China has lots of delicious foods, and lots of what I would consider “experimental foods.” Particularly the ice cream. Corn ice cream and mung bean ice cream are pretty common. I’ve also tried spicy ice cream which was pretty weird.
One time, my friend, Shirley, and I were visiting some friends in Xi’an, and they took us to an ice cream shop that was famous for having unusual flavors of ice cream. This was several years ago, and unfortunately, I forgot most of the flavors that we saw and tried, but I remember they had lots of fruity combinations along with lots of other flavors.
But I had never seen chicken drumstick ice cream until this last weekend. My friends and I were visiting a small town called 青莲(Qinglian). We stayed in a beautiful bed-and-breakfast by the river owned by a delightful family. The river was right outside of our window, and we could enjoy the termite mound-shaped mountains on the other side of the river.
Being next to the river was beautiful, but after talking to the family, we found out that the location had a price. Two years ago, at around the same time of year (it’s rainy season now), the river had flooded more than it had in 100 years.
“The water came up to your beds,” the daughter, who just graduated from university told us.
We were staying on the second floor. The family was still in the process of finishing the bed-and-breakfast. They had bought the property right before Covid-19, and they had been working on remodeling over the last five years.
As we walked around the little town on the evening of our first day there, we noticed water markings showing how high the flood waters had been. Our walk would have been a swim two years before. We walked until we noticed a convenience store with ice cream freezers on one side.
“Who wants ice cream!” One of my friends asked.
I didn’t really want any ice cream, but I decided to check out the options anyway. Convenience store ice cream usually means packaged treats of ice cream on sticks. They had the usual: chocolate and vanilla, but almost immediately, my eyes were drawn to a yellow and orange wrapper with the picture of a chicken and a chicken drumstick.
“What in the world????” I looked closer. “This ice cream is flavored like a chicken drumstick!”
“No way.”
I couldn’t contain my curiosity, and I slid open the top of the freezer and pulled out one of the packages. “How much does this cost?” I asked the lady that stood next to the counter.
“One kuai [about 14 cents],” the lady answered.
That’s all? I could hardly believe it. I’d never seen ice cream for only one kuai. I confirmed with the lady just to make sure I understood correctly. “If I buy this, who wants to try a bit?” I asked my friends.
A few of them agreed to try a bite, and after paying, I ripped open the package. As I looked at the drumstick-shaped popsicle, I wondered what in the world this was going to taste like. I took a small bite.
“How is it?” A friend asked.
I let the bite melt in my mouth. “Well, it’s disappointingly good. It just tastes like vanilla.” I laughed, and my friends also tried it, agreeing that it was pretty normal.
“But look, the outside does have some pieces of fried breading,” one friend pointed out.
“Yeah, that’s true, but they’re still sweet.”
We stayed and chatted with the lady for a while. She was from another city, but her husband was from this town, so they had moved back here. She told us about the schools that her kids went to and we asked about life in the village. All of the people that we met were very talkative, and it was fun to learn more about life for locals. Most people mentioned how poor the area was—especially people in the mountains. But they also seemed content and happy with the relaxed pace of life.
We finished our ice cream and continued our walk, telling the lady goodbye and thanking her for her time and her ice cream. Our walk led us toward the river on one side of the road and deserted houses on the other side. Overgrown bushes and grass crowded close to the road.
“Fireflies!” Clara called, pointing toward the overgrowth that lit up with little flashes of light. We all talked about how we had caught fireflies when we were kids. Apparently, this activity is enjoyed by kids around the world. My Chinese and American friends had all caught fireflies growing up. Some of us put them in jars, and some of them held them in our hands. I used to try to see how many I could fit into one fist while I caught more fireflies with the other hand. Unfortunately, not all of the ones that had been caught survived my fist.
The river was beautiful at night even though we couldn’t see a lot of it. But the fireflies added a touch of magic. I’m glad that there are little places like this where we can get away and enjoy some nature and fun conversations with people, but there are also lots of reminders that life is hard. But when the night is dark enough, that’s when we can see the fireflies.