[Lake]

>>I have had scorpions, silk worm coccoons, grasshoppers, and turtle soup

Sounds like you are more Chinese than any other average Chinese. I bet you no more than 1 out of 10,000 Chinese dare to eat insects. Personally I hate to see people eating wild animals, which now is illegal in many parts of China. As for cruelty, you will know it if you try to eat monkey in Guangdong. If you try monkey soup, you will find a monkey hand appears in the bowl like a human baby hand. I believe the business is illegal now and goes underground.

[maui_hawaii]

When I told people in my office that I ate those things they got these weird looks on their faces and told me "even we don't eat those things"...

Its a novelty thing I think... to eat that stuff...

Its not like people wake up in the morning looking for a box of crunchy fried scorpions and a spoon...

Noodles, eggs, chicken, beef, fish, dumplings, and hamburgers are the most popular from what I've seen. And who can leave out pizza and KFC...