunchy.

Surprisingly though, I didn't lose my appetite and I delved into the other delicacies the street vendors were cooking, from seafood to fried noodles to steamed dumplings filled with vegetables and meat.

In Beijing, the street market was set up every evening only for dinner just in front of my hotel, becoming in a matter of minutes absolutely packed with tourists and locals alike in the lookout for their favourite delicacy.

After a couple of days in Beijing I went to Qingdao, little town (only 8 million people) on the coast of the Yellow Sea, where the street market in the old part of the city was also for lunch. And for lunch I went, finding a huge range of Chinese treats for all tastes, to be eaten rigorously with the chopsticks.

What I like of this way of eating is that I can have a little of many different things, instead of a full dish of only one choice. And this is exactly what I did, jumping from one vendor to another, I had the opportunity to taste several specialities, and I'm pretty sure nothing I've had involved snakes, worms or other delicacies I'm not ready to understand yet.