Meats on a stick

Meats on a stick

Eating various meats on a stick is a great way to pass time. Lamb on a stick (yang rou chuan, 羊肉串) was the first meal I ordered on my own! Meat on a stick sellers can be found everywhere! The style of cooking often comes from the Xinjiang province in the west, which is very Muslim (relatively speaking). This is a picture of an outdoor meat on a stick restaurant; you pick what you want, and then it's barbecued over hot embers, a nice fragrant spicy thing added, and (optionally) spice (la, 辣) is burned in too.
I have no idea what most of this stuff is, you can definitely see pig trotters and tails, duck hearts, fish chunks, various whole fish, eggs, jellyfish (on the right next to the larger eggs), and chicken feet. Now there's a sexy meal to get your girl to chew on..
Just before we saw this, we had a big meal, with plenty of beef on a stick, lamb on a stick, and my current favourite duck-heart-on-a-stick (it's really something!). Our restaurant had a small 3-wall tent made out of plastic sheeting and a couple of fold out bences and tables, with a narrow portable grate for cooking on, outside in the cold (it was much warmer indoors!). As I was finishing, a young couple of about 20 sat down, and the guy brought out a 500ml bottle of baijiu (Chinese rice wine - always over 50%) then proceeded to pour his petite bashful girlfriend a paper cupful to the brim, and another for himself! Insane.