finally some night markets

our snake alley field trip went pretty well. we ate a few tasty things and walked around drinking beers from 7-11. one of the things we ate was called 肉圓 (rouyuan) which basically translates into "meat ball". it was ground pork in a thick sticky wrapper, like a stuffed rice cake. after that we had stinky tofu, which was okay but kind of sour. i'm going to have to find another place to try it because i remember it being much better when i had it before. the last thing we had at the night market was oyster in egg omelet with lettuce and onions. this was pretty tasty. we walked over to a nearby fountain with our night market food and our 7-11 beers and sat around and chit chatted until the police came over to kick out everyone who was sitting down. we were actually sitting in a part of the fountain and we soon discovered that all our butts were wet. after we were kicked out, they turned on the fountain.

we finished our beers before heading over to 龍山寺 (longshan temple). there were a lot of people around praying and lighting incense. i didn't really know how to behave except to stay out of everyone's way and try not to knock anything over. amanda had a pretty good observation about the place. amongst all the noise, tall buildings, and bright lights, in the middle of the temple, it felt calm and you could look up into the sky and just have a nice view.

after some time at the temple, we went off in quest of these giant beers amanda had told us stories about. we got on the mrt and got off one stop later at 西門站 (ximen station). ximen has a lot of teenagers running around with boutique shops and cheap places to eat. also nearby are some bars. after about half an hour of wandering around, we stumbled upon the beer place. amanda and i ordered two giant coronas which came out in two handled mugs taller than my head. however, these things were pretty expensive by any standard so i only got one and nursed it until it was time to go.

the next day, i was back in ximen again but this time during daylight hours. i had some fried chicken snacks in a shop where they sing when the chicken is finished. after that, i had a desert of chilled pineapple slices over chopped iced with pineapple juice. very sweet. a little later, we had "opium pearls" (鴉片粉圓，yapian fenyuan) which are kind of clear tapioca pearls over chopped ice with lemonade.

after eating a ton of sweets, i-shuan and i went to an arcade. it was noisy as hell inside. a lot of the games were something like ddr or guitar hero. one that we tried had us playing on a japanese taiko drum to the beat of some pop songs. one that i didn't get to try looked like whack-a-mole except with a 4x4 grid of squares. whenever the square changed patterns, you had to hit it with your hands. we had the chance to watch one guy play and it looked pretty cool. for some, his hands would alternate like a drum roll and for others his hands would sweep around the grid.

for dinner, i had mos burger for the first time. it's a japanese chain that serves japanese-sized burgers. some come with bread, but some come with rice cakes as buns. the one i had was ginger pork with the rice cake buns. more good eating.

finally, for a late night snack, we went to another night market and i had 大腸包小腸 (dachang bao xiaochang), which literally means "big sausage wrapping small sausage". the "big sausage" is a greasy rice sausage. it's heated up and then split open and covered with a little sauce. the "small sausage" is a fatty pork sausage i think. then the whole thing is topped with whatever you like, sort of like a hot dog. i had mine with green onions and lettuce. it was super greasy but nice and filling.

so, after being here for almost a month, i've finally had some adventures in the night market. pretty nice weekend with lovely weather and good friends.