Chicken feet are a street-snack in China that may seem unusual to Americans, but there were plenty of people munching on them on Pingjiang Road in Suzhou, China. The feet seemed to be soft had a slight jiggle to them when being eaten by someone walking. 

Various dumplings, sweets and snacks sit in bamboo steamer baskets at a food stall on Pingjiang Road in Suzhou, China in December, 2013. This road follows a canal, and all the way down the street, vendors of all kinds sell souvenirs and food to visitors or coffee shops invite them in to keep warm and use Wi-Fi internet.

My father looks at various dried goods from the inside of a display window at a medicinal shop in Suzhou, China. Some of the items in these jars are used in Chinese medicine, including sea animals, animal genitals, horns and insects, to name a few. Pickled or preserved root vegetables and herbs were some of the other ingredients on sale. 

The first night's dinner in Beijing, China is at a "Muslim hot-pot" restaurant. There are many kinds of ways to serve hot-pot, some of which include picking a broth, picking the meats and/or vegetables to cook and picking the dips or sauces. Beef, tofu and cabbage are a few of the items for this dinner, with a peanut sauce and garlic sauce on the side. 

The Wangfujing Snack Street in Beijing, China is a popular tourist spot. True to its name, the main attraction is food. The snacks range from starfish to "stinky tofu" (fermented tofu that has a strong odor). 

Large and small scorpions and cicadas are skewered and ready for people to eat at the Wangfujing Snack Street in Beijing, China. 

A large mount of tentacles are weighed and divided into bowls for customers to purchase. The employees worked with a fast pace and mechanical manner - churning out fresh food to replace the ones that were purchased. 

Various fish and meats are straightened up throughout the night in Beijing, China's Wangfujing Snack Street.

A two-man assembly line puts marinated pigeons on skewers, seasons and grills them, and places the prepared birds in trays. The pigeons were skewered in pairs but removed from the grill and separated from each other when the cooking-time was finished. 

Sichuan peppers and hot chili-sauce covered crawfish is a very popular dish in China. Seafood is readily available in eastern China and crawfish has been heavily exported to the United States in the past. 

Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto, Japan offers a vending machine-type of ordering service for their lunch. The customer deposits his or her money into the machine and presses the button for the food they want to order. The tempura udon and kitsune udon (udon with deep fried tofu - called aburaage) are served with rice, shibazuke (a specialty pickle), tofu and tea. 

The tentacles of an octopus sit in tubs at the Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo's largest fish selling district. The market has become a favorite tourist spot, to the displeasure of the vendors. There are plans to move the market to a new state-of-the-art location in 2016.

Large fish heads lay discarded on rotting decks in the late morning hours in January 2014 at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan. The wooden tag says "East Sea" to state where the fish were caught. Much of the market was purchased in the early morning, so the late morning is left for stragglers and cleanup. 

The Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan is not designed for tourists. The vendors set up and operate around visitors, though tourists are warned that they are responsible for looking out for trucks and machinery. 

Facing a row of sake barrels are wine barrels at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. They are gifts to the Emperor from wineries of Bourgogne, France. A sign near the barrels said Emperor Meiji embraced Western culture and in particular, wine with western food.