Behind the Great Wall

One of my contractors did some extra work for me. As thanks, I took him out to dinner. Naturally, I took him to a place that serves only Western food, has an English menu, and there isn’t a single chopstick in the place. It’s nice to reverse the equation once in awhile and land on my home turf. He adapted with good humor, although he really hadn’t figured out a fork by the end of the evening and kept trying to use the knife to pick things up onto it.

Anyway, on the way back to the subway, we went through a street food market. This is popular with the Wudakhou student crowd, and as we passed a 名词 (kebab) place, I was struck by the number of varieties. Most places only have two, beef or mutton, but this place had a list of at least a dozen different items.

I asked my contractor what the most expensive item on the menu was, because at 8 kuai, it was unusually expensive. He looked embarrassed and broke into a giggle and didn’t want to tell me.  Eventually I pried it out of him.

Meatballs.

As in meat balls. As in ram testicles.

Oh well. At least I know where to find grilled ram testicles in Beijing.