street food

Before I left for China, my mother was full of dire warnings. "Don't keep all your money in one place," she said,"Don't leave your passport in the hotel. Don't forget to bring tissues for the bathroom. And don't eat anything."

Well, when I pointed out the difficulties of this last bit of advice, she begrudgingly allowed that I could eat at restaurants, but under no circumstances was I to eat food from a germ-filled street vendor. I agreed.

But in China, not eating food from a street vendor was more of a challenge than I thought. In the cold air, there always seemed to be some inviting warm wafting fragrance of roasting sweet potatoes or corn, as well as fascinating exotic snacks I had never seen before.

One such exotic snack was the bing tang hulu, which . Shiny and red, these candied hawthorne berries were too irresistible and despite my mother's warnings I decided to try it.

Ooohhh, it was good. The perfect blend of sweet and sour, crunchy and soft. After my first, I was smitten.

From then on, whenever bing tang hulu was for sale, I bought one. And ate it.
And I got the rest of the girls to eat it too,
even Ki-Ki.
Sorry, Mom!